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Shadowrun Returns


Pidesco

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I did find the last set of levels to be a bit boring, and also some stuff just went over my head...

What was the ventilation terminal/map you get on the level before the final fight for? I could change which vent, and activate a bypass mode, but I have no idea what it did.

.

 

The ventilation system allows you to take out the second of the two big merc teams in that level: you need to find the nerve gas canister in a shelf somewhere else, punch in the correct override order, and then pump the room they are in full of gas. The other team you can neutralize by collapsing the ceiling on them, but I didn't actually manage to do that.

 

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- When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.

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Just realized, looking at the Shadowrun wiki, that silver-haired guy at the end of Dragonfall (also an episodist in Dead Man's Switch, if I remember correctly) is supposed to be Lofwyr. My immershun is officially broken.

"Lulz is not the highest aspiration of art and mankind, no matter what the Encyclopedia Dramatica says."

 

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Yeah, Lofwyr is also in DMS isn't he? Lofwyr owns Saeder-Krupp which is a German MegaCorp in the SR universe. 

 

Which is why I kind of wonder what the hell is he doing speaking to lowly murderhobos such as us. Doesn't he have a megacorp to run, inevitable doom of his enemies to plan, maniac-evil-laugh to practice?

"Lulz is not the highest aspiration of art and mankind, no matter what the Encyclopedia Dramatica says."

 

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I've read up on Lofwyr a little bit and it looks like he's a personally-keep-tabs-on-everything-and-everyone kind of guy, so I don't think it's too weird for him to show up.

Plus he's rivals with Feuerschwinge, you think he'd miss out on this mess? :p

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Well the player does some crazy stuff involving a Dragon by end game. I would keep tabs on them in his shoes as well. Keep in mind Lofwyr knows the player and his team will likely be in Germany pretty permanently. It's better to keep dangerous runners close when they are the only mortals in a while to have

killed (I did anyway. I am assuming you can allow her to survive) a dragon.

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Well the player does some crazy stuff involving a Dragon by end game. I would keep tabs on them in his shoes as well. Keep in mind Lofwyr knows the player and his team will likely be in Germany pretty permanently. It's better to keep dangerous runners close when they are the only mortals in a while to have

killed (I did anyway. I am assuming you can allow her to survive) a dragon.

 

 

 

I gave the control of her body to a probably-crazy AI with the memories of a 24-year-old programmer girl.

 

 

You can guess how well Lofwyr reacted to that   :biggrin:

Edited by aluminiumtrioxid

"Lulz is not the highest aspiration of art and mankind, no matter what the Encyclopedia Dramatica says."

 

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Well the player does some crazy stuff involving a Dragon by end game. I would keep tabs on them in his shoes as well. Keep in mind Lofwyr knows the player and his team will likely be in Germany pretty permanently. It's better to keep dangerous runners close when they are the only mortals in a while to have

killed (I did anyway. I am assuming you can allow her to survive) a dragon.

 

 

 

I gave the control of her body to a probably-crazy AI with the memories of a 24-year-old programmer girl.

 

 

You can guess how well Lofwyr reacted to that   :biggrin:

 

 

I need to try that in my next game.

 

I was kinda bummed out to find out that

 

 

Lofwyr has been the master puppeteer behind the events in Dragonfall.

 

 

I mean, it makes perfect sense within the setting, but it was also a bit too convenient... maybe I'm just disappointed in myself for not seeing it coming.

 

I also was under the impression that Shadowrun is supposed to be dark and gloomy and stuff. Yet for the most part, you can get relatively happy endings for pretty much everything, side missions and MQ. Kinda jarring.

 

I'm surprised the absolutely fantastic music isn't getting more comments. This goes for the base game too.

Edited by 213374U

- When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.

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I also was under the impression that Shadowrun is supposed to be dark and gloomy and stuff.

 

This must be some kind of a 4th Edition nonsense, because I've never got that vibe from 3E. I mean, yes, life is all sort of ****ty for the generic populace, but only for the Cool RebelTM  heroes to have something to do their cool rebelling against.

(Yeah, much like with Exalted, I have trouble taking the world of Shadowrun seriously.)

"Lulz is not the highest aspiration of art and mankind, no matter what the Encyclopedia Dramatica says."

 

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I haven't actually read any of the books. My knowledge of the setting is limited to what I've read online and stuff, so I may be wrong (*GASP!*) about the general tone.

- When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.

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The books usually had pretty happy endings.  But I'm not really sure how more bleak you want the setting to be.  You've got terrorist groups attacking metahumans, stim addicts, leukemia, human cloning, your rigger jacks into a modified troll and pulls his strings, people get their brains fried online, etc.  It's not exactly My Little Pony.

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^ That's what I was referring to. The tone of the setting is rather superficial and doesn't really reflect how quests are resolved. For instance:

 

 

In the raid on the Humanis warehouse, you find Alexander, who turns out to be simply a confused youth with a sob story of parental abuse. It is therefore a no-brainer what to do with him and get a happy ending. Exploring the possibility of Alexander being a hardcore racist nutcase who genuinely hates metas would force the player to deal with one of the ugly realities of the setting.

