Since they have now been out for a while I thought it was time for a retrospective on how the new series of Shadowrun games has progressed so far. First, the low down for you chummers, the games have been funded through Kickstarter for the Harebrained Schemes studio to produce with Returns and Hong Kong getting their own campaigns and Dragonfall being a stretch goal for Returns. You feel me omais?
The setting is a classic Cyberpunk one, corps ruling the world, people signed up for SINs so they can be tracked and take part in that system, and SINless underclasses both just trying to make ends meet and performing black ops jobs as 'deniable assets' for the corps. It's a drekking nasty place to be chummers I'll tell you that much. What makes it worse or better is that Magic is back, see, the world's mojo runs in 5000 year cycles and the last 5000 years up till 2000AD have been a low ebb called The Fifth World, we're now in The Sixth World for all the good that does us, kids get born as Orcs, Trolls, Dwarves, Elves or regular humans, all of which get lumped into the new group named "Metahumanity" and some are born with the power to control the ever growing flow of mana in the world.
Outside of humans we have dragons returning and lording over people, buying corps and doing what dragons do as well as things in the Astral reals and the deep corners of The Matrix (this setting's version of The Internet, only, not 2d but VR) subtly manipulating things to their own ends.
Now that you have the scoop on how things are omais, let's get into the games, just remember. Always watch your back, Never trust a Johnson, and NEVER do a deal with a dragon. Stay safe chummers.
Shadowrun Returns
The game that started these ones off, kickstarted by Harebrained Schemes, they billed this game as being an RPG in the classic sense, so, does it hold up?
Main campaign: Kind of a letdown, linear and mostly there to show off the setting and let the PC meet a load of insanely important in universe characters, however, it does tie into the main universe's plot somewhat well and it's definitely gripping in a way. I'd give it a 7.5/10 if I was pressed.
Strengths: First game of the series, some excellent tools for modders and they made damn good use of them, From The Shadows, Run is a spectacular work.
Weaknesses: No real characterization for anyone outside of the PC's most immediate circle and you never get to bring them along on runs.
Shadowrun: Dragonfall
Main campaign: Set in the anarchist Berlin you get to experience a much more open ended and "classic" feeling Shadowrun experience than Returns's main campaign. It's just... better in every way, better level design, better characters, better gameplay. It's what a lot of people would call the quintessential game from this studio.
Strengths: Your runners are a team that you get to interact with between missions, and they are fantastic as an array of characters in this setting should be.
Weaknesses: It doesn't really innovate much in the underlying mechanics from Returns, the "hub" area is nice, as is the better characterization. Aside from that, it's not really stretching beyond what Returns did.
Shadowrun: Hong Kong
They did a whole new campaign for this title and released this year Let's get down to it!
Main campaign: A much weirder campaign than Returns and Dragonfall, esoteric astral happenings, nutty megacorp conspiracies and some concepts unique to the Hong Kong setting that I REALLY don't spoil. It's characters are either better than or worse than Dragonfall's companions, some are excellent while others spend most of their time just explaining why they happen to exist in the setting. It's still brilliant but if you are expecting "Another Dragonfall", don't. It's really similar in some ways, but different enough that you will regret if it you expect more of the same.
Strengths:They completely reworked how Decking works, pay attention to it if you decide to play it, they also reworked a few other things but nothing as serious as the utter overhaul that Decking got. Some love the change, some don't. But it's definitely a change and I personally prefer it.
Weaknesses: The characters aren't quite as fleshed out as Dragonfall's were but then it's a bit more hit and miss all around, some hub characters that you expect to have different things to say every time you pop in after a run just end up having 3-4 different parts and so you can easily run out of that extra plot stuff going on before getting near to completing the main plot.
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With that all said and done, what do you all think of the games? Do you like them? Do you hate them? Do you prefer one over the others? Let's all have a chat about em omais!
P.S. Bonus points for slipping some shadowtalk into your post.
The setting is a classic Cyberpunk one, corps ruling the world, people signed up for SINs so they can be tracked and take part in that system, and SINless underclasses both just trying to make ends meet and performing black ops jobs as 'deniable assets' for the corps. It's a drekking nasty place to be chummers I'll tell you that much. What makes it worse or better is that Magic is back, see, the world's mojo runs in 5000 year cycles and the last 5000 years up till 2000AD have been a low ebb called The Fifth World, we're now in The Sixth World for all the good that does us, kids get born as Orcs, Trolls, Dwarves, Elves or regular humans, all of which get lumped into the new group named "Metahumanity" and some are born with the power to control the ever growing flow of mana in the world.
Outside of humans we have dragons returning and lording over people, buying corps and doing what dragons do as well as things in the Astral reals and the deep corners of The Matrix (this setting's version of The Internet, only, not 2d but VR) subtly manipulating things to their own ends.
Now that you have the scoop on how things are omais, let's get into the games, just remember. Always watch your back, Never trust a Johnson, and NEVER do a deal with a dragon. Stay safe chummers.
Shadowrun Returns
The game that started these ones off, kickstarted by Harebrained Schemes, they billed this game as being an RPG in the classic sense, so, does it hold up?
Main campaign: Kind of a letdown, linear and mostly there to show off the setting and let the PC meet a load of insanely important in universe characters, however, it does tie into the main universe's plot somewhat well and it's definitely gripping in a way. I'd give it a 7.5/10 if I was pressed.
Strengths: First game of the series, some excellent tools for modders and they made damn good use of them, From The Shadows, Run is a spectacular work.
Weaknesses: No real characterization for anyone outside of the PC's most immediate circle and you never get to bring them along on runs.
Shadowrun: Dragonfall
Main campaign: Set in the anarchist Berlin you get to experience a much more open ended and "classic" feeling Shadowrun experience than Returns's main campaign. It's just... better in every way, better level design, better characters, better gameplay. It's what a lot of people would call the quintessential game from this studio.
Strengths: Your runners are a team that you get to interact with between missions, and they are fantastic as an array of characters in this setting should be.
Weaknesses: It doesn't really innovate much in the underlying mechanics from Returns, the "hub" area is nice, as is the better characterization. Aside from that, it's not really stretching beyond what Returns did.
Shadowrun: Hong Kong
They did a whole new campaign for this title and released this year Let's get down to it!
Main campaign: A much weirder campaign than Returns and Dragonfall, esoteric astral happenings, nutty megacorp conspiracies and some concepts unique to the Hong Kong setting that I REALLY don't spoil. It's characters are either better than or worse than Dragonfall's companions, some are excellent while others spend most of their time just explaining why they happen to exist in the setting. It's still brilliant but if you are expecting "Another Dragonfall", don't. It's really similar in some ways, but different enough that you will regret if it you expect more of the same.
Strengths:They completely reworked how Decking works, pay attention to it if you decide to play it, they also reworked a few other things but nothing as serious as the utter overhaul that Decking got. Some love the change, some don't. But it's definitely a change and I personally prefer it.
Weaknesses: The characters aren't quite as fleshed out as Dragonfall's were but then it's a bit more hit and miss all around, some hub characters that you expect to have different things to say every time you pop in after a run just end up having 3-4 different parts and so you can easily run out of that extra plot stuff going on before getting near to completing the main plot.
---------
With that all said and done, what do you all think of the games? Do you like them? Do you hate them? Do you prefer one over the others? Let's all have a chat about em omais!
P.S. Bonus points for slipping some shadowtalk into your post.
