Roadwarden
Review

Roadwarden (2022) is a narrative text-adventure where you work as a sheriff trying to keep the peace (and trade) on the central roads of their community. What you do is similar to other adventure games (explore a dark fantasy world, interact with locals) but unusually you do this by typing words and pictorial observation. The muted retro visual tone and these book-ish interactions make it feel like you are playing inside a detective story.

You are chosen to be the Hovlaven Roadwarden, a sheriff-type peacekeeper assigned to bring together the tribes and settlements on a remote peninsula of the continent in an attempt to encourage trade and commerce. You can play mage, warrior, and scholar, and create a unique backstory. How you craft you character affects how you can approach the different scenarios and how townsfolk react to your presence.

The gameplay is all text-based, with you reading what's happening, looking at the accompanying illustration for clues, and selecting responses or typing in prompts. You patrol the paths, maintain peace and defeat opportunistic thieves and vagabonds. Along with this general housekeeping you take on quests from the characters you meet to gain trust and establish connections.

As you progress you connect the isolated settlements and camps. Along the way you find secrets, complete escort missions or fight off enemies and monsters in combat. This enables you to earn money, which you can use to buy shelter and food, which is required to balance nutrition and health as you progress.

The result is an unusual combination of text adventure, role-playing, exploration and combat, and simulation that offers surprising depth and complexity that allows you to become fully immersed in the rich world created.

Our examiner, Ben Kendall, first checked Roadwarden a year ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 5 months ago.