Have loved this game from inception. Still love it today. Beamdog is great in having brought this beloved jewel to modern systems. Buy it. It's just great. With or without friends, a great game, with many multiple stories from both Bioware and the beloved NWN community.
Great game. Frustrating at times, but it's supposed to be. Get the Verok's Patch to play it the way it's meant to be played.
Many have given poor reviews due to the price of the portraits available, or that it took too long for Beamdog to release new ones. I saw this pack on sale for $0.49. For less than the price of a can of pop, I now have access to 6 new portraits. They are very well-done, and worth every penny. Artists already have a hard enough time getting money for their work, so every little bit helps. So, I gave a "little bit" for these works of art. Would I have paid more for these? Nope. For me, the $0.49 price tag was just the right price. My suggestion is to wait for a sale on these and grab 'em. More portraits are always nice, and these look very good.
Having loved Shadowrun ever since I played and beat (several times) the 1993 SNES version, it's difficult to remember why I didn't immediately grab Shadowrun Returns when it came out. As a matter of fact, I didn't get into the series until Dragonfall: Director's Cut went on sale (Steam). I also didn't realize that it was a stand-alone game, thinking that the Director's Cut was a *combo* of both the first and second games and I was getting both games at a great discount (I know now that they are separate games). I enjoyed Dragonfall. It was a good game, had that great Shadowrun atmosphere, story, and turn-based combat that I really enjoyed (big Fallout/Fallout 2 fan). Of course, after finding out that Dragonfall was the 2nd game in the series, I wanted to check out the 1st and 3rd games. I was disappointed to read the low reviews of these games however, with most reviewers/players preferring the 2nd game over the others. Still, when the GOG sale came around to snag Shadowrun Returns and Shadowrun: Hong Kong Extended for less than ten bucks, I couldn't pass it up. Man, am I glad that the lower reviews didn't impact my getting them. Shadowrun Returns was much better-paced than Dragonfall, and it had a great Shadowrun feel to it that felt closer to the SNES version (that I love so much). However, Dragonfall was still a better/longer game with good improvements on the game mechanics overall. After taking my Elf Decker, Cursor, through the first two games, I decided to try Hong Kong. Shadowrun: Hong Kong is definitely my favorite of the series in that you feel more like a Shadowrunner. The jobs I do give me full rewards instead of taking a huge chunk from each success for the overarching story (Dragonfall anyone?). The pacing, characters, rewards, etc... are just better. Oh, and the game mechanics are very much improved. TLDR: SR:HK is the best of the series. More jobs, better pacing, great improvements overall. But, PLAY THEM ALL. They're all good.
