Shadowrun returns review, feedback appreciated, thankyou!
Funded by a kickstarter campaign that hit its $400,000 goal within the first day, Developer Harebrained schemes have created a enjoyable old school tactical RPG, set in a dystopian cyberpunk future, inspired heavily by such works as blade runner. This setting really works well with the detailed hand drawn backgrounds,
The first task is to create your character from one of the games 5 different races, human, troll, elf, dwarf and ork. If you wish you can then choose one of 6 classes (Street Samurai, Mage, Decker, Shaman, Rigger, or Physical Adept)
As of the time of this review there is only one official campaign out – "Dead mans switch" in which your freshly created character is contacted from beyond the grave by an old friend to find his killer. The mystery kept me engaged, especially after a few twists and turns that it takes along the way. However there there is an editor packed with the game, where you can create your own campaigns and upload them to the steam workshop, and if the community really takes advantage of this, then this is where the games future will lie and hopefully add some real staying power.
Exploration is fairly linear, with only one area open to you at a time to explore until you achieve your objective and move on, the most familiar of which being the Seamstresses Club, which acts as a safehouse, where all sort of merchants peddle there wares and shady underground characters can be paid to recruit party members for missions. Its not a bad thing, but it is a shame that you cant explore this intresting world with a bit more freedom beyond what NPCs you choose to talk to and what dialogue options to pick.
Combat is turned based and Plays very much like last year's fantastic game of the year contender Xcom: enemy unknown, right down to particular visual cues such as a shield icon to show how much cover your runners will gain from scenery and. Each unit has so many AP points they can use per turn, dictating what they can do for example, moving a character can cost between 1 and 3 AP points depending on how far you wish them to travel, or how many times you can attack in a typical turn. Winning fights and completing missions earns you karma, the games XP system, which can be funnelled into various skills from improved spellcasting, melee and ranged combat to opening new dialogue options and hacking.
Overall Shadowrun Returns is an enjoyable game which fans of the genre should appreciate, the "Dead mans switch" campaign can be finished in as short as 10 hours, but there is a bright future ahead for Shadowrun Returns if its editor is used to full potential by members of the community, and official DLC such as the Berlin campaign to be released later this year is upto this standard.
7/10