Shadowrun Returns

[Simulacrum]

Wasn't super impressed with this game.

The story was okay. Not great, but okay. Pretty short at 8-9 hours for me, but then it was only 14€ so I suppose I can't complain. Though the Spiderweb games keep giving me 30-50 hour games at less than that... but then, I guess those games don't come with an editor (or any art or music to speak of). Actually, the music and the art are probably the only things I'd say were actually good about the game. The rest was merely passable, or even below-average.

Some of the obviously below-average stuff is the savegame system... not much to say about it, other than that it is terrible. The UI is another meh area. It gives very little feedback, and unless you read the entire help section (which I'll grant is very nicely done and easy to comprehend very quickly), it'll be very hard to understand what some things do. Like the overwatch button. I guess you can figure it out by the reticule and the pose your character strikes, but they spend so much time crouched anyway that it's hard to distinguish. The button really should be labeled, and it should also give details as to what the function actually does in detail, though I guess we can infer that it just shoots at the target with a normal, unmodified shot.

Something else that I considered below-average is the way that the combat is handled. Not going to talk about ley lines and summons and such, which I didn't have any opinion of either way (beyond frustration at bugs and lack of feedback in areas), but I wanna talk about how painfully tedious it is. Every action involves an animation, and you can't do anything while an animation is taking place. The camera will lock to whoever is preforming it, and you just gotta sit through it. So every time someone re-loads, you gotta watch it. Every time someone moves, you gotta watch it. Every time a mage casts a painfully slow heal, you gotta watch it. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad, if it wasn't for that you can't leave combat in combat areas (unless it's scripted), so even if you kill everything in an area, you can't leave combat there.

So, big deal? Well, sometimes you'll wanna still do stuff in that area, like look for items, or search for a hackable terminal (which, by the way, only shows up if you have a decker selected, which is very irritating and is something they really should've made all characters see if at least one character in the party can see them), something which is made extra frustrating by how, even if I just control one character, every time it uses up its action points the game will automatically select the next one in line, at which point I gotta end turn, and re-select the character I was using. It gets very tedious. Even doing something as trivial as moving to the exit takes frustratingly much more time than it should. An action that should involve telling your character to go there, and then clicking "confirm" on the exit prompt, ends up taking easily ten times as long as it should, as you first have to individually tell, then get to watch, every single character run, one at a time, to the desired location, and if it's far away then it'll take multiple turns. Sometimes even multiple confirmations.

I don't know why there isn't an enter/exit combat option, but it's extremely annoying.

Other below-average stuff is the companion system, which is just terrible. No permanent companions, no customization. You basically select 1-3 pre-designed ones and off you go. You don't even get to know anything about them. They have 1-2 lines of flavour text when you hire them, and that's it. Why are they following you on these suicide missions? For 2500 bucks? They don't have any opinion on anything that happens during any missions, which is pretty shocking considering what they're participating in at times. There's some interaction with 1-2 repeat companions, but even they only show up when they feel like it. For the most, you're going at it alone, along with random anonymous guys who you don't even care if die or not. I ended up having a supposedly super famous decker die on me at one point, but nobody seemed to give a fuck, so neither did I after that. Extremely, extremely poorly done for a story-driven game.

More below-average stuff. No item system to speak of. I guess a lot of people will like this, but for me a CRPG without item management is barely an RPG at all. I suppose not having to worry about ammo and stuff makes the game easier, but it also makes it more shallow. I kill a guy, and what? His corpse just disappears, and he leaves no items. I don't even get experience. In fact, it often feels like I didn't even kill him at all. No body, no items, no experience, and I spent no finite resources killing him... was he even there? Beyond consumables, like grenades, medkits, summons, and some other minor stuff that you can only carry maybe 5-6 of at any given time (with your anonymous companions bringing a random amount of role-relevant suff as well), there's really no item management at all. Sure, I can buy upgrades from the same handful of shops, at the hub, at intervals, but they're all effectively the same items with higher stat requirements, so that it'll feel like those points you spend on shotguns, or pistols, or whatever, were worth the investment.

Which is another thing I had a problem with. The stat system, it gives essentially no feedback. Other than Body, which tells you it gives +10 HP per point, none of them provide any details beyond a vague "makes you hit better", or "1 more spell slot" at specific intervals. How does upgrading my willpower improve my spellcasting? Who knows? Does spending 8 karma points on upgrading my spellcasting from 7 to 8 give me 8% more hit? 1% more hit? Who knows? What does armor do for me? It reduces damage, obviously, but how? By -1 per armor? By a percentage, relative to my armor? Some combination? Without knowing these things, it's hard to understand what stats are better for me at any given time.