 

More. During the Pharma run, you find out that the poor shadowrunner you are sent to assassinate to tie up loose ends is in fact a total psycho that caused the death of his team and killed a bunch of wageslaves for giggles. Therefore, again, making the resolution of the quest a black and white issue and totally glossing over the underlying issue that shadowrunners are just another disposable resource for the corps that run the world.

 

 

Again, I don't know if that's how the narrative usually goes in the Shadowrun canon, but it seems like a waste to have a setting like that and reduce storytelling within to a feel good trip.

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- When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.

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I didn't really think there was a good path on the APEX issue.  But honestly I enjoy being able to take the high road, I'm not a fan of having bad outcomes regularly.

 

Well, sure. Different strokes and stuff. I guess I just like being torn between choices.

 

As for APEX, though:

 

 

I think they made it clear that it's basically a power-crazy AI, they simply didn't shove it in your face. If released it will continue to kill deckers and the facts that it wants the dragon for reasons and doesn't hesitate to manipulate you by putting on Monika's skin are pretty strong hints that not only does it not intend to play nice, but the very notion of playing nice is alien to it. It was, after all, programmed to be a predator. It is no EDI.

 

- When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.

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I thought it was more the fact that it offered you a significant advantage going up against a possible greater threat, and they do play up the whole "Monika lives on in her."  But maybe that's just my guilty conscience trying to rationalize why I let that monster loose.  :p

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I thought it was more the fact that it offered you a significant advantage going up against a possible greater threat, and they do play up the whole "Monika lives on in her."  But maybe that's just my guilty conscience trying to rationalize why I let that monster loose.   :p

 

 

Well, there are quite strong hints at it having absorbed at least some of Monika's values, even if none of her personality remains after it becomes free. (When you refuse him, he makes a passing remark about caring about what values Berlin represents, not what its inhabitants think of it, and Lofwyr also mentions it as an AI with the mind of a programmer girl, or something like that.)

 

 

But aside from that, I've found every possible solution in the endgame to at least merit consideration.

IMHO, Adrian's essentially right, even though the dragons' endgame may not be as sinister as he thinks it is (based on Earthdawn materials, at least), so that makes APEX's offer kinda tempting. In light of what Lofwyr says about Feuerschwinge and dragons generally, letting the wyrm go freely also seems like a... moral thing to do. And, of course, there is the risk-averse choice with killing the dragon, which will probably cause the least harm in the semi-short run, but I think there is something to be said both for having Berlin be protected by a supremely intelligent being motivated only by cold logic and the interests of the Flux-State, and for having another millennia-old and by that time hopefully sane Great Dragon when the Horrors inevitably re-emerge.

 

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"Lulz is not the highest aspiration of art and mankind, no matter what the Encyclopedia Dramatica says."

 

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Finally got around to finishing Dragonfall.

 

Like I posted before, it is heads above the original in pretty much every area.

 

These are the only negatives I can think of.

 

1. Control of Crew's stats and equipment. I wish I had been able to give Eiger some better weapons and have Blitz focus a little more on Decking and Rigging or Glory pay a bit more attention to combat skills. I was generally ok with Dietreich's(I'm positive I spelled that wrong, apologies) spell selection.

 

2. Dragonfall seems to lag a bit for me. I don't know exactly what it is(my rig plays more demanding games smoother) but it did get a little annoying. Not really game breaking though.

 

Overall, I enjoyed it, but I wish I wouldn't have gone Adept as splitting Karma between Combat skills and Chi resulted in a weaker character than a Street Samurai or Mage.

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Yeah, I don't know what's the deal with lag. It's also inconsistent for me. And load times are pretty bad for what is basically a 2D game. I'm guessing they were really pushing the envelope with regards to what mobile platforms can handle.

- When he is best, he is a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little better than a beast.

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Well after some thought there are two things that bother me a bit:

 

1) You can't buy equipment and spells for your companions. I can live with auto leveling, although I'd prefer it to be custom as well

 

2) Game being short and due to that low number of Karma points. I mean. If you are a troll, your max body is 17. There is not enough points in the game to get that high even if you would dump all the points in that skill alone. I've managed to put 4 bars to lvl 8 - charisma, intelligence, decking, ESP control on my main. he sucked with a pistol but he was basically debuff placer, dialog head and one super cracker in the Matrix.

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  • 2 months later...

oh, I could definitely use those :o

Walsingham said:

I was struggling to understand ths until I noticed you are from Finland. And having been educated solely by mkreku in this respect I am convinced that Finland essentially IS the wh40k universe.

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Damn, I would've liked them aswell, but early birds :)

 

I've got to get my hand on someones credit card again!

Edited by Azdeus

Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. - H.L. Mencken

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