So I've been playing Shadowrun Returns for a few hours now (not that far in), and decided to come on here and post. First off this wasn't quite what I was expecting to be playing. I feel as though this is closer to XCom than to any form of PnP role playing. So far everything about the game has made it difficult to feel like it has any real RPG elements at all (outside of the leveling system). To top that off it feels as though it was made by a group of programmers right out of college.
That said, I do applaud them for releasing the mod tool with it. That allows us to modify the game and make it into whatever we want (more or less). With any amount of luck, we will have a proper Shadowrun experience inside of the next year or so with community mods.
On that point, what do you think we could do to improve the game with mods? Also, does anyone have a running tally of all the grammatical and spelling errors in the game. If not, I may have to make a second playthrough of the main campaign.
There actually aren't many spelling mistakes at all, they were mostly grammar and punctuation mistakes. To be honest I don't know why I said spelling in my original post aside from the habit of putting the two words together.
HazelNuttyGames said:
I agree that the combat feels a lot like a (somewhat simplified) version of XCom's combat, but the game felt very similar to a PnP rpg to me. I spent far more time exploring the environments for clues/items, talking to various people and making conversational choices than being purely in combat. Having played quite a bit of Pathfinder recently, the combat (and character building) really felt like a more user-friendly version of that with the dice rolls hidden.
I made a video that goes a little more in-depth with my own first impressions if anyone is interested in hearing more. (warning- minor spoilers, I go through the first ten-fifteen minutes or so)
I don't understand how this is anything like a PnP experience. You enter an area, everything that is interactive has an icon over it, so there isn't any searching or thought required on your part. The combat is just a squad tactical turn based game. When you add in the fact that you pull on new runners in between missions and they face permadeath while running missions it only adds to the XCom similarities. When I kickstarted the game I was told it was supposed to be an RPG like the days of old (I.E. Old Shadowrun or Fallouts), yet that wasn't what I received at all.
I won't complain too much though as I enjoy Squad tactics, and I am sure the community will make some great mods/campaigns for it eventually. That said, this still isn't what I paid for.
I din't necessarily have a lot of expectations as far as the gameplay goes. I just wanted a really solid game set in the Shadowrun universe and I feel that that's what I'm getting. I do find the UI to be a bit wonky though, and I do find myself wishing the world was more open and explorable, but that's partially just because of how much I like the world. What is there serves the game well, but I would love "more."
I made a video that goes a little more in-depth with my own first impressions if anyone is interested in hearing more. (warning- minor spoilers, I go through the first ten-fifteen minutes or so)
Anyone knows if there are any good/memorable party members you can get? Any new Morte or Garrus?
I find it difficult to engage in a story if there aren't any good characters to engage with, especially if your own char doesn't have alot of personality.
Anyone knows if there are any good/memorable party members you can get? Any new Morte or Garrus?
I find it difficult to engage in a story if there aren't any good characters to engage with, especially if your own char doesn't have alot of personality.
There's a couple of mildly affable party members that come and go, and a host of zero-personality runners you can bring on board for single missions (and a fee), but nothing even remotely on the level of a Garrus or a Morte.
Anyone knows if there are any good/memorable party members you can get? Any new Morte or Garrus?
I find it difficult to engage in a story if there aren't any good characters to engage with, especially if your own char doesn't have alot of personality.
There's a couple of mildly affable party members that come and go, and a host of zero-personality runners you can bring on board for single missions (and a fee), but nothing even remotely on the level of a Garrus or a Morte.
Anyone knows if there are any good/memorable party members you can get? Any new Morte or Garrus?
I find it difficult to engage in a story if there aren't any good characters to engage with, especially if your own char doesn't have alot of personality.
A couple; Coyote is definitely badass while Jake is a grizzled, snarky old man. The supporting cast is really where the writing shines as the villains are rather interesting and the supporting characters do have loads of personality.