The stat-related conversation options also seemed more like they were there just to be there more than anything else. I don't know if they enabled me to ever do anything that I wouldn't have been able to do anyway, except maybe get a little more money from the fence once in a while. Besides decking, anyway...

Overall, I didn't feel cheated having bought the game. It wasn't a bad game, but it certainly isn't worth all the 10s that it is (or at least was) getting from users over at metacritic and such. Besides the art, and maybe music, it's painfully average, and that's about it.

[Deleted]

Most of you wrote there is what i like to call problems of convenience , they are not real problems >.> well i guess that's how opinions work, for you its average , for me it was a great way to learn how the shadowrun world works, an introduction to the 100 hour campaigns being built as we speak with the editor and the soon-ish to come shadowrun online

[The Casualty]

Most of you wrote there is what i like to call problems of convenience , they are not real problems >.> well i guess that's how opinions work, for you its average , for me it was a great way to learn how the shadowrun world works, an introduction to the 100 hour campaigns being built as we speak with the editor and the soon-ish to come shadowrun online

I think the game has it's merits, and I agree with Cattlehunter on many of his points as well as not feeling cheated by my purchase. I understand that I came into the purchase with my own preconceived notions, but do try my best to set those aside and see the game for what it is. What I come to is that the game is "okay". Some of the mechanics of the game left me wishing I had any ability to explore the world they set forth, or SAVE for that matter (like seriously? Its 2013. If Pong were made today, even it would have a save feature.), but on the plus side, I really enjoyed the writing and the music - the battle music was the same as the SNES release, giving a great nostalgic vibe.

My major qualm with your post, and why I quoted it however, was giving it a plus based off of user generated content. I agree that most likely some excellent people will come along and make some great content, but I can't give it a plus on something that doesn't currently exist.

[Deleted]

Like you said, its 2013 look at any game that is out and has an editor , if custom content is not a plus i don't know what is.

[The Casualty]

Don't get me wrong, having an editor is absolutely a plus, but mentioning "the 100 hour campaigns being built as we speak" as a bonus is a bit premature. We don't the length or quality of the content that will be generated - that said, I'm sure that there will be some great people trying their hands at the editor. We just don't know the result of those efforts 2 days after release, so all anyone can speak on is the state of the game at release.

[endersblade]

Beat the game yesterday, what an...interesting ending lol. Overall, I really enjoyed the game. The humor in the game was pretty good, the story not quite what you're expecting! Combat was...so-so. I found it rather silly that, standing directly next to an enemy, some of my runners would have a ~50% chance to hit...wtf? With a shotgun? Really? Or doing a 'spray and pray' on a group of guys directly in front of you, and none of the bullets hitting...that was really freaking lame. I lost a LOT of runners to that stupid shit.

The final fight was sort of lackluster to tell you the truth. Much easier than I had anticipated. But again, overall, I give the game about a 7/10. Definitely a good successor to the SNES version of the game (which someone is already trying to create using the creation kit lol).

[Deleted]

We don't the length or quality of the content that will be generated

http://www.shadowrunidentity.org/Home_Page.html

First part is halfway done and available, you can check the quality all you like and judge by yourself if its going in the right direction.

[SirRobin]

[Razael]

Not having a save system is such a big turnoff for me. I was actually purchasing it soon-ish, after i completed the couple games i had bought on steam sale.

[Simulacrum]

Most of you wrote there is what i like to call problems of convenience , they are not real problems >.> well i guess that's how opinions work, for you its average , for me it was a great way to learn how the shadowrun world works, an introduction to the 100 hour campaigns being built as we speak with the editor and the soon-ish to come shadowrun online

So you're saying that a weak story and immersion in a game that focuses nearly exclusively story and immersion isn't a problem?

That the UI is obtuse isn't a problem?

That extremely large design flaws like the save system is not a problem?

That the tactical combat system, which copies a decades old model yet can't even hold a candle to titles released half my lifetime ago, isn't a problem?

What would be 'real' problems in your eyes?

[WarpedAcorn]

I just saw the other day that the Berlin Expansion is set to be released in a few weeks (end of Feb). Its been renamed Dragonfall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu2hyqDVOhA

I'm excited for it. I've heard that you won't be able to make a custom protagonist, and if so I think that is a mistake. But I also heard you will have options to travel around back and forth (less linear than the base campaign) and your crew will have a lot more personality. I don't know about you guys, but the chick with the cybernetic claws looks super bad ass.