Text-based RPGs have never been “my jam,” as I suspect the youth would say. I didn’t grow up in what I think of as the genre’s “golden age” a few decades ago, so perhaps that’s why I’ve never gone out of my way to find and play games of this ilk. Roadwarden, however, is a notable exception to that gap in my personal gaming history that I’m sure will stick out in my memory for quite some time to come. Let me take you on a short journey down the metaphorical road that has been my experience with Roadwarden to explain why.

You play as a titular Roadwarden. Your job has no set definition or role since what you find yourself doing on any given day can vary quite a bit. You might be hired to serve as a mercenary or guard if an area needs to be protected from threats. You could be asked to carry messages between settlements. You may wind up tasked with escorting traders or other important people to their destinations safely. It might help to think of yourself as a work-for-hire, jack-of-all-trades type of person with a specialty or two based on your chosen character class.

There are three such classes in Roadwarden, which are as follows: The Fighter has an easier time in physical situations and comes equipped with the best armor and weaponry of the three; the Mage can spend a limited resources known as Pneuma to cast a few simple spells, heal faster while resting, and easily communicate with other magic users; while the Scholar has a vast knowledge of Roadwarden’s world and its inhabitants, they can read certain clues they find while exploring, and they can create alchemical concoctions that can help them escape any potential sticky situations.

The strengths and weaknesses of your class can change how NPCs interact with you. You might be able to amaze villagers with your raw physical strength if you’re a Fighter, or impress a major town’s leaders with your worldly knowledge and prowess with alchemy as a Scholar. NPCs’ impressions of you can also be affected by things you might not expect, like if your character is sleep-deprived or clearly hasn’t had a bath in a while. This is only one reason why you’ll have to make sure you effectively manage your character’s physiological needs as you progress through Roadwarden’s story.

You start out with two main goals in each run through Roadwarden’s campaign. Firstly, you’re expected to convince smaller local settlements, like Howler’s Dell, to enter into mutually beneficial trade agreements with your home city, Hovlavan. You’ll likely have to earn the trust of these settlements’ leaders (usually by helping them and those they care about) before they’ll be willing to come to the negotiating table. You’ll also find you need to prove yourself worthy to these same NPCs before they’ll, for example, tell you some crucial information or do something specific that would aid you in your endeavors.

Secondly, you’ll need to find out what happened to the previous Roadwarden, who was assigned to that same main task in the areas you now patrol. That Roadwarden, Asterion (no, not the Baldur’s Gate 3 vampire) disappeared without a trace about six months before your own journey within Roadwarden begins. You’ll have to use all the resources available to you to help you discover Asterion’s fate and, assuming he’s still alive, what might have caused him to go radio silent.

With your objectives in mind, you set off with nothing but your horse and the starting equipment carried by your chosen character class. If you’re playing on either the Standard or Restrictive difficulty settings, you’ll have a limit of either 40 or 30 in-game days to complete your main goals, respectively. I personally chose the Casual difficulty to start out, partly because it has no such limit. I do like the idea of having to balance the processes of helping local NPCs with making sure I do what my home city expects of me within those time constraints, though.

Roadwarden’s gameplay is almost entirely text-based and mouse-controlled. You navigate your in-game map by clicking an arrow representing the direction you want to go, and you interact with NPCs by clicking through a set of dialog options. I quite like the simplicity of these aspects of Roadwarden, though I’m not quite sure why. I also appreciate the fact that when you first meet someone, you can choose how you act while talking to them. For example, you can be friendly and cordial, crack a joke, or try to appear menacing in the hopes that no one will mess with you.

I think the only thing I dislike about Roadwarden is its combat. However, that’s primarily because I’m not yet sure I totally understand how it works. Combat is largely based on the outcomes of dice rolls, which can be positively or negatively affected by your character class and how well you’ve been meeting your physiological needs. For example, if you’re a Mage and you’ve spent too much Pneuma when doing so might not have been strictly necessary, this can put you at a significant disadvantage if you ever need to fight. Thankfully, combat has rarely come up at all in my experience.

Overall, even though I’m not well-versed in RPGs like this, I’ve found I still really enjoy Roadwarden. The in-game world features more than enough high fantasy staples, especially in terms of its flora and fauna, to easily tap into my own enjoyment of literature and games of that nature. Playing Roadwarden kind of reminds me of my many hours spent immersed in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which I definitely consider a point in Roadwarden’s favor. I’m quite comfortable suggesting you give Roadwarden a try, especially if games of this nature are within your normal wheelhouse.

A PC review key for Roadwarden was provided by Assemble Entertainment for the purpose of this review.

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Roadwarden

$10.99

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• A good introduction to text-based RPGs for unfamiliar players.
• The in-game world has an enjoyable sense of vastness and wonder to it.
• Accommodating difficulty settings for any desired level of challenge.

Cons

• Combat can be tricky to get the hang of.