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Shadowrun Is Shadowrun Hong Kong worth it?

Jedi Exile

Arcanum
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Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Story isn't very good, but it has interesting bits. Companions are mostly good. I think the problem of Hong Kong is not that it is inferior per se, but that maximum you could accomplish with Shadowrun Returns engine and systems was already done in Dragonfall, and after that it would be better to make a completely new game.
 

Alphons

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I enjoyed Returns the least, so yeah, I'd recommend Hong Kong. Though it has it's share of problems that just pile up as you play and you might find it hard to finish.
 

Falksi

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Returns is basically the gameplay skeleton upon which DF and HK were built. Both of the latter have their flaws, but at least they're fully fleshed out.

Returns is a great little experience, with a great little story paced very well throughout though. Linear? Yep. Small? Yep. But HK is a worse experience for all the bloat IMO
 
Vatnik Wumao
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大同
Returns is a great little experience, with a great little story paced very well throughout though. Linear? Yep. Small? Yep. But HK is a worse experience for all the bloat IMO
I agree, but I prefer too much of a good thing which inadvertently turns bad rather than too little. That's the storyfag in me talking though, so yeah.
 

Silly Germans

Guest
More of the same i would say. If you liked the other two games and want more, get it. If you didn't like any of the other ones, don't.
I find that people exaggerate the difference in quality, the game's play pretty much the same. The story/writing is also on a similar level
and it depends mostly on personal preferences if you will like it more or less.
 

DeepOcean

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Nov 8, 2012
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7,394
So I just ended Shadowrun: Dragonfall, the combat was nice enough, but like a good storybro that I am, the story was good enough to follow it all the way to the end.

So for all I know, Shadowrun: Hong Kong is the next one in the series, it is worth a shot? the story is on the same level than Dragonfall?
I think it is worthy, Hong Kong doesn't have an interesting villain like Dragonfall but the way they explored the story themes and used shadowrun lore on Hong Kong was pretty clever. I recommend it, especially after the patch that added a few missions more, there is a lot of content on that game.

What people complained the most is that side NPCs have tons of dialog and most of it being just fluff that isn't related to the main plot but the game kinda punishes you if you don't read all that stuff. You lose bonus karma points for ending the dialog tree of all NPCs on the hub area if you don't talk with them after each mission and there is a particular hidden ending that is only accessible if you extensively talk with certain characters but overall, tghat seems like a minor problem that is blown out of proportion, the main story is good enough and the party members are interesting.
 

Terra

Cipher
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Sep 4, 2016
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896
It's a good game weighed down by all the hub npcs possessing reams of overwrought diatribes on their past experiences. If you intend to speak to everyone between missions, expect to be sat for a long time.
 

V_K

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at a Nowhere near you
For me, the biggest letdown was the level design. Dragonfall did a really masterful job out of it, where exploration and non-combat skills could be used to gain tactical advantage for the mandatory combat encounters. It was all very fluid and fine-grained. HK, on the other hand, goes the usual (dumb) way of "either you talk it through, or you fight it through". Plus, Dragonfall did a much better job of translating the mission premises into actual levels and encounters - while the premises of some HK missions are more creative, the actual scripts end up quite meh.
 

DeepOcean

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For me, the biggest letdown was the level design. Dragonfall did a really masterful job out of it, where exploration and non-combat skills could be used to gain tactical advantage for the mandatory combat encounters. It was all very fluid and fine-grained. HK, on the other hand, goes the usual (dumb) way of "either you talk it through, or you fight it through". Plus, Dragonfall did a much better job of translating the mission premises into actual levels and encounters - while the premises of some HK missions are more creative, the actual scripts end up quite meh.
Yep, there is alot of creativity on the premises of the missions but not on the encounters themselves so you feel the missions don't have somehing unique about them as Dragonfall had.
 

DalekFlay

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Dragonfall is better in pretty much every way, and feels more like a "real RPG." Hong Kong also has much more bland writing, IMO. However HK is still a good game in relative terms and if you really liked Dragonfall I can't imagine you not liking HK.

As said above though, I'd take a break between the two. They're very much the same game in general.
 

Teut Busnet

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Codex Year of the Donut
I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I liked HK even better than Dragonfall. I prefered the setting, the NPCs and - to my own surprise - the little bit of backstory for my char managed to draw me in. (Not sure if it felt 'cheesy' for a native english speaker, but i thought the intro message from your old mentor was very well done and acted.)

I also didn't think there was too much writing. I was prepared for the worst after all the complaints, but it was interesting enough so I didn't get bored.

Both games would easily make my 'Top games of the last 10 years' list.
 

DalekFlay

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and - to my own surprise - the little bit of backstory for my char managed to draw me in.

This is actually something I really disliked about HK, so everything is subjective. I like coming up with my character's own backstory and profession, so being forced to play someone fresh out of a long prison stay who was never a shadowrunner before kind of bugged me. Some might love the context though, it all depends.
 
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Nerevar

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Make the Codex Great Again! Pathfinder: Wrath
I liked SR:HK it is probably the one I've played through the most beaten it 3-4 times. The improvements to the weapons and cyberware in HK is really cool.

I suggest using CE and playing it at 1.5x speed though.
 

SausageInYourFace

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Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit. Pathfinder: Wrath
I liked HK better, I thought it was much better in conveying a sense of working in the criminal underground. It also had much more of a common thread than DF had and I thought the companions were more memorable.

Either way, all three games are good and worth playing for anyone into cyberpunk and/or RPGs imo.
 

Vorark

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HK is worth a playthrough for sure, even if it never reaches the same heights of Dragonfall, encounter and story-wise. The mini-campaign Shadows of Hong Kong was an improvement tho, loved it. It was what the base game should have been.
 

Teut Busnet

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Codex Year of the Donut
[QUOTE="Teut Busnet, post: 6444872, member: 22979"and - to my own surprise - the little bit of backstory for my char managed to draw me in.

This is actually something I really disliked about HK, so everything is subjective. I like coming up with my character's own backstory and profession, so being forced to play someone fresh out of a long prison stay who was never a shadowrunner before kind of bugged me. Some might love the context though, it all depends.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I normally don't like it either, but thought it was vague enough and fit quite well here. And wanting to help my mentor gave me a better motivation than 'revenge for my shadowrunner friend' in Dragonfall. I agree, it's very subjective.
 

Saduj

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Aug 26, 2012
Messages
2,547
Better than the first but some issues hold it back from being the best in the series. The large volume of pointless conversations was annoying and the game is intentionally made so that it isn't always easy to tell when you're wasting your time. Also, my street samurai was pretty much a demi god later in the game and the end was just a cakewalk. The expansion tries to overcome this by spamming enemies, which doesn't really work.
 

Stavrophore

Most trustworthy slavic man
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Strap Yourselves In
If you like reading a lot of backstories then its a good game. Overall the game has improved upon. Its not a game that will leave you sad when you finish it, nothing world breaking, but its a decent game, easily 6+ maybe 7/10 even.
 

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