Shadowrun Returns (2013)

3.5 stars.

At first I didn't enjoy the smaller scale detective fiction orientation compared to Hong Kong - the only other Shadowrun game I've played so far.

But I started feeling engrossed as I progressed (comparisons with Altered Carbon were inevitable); the short and less mouth-flapping dialogues were more enjoyable too (especially when English is not your mother tongue).

But somewhere mid game It started to feel boring, little to no battles, as if I was reading a visual novel.

The skill tree is not fully fledge as in HK, you don't get companions permanently.

The hit chance/percentage is even more broken than in HK (did I hear missing a 90% attack 3 times in a row!?).

The unfolding of the main mission loses intrigue and cleverness.

The outcome of decisions are virtually null.

Yet, it is a very decent game for a such rich cyberpunk fantasy folklore, even though it doesn't expand the lore, at least it explores it.

This IP should get the same AAA treatment as The Witcher, CP77, Fallout or Baldur's Gate 3 got.

This title has an intriguing premise, mixing cyberpunk with magic in a noir-style world, but it didn’t quite hook me. The setting is cool and the writing is solid, but the gameplay felt a bit too slow and limited for my taste. The turn-based combat is functional but lacks depth early on, eve though I'm used and quite like this kind of combat style, and the linear structure left me feeling like my choices didn’t matter much. The interface also felt clunky, and the lack of manual saving was frustrating. Overall, it’s not a bad game, it just didn’t grab me enough to keep going past the first few hours.

As for its visuals, it has a distinct and moody style that fits the Shadowrun universe well, even if it’s fairly minimalistic. The isometric perspective and static environments do a good job of conveying atmosphere, but they also make the world feel a bit rigid and lifeless at times. Sound design and music are serviceable and occasionally atmospheric, yet they rarely stand out or elevate key moments in the story.

I can see why this title resonates with fans of the tabletop RPG or players deeply invested in its lore, as it faithfully captures the tone and themes of the universe. Still, as a standalone experience, it feels more like a foundation than a fully realized game. With more tactical depth and better pacing, it could have been something special, but as it stands, it left me appreciating the idea more than the execution.

My first foray into Shadowrun world began with playing Returns on Steam Deck. It ran very well. Played as a female Elf, proficient with decking and rifle.

It was mostly what I expected, although it did surprise me pleasantly with the quality of written dialogues; text boxes before missions during a loading screen almost felt like something taken out of the paper RPG with very detailed descriptions of a predicament your main character is currently in and his/her surroundings - it really helped in making the world just a tad more believable.

The whole setting is what drawn me to Returns and I wasn't disappointed in that respect, although I would have liked the city and its regions to be a bit more open, with more optional stuff to do - so I could actually feel like I am the runner who's pulling the strings here, making my own choices, rather than being pulled by developers to finish the main quest only, by completing a sequence of linear missions and locations.

I've enjoyed the combat, it was balanced well, but not particularly deep or difficult; and very much enjoyed upgrading my character - there are no boundaries here after you pick your class and race which is fantastic (although a few limitations may occur). It is an approach that I wish more RPG games would implement, where you're not really limited by your chosen race/class, and you can still become whatever you want if you invest an x amount of points in y profession.

Story wise it was pretty good and fun to follow how the events unfolded in the main campaign - it's the ending that sort of spoiled it for me to be honest, it'd be interesting to see how probable would be this scenario within the realm of the original table top RPG - because here, it almost felt out of place and it really brought down the overall feeling of a pretty solid game for me: I mean giant bugs, that you can't kill, but you can kill their spirits, with a special weapon that only two people in your team can use, that has very limited ammo per turn - wow, I mean really, is that how it's going to be Harebrained?

It is a solid experience, took me about 19hrs or so in total. However I would recommend it to others only with the above caveats taken into consideration. I also bought Dragonfall which I believe is the second entry in Harebrained Schemes' Shadowrun Trilogy & from what I've been hearing so far it improves on Returns in almost every possible way, so I am quite thrilled about playing it.

Бедненько. Пустенько.

Средней паршивости нуарная история в интересном сеттинге. Диалоги нормальные (по меркам нуарных детективов). Бои простые, хоть и занудные. Я и прокачивался в разговоры. А на середине игры мне выдали заварушку на кладбище, где мясом заваливают по самое не могу и начинается какой-то X-Com: ты и союзники мажете изо всех сил, а враги попадают как раньше. Ненавижу внезапные скачки сложности. Так и закончилась для меня игра.

Around the time of the Steam Summer Sales, Humble Bundle gave away Shadowrun Returns for free. So, like a corporate tool I blew about 60 bucks in the Steam Sale, and then spent the next months playing the game I got for free.

Why? Because it turned out to be quite neat. Shadowrun returns is a tactical RPG with an isometric view and a nice smooth engine behind it. Combat is smooth and interesting. Happily so, because there is a lot of it. Like most tactical RPG's this is basically one big feast of cover-based slaughter. It took me half of the game to figure out there was an Overwatch function, but after that you could almost hear the symphonic music as the bodies hit the floor.

