Shadowrun: Dragonfall Shows Off Cyperpunk Berlin in New Trailer

[IanDavis]

Shadowrun: Dragonfall Shows Off Cyperpunk Berlin in New Trailer

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The new campaign launches on February 27th.

Earlier in 2013, Harebrained Studios resurrected the classic cyberpunk RPG with Shadowrun Returns. It was pretty well received, even if it was relatively short and only featured checkpoint saves. We've heard for a while about an upcoming expansion set in Berlin called [a href=http://harebrained-schemes.com/shadowrun/dragonfall/]Dragonfall[/a]. Now, Harebrain's leaked a trailer out onto the matrix, complete with new release date.

The new Dragonfall trailer shows off the grimy European setting and introduces the new characters. It might not be too action-packed, but we are dealing with a turn-based RPG here. Dragonfall started out life as Shadowrun: Berlin, but was changed so it wouldn't be confused with all of the cyberpunk travel guides out there, presumably. It was also originally slated for release in January 2014.

Dragonfall adds a handful of new additions to the tech-and-sorcery gameplay. Now, you'll have a long-range sniper rifle, a grenade launcher, and a taser to strap on to your new shadowrunners, as well as new cyberware to slot. You'll also have new enemies to use them on, like gargoyles and fire drakes. Likely the best upgrade will be the ability to save anywhere, which will also be added to the original Shadowrun Returns in the upcoming 1.2 patch.

Shadowrun: Dragonfall launches on Feb 27th. It'll be free to everyone who backed the Kickstarter campaign, or $14.99 to anyone else. It's currently up for [a href=http://store.steampowered.com/app/272030]pre-order on Steam[/a], or you can wait for a DRM-free version direct from Harebrained Studios. If you just can't wait until then, make sure you check out the user mods on [a href=http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse?appid=234650]Steam Workshop[/a], which has been filling up with free content since launch.

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[vallorn]

I have been playing 5th ed Shadowrun with some friends recently and this looks awesome!

Hopefully we actually get to see a dragon like Loftwyr or Ghostwalker... Or maybe even Dunkelzahn!

 

[StHubi]

Hopefully we actually get to see a dragon like Loftwyr or Ghostwalker... Or maybe even Dunkelzahn!

Hm... When you have become more familiar with the lore of SR, play the base game again... Perhaps you will notice the "hidden cameo" then

I am really looking forward to this expansion. Berlin has always been one of my favourite cities in the SR universe.

 

[vallorn]

Hopefully we actually get to see a dragon like Loftwyr or Ghostwalker... Or maybe even Dunkelzahn!

Hm... When you have become more familiar with the lore of SR, play the base game again... Perhaps you will notice the "hidden cameo" then

I am really looking forward to this expansion. Berlin has always been one of my favourite cities in the SR universe.

Spoiler

you mean Loftwyr and the immortal elf Harlequin in Trevalian's mansion? I meant a dragon in dragon sized form because that would be an AWESOME boss... or way for my runners to get vaporized because he betrays them.

Personally I prefer Chicago after reading the Bug City stuff.

 

[Zaydin]

15 dollars seems a bit excessive a price point, if you ask me, given the base game itself is 20 bucks.

 

[StHubi]

Personally I prefer Chicago after reading the Bug City stuff.

I did not do much in SR4 and SR5 in Chicago yet... But it is a really interesting scenario especially for Insect Spirit Stories (as the name of the source book implies). Did you get "Conspiracy Theories"? There is a lot of stuff abut the bugs and I incorporated a lot of it into my London campaign (there is a chapter about London in that book, too).

 

[Atmos Duality]

Earlier in 2013, Harebrained Studios resurrected the classic cyberpunk RPG with Shadowrun Returns. It was pretty well received, even if it was relatively short and only featured checkpoint saves.

Pretty well received? Maybe by some critics, but that's definitely not the vibe I'm getting from regular consumers.

It's a very polarizing game; Most folks walked away disappointed in some manner, including most backers of the Kickstarter I've spoken with (who were almost screwed out of the DRM-free version of the game when Microsoft decreed new conditions from above after the kickstarter concluded).

The campaign captured the tone and setting of Shadowrun perfectly, but the gameplay itself is bare bones and hyper-linear to the point where roleplay and decisions is largely meaningless.

Which is terrible for a game whose very nature allows for an enormous number of character concepts.
There should be multiple ways of accomplishing some objectives, but generally speaking there weren't.
Well, not in the original campaign.

Personally, I'd call it a great game SHELL. It has most of the components in place for making an amazing hub-world sort of game, which is much closer to how the Tabletop plays out, but nobody to develop the stories or hub world itself.

I don't know if that's because of the tiny budget, Harebrained Scheme's personal ineptitude or what. But unless they open the role playing elements up, it's just going to be relegated to a decent turn based tactics game and nothing more.

