Shadowrun Returns

[Tale]

There's no car props!

 

Okay, there's two car props. Crushed cars. And a crushed truck. Two heavily decorated vans, an oversized van. A billion motorcycles. Heck, there's freaking boats!

 

No cars.

[Water]

Just wondering, is this game worth purchasing? I'm a huge fan of Shadowrun on the Super Nintendo, but I'm skeptical about purchasing it full price.

So, anyone who has played it, would you recommend it?

 

It's got some fun nods to the Super Nintendo version, though doesn't really have anything to do with it, story wise. They both have well-written, engaging linear narratives. Shadowrun Returns is arguably better written, what with a greater means for interacting with NPCs than keywords.

 

Gameplay-wise: greater focus on RPG (turned based) and less adventure gamey. There's no questioning NPCs for a specific keyword so that you can go and use it on others, for example. But there is a multitude of character creation options and skills to invest in. Combat is muuuuch more tactical: having a party of Shadowrunners is more important as you don't just become the Übermensch and do everything yourself.

 

World-wise: a lot more constrained. Rather than just giving you a big city hub to explore, the game automatically takes you from place to place as necessary.

 

Music: If you remember/liked the music in the SNES version, you might find yourself smiling at a few familiar melodies; the standard combat music in particular. (SNES vs. SRR) Though otherwise the soundtracks are different, with Shadowrun Returns being more subdued in general.

 

Bottom line: If the things you most enjoyed in the SNES version were stuff like wandering around future Seattle or grinding for uber stats (there's no grinding in this one!) then you might not like it as much. If however you liked it because of the story, atmosphere, and setting, you'll probably enjoy Shadowrun Returns as well. I certainly did. It's on the short side, but the game is pretty solid.

[Lord Chaos]

I never played the SNES Shadowrun game or any shadowrun game for that matter. I did love the Shadowrun 2nd edition RPG (tabletop) and I like turnbased combat ala Fallout 1+2.

 

So, would Shadowrun returns be any good to me?

[Tale]

Done with the first pass on my first area. Basically walls and floors.

 

Nothing outside the camera/play area. No scripting, convos, enemies, not even objects lying around to hide behind for the combat segment. So, I'm not exactly building at a breakneck speed. That should improve as I get more used to it. I spend most of my time picking out walls and screwing around with lighting. The lighting system is really opaque, even with the wiki. There's ambient lighting, I think I figured that out. There's directional lighting, which I may be confusing with ambient in function. And there's lighting direction, which I understand about as well as I understand the languages of various South American uncontacted peoples. Lastly there's point lights, which I have figured out! But never shine where they're supposed to.

[alanschu]

Point lights, I would imagine (based on their name) could illuminate in all directions.  But basically they are a single light pixel light source.  May or may not have a direction (probably does, as there's "directional lighting")

 

Ambient lighting would likely be the general "background" lighting.  If you set your ambient lighting to max, you likely wouldn't be able to detect any other lighting at all, while if you set your ambient lighting to 0, you will not see any of the area unless you have other light sources.  Best comparison is probably simply "brightness" on a monitor.

 

Directional lighting is probably light that is assumed to be "infinitely large" coming from a particular direction.  So it'll assume many rays of light that are all traveling parallel to each other.  I can understand how you may think this is ambient lighting, since it probably applies across the whole scene.  But it's what you would use if you wanted to simulate where the sun would be (a light source bright and far enough away that we can safely assume all its rays are parallel).

 

 

At least, those are the more general, compsci interpretations.  If you need better explanation I can try, although admittedly this is just from schooling, not from the editor so if they are different....

[Hurlshort]

It is a no brainer at $20.

[Jonathan1247]

Bottom line: If the things you most enjoyed in the SNES version were stuff like wandering around future Seattle or grinding for uber stats (there's no grinding in this one!) then you might not like it as much. If however you liked it because of the story, atmosphere, and setting, you'll probably enjoy Shadowrun Returns as well. I certainly did. It's on the short side, but the game is pretty solid.

 

Fantastic. Thank you for your reply.

