Shadowrun Returns Initial Thoughts

[Talvrae]

*COUGH*

http://www.shadowrun.com/shadowrun-online/

You're welcome.

Ever since I heard them announce the Shadowrun MMO, I've had this dreadful feeling that all the real effort will go there.

2 Completelly differents companys here, there is no the real effort go there, because HBS was working on ShadowRun Return, and a completelly different company and teams work on ShadowRun Online, namelly Cliffhanger Productions

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I feel as though this is closer to XCom than to any form of PnP role playing.

I haven't played Shadowrun Returns but XCOM's combat is basically DnD but adapted for gun combat. You have basically a move action and standard action or you can double move. Then, you have flanking and stuff. So just from that Shadowruns Returns has at least be half of what a PnP game is.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Been loving it so far, but Dead Man's Switch really isn't the best fit for Decker characters. That's a crying shame. You only get to put your Sony or your Renraku to good use about two thirds into the campaign, so there's quite a bit of time that passes where your security expert is reduced to brute-forcing his way past passwords on personal computers.

Yay.

So I rerolled a Troll Samurai, and I've been having fun ever since. It's not an easy game by any stretch of the imagination and the interface could really use some work; but I'm fond of the isometric style they used. It reminds me of the earlier XCOM games and Baldur's Gate.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Just finished the game and I'd like to revise some of my initial impressions:

First, the game's story is cool. Showcases the setting and some basic themes, runs the player through a selection of situations and people you'd meet in Shadowrun, gives some backstory. A good introductory campaign. It's linear almost to the extreme, with your choices making next to no impact on the events of the game. I suppose that's fine, but it could have been so much more...

Secondly, the gameplay is not terrible. It plays like Fallout 1&2 mixed with some X-COM. However, the controls feel sluggish, there's some tedium in the gameplay. Some great ideas in there, like hacking being a mini-dungeon that happens parallel to the rest of the mission, so while your Decker is in the Matrix, bullets are flying around. Sadly, they don't do much with it. Most Decking sections are plot related, there's only a few cool situations where you can "discover" a solution to a problem using Decking. I'm not saying Decking is bad, just that they could have done so much more with it...

One thing worth mentioning is the balancing. Firearms rule, Magic is OK, Melee is poop. Around 50% of the skills are outright useless and serve no purpose. Game mechanics are poorly explained and half the time you're not sure what the points you're spending actually do. Little variety in gear and overall tactical options. It's like they were on to something, but then just wrapped it up halfway and just shipped it...

Overall, that's the feel of the game - not bad, but a ton of wasted potential. I keep repeating to myself that I shouldn't be so hard on the game, it's an indie and all that, but there's just so much that could have been soooo much better than I can't ignore all the missed opportunities. Shadowrun is a really cool setting and I'd love a proper RPG in it. This is more like a mini-version of what the game should be...

I've only put a couple solid hours in so far, but this is definitely echo'ing how I feel. I'm enjoying it alot, don't get me wrong, but it feels like it was teetering on the edge of "awesome!" and didn't quite reach it, depth-wise at least. then again, steam workshop is seeming to line up nicely with the game so i'm sure over time there will be some GREAT mods (both on and off of steam of course) that will really get this game to shine, and i can't wait to see what campaigns people build up! most of the complaints/issues i think can be solved quite nicely with some depth mods so i'm hoping those are on the way!

 

[bigwon]

Just been playing around with some community projects. It looks like down the line this could be pretty legit.
My only concern would be that the community would all migrate to the mmo and let returns just fade out.

I was hearing about an astral plane (sort of like the matrix but for shamans) and I'm just....damn just so much they could've done with this game. I'm hoping that they have plans on fleshing the game out with more mechanics before too long.

Otherwise the games great! if they can just patch in these functions they could have a perfect game!