But what really hooked me in was the clever and evocative writing. The intro's to every scene and the dialogues in the scenes were solid and gave off a great Shadowrun feel. I like that you could assemble your own team for a lot of the missions. I ended up selecting my favorites quite often, making them feel like my team (My man Levi! <3)

My favorite part of the game has you make a full-frontal run on a big corporation. The game does a great job of conveying what a suicide run this is. You pull it off, but you can't get the payload. So you stay in the building overnight and next day you emerge as a janitor to see if you can social engineer your way to the safe.

As a janitor they make you clean up all the blood and gore you left last night, you see what corporate drones take the fall for all of the fallout you caused. The descriptions here are so beautifully written from the point of view of a runner, that you really do feel like your infiltrating a corporate world you despise.

A lot of love went into this, and I enjoyed it!

A cyberpunk mixed with magic cRPG game very much reminding the classic Fallouts (1&2).

I've never heard about Shadowrun universe before playing this game. Nor do I intend to look it up at any point. The world in a game is a mixture of cyberpunk and fantasy. That means high tech combined with fireballs, trolls and elves. Not my favourite mix of things to be honest.

Shadowrun is a kickstarted cRPG with an isometric view. You control a single character - that you do have the chance to create. The number of options to choose is quite big and it's a bit intimidating at first. The bad part is that the whole game is a bit badly designed that any warrior like class will have much advantage over any mage or non-combat class. There are many options to choose but some of them are useful only once throughout the whole game which feels disappointing.

The story is as follows - your friend is killed. Upon his death a dead man switch gets turned on and you're essentially getting hired by the dead guy to find his killers. The story is quite well written and interesting. Obviously the simple job turns into saving the world but that's how the things go usually.

Visually the game is quite nice looking - nothing spectacular but decent. The music is fine although gets bored after a while. There's no voice over so expect a lot of reading.

Shadowrun is a bit linear game. There is no free roaming like in Fallout - each location leads to you to another one. You play as a single character that hires other people to do the jobs with you - forming a pack of maximum 4 people. You control them all but don't get attached to them at all. You get to level up only your own character which is a bit disappointing. The combat is fine although way too easy. I don't think I've got a single person downed which again is a bit disappointing.

Game favours strongly gun wielding fighters - the mages, the deckers or other classes are way less useful. Even more so with their attacking abilities - mages are only good for healing and buffs - their offensive spells are no match to a trusty rifle.

Overall I had the feeling like Shadowrun Returns was build as a framework for user created content. The main campaign although well written seems not to take advantage of the tools developed for the game. It's also not that long - around 8-9 hours. Browsing through steam's workshop - there are quite a few scenarios available although most of the projects have been moved to dragonfall due to technical improvements of the sequel. But I'm not interested in a user created content - I want a polished campaign developed by developers.

In the end - I'd say the game was worth playing through especially as it reminded the good times of Fallout. The story is interesting enough despite the somewhat lacking difficulty level and linearity of the whole experience.

I went into SR not really knowing what to expect. I'd never played the PnP but have a sourcebook and rulebook for it (i am weird, i collect such things) I like the world and what it portrays. (It's cultural significant in the time period it was written and has a creative twist to RPGs of the day) This reboot really brings a lot of things together nicely, it's satisfying to play if you like that kind of dialogue focused game with lots of reading.

First, SR has a nice slick graphic style. Isometric scenes that are reminiscent of black isle era. This suites the game well in how it feels. You feel like you are moving through a module act by act. You'll progress through main acts, which are adventure/puzzle like sequences then branch off into combat or hacking sequences.

[The matrix is a bit simple in SR, it is visually more impressive and embellished in the later sequels]

[Turn Based Combat, easier for some classes than others]

As much as I liked it, there are some drawbacks. I played the game early, it's probably been improved, but in some spots it feels soft. The balance feels a little off too (some classes are really hard, like adept, some are easy, like rigger) In some places the dialogue feels a little sparse. Certain sections also feel a bit 'contrved' too.

However, the setting is great, the feeling is good, the way the game is made suites these things, and the main story is pretty good, has a nice twist. It's nowhere near as in depth or mechanically bewildering like hardcore games like Temple of Elemental Evil but shares some elements in the module like approach to story progression.

Oh there's also quite a bit of mods for it too that are interesting over at Nexus sites. So there's that.

A great "cyberpunk" RPG, with some fantasy thrown in. The story is not spectacular, but enough to keep you going.

As a game, it's just right. Not too difficult, not too easy, enough play styles that you can play it multiple times and it would feel as a pretty different game. And there's user generated content (although I haven't dabbled in that yet)

The thing I liked the most is that you have many options to develop your character, but not too many. It's a difficult balance, but this game got it right.

The story feels a bit like what would be a good introductory adventure for Shadowrun (the pen & paper). Your character will go through the story regardless of her interest in what's to come. In a linear experience, you and your team of shadowrunners will be sent on mission after mission to uncover the truth behind the death of a friend and colleague, Sam Watts. While most twists can be seen from a mile away, the story is still good enough to keep you going, and the gameplay mechanics are more than solid.

The game offered little challenge, even on hard setting. Playing a rifle-using decker has earned me the privilege of soloing through all but the final mission. Acquiring nyuen was a non-issue, allowing me to occasionally make moral choices based on my seemingly unending wealth.

Having mentioned these caveats, the game is a fun adventure that you can easily spend many hours in, one turn at a time. Tactical turn-based and RPG fans will have a good time.