[Hurlshort]

Point Lighting, in the editor, always seems like it is going to be extreme.  Then I get in the game and it is fairly faint.  But I've had some good success in some areas.

 

 

Last night my oldest child turned off the night light because a fly was buzzing around it.  My youngest woke up an hour later screaming.  After comforting him, when I went to go back to sleep I couldn't stop thinking about what light intensity and radius would be best for that situation

 

I love building sets and feel good about them, and I've got conversations down.  So far triggers and variables are my biggest concern, but trial and error is getting me there.

 

Today I set up a scene where I go outside and find two gangers beating up my father.  I then engage them, and afterwards have a conversation with my dad.  I set up the goals and karma rewards as well.  It took a bit of fidgeting, but eventually I got it to work pretty well.  The tricky part was getting the gangers to stay focused on my father until the PC whacks at them.  If they make a beeline for the PC, the fight becomes very different.  So I'm pretty excited to see it coming together.

[Wombat]

I never played the SNES Shadowrun game or any shadowrun game for that matter. I did love the Shadowrun 2nd edition RPG (tabletop) and I like turnbased combat ala Fallout 1+2.

 

So, would Shadowrun returns be any good to me?

I think this depends on what you expect from Shadowrun franchise.  I found some Shadowrun fans complaining of the simplified ruleset.  So, don't put your hopes too high on this area.  That said, some other people including me saw the game capturing the setting well, ranging from music, writing and arts except that the PC character may appear bit Bioware-ish for the dystopian setting, at times.

 

About the price, you may find the game bit short.  As a backer, I can get Berlin DLC for free, which, however, wouldn't be the case for you.  So, you may well like to wait for sales even if it's just around twenty bucks, currently.

[sorophx]

Just wondering, is this game worth purchasing? I'm a huge fan of Shadowrun on the Super Nintendo, but I'm skeptical about purchasing it full price.

So, anyone who has played it, would you recommend it?

it's a lot better than the SNES game as far as I can tell (didn't play much of that game, hated it actually). but some people complain about the cheesy plot, so... your mileage may vary 

[Keyrock]

There's no car props!

 

Okay, there's two car props. Crushed cars. And a crushed truck. Two heavily decorated vans, an oversized van. A billion motorcycles. Heck, there's freaking boats!

 

No cars.

Pfft, cars are so 2051.

[Lord Chaos]

I backed the wrong Shadowrun project on kickstarter

[Hurlshort]

I backed the wrong Shadowrun project on kickstarter

 

Yikes, yeah that Shadowrun Online game looked like it was bad news.  It was the same team that was doing Jagged Alliance Online, and that was apparently pretty weak.

 

It's always good to look for who is in charge of development and what they've done.  Jordan Weisman created the PnP game, so you knew he was going to nail the atmosphere in Shadowrun Returns.

[sorophx]

on my second playthrough, on Very Hard, and the game is pretty challenging. the AI knows how to use doors as shields now (open the door, shoot through, close the door), so if you think you can just camp the entrance into a room with your heavy hitters on overwatch - that's not going to work. you need to position your guys properly, cover becomes crucial to your success. 

 

playing as an elven assault type (focus on rifles). with 10/10/10 in Quickness/Ranged/Rifle I'm unstoppable. 90% chance to hit a target two screens away in full-auto. one turn usually means two fresh dead guys for the opposition. I don't think that not putting any Karma into social skills affected me negatively. still got the same quests with same outcomes. 

 

the Matrix is still somewhat easy though. even with my ESPs being completely blind never had to restart a level.

 

the more I play the OC, the more I realize how good it is (save for a few moments in the story that are just *derp*). the way they played off of the universe's lore (you don't get a full party from the start, and the guys you eventually hire can only be controlled during missions, and you can't take their stuff away), eliminating the need to have loot, game saving, and making it long enough to be enjoyable but short enough to keep replaying it with different character builds. 

