Shadowrun Returns | Cyberpunk Isometric Turn-Based RPG

“Good mornin-afternoo-vening, dear steem chummers and welcome to Shadowrun September!

I’ll be dedicating this entire month to playing and reviewing the Harebrained Schemes Shadowrun loose trilogy of games as well as maybe some other cyberpunky stuff. I decided to do this because a recent poll from Larian Studios - the people behind the Divinity series - brought to light some interesting facts in terms of RPG gamers and their various preferences relating to the genre.

The survey itself is well-done and quite informative so I suggest everyone interested in the subject track it down, but there was one question in particular the results of which were brought to my attention by my friends from GamingHD namely: Which of these Traditional RPGs have you played and how do you feel about them?

To both my and their shock, we noticed that a worrying number of respondents have never played the first two Fallout games, and that an even greater number haven’t played Wasteland 2, Shadowrun: Hong Kong nor South Park: The Stick of Truth.

And while the reasons behind this lack of computer RPG gaming culture may vary - I’m not going to discuss those, instead I’ll do what I do best and talk about games.

In this case, I’ll talk about the games that a lot of RPG players have obviously not played yet, and I believe they should. My friends over at GamingHD will be doing the same. While they will be talking this september about the Fallout series - and I suggest you head on over to their channel to check those out after watching this video - I will be dedicating the month to what I call Shadowrun September. During which I’ll be taking you all through the three Shadowrun-themed games from Harebrained Schemes, starting today with...Shadowrun Returns.

The first in a series of recent-ish video games based on one of the most popular tabletop RPGs since Dungeons and Dragons that isn’t actually related to DnD by neither theme nor system - the game is called Shadowrun. A turn-based tabletop RPG set in a cyberpunk dystopian near-future in which magic suddenly appears and brings with it a whole other realm of problems and possibilities.

This means that Shadowrun Returns, is a turn-based tactical computer RPG, which also counts itself amongst the more successful video game Kickstarter projects to date.

It was developed by Harebrained Schemes in 2013, an indie game development company founded by none other than the creator of the original tabletop game, which can only make hardcore RPG players such as myself happy, because we could be sure that the video game version would stay as true to the spirit of the pen and paper original as possible.

Built in Unity - and it could be said that Shadowrun Returns was also something of a pioneer in terms of making RPGs in Unity - the game features very well illustrated backgrounds and environments, which aren’t necessarily realistic from a perspective and proportion point of view, but they do a great job at creating the atmosphere of grime and dystopian depression appropriate for the game’s setting.

Shadowrun’s Setting

Shadowrun’s Earth is one in which very suddenly and unexpectedly, magic appears into a world much like our own, as the result of an event called The Awakening. After this event the world and the people change, mythical creatures such as dragons appear, metahuman races like orcs, trolls and elves, morph from within humanity and the spirit realm becomes a very palpable and dangerous place.

As such, the player finds him or herself in an alternate near-future world in which they can replace parts of their body with various cybernetic implants, they can connect their brain straight into the Matrix - no, not THAT Matrix - can control drones remotely, which to be honest isn’t that futuristic of an idea now, or they can discover dormant magic talents or perhaps maybe some shamanistic affinities.

Shadowrun Return’s story

The campaign that ships with the game, although linear, is a bonafide murder mystery where the player has to track down a Jack the Ripper-style serial killer. The world of Shadowrun Returns is populated with interesting and very colorful characters - even though they are pretty much archetypes or stereotypes, in line with the pulpy vibe of the story. There are also several secondary sub-plots tangential to the main storyline and at least the illusion of choice, much more-so than in something like Masquerada.

The story itself starts with your character getting a message from a friend which promptly sends you into a flashback of a quick fight meant to do triple duty. On one level, it’s meant to work both as something of a tutorial on how combat works, on the second one it’s meant to place the story’s building blocks namely your character’s relationship with this friend while at the same time it’s a way of telling players unfamiliar with running the shadows, that this will definitely be a heavily combat-focused game. Turn-based and rather tactical combat, my absolute favorite.

That doesn’t mean however, that the writing is subpar, nothing of the sort, just that it’s a bit what you should expect from the cyber-pulpy setup.

The descriptions of the locations are wonderfully atmospheric and do a great job at setting up each place. They’re neither too detailed, nor are they too short, they are just enough to prime the reader for what they’re about to encounter, see and hear. They also do a great job at explaining what’s been going in your world while you’ve been busy running ops or diving into the Matrix.

