Shadowrun Returns

Yes, it is pretty linear but I'm hooked. Great story and characters. The spanish translation looks like machine-translated text though hahaha the camera option says "Gratis" instead of "Libre" (Libre == Free). But aside from that, I'm enjoying it very much

This is a great isometric CRPG set in the dystopian cyberpunk future world setting of Shadowrun, which is one of my favorite tabletop RPG systems. They especially did a great job balancing out turns between those in combat and your decker(s) in the Matrix, which was always a hard balancing act when playing the TTRPG. I'm also a big fan of the Shadowrun setting and lore, and there were definitely many nods in the game to lore that was established in the novels, even including a few characters like Harlequin and James Telestrian III. (Which, as a side note, the novels are all available in ebook format again now that the long-standing rights issues were cleared up.) Add on to that the fact that you can also create user generated content (from things like avatars to a full fledged story campaign), and you're looking at basically the Shadowrun equivalent of D&D 3E's Neverwinter Nights. I fully enjoyed the campaign (although I loathe bug shaman *shudder*), and I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into Dragonfall next. I originally backed this on Kickstarter (and then the same with Dragonfall and Hong Kong), and I don't know why I hadn't finished this before now. Originally, I spent some time playing Dead Man's Switch on my Android tablet, but unfortunately HBS recently removed it (along with Dragonfall; as far as I know, Hong Kong was never ported to Android) from the Google Play Store to avoid having to make changes to comply with GDPR. (Which doesn't make sense to me, but that's what their support folks told me.) So PC is pretty much the only option to play it at this point. I'll also note that it does work with Macs running an OS version predating OSX Catalina (I played this primarily on a Macbook using OSX Mojave); Apple dropped support for 32-bit apps in Catalina, and all three games in this trilogy are. Given what occurred with GDPR, I would very much not expect them to be updated to 64-bit apps to work under Catalina and future OSX releases.

Thank you, GOG, for the giveaway because I only had the game on Steam before. Now, I actually OWN the game! Shadowrun Returns is a rather linear experience for an RPG, to be honest. However, "linear" isn't always a bad thing. In the case of Shadowrun Returns, it's not. This game has some of the most compelling cyberpunk atmosphere out there and its story, while not particularly outstanding, is told in such an immersive way. Whether you're running down the streets of Seattle to get to an objective or you're taking your time exploring the mission area, you always feel like you're part of the unique, magic-infused cyberpunk world of Shadowrun. The graphics, while not incredible, absolutely get the job done and make you feel like you're in a believable world. The game has turn-based combat that feels quite similar to old school Fallout. I'm not usually a fan of turn-based combat but this game does it well. Not Divinity: Original Sin well, but it's still rather good. It never feels frustratingly long or cheap due to absurdly high dice rolls from enemies. It does, however, encourage you to use a bit of strategy when you fight and that's always a good thing when it comes to turn-based combat. I mentioned that the story of this game is told in a very immersive way and what I mean by that is that it feels personal. Maybe it's because the character's best friend's name is Sam (I have a good friend with that same name) but I always felt like the story I was playing through was truly MY story. Adding the impeccable cyberpunk atmosphere and the cool twist on the genre with the return of magic and fantasy creatures and it just creates this story that somehow captures both the adventure of fantasy and the deep, morally ambiguous storytelling present in the cyberpunk genre. If you go into this with the knowledge that it's not open world or sandbox in any way, you may just come out of it with a great sense of satisfaction because Shadowrun Returns is an absolute blast!

The combat gameplay is a bit like XCOM but slightly simpler. However, there are enough options and abilities to keep things interesting and to build a specialized character that will be very different depending on the abilities you give them. The game seems a bit low budget, with a few typos (but good writing) and a slightly clunky interface that seems to lack polish- for example, the items you can pick up or interact with have icons that seem to show up unreliably, it's very difficult to move to a space that's directly behind another character because the spot to select it is virtually unclickable, and at high resolutions the map and text are tiny and a bit hard to read, even with the option to offset this clicked in settings. There were also some annoying things, like being unable to use a decker in your party to unlock doors because the game only cares what the player character's skills are in most instances. The graphics are a little old fashioned but do the job well, and the story is fun and lets the player be expressive with their choices without being stereotypically pure good or evil. The world is lightly atmospheric, hinting at more but being a bit limited in how much some aspects are explored. It was definitely fun and distinctive to be able to jack into cyberspace and infiltrate the classic 80s sci-fi concept of a VR world. The characters are likeable, though it's a bit of a shame to have to hire mostly random mercs for runs rather than having a consistent party to develop and explore. The different classes and choices add a bit of replay value, and the difficulty seemed about right- I chose an Adept, apparently considered one of the worst classes, and was able to get through the entire game intact, though there were a few close calls. While not an amazing gem, the game was decent and worth playing if you'd like a couple days of cyberpunk escapism.

As far as gameplay goes, I loved it, it felt very much like my old Shadowrun TTG I use to play. However I think I will have to agree with others. The story took me six hours to complete. There are no side quests, no chances to wander off and find trouble. I feel making it more open world with more content would have been better. I'm about to start Dragonfall, so we will see if they learned.