Shadowrun Returns Review (Huge Beard Guy)
I bought this for 3 reasons:
1. Someone once said to me, "I fear what you'd say about Shadowrun Returns if you think this game is bad"
2. I was kinda curious about it as it kept on popping up when I was checking out other titles
3. It was on sale for £2.74
Shadowrun Returns is an incredibly short and easy game. My run time doesn't give an accurate idea of it's length as it was left on idle for a duration multiple different times. It can definitely be completed in or under 10 hours.
THE VIBE
Shadowrun Returns can easily be understood if you think of it as the love child between Blade Runner and Dungeons & Dragons.
In the not so distant future, magic has come back to our technologically advanced dystopian world. The game drips attitude and personality, so much so the song It Can't Rain All the Time from the movie The Crow can feel perfectly at home here. The game also provides plenty of that Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines vibe in regards to tone and general world building.
STORY SET UP
You are a Shadowrunner, an individual who runs jobs outside of the black and white lines of the law for anyone willing to pay. The story greatly revolves around a Deadmans Switch which can be thought of as a last will and testimony sent to - in this case - an individual automatically when they die.
When your old Shadowrunner buddy Sam dies, you receive his Deadmans Switch asking for his killer to be caught for a handsome reward.
DIFFICULTY
I played the entire game on the hardest difficulty and found this ridiculously easy the vast majority of times. When it wasn't ridiculously easy it was very easy. In short, this game provides zero challenge.
CHARACTER CREATION
LOVED IT! This game does something that most RPG, CRPG etc etc etc games does not..... it allows you to create a character that actually looks like the profile picture..... mind blown! All jokes aside, you can actually make a character that looks like the provided profile images. On that basis alone, I love it.
You get to select the obvious stuff such as gender and race. The races are human, elf, dwarf, orc and troll. Each race as you may expect provides a stat buff or increase if you prefer.
The stats in Shadowrun Returns follow a very simplistic logic. Example, if you want to increase your health points, you put points in your Body. Level one Body costs 1 Karma point aka upgrade point. Level two costs 2 Karma points etc. The rest of the categories have some sub categories such as Spellcasting is under Willpower. In other words, the more proficient you want to be in something, the more it's gonna cost you (upgrade point wise).
GENERAL GAMEPLAY STUFF
Shadowrun Returns is a very short and linear game that really provides as a good opener for the Shadowrun series. Combat is like the plot, very short and linear with little to no thinking needed. In some respects the game is almost like an interactive book. Only two fights at the very end change the formula a little bit.
LIKES
* The world is genuinely cool
* I liked the fact you are the main character only, there's no companions per se
* Character models look like the profile images
DISLIKES
* Feels like a really polished section of or DLC to a 'main game'
* It was confusing how the inventory works. Swapping and buying items is easy but at the start of the game, you have no indication of how it is done or where your loot or inventory actually is. It isn't explained either from what I can remember. You just kinda stumble across it it at the relevant point and then it all clicks together, haphazardly.