Shadowrun Returns

I've played my fair share of RPG games and I can say without a doubt that "Shadowrun Returns" is one of the good ones. With an old-school feel to it, it manages, as a whole, to balance everything very well: gameplay, story, art, music, atmosphere, difficulty, etc. The story was really great - at least for me personally. There's lots of mystery and twists and turns to go around. Another thing I welcomed was how this game world manages to mix in fantasy and future in the same setting, and does it successfully; with this, I was thus introduced to the Shadowrun world. Although gameplay-wise it's quite simple, it still managed to be challenging and even frustrating at times. The only fault I can point out is regarding how the game itself is very linear. I think I can understand why the creators would go for such a thing, since the story itself is quite simple. Nonetheless, linearity is a feature one is not used to see in an RPG, even in old ones! Despite all this, I still highly enjoyed "Shadowruns Returns" and I actually felt that its simplicity was a breath of fresh air in the RPG genre.

Shadowrun is an interesting but very silly setting. It's crumbling technological dolor in a corporatized world that could just be not too unlike what awaits us in our own future, but it also has elves and trolls and stuff and wizards that cast Magic Missile into the darkness. These elements are constantly at odds with each other tonally, but it's always done with a wink and a nod in a deliberate manner. There has been many Shadowrun books and video games over the years, some better than others. Shadowrun Returns was a Kickstarter attempt to bring back specifically the feelings of the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis games, each being their own distinct entity with their own strengths and weaknesses. I feel it succeeded. They never set out to make high art, and they kept their goals and scope reasonable throughout. Here they made a PC Strategy RPG in the most traditional sense. It has a variety of good, flexible character customization options that didn't require me to make much research to understand. The portraits are largely fantastic, so you can really make your main character your own. The plot moves at a brisk pace and is a pretty OK story for a video game, but provides little replay value. It held my attention completely all the way to the end, but I encountered several awful bugs that will never be fixed by the developers, so be prepared to have a search engine handy if/when you get stuck. I didn't feel this really took away from my overall experience. Also, it was also cool seeing Jake Armitage again! He was the protagonist of the SNES game. On sale, it seems to go for around $4 USD, which I think is a superb price for the ride you're getting. I agree with others when they say this is the weakest of the three games, and that it's the best one to start with. Overall, I'd give it a 3.5/5 (rounded up, for the sale price) because of bugs and a story without much choices, but it's pretty respectable in its own right and laid the foundations for two better games.

Going into the game I was excited. I'm almost 100% sure the creators of this game read books like Snow Crash or Count Zero and was inspired by them to make this game. That's perfect for me because those are some great books. Coming off Deus Ex: HR I was still itching for that cyberpunk game, and this game fit the bill amazingly. Hell it's practically to the dot what I was looking for, since my love for cyberpunk spawned from these sci-fi books. The lingo, the dark and depressive crime-filled world, the street cowboy/samurai vibe. It's beautiful man. Hopefully the story matches the setting. So finally finished the game and sadly it didn't live up to my lofty expectations, but it's still a solid, small RPG. The setting is pretty cool and the text-based adventures is like a DnD campaign. The combat really could use a bunch more refinements, and basically everything from story/characters/enemies could use a bit more depth. Overall it's a fun little title that you'll have a lot of fun with if you're in the headspace to try a cyberpunk isometric game. But X-Com does the turn based squad combat a lot better, as does other RPG titles I've tried like Dragon Age. Decking felt really irrelevant, and most of the weapons and abilities never really felt cool or badass which is a shame because I really was looking forward to being a street cowboy/samurai in this world.

I am a simple man, I see video games, I play. Played this on mobile but font was too small. Now eeing this on PC and that too free was really surprising. Strongly recommend this to play. I am rght now playing this, wll try other two soon in this triology.

A