All that said, Dragonfall is their chance to prove that their game has what it takes.
But I'm not buying the DLC blindly. I'm waiting on feedback this time.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

15 dollars seems a bit excessive a price point, if you ask me, given the base game itself is 20 bucks.

Agreed. Especially considering the base game is only 6 hours long. A lot shorter than most people thought it would be. Look like I'll be waiting for a Steam sale on this DLC.

I doubt we're going to get a Shadowrun game made with the respect it deserves. Shadowrun Returns had all of the right people involved, including the Shadowrun creator. It still was pretty disappointing.

No one seems to care enough to make Steam workshop campaigns either...

 

[FalloutJack]

Zoop

Ah, well, that's from the folks you've spoken to. The ones I talk to like it. I even know a group of people who are undertaking a project to try and create pretty much all the book tales in-game. That's some dedication.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Ah, well, that's from the folks you've spoken to. The ones I talk to like it. I even know a group of people who are undertaking a project to try and create pretty much all the book tales in-game. That's some dedication.

Well, fan dedication is not the same as developer dedication. Which puts SRR in an awkward position.
I like SRR, but I really want to like it more. And I tried, but I can't. Most fan modules I downloaded were very WiP or half-assed battle arenas. Maybe with time that will improve, but right now, I don't know any module that's really worth it.

Besides, I'd be one of the folks translating the old books into SRR modules if I had the time and patience, just to show HBS how it's really done (I've played and read way too much Shadowrun..), but Advanced Weather Dynamics and yet more sodding Calculus have put an end to that this semester.

 

[FalloutJack]

Ah, well, that's from the folks you've spoken to. The ones I talk to like it. I even know a group of people who are undertaking a project to try and create pretty much all the book tales in-game. That's some dedication.

Well, fan dedication is not the same as developer dedication. Which puts SRR in an awkward position.
I like SRR, but I really want to like it more. And I tried, but I can't. Most fan modules I downloaded were very WiP or half-assed battle arenas. Maybe with time that will improve, but right now, I don't know any module that's really worth it.

Besides, I'd be one of the folks translating the old books into SRR modules if I had the time and patience, just to show HBS how it's really done (I've played and read way too much Shadowrun..), but Advanced Weather Dynamics and yet more sodding Calculus have put an end to that this semester.

Ah, but the point I was making was that these guys enjoyed the core game. The lament is that it was kinda' short. They wanted more. More, as in a demand, which implies success in the product, yet also the shortcoming of being short, which is a failing. Still, it means that there are a good amount of people who enjoyed this, and I did too. It is true to the style of the universe and the gameplay of the RPG, and takes out all the things we don't like about it, like...crappy GMs, arguments over rules, and so on. I understand that your mileage varies on this topic. I'm just here to point out that it's not a disappointment to as many as you might think.

 

[Blarg Blargson]

I've been waiting for this for a while. I liked SRR enough that it motivated me to buy the 5th edition core book, and I'm going to start running a tabletop game with a few friends in a week or so.

Something I'm wondering about... Will a lot of the improvement features of Dragonfall appear in the core game for people who didn't buy the DLC? Mostly I'm wondering is "saving at will" will become possible in Dead Man's Switch or downloadable modules.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the fan community puts out. I know, there's not a lot of stuff right now, but Neverwinter Nights started from fairly humble beginnings too. As I recall, people are still complaining that the basic campaign for NWN was less than stellar. Fan-made stuff like Saleron's Gambit and pretty much everything by Stephan Gagne made for a game that I literally played for years. I believe that, in time, there will be a dearth of good stories on the Steam Workshop that make the price of SRR well worth it.

 

[The Last Nomad]

this looks interesting indeed, but I should probably get the base game first, and now that its cheap on the android play store, now is a good time. Does anyone know if this game will run on an android phone? The play store says its compatible with my phone, but I'm a little wary, this game looks too good to run on my new phone.
but my new phone is the first genuinely smart phone I've ever had, getting blown away by what it can do. Been even playing the shadowrun game for NES on it recently.
But this is a whole other ball game.

 

[vallorn]

Yeah SR returns had some flaws. Deckers were almost useless outside of the missions where they were needed while Mages became incredibly potent very quickly. The most annoying thing in my eyes was that you couldn't have hired runners do jobs for you. So if you took a Decker on the final mission and you weren't a decker then you couldn't access the matrix hacking segment which gave you some items just before the massive boss fight.

However Mages started off being able to do pretty decent damage and then gained their AOE and buff-debuff spells relatively quickly which made them VERY potent.

Another complaint of mine is that as others have noted some of the community made stuff is very sub par but from the steam workshop the series I would most recommend is From The Shadows, Run. Though even that has some unpatched bugs that require DevCheats to fix

Though I'm still looking forwards to this being one of the Kickstarter backers of the base game.