Anyone knows if there are any good/memorable party members you can get? Any new Morte or Garrus?
I find it difficult to engage in a story if there aren't any good characters to engage with, especially if your own char doesn't have alot of personality.
A couple; Coyote is definitely badass while Jake is a grizzled, snarky old man. The supporting cast is really where the writing shines as the villains are rather interesting and the supporting characters do have loads of personality.
In the broader sense, though, the campaign suffers tremendously thanks to it's focus on combat. I've encountered relatively few instances where a hacker character gets to do much more than the equivalent of unlocking a door or applying a debuff for example. The result is that there simply isn't a particularly good reason to play a character without some significant combat ability, especially considering if the PC goes down it's game over which can result in a significant setback in terms of time. Couple that with the fact that the player doesn't really get a lot of options regarding how they kick of combat sequences most of the time means your character is often left standing at point blank range at the end of the first round and a lucky roll on the other side can end a fight before it even begins if you didn't invest something in body and armor.
Grammar? Seriously?
The game is good. Combat has always been the bread and butter of any cRPG ever and that aspect of the game is solid. Action RPG fans won't get their kicks, but for turn-based tactical fans this is game is incline over the usual crap.
The worst I can say about the game is that the AI is lacking and the enemy encounters could have been harder.
I'm looking forward to playing scenarios made by the community. Not that the first campaign is bad. It's just short and linear with very few side quests. In terms of "roleplaying" or alternate approaches I'd say the campaign is still above average in it's genre.
Well the art style is absolutely beautiful and the story is pretty intriguing so far. But I find the gameplay to be a little disappointing after playing XCOM. Still, fun game so far.
I lost a grand total of one runner throughout the campaign. A hired elven decker going by "Horizon1989" so something like that, so it isn't exactly old-school levels of super-difficult.
Storytime spoiler!
Thing is, it was a totally unnecessary death and I feel bad about it, see, there's a late-game mission wherein you're told that you need to shut down some elevators while security is swarming your position. What the game *doesn't* tell you is that it's entirely possible to just murder all the dudes, instead. Which is what I did, while 1/4 of my combat power was getting his ass kicked in the Matrix (My PC was Really Good at the Shooting, and Jenny Hex is the most overpowered hired runner ever). *Mission Support* even calls you to say there's no more movement by the elevators, and Good ol' Horizon just got blasted back into meatspace.
Another player may have just run for the exit, I still thought I needed to take control of the elevators, so, after Horizon wakes up, instead of another decker jacking in, Jenny Hex slapped him with a medkit and Horizon jacked back in.
When you get dumped out of the Matrix, the alarm state skyrockets. When the alarm state maxes out, you get the "lovely" possibility of fighting enemy deckers and some black ICE, the latter of which deals damage to your meatsack, while the former have a wide rane of tricks.
Horizon was unable to escaped, and the Black ICE geeked him.
Turns out, running for the elevators was not only a completely viable option, but the game expects it of you.
Other than that, I enjoy the slick, minimalistic UI, though I wish for more keyboard shortcuts than "ESC opens up your PocSec", and the writing is genuinely good. Note I didn't say "the Plot", I said the "writing". It's solid and grounded and it feels very Shadowrun, which is a good goddamn thing. I enjoy the reading, which never gets too much like a wall o' text, even in the exposition. There are a few grammatical errors, but they're not actually big. In fact, I'd be hard-pressed to even tell you what they were and where right now (I wasn't taking notes).
My only real complaint is, like others have said before me, the lack of a manual save option, but it has never come around to bite me. With a little hunting I did find that it's possible to restore the game to any earlier checkpoint, so as soon as I figured out why my abilities for having Way Too Many Points in Pistols weren't showing up, I was able to rewind to a workaround, and as a bonus I got to re-hire for the final mission to a more optimal team composition (by which I mean I hired Jenny Hex, the Mage Made Of Broken this time.) The linearity of the story was a bit off-putting, but it's perfectly possible to run a sandbox (Check out "Shadowrun Identity 1 -- Life on a Limb" to see that in action), and it actually is in the same vein as the tabletop modules.