 

maybe I'm just getting old, but I think I wouldn't have liked SRR if its campaign was not 10 but 50 hours long. that would require it to be a different game (closer to Shadowrun on teh Genesis, oh man I wish that game had a PC port with turn based combat). SRR is the new Final Fantasy Tactics. I loved that game and wanted for the longest time to play something similar (there's always Front Mission, but the story in that series has always been ****). SRR gives me that

Edited August 1, 2013 by sorophx

[Hurlshort]

I'm really hoping that the game does well enough that HBS can develop and release a much bigger campaign.  Berlin will likely be similar in length, maybe even shorter.  This is really just a short story in the Shadowrun Universe.  

 

I was reading some of the Steam comments and people really seem upset about the lack of C&C.  I love C&C, but I don't expect every game to give it to me.  People also sling around the description interactive novel as an insult.  I don't get that, I also love novels  

[Tale]

I'm hoping it's successful enough on Steam that they dedicate future games and patches towards the PC. The tablet interface is holding it back.

[Wombat]

I don't play any online games so the idea of backing it didn't even come up to my mind...

 

maybe I'm just getting old, but I think I wouldn't have liked SRR if its campaign was not 10 but 50 hours long. that would require it to be a different game (closer to Shadowrun on teh Genesis, oh man I wish that game had a PC port with turn based combat). SRR is the new Final Fantasy Tactics. I loved that game and wanted for the longest time to play something similar (there's always Front Mission, but the story in that series has always been ****). SRR gives me that

Yeah, the game is easy to live with, which turned out to be quite important when I actually played it.  I think the story is acceptable for the setting where elves and dwarves exist but also suspect that it was written with major CRPG players in mind, though.

 

People also sling around the description interactive novel as an insult.  I don't get that, I also love novels

It's like a short story...but I agree with your point.

 

 

I'm hoping it's successful enough on Steam that they dedicate future games and patches towards the PC. The tablet interface is holding it back.

Actually, I'm curious to see the reaction of the tablet version.  If they have good sales, they may be able to optimize the game for both platforms, too.

[Oner]

I'm really hoping that the game does well enough that HBS can develop and release a much bigger campaign.  Berlin will likely be similar in length, maybe even shorter.  This is really just a short story in the Shadowrun Universe.  

 

I was reading some of the Steam comments and people really seem upset about the lack of C&C.  I love C&C, but I don't expect every game to give it to me.  People also sling around the description interactive novel as an insult.  I don't get that, I also love novels

From what I saw on Steam, people complained about everything.

[Hurlshort]

The steam complaints that really crack me up are about the lack of extra content. The game has only been out a week!

[Majek]

Steam community is mostly idiots anyway. They complain more than codex, they don't accept any explanation, not matter how reasonable it is, and they are always right ( in their mind). And they claim they've been gamers a long as most of us here. Must be some mutated freaks.

[Tale]

Wrote up some dialogue for major scenes. Okay, so it's basically two character introductions. One descriptive, one dialog based.

 

I also figured out how to run conversations on map start. So that's enough work for me. I think I'll actually play a game for a little while.

 

OOH, or read a book.

[Hurlshort]

Ok, I've got all my scenes laid out, with transitions and everything.  Next I need to flesh out the characters and lay out the bad guys on my big combat map.  I have a lot of writing left to do, but I'm excited that I can actually run the character from the first scene to the last without any issues.

 

It is still coming in pretty short.  My guess is with combat it will only be 45-60 minutes.  But hopefully the quality will justify the short episode.

[Humanoid]

Patch 1.0.2 notes, there's a fair bit of rebalancing going on there alongside the bug fixes.

 

 

EDIT: DRM-free version is updated on the account website too, have to redownload the whole game though.

Edited August 2, 2013 by Humanoid

[Majek]

Weapon balance? Meh. Fists all the way.

[Tale]

Bah. I've been struggling with my intro area. The plot justification was flismy. It's an obvious trap setup, but expecting the player to walk into it "because that's what they'd least expect!" And with no real skill opportunities. I'll just repurpose the area for something later.

 

New intro idea jumps right into combat. Maybe a couple of skill opportunities, at least better justified. And maybe a smaller map.