Shadowrun Returns

[Keyrock]

You get an on screen message at the top every time it saves. 

 

The game is far from perfect, but considering the limited budget and quick turn around time, I think they did really well with the title.  For sure some things could be more intuitive and/or user friendly, but the overall experience has been really good for me so far.

Edited July 26, 2013 by Keyrock

[Gfted1]

Rolled an Elf mage pistoleer. Only around an hour in (just left the coroner) but Im having fun. The save system is a detriment to me as it makes me hesitant to play the game unless I have an entire block of time free.

[Tale]

I just want keyboard shortcuts! i for inventory, space to force it into turn-based mode.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I hope the sequel is better designed. I am loving playing a Custom Kensai character.

[alanschu]

I just want keyboard shortcuts! i for inventory, space to force it into turn-based mode.

 

'C' will at least pop up your character sheet, so it makes it a bit faster to get to your inventory.

[Tale]

For those who've come across Blind Lucy, have you figured out what the Ripper is targeting yet?

[Keyrock]

For those who've come across Blind Lucy, have you figured out what the Ripper is targeting yet?

Please use spoiler tag if you answer this question.  I have gotten that far and I have a theory, but I don't know for sure yet.

 

The theory:

He/she is trying to build a new person, possibly a new body for him/her to download their own consciousness into.  Mybe some kind of hybrid/android with living organs and a mechanical exoskeleton

 

Edited July 26, 2013 by Keyrock

[Tale]

 

For those who've come across Blind Lucy, have you figured out what the Ripper is targeting yet?

Please use spoiler tag if you answer this question.  I have gotten that far and I have a theory, but I don't know for sure yet.

 

The theory:

He/she is trying to build a new person, possibly a new body for him/her to download their own consciousness into.  Mybe some kind of hybrid/android with living organs and a mechanical exoskeleton

 

He's targeting transplants is all I've figured out. Watts had a drinking problem, makes sense that he had a synthetic liver to handle it. Blind Lucy had new eyes. So there's probably something special about this batch of synthetic organs.

 

[Keyrock]

 

 

For those who've come across Blind Lucy, have you figured out what the Ripper is targeting yet?

Please use spoiler tag if you answer this question.  I have gotten that far and I have a theory, but I don't know for sure yet.

 

The theory:

He/she is trying to build a new person, possibly a new body for him/her to download their own consciousness into.  Mybe some kind of hybrid/android with living organs and a mechanical exoskeleton

 

He's targeting transplants is all I've figured out. Watts had a drinking problem, makes sense that he had a synthetic liver to handle it. Blind Lucy had new eyes. So there's probably something special about this batch of synthetic organs.

 

 

Maybe they're not really synthetic?  Maybe all the transplants came from the same person and he/she is trying to rebuild said person?

 

Edited July 26, 2013 by Keyrock

[Tale]

Yeah, but that's too cliche.

[Keyrock]

Yeah, but that's too cliche.

You're likely right.

[Raithe]

Heh, I've just gotten to the funeral and I totally called it. Damn. Now I wish I'd made a spoiler post earlier and stated it for all to see.

[Nordicus]

I just want keyboard shortcuts! i for inventory, space to force it into turn-based mode.

Harebrained Schemes' tiny, insufficient budget wasn't enough for such luxuries

[alanschu]

Best to not just walk around confirming the Dunning-Kruger effect!   Especially when there are keyboard shortcuts.  'C' brings up your character sheet, and a 10 second check of every key on the keyboard shows that 'G' brings up your inventory.

[Tale]

G is an odd button. But thank you!

 

I still want to be able for force turn-based, let me know if you discover that.

[Gfted1]

Im curious, why do you want to be able to enter turn based mode outside of combat?

[Tale]

It's the only time you can control companions. I want to pre-position them for fights.

 

And if I get a Decker later, I'm worried I won't be able to use him/her to access the Matrix unless a fight breaks out.

[alanschu]

G is an odd button. But thank you!

 

I still want to be able for force turn-based, let me know if you discover that.

 

I agree G is an odd button, but as an "old school" game, I figured I'd have to jump into "explore the controls" mode

 

I actually just used 'C' (as my hands are on WASD) because it's just one click to inventory, but it is there at least.

[Humanoid]

Put in a few hours tonight, but have wrapped out for now. It's a good game, probably a very good game, but not quite a "grab you by the lapels and pull you in" level of good - or at least not yet. I use my patented "how late am I playing this game on the day of acquisition" scale, and it rates a 1am. (On invitation I was also happy enough to take a break about an hour in to get some multiplayer Monaco in) If that sounds like damning with faint praise, it isn't meant to be - it's something I'd recommend to anyone (and have given away my extra copies coupled with that recommendation), and overall I'd say it hit my window of expectation, given the source material and the resourcing, smack bang in the middle.

 

Haven't played enough to put in a big picture review, but a running commentary of sorts: put in in a spoiler tag because of the nature of running commentaries, but nothing explicitly spoilerish (and also because of the secondary reason of it being rather long-winded). Played the DRM-free version for what it's worth.

 

 

 

Character creation. I almost always start RPGs as my archetypal thief character, but that's not really an option. After spending entirely too much time vacillitating between a few options, decided to ignore all the points of consideration and go with a blank, classless slate (which is to say, a custom class, really). Probably a risky option, but hey, I've heard the game isn't particularly difficult so I probably couldn't screw it up *that* badly, right? Right?

 

BUG: Going back to the first character creation screen after going to the skills selection screen renders your character graphic preview thing invisible. Fiddling with the character options failed to bring it back.

