Shadowrun Returns

Played on Windows 7 and Linux Mint 17.3. Plays great on both. PROS: + Immersive, fully realized universe. + Steady action, despite being turn-based. + Wide variety of classes, upgrades, and augmentations. + Combat requires strategy, without feeling dull. + Interesting, 'hand drawn meets neon lit' visual aesthetic. + Solid story worth seeing through. Modest hardware requirements. + Windows,Mac, and Linux installers all included. CONS: - Story is not as open-ended as one would expect. - Turn-based combat may put off action fans. VERDICT: Worth owning at $15 (USD), even more so when on sale.

Thought the story pales in comparison to its sequel Dragon Fall, this is a great start to the series with some solid, turn-based combat and pretty cool atmosphere.

I enjoy playing this game, the combat feels very good, I have so far only reached one place where it felt like I was punished for spending skill points, which has lead to me decreasing my score by what I consider a lot. The game has a rough from point A to point B approach where it feels a lot like whatever choice you make you will always reach the same levels, same choices and probably same ending with very small differences here and there. Combat is team turn-based, so your entire team does its turn, then the enemy does all theirs, for good or bad this can trigger a lot of things to go wrong for either side. I feel that most of the time you could've had more actions every turn from the start and far more control over the movement as side-stepping traps can cost an entire turn because the line telling you where your character will move is very hard to see, especially in bright rooms. As for the worst part for me personally is that in this game there is very little to any follower customization, and the save system could do with getting better. The game autosaves as every loading screen occurs and you can save manually as well, but if you play for too long and end up regretting something you can have a lot of time to catch back up to, and after two complete resets and one time loading a save two hours back I am very fed up with the system. Overall, I recommend this game for proper RPG players (Not like Mass Effect or Fallout) who enjoy a bit of weighing chance and taking their time with planning. I do Not recommend this game for people who think that voice acting is a must-have (There is none) and therefore you have a lot to read yourself, or people who want an action-packed constant surge of things happening, things happen is a medium to slow time depending on the time you take yourself.

It's not that I was expecting the second coming when trying this game out, but this game fails to deliver the very fundamentals which were introduced into the genre by the likes of Baldur's Gate 15 years earlier. So, from what to begin? I knew beforehand that this game is linear (and was ok with that), but this turned out to be a major understatement, Exploration is simply non-existent, you ALWAYS go from point A to point B as dictated by the main story. If you want to explore the world and go to a different location, or even to an other area in your current location, you'll be either physically unable to (even if you've already been there) or you'll just encounter vast emptiness (i.e. 0 npcs to interact with or things to do). Alright, so it's super linear, but the world which you encounter during your linear quest is interesting, right? Wrong. Interaction with objects is almost non existent, lore to read - non-existent, interacting with npcs who are not merchants or part of the main quest is also almost non-existent. Most of your party members are mercenaries without dialog options, so forget about learning about them or their relationships with other party members either. The story is a generic uninspired murder mystery, not as primitive as the other aspects but nothing memorable either. Battles are X-COM-like only at first glance: They always take place on a single height level, against simliar enemies who pose very little surprises - you'll learn very quickly whats the 1-2 best actions for each party member, and just spam these. The visuals and the skill system are ok (no more than that), and the game is bug free - those are the only reasons I don't give it 1/5 stars. Huge disappointment.

Installed. When I try to play, it errors out almost immediately. My PC has no problems running Shadowrun Dragonfall or Shadowrun Hong Kong. Don't know what the problem is. Running Windows 10 os, Ryxen 7 cpu, Nvidia 1650 gpu.