Shadowrun Returns

Really wanted to like this game and I was up until I ran into a gaming breaking bug that pretty much doomed my whole playthrough and I couldn't progress. It kept freezing up my game at the exact same point, no matter how many times I reloaded. I love RPGs especially Sci-Fi ones and the Shadowrun universe is very cool to explore, which is why I'm disappointed with this game. To start with the good, the story was interesting for the first half as it was this cool detective story, until the plot takes a new direction which I didn't like but that was about the time when I hit the bug wall. The character progression is basically the same as Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines, in that instead of you gaining XP and leveling up, you just get skill points straight away from completing quests. It helps simulate the tabletop style of gameplay which I love. The game is also very linear with you basically going from mission to mission. I didn't mind this and found it refreshing compared to many open world game now a days. Overall I really wanted to like this game but I couldn't even finish it because of bugs. I searched online and many others have run into the same brick wall. The fact that this game is almost 10 years old and has not been fixed is inexcusable so its a skip for me. I got this for free on GOG, but I would be angry if I paid for it, therefore I do not recommend buying it.

It has to be said: the environments and characters all look great; graphics are simply beautiful and very well done. Unfortunately, that is not enough to make a great game... The game / story is so linear one might feel boxed in: the game forces one's decisions into one specific direction. The story itself is not gripping enough to overcome this 'problem'. And that is bad since it is story based adventure...

As did many of you, I bought this game at launch after several weeks of counting down the days till I would once again find myself trolling the streets of Seattle. What I found once I did was a mildly atmospheric adventure with very little substance. The engine is sound. It works about as well as the story doesn't. Which is completely. And when two essential elements like story and game engine are so drastically opposed, we start looking harder at the things that matter less. Like animations, and how much we can dress up the digital dolls, and loot, etc... But the simple fact is that if the story were even half as engaging as the game system is functional, all of the window dressing would have fallen to the wayside and this would easily be one of the best RPGs of the last ten years. Having it available here on GOG -- on sale next to some of the best examples of the RPG genre ever created -- really only serves to highlight just how boring and poorly done the story elements are by comparison. I just can't recommend this game. If you are a lover of functional game engines that accurately mimic mostly forgotten pen and paper game mechanics, this is the game for you. If you want to play a good game that draws you in and entertains you for hours and hours, then no. Just no.

... this one on Android and really liked it.

Well, Im happy to see there are some new turn based games out there, anyway im sorry to say this one isnt that great. I didnt expect a masterpiece reading the others reviews, but really i didt even expect a game such bland, it seems a Browser/ipad game to me. The problem is that anything is really simplified, linear, amateurish compared what i want from a game. Compare this to baldur's gate as RPG, or Jagged alliance2, or most of (old) turn based rpgs (plus Wasteland2 which is quite promising) and this one falls really short in every department. Gameplay is on rails and interactions are really limited, there is no exploration, nothing really to do then following what you must do if you wanna go on. The combat mechanic is ok but nothing impressive too, i personally like something more deep. Artwork and animations are terrible, really terrible. Im not telling i want Diablo 3 Artwork to be happy, just if you pick the original monkey island got a lot more style then this one... the music also is repetitive and very annoying. No, sorry but i like the idea, i like the story, i like the Shadowrun "world", but the game itsel isnt very good.