 

PLUS: The auto-matching feature, which defaults your character model to the closest match corresponding to your chosen portrait is a nice touch, one of those obvious-in-hindsight things. And while I know nothing about the Shadowrun ruleset, the skill options were intuitive without being shallow or gimmicky .

 

MINUS: Not quite the portrait variety I'd hope there'd be, looks like each gender+race combo has only ~5 base portraits, multiplied by relatively minor variances. I'd also have liked there to be a bit more detail on the character models, coupled with a bit of a vanity zoom level to see it.

 

So I end up with a fairly even split between Agility/Int/Charisma. Pretty boring and formulaic, I know, but the idea is that I'd put enough in each to open up the subskills to a reasonable degree, and go with the one that seems to work/play best as I go through the early game. And with a few points in each it ought to be enough to beat at least the simplest skill checks against any of those stats.

 

The game begins by dumping you in your pretty bare apartment. It's meant to be a pretty run-down place, but still, I'd rather it not be so literally bare, there's only a few things you can inspect, and the game pretty quickly moves you on to the next scene. This is mostly similar to the scenes that come, there's relatively little flavour text to the world-building, just what you can infer visually.

 

The first dialogue scene. As always, it's a challenge to write dialogue where the character supposedly knows the other party, but provides no background to the player as to the relationship. Still, the amount of text feels about right And in light of any potential confusion, it fortunately enough segues into....

 

The obligatory early combat scene. It's a tutorial scene of a sort, but there's really no tutorial other than "hey, go open up the help screen now, read it all, then fight this battle." The fight itself works well enough, with sufficient length to work out the core concepts. Cover is a bit iffy in that the environment doesn't quite scan so intuitively in terms of cover and concealment (the obvious comparison with XCOM here). You sort of have to mouseover each tile to see the extent of cover it gives you. The AI is mostly the stand-and-deliver or rush-into-melee type, but is fast enough so it doesn't become overly tedious: in general combat lethality here is pretty high, you can take down multiple foes in a round well enough.

 

As for the no-loot design decision, I'm finding I'm not missing it at all. On the surface I might have argued for some measure of abstraction such as granting an amount of cash for each kill, but in the end I didn't even think of it while playing. In general I'm a fan of minimalist inventory systems, and I think the game has hit my sweet spot. A couple of quirks aside, that is: one being that gaining consumable items leads to a bit of an awkward interface window (having to select either to swap the item into your immediate usable slots or to send it to your 'stash', then having to click confirm is a bit tedious); and that for the first parts of the game, you have no access to said stash. And an aesthetic quibble: the first buyable sets of armour to replace your starter gear all look singularly ridiculous.

 

Anyway, after a few initial side-missions, you walk into obvious questhub 'tavern'. It's cozy enough for what it is, but it's a bit empty for what it's meant to be. Most of the NPCs are just static decoration, and most of the interactable ones are just straightforward vendors. Still, it evolves a bit over the numerous early occasions where you come back to it, so it's not too sterile - it's just that I wish I had a few more things to do between quests. And that is what you'll be doing, for there's not really much concept of an open world: when you accept the next quest, the exit to the tavern becomes available, and it'll take you directly to the next relevant scene. And perhaps there I'd say I found my biggest shortcoming so far with the game: there's really no sense of exploration. Levels are largely linear, with the things you need to do in them neatly laid out in sequence. No real backtracking or side paths, you just keep progressing until you see the next interactable object/NPC indicator icon. (P.S. what's with the interact icon for objects fading in and out all the time?)

 

A final note: After tabbing out initially I noticed the game wanting to get through Windows Firewall. For what I don't know, though I've since seen it mentioned. Since the game had been working just fine to that point without having to be waved through, I've ignored the request for now, but it's a bit weird at any rate.

 

 

[babaganoosh13]

The answer to my question is: Yes, they've added that CEG crap to the game.

 

Meanwhile it's probably safe to say it's been added to Pirate Bay or something? You know, because DRM really does work.

[lobotomy42]

The answer to my question is: Yes, they've added that CEG crap to the game.

 

Meanwhile it's probably safe to say it's been added to Pirate Bay or something? You know, because DRM really does work.

 

Since there was also a DRM-free version released, this game would not be a good test of that theory.

[Keyrock]

I certainly don't advocate piracy, but in the case of a game I legally bought being unplayable because of DRM, I would feel absolutely zero guilt about swiping a cracked executable off the interwebz.  That's what I had to do with Jade Empire.  It wouldn't play because of some ridiculous Steam check.  I searched the web for answers (a plethora of people had the same or similar problem), tried a bunch of proposed solutions, none of them worked, then said "**** it" and downloaded a cracked executable.  Now the game works flawlessly and I don't even have to turn on Steam to play it.  In defense of Steam, or just to put it into context, that's the only issue I've had with Steam in the last 3 years+.

[babaganoosh13]

 

The answer to my question is: Yes, they've added that CEG crap to the game.

 

Meanwhile it's probably safe to say it's been added to Pirate Bay or something? You know, because DRM really does work.

 

Since there was also a DRM-free version released, this game would not be a good test of that theory.

 

Even if they ended up not giving them out, it's probably a safe bet that it would be there by now.

 

At least the editor is CEG-free.

[Oner]

Could someone perhaps send me one of their save files? I want to check if the game doesn't run, or it has just trouble loading char gen.

 

Redownloaded the game from the HBS website this time and it works.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!

Edited July 26, 2013 by Oner

[AGX-17]

For those who've come across Blind Lucy, have you figured out what the Ripper is targeting yet?

I figured copycat killer, since she got her ****ty biological eyes replaced with swag cybereyes.