When it comes to the dialogue, the game reminded me a lot of the first two Fallout games, in the sense that the characters are written in a very realistic and in-world way, talking to them you’ll encounter the world’s jargon as well as explanations relating to it. And trust me, there’s a lot of it and it’s rather fascinating. Keep in mind that this video game series is built upon a tabletop RPG first published in 1989 whose latest version, the Fifth Edition was published in 2013. There is a lot of lore to fall back on and mine for atmosphere.

This only adds to Shadowrun Return’s atmosphere and sense of immersion - and again, similarly to the first Fallout games, the characters aren’t devoid of a sense of humor either, thus making their characterization, and by extension that of their world, that much more complete.

Combat system

Although it’s absolutely fascinating to be capable of combining magic and guns, or use drones for that matter, the pure turn-based combat system offers an advantage to those characters using ranged abilities and especially guns. In the event in which a character invests all of their Karma points into Quickness and one or two kinds of guns, they’re pretty much set. In the time it takes a melee enemy to get within striking range, I’ve already reduced his HP by three quarters with bullets and that tends to make combat overall a bit unbalanced.

Karma points are basically your generic stat points which you can invest into any of the available stats and relevant skills.

Apropos of bullets though, something of an oversight that struck me at a certain point during my playthrough. I noticed that the ammo for your various guns doesn’t exist as a separate resource, also it’s infinite and ethereal. You know how in many or most RPGs that feature guns, ensuring that you have enough ammo is a thing that varies in importance from - they’re easily available at any shop to holy-shit they’re rarer than hen’s teeth and it’s better to learn how to make your own.

Well, not in Shadowrun Returns. Here you have all the ammo in the world, it doesn’t occupy any inventory space and you’re somehow reloading your weapons with appropriate ammo for each...and I’m not talking about someone having a bag of holding or something, it’s just a big oversight in terms of design.

Classes

The classes are likewise extremely differentiated, and they run the gamut from your more traditional melee or ranged fighter type classes - with the Street Samurai sounding as cool as the class is - to various types of magic users, and finishing with Shadowrun specific classes such as the Deckers and Riggers.

But the game doesn’t make you use any one class in particular, it gives you the freedom to create a character from scratch, being able to invest Karma points into any skill or ability, thus spawning a completely unique character.

I do suggest though, that for your first playthrough, if you’re not familiar with Shadowrun’s game system,that you choose an already existing class and learn the mechanics that way.

After that you’ll be capable and more knowingly create a super quick and strong katana wielder, or you can combine technology with magic, although cybernetic implants and spells don’t mix very well on the same character, but the game offers you the opportunity to do it, if you’re crazy enough.

Replay Value

Thanks to this quite large amount of freedom in terms of character creation, the game’s replayability scores rather high in my book - higher than it should because of the linearity of the scenario. However, despite it, since you’ll get different experiences whilst playing the game with different characters, not to mention that you can always make different choices throughout the game that can influence further events to some degree, every playthrough experience should be quite customized and relatively unique. You also get a much better sense of alternate pathways because you will oftentimes see the dialogue options that aren’t available to you with your current character but you also get to see which type of background or level of relevant skill you would need in order to access it with a future character if you wish.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack does a great job at creating the cyberpunk dystopian atmosphere I mentioned earlier although it is a bit repetitive when returning to homebase. I understand the reason behind it and it might not be as noticeable for some. Though on its own it makes for a solid listening experience.

Game gripes

But I can’t be all positive about the game because after all, I would’ve liked for the campaign to be a bit more fleshed out and for you to be able to interact with more of the world. Some more aesthetic options wouldn’t’ve been bad either however, I do consider Shadowrun Returns to be more of a proof of concept, a very elaborate demo if you will, for what would be in store for the future in the Dragonfall and Hong Kong side-quels.

Conclusion

Despite the upper mentioned issues I have with the game, I would still like to wholeheartedly suggest Shadowrun Returns to any hardcore RPG player out there who hasn’t tried it yet, or hasn’t heard of it, trust me, you won’t regret it. Especially if they love turn-based tactical combat.

Nowadays the entire series is oftentimes available as a bundle at a massive discount - I think I got mine at 80% off - so even if Shadowrun Returns doesn’t sound fleshed out enough for a stand-alone purchase - and I can definitely see that perspective - stay awhile and listen to my Shadowrun: Dragonfall and Shadowrun: Hong Kong upcomic reviews.

Oh yeah and in case the game makes you more interested in the pen and paper original - like it did with me - than that’s just gravy.

So now that we’re done here, make sure to head on over to Hive account@free999enigma and check out his series of Fallout videos, I’ll link their videos into the video description and make sure to tell them I sent ya’ ;)