Shadowrun Returns

The first in a trilogy and one of the crowd-funded games that helped bring cRPGs back to prominence, Hairbrained's Shadowrun Returns is a fantastic little turn-based RPG taking place in the Shadowrun universe. It's a small game in its scope; the story towards the end goes into a silly save-the-world direction, but it doesn't start like this. At first it's personal, it spends time world-building and introducing likable characters that set the stage. Mechanically, it's simple but not without depth; plenty of build options, turn-based combat that requires a healthy amount of strategy and engagement and, like all proper RPGs, a good amount of different routes that compliment the various character builds. There are only a handful side-quests, so for the most part, you're engaged in the main story and that works in the game's favor. We're used to different choices meaning different outcomes, but you won't find this here; the different choices exist specifically for roleplaying flavor and that's ultimately a good thing. It has been a long while since a RPG had replay value just so you can approach the same scenario in different ways without the carrot of different dialogue and cutscenes at the end of the stick. I haven't played the sequels at the time of writing this, but I enjoyed this one quite a lot and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Nice game, yes. But Not living up to spirit with the sega genesis original.

yes, its a pretty linear campaign. just the nature of the run, chummer. yes, its a checkpoint save system. doesn't bother me, personally. and yes, harlequin appears to be slumming drunk. whatever, its bloody shadowrun. its a fun romp through seattle and a classic background story, well worth the price. if its limitations still bother you, pick up the dragonfall DLC which has more story, save-at-will, etc.

This game is a shell of the sega genesis & super nes shadowrun games. They had a main storyline, with the ability to run around and build up your character doing side-missions, keep and build up, and equip your shadowrunner companions. They had random events, and a world you could run around exploring in. They had an amazing, unique matrix running system and real-time combat. They had dialogue choices which mattered to the story. This has none of that. It has a singular path, round-based combat, no ability to save before dangerous situations, so you often have to replay long sections. The dialogue is almost entirely meaningless, very few dialogue choices seem to change anything. The combat is frustrating and boring to say the least. The matrix is the same boring, awful combat. As I said above, if you're looking for the next chapter of the genesis/snes games, keep looking.. the only cool thing about this game is the artwork.

The system is not bad. The story line is not bad. It needs at least twice as much content, and yes, it is MUCH too linear. If this came out 10 years ago, it would have been "good", but with all the graphics and stories and other things out there, it comes up short. It feels sort of like a teaser. I would recommend it for $4.99 or less.