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Shadowrun Returns
12 years ago
A friend recently gifted the game to me via Steam, and I've gotta say that for just $20, it's a hell of a buy. In the good way.
I went through the main campaign in about 23 hours(mainly because I read slowly and had to do a couple of parts over), and was very satisfied. It's a good portrayal of the setting in the pen-and-paper game. You get choices between money or morals, you have to decide whether to trust certain people to deliver on their promises, and the dystopian cyberpunk environment doesn't give an inch toward being anything else. If you're looking for a game that gives an emphasis to story more than anything else, this is more than worth the cash, especially since you can download user-generated content for free and even create your own to put out there.
However, this doesn't come without giving up a couple of things. The graphics are on the mediocre side compared to what's available today. They're not horrible, but they're nothing to sing praises about either. The combat is turn-based. This has its advantages and disadvantages, but more than anything, it makes the combat more tactical than action-packed. If you like that sort of thing, then great. If not? You'll hate it. As with what I suspect most turn-based games are like, this can lead to some awkward scenarios where you either steamroll things you shouldn't, or vice-versa. There are also some grammatical and spelling errors you'll find in conversation with NPCs here or there, but I didn't find it horrific enough to stop playing, obviously. They exist, but it didn't break immersion for me. You'll also note the lack of voices in the game at all. Whether it was due to the low budget(remember, it was funded via Kickstarter) or they just elected to leave it out, I'm not sure. Again, it's a slight aggravation having to read everything as opposed to being able to listen to it all, but I suppose I can chalk this gripe up to being spoiled by other modern games.
This next issue is simply a personal complaint: I don't like the attribute/skill upgrade system. If you want to specialize in a single weapon, you have to upgrade 3 different areas to do so. I went strictly pistols. However, to do that, I had to upgrade Quickness, then Ranged Weapons, and finally Pistols. Ranged Weapons can't be higher than Quickness, and Pistols can't be higher than Ranged Weapons. So, to raise Pistols from 4 to 5, both Quickness and Ranged Weapons had to be at 5.
Now, don't get it wrong because of all the bitching for the last two paragraphs: This is a good game. I enjoyed every hour I played it. Even if I hadn't gotten it for free, I still would have the same opinion. Worth every bit of the $20 and then some. You should play it.
I went through the main campaign in about 23 hours(mainly because I read slowly and had to do a couple of parts over), and was very satisfied. It's a good portrayal of the setting in the pen-and-paper game. You get choices between money or morals, you have to decide whether to trust certain people to deliver on their promises, and the dystopian cyberpunk environment doesn't give an inch toward being anything else. If you're looking for a game that gives an emphasis to story more than anything else, this is more than worth the cash, especially since you can download user-generated content for free and even create your own to put out there.
However, this doesn't come without giving up a couple of things. The graphics are on the mediocre side compared to what's available today. They're not horrible, but they're nothing to sing praises about either. The combat is turn-based. This has its advantages and disadvantages, but more than anything, it makes the combat more tactical than action-packed. If you like that sort of thing, then great. If not? You'll hate it. As with what I suspect most turn-based games are like, this can lead to some awkward scenarios where you either steamroll things you shouldn't, or vice-versa. There are also some grammatical and spelling errors you'll find in conversation with NPCs here or there, but I didn't find it horrific enough to stop playing, obviously. They exist, but it didn't break immersion for me. You'll also note the lack of voices in the game at all. Whether it was due to the low budget(remember, it was funded via Kickstarter) or they just elected to leave it out, I'm not sure. Again, it's a slight aggravation having to read everything as opposed to being able to listen to it all, but I suppose I can chalk this gripe up to being spoiled by other modern games.
This next issue is simply a personal complaint: I don't like the attribute/skill upgrade system. If you want to specialize in a single weapon, you have to upgrade 3 different areas to do so. I went strictly pistols. However, to do that, I had to upgrade Quickness, then Ranged Weapons, and finally Pistols. Ranged Weapons can't be higher than Quickness, and Pistols can't be higher than Ranged Weapons. So, to raise Pistols from 4 to 5, both Quickness and Ranged Weapons had to be at 5.
Now, don't get it wrong because of all the bitching for the last two paragraphs: This is a good game. I enjoyed every hour I played it. Even if I hadn't gotten it for free, I still would have the same opinion. Worth every bit of the $20 and then some. You should play it.
