Shadowrun Returns

Pretty nice RPG but could be more addictive.

For background, I loved the original SNES game, and I actually play the pen and paper game from time to time. I own the steam version of the game. To me, this game seemed very ridged without any wiggle room, just straight plowing through the story till it was done. There were very few places where interesting solutions could be used, and even less was available for side missions. What it did well was the combat system, feeling very similar to the newest x-com game. All combat is tactical turn based, with cover and whatnot thrown in. As far as the story itself, its linear aspect hurts the flavour of the setting. What I mean by that is, to me, shadowrun needs a more open organic world where you can explore, and do the investigating yourself without having anyone spoon feed you any answers. Sure there may have been a fair amount of backtracking, but there was also a fair amount of places to just break into and make off with all their stuff, which is completely missing from this game. YMMV, I was not quite sold on the leveling up, it is a different character build system then what the old games and the p&p have, so that may or may not be a turn off for you. Its ok, simple enough to get the point across. TL;DR The game lost me on atmosphere early on, and I never got over it being rather mediocre.

I enjoyed this game very much ! It has its flaws, but the studio is trying for the best! The story is cool, graphics are nice, sound also, characters are intersting and has some replayability ! Try it, you'll enjoy it !

Overall, the game is fairly interesting to play. However, it just feels more like a really well done Shareware project than a full-blown commercial product. There's nothing inherently bad about the game, but there's also nothing inherently good about the game. It's very average across the board... from graphics, to gameplay, to story, to sound... even the theme music is repetitive and gets old after a while. Pick it up if you're into turn-based *LITE* role-playing games that will keep you occupied for a few hours. Otherwise, I can't really say I was thoroughly impressed enough to replay the campaign.

A must-have for all fans of Gibsons works, and cyberpunk in general. Although it lacks content as there is not much to do aside the main quest, and the story seem to be extremally linear, the gameplay is very satisfying.