Uncovering Gaming Treasure: Roadwarden — A Classic Text-based Adventure With a Modern Flair

With Baldur’s Gate 3 on the horizon, it’s more important than ever to look at the roots of computer role-playing games. And what better way than by looking at a game that embodies the spirit of the earliest CRPGs, with the sensibilities of the newest?

Enter, Roadwarden, a relatively new title from Moral Anxiety Studios, that’s something of an interactive fiction game. It’s not quite a visual novel, but not quite a full, unbridled RPG either. In it, you take control of the titular Roadwarden whose duties involve keeping the roads safe, brokering trade, and delivering messages, all while managing your dwindling supplies, staving off hungry beasts, and watching the sun set earlier and earlier with every passing day.

At its heart, Roadwarden is a classic, text-based RPG somewhere between the austere, text-only Zork, and the psychedelic, handpainted point and click world of Disco Elysium.

What I’m saying is the game is played like a glorified choose-your-own-adventure book, moving from one dialogue tree to the next, exploring the world through dense lengths of text, and gorgeous…