Oh Shadowrun Returns...so many flaws. Let us catalogue them, shall we?
1. Combat system lifted from the XCOM reboot fails to capture even that games slightly spotty glory. The biggest trespass here is the schizophrenic cover system, which is painfully counter intuitive and slap dash. There doesn't appear to be any real effort at level design, with cover placed sporadically around the level, and offering dubious bonuses even when employed. The limited action point system works reasonably well here as it did there, although a lack of early powers and basic defensive commands such as "hunker down" reduce most firefights in the first half to clicks and crossed fingers. It's also painfully easy to misclick while trying to select an alternate character and send your original choice skittering halfway across the map...a mistake that is often unreversable due to the game's inexplicable lack of a manual save game feature.
2. Maps are pretty to look at but almost utterly non-interactive. Even by the standards of old CRPGs with painted backdrops there is little to do in these areas.
3. Conversations are nicely written but very simple. You cycle through a few basic options and the conversation is done. On rare occasions you might be able to use a Charisma check or a speech bonus to get a slightly different result, but these arise so infrequently they don't really justify the heavy investment in Charisma unless you are already running a Shaman.
4. Loot is painfully generic in terms of function, even if there is a smattering of lore appropriate names. It's clearly divided into rigid tiers of incrementally increasing damage or armor/stats, with no opportunity to bag a rare or special item early. Weapons are also gated by your skill in handling them. Enemies drop nothing. This is not a game for loot enthusiasts.
5. Karma/experience is tied entirely to completing certain hard locked objectives, and cannot be earned in any other way. This means all karma received is in large chunks at the end of "chapters" or after performing certain actions. Not really a problem, but it's as streamlined as an XP/level up system could ever hope to be.
6. Little to none of the depth in the pen and paper game is evident in the character creation. Many skills and abilities have been altered to fit the game's combat engine. Qualities are gone, knowledge skills are gone, and active skills are reduced to combat only. While stripping a pen and paper game down to better fit a CRPG is hardly an unheard of phenomenon, it's a little surprising given the project lead is the guy who invented the IP.
7. Without giving any spoilers away, the (quite lengthy) final mission is an entirely combat focused slog that renders Deckers absolutely worthless and requires the use of new, special weapons different than anything you've been training in and skilling up. It also features infinite respawning/regenerating opponents. It's like a Master's class in how to make an irritating mission, even if it's not overly hard. Charisma/speech or Decker focused characters will be utterly pointless here. You know, the kind of characters one might expect from an IP famed for its cyberpunk motif and conspiracy/espionage focus.
8. The lone campaign included with the game is really short. The NPCs are colorful but largely unmemorable. There is no special bond formed with anyone, and the final mission will be performed with characters who were heretofore strangers and/or random hirelings, rather than the friends you'd made in previous runs.
9. It's buggy as hell. Disappearing dialogue options pop up frequently, requiring you to blind click a square to advance the game. I had one hard lock as well, requiring a level restart.
10. No keyboard shortcuts for ANYTHING, and no manual save function. This feels like a game designed with tablets as the preferred platform, and a PC port as a total afterthought.
So, it's crap, right?
Well, weirdly enough, it's still pretty fun. I enjoyed my time with it, despite finding blatant flaws at almost EVERY juncture. What's really irritating is that a great many of these flaws seem like they could've been easily avoided, while others feel like laziness/slopiness in design rather than limitations imposed by the engine or the genre. The good news that comes with that is a dedicated modder could, hypothetically, create a really polished adventure that eclipses the core campaign many times over. The bad news is it would take a while. In the mean time, all you've got is Harebrained Studio's dubious original campaign.
Which is still really fun, especially if you like Shadowrun. Just be prepared for a healthy side order of disappointment to go along with your entertainment. This game could, and perhaps should, have been MUCH better than it is.
8/10 if using the retarded 7-10 scale.
5/10 if using a proper 1-10 scale.