I look forward to sinking my fangs into the editor and putting together a Shadowrun Melbourne campaign (Working title: "Sixteen Tons"). There is a significant barrier to entry I just need to shoulder past (I finally found the floors!)
I'd give it the 8/10 - 8.5/10 that "real" reviewers seem to be slapping on it willy-nilly. It's a good game, and well worth the nuyen.
I've yet to see a super-negative Metacritic review that wasn't Absolutely Petty, and there's a few people crying "scam" because they think 1.8 million could have been stretched further than it was, but surely the Escapist is well aware that the cost of Game Development is Shamefully High these days (HBS sent an e-mail to its backers when release was delayed the first time claiming that they'd run out of backer/pre-order money months ago and was now using its personal funds, and for some reason, I believe them).
Honestly, I expected... more. Granted, I'm only a couple of hours in, but still...
First, the game handles like ass. This might be a personal nitpick of mine, but everything feels like it has a second or two of delay and it's annoying the hell out of me.
Secondly, the game is essentially a visual novel with X-COM-lite combat. And it's build like an iOS game. I was expecting something... well, less linear maybe? It doesn't have to be Skyrim, but it feels like it's 95% on rails...
Maybe I'll warm up to it over time, but so far I'm kinda "meh" about it and will only be sticking around for the cool setting...
I love it. It's exactly what it needs to be at a $20 value. Combat is a little slanted in favor of guns but I can dig it.
Something interesting: The release of this game reminds me of Neverwinter Nights. The original campaign to Neverwinter Nights was never anything to write home about. However, the expansions and fan-made modules varied from bland to spectacular. All of the groundwork has been laid for a similar reaction for Shadowrun Returns. There are already fan-made alpha modules on Steam Workshop.
Give it a few years, and this game will be a must-have.
I like it.
Hit a wall though. Would have to go back 2 checkpoints to save the game. Quicksaves would help.
Yeah. I'm done with it for now.
The story is its strong point and being held back through gameplay/ losing fights due to the game expecting me to see into the future really breaks it for me. I'll let it rest for a while
I haven't really played that much so far, but I like what I have played a lot. I haven't really had the chance to play Shadowrun as it should be played (Pen and paper), but I have read quite a bit about it (which was why I was happy to back it) and I love magic set in a modern setting which might just be enough for me to like it regardless of actual quality.
I wish I could come up with some original criticism, but I would really love to see a save function because it's the kind of game that I imagine I could end up with lots of save files on where I do various things in and try various tactics, but I dunno.
That said, I do applaud them for releasing the mod tool with it. That allows us to modify the game and make it into whatever we want (more or less). With any amount of luck, we will have a proper Shadowrun experience inside of the next year or so with community mods.
not mod tools, level editor, its actually very hard for people to create new content and would be harder for people to download and install, not that this is a bad thing, but people seem to assuming some modder is going to come along and remove the checkpoint saves and completely recreate the game which is pretty much not going to happen.
any way on topic, it was okay, not great not bad but okay, I liked the parts I played, felt it could have been better, maybe some more optional runs, (there's only what 3? which can be missed if you dont do them as soon as available).
also I think certain design choices where very questionable, no free roam, limited access to supplies, and the fact that you cant use you damn team mates to complete things you dont have the stats for, but they do. (took a decker with me everywhere only to realise at the end you cant use there decking skill to open doors or safes) i mean the whole decker thing just felt like a waste, a few matrix missions which where just tripppy palet swaps of the over world.
I am happy they released a good (from what i have been told) editor, but I don't think the game can be given bonus points for it, as all the editor does is give the "potential" for future content, could be crap or the scene could be dead.
but yeah i am happy with my kickstarter backing of it, still think there are areas it could have been improved
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
