Shadowrun Hong Kong - Extended Edition

After the great game that was Dragonfall, this one feels like a step back, especially in terms of storyteling and pacing. And sadly, there are some really tedious dialogues and characters in there (most prominently Wu, your sidekick, who contributes nothing to plot or atmosphere, but has a real talent for stating the obvious before going on about how he "can't believe it". It's pretty bad). Also, but is also true for its predecessors, combat is too easy. I played Hong Kong on highest difficulty and never felt challenged. Now, I've played my share of turn-based strategy games, but I sure am no tactical genius. Not once I had to reload a savegame and readjust my tactics in Hong Kong. Automatic rifles solve all problems without complications. It's cool but dull. My final negative point concerns roleplaying. I don't find it ideal that you create your character before you have any idea of the role the game wants you to play. Because, unlike in Dragonfall, your role in this campaign is a more restricted one, your age, family ties and some basic facts about your previous life are predetermined by the plot. Which you don't know anything about when creating your shadowrunner, of course. So I ended up creating a character which didn't really fit the role the game piece by piece revealed it wanted it to play. To further elaborate on the tension between player decision and plot imperative: In the epilogue (no spoilers) you're asked what you're gonna do now that it's all over by several characters. Each time I answered I was going to leave Hong Kong. Then the game ends and a few final lines of text tell me my character is staying in Hong Kong to be a shadowrunner. It's a small thing, but it's not the only one of its kind. And it matters, in a game with such a focus on storytelling, roleplaying and getting the "flavor" right. Now, SR Hong Kong isn't a bad game. Some characters are really well done and some runs are truly enjoyable. But it falls short where Dragonfall excels.

This game has absolutely fantastic artwork and a well written, engaging story to go along with it. If you don't like reading a fair amount of text and using your imagination definitely don't bother with this game, there's hardly any voice dialogue and the cut scenes are very basic but still powerful. The soudtrack and ambient noise for this game is also very well produced. The combat system is more or less the same as previous Shadowrun titles and very simple to get the hang of (even for new players).The skill system and money systems were balanced enough that you find yourself very carefully considering what to spend your money on, weather you should get that revive kit or a sweet new samurai sword. The skill points are few enough that you can only really come close to maxing out one category so you have to think carefully how you want to play the game. The actual gameplay (like previous Shadowrun titles) is addictive if you can get into the text based style of this game. At the end of the game you'll find yourself wanting more, like with a good book. Luckily Harebrained Schemes have us covered and have included the ability to use community runs as they have in the past. I look forward to see what crazy runs/fan fiction the community can come up with!

Dragonfall was a fantastic game because it had writing on par with the better shadowrun novels. The characters and NPCs felt alive, the enemies felt like a threat and the runs usually came down to either doing something morally wrong or not getting paid (as much). As PutCashIn mentioned in his review, the plot is terrible. As a western foreigner in the close-knit Hong Kong underground community the player is immediately being trusted, made the unquestioned leader of the group and being told the nightmares of any cardboard NPC in range. And all of that after the game goes to great lengths to tell you that the main character can't even speak the language properly. As for the mission Design: On every run I made so far I felt dissatisfied by the choices in dialogues when it came to resolving the run. I also felt that my options to explore the level and find alternate solutions were not very well implemented. In generel they were to easy to come by and had little to no effect on the outcome of the run. Now, on the upside the game actually made the matrix scenes fun and and tried to improve a number of other aspects such as drone variety and cyberweapons. But yet again these new elements feel somewhat unrefined. To summarize: The game could have been good if more effort had been put into it. Unfortunately basic mission design and writing can't be patched.

Story: -Like others have said before, the story is weaker than Dragonfall's. There are none of those moral-dilemma moments where you wonder what to do. It's too straightforward. Too much like shadowrun returns, where you have boogie-man enemies. 3/5 -Some companion characters are downright half-baked (Isobel), some aren't as advertised (Gobbet doesn't give an impression of an absurdist, but of a nonchalant teenager), some are meh (Duncan) but I still have to commend Racter and Gaichu caracters. They were at pretty good! 3/5 Gameplay: -The new Matrix is great! It could have been better if it was spiced up with some puzzles, but having to sneak around programs is interesting new addition. -Spells and cyberware were a bit updated, some with pretty nice abilities. Still, there were never enough nuyen to get it all All in all, I'll give this game a 4/5. It's a good game despite it's flaws, and I don't regret the 20 dollars spent on it!