Shadowrun Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Extended Edition

[Roguey]

This is a surprising turn of events after the initial universally-negative impressions.

 

[Infinitron]

Is it large enough to be worth reviewing?

 

[hell bovine]

Also, one more thing that is greatly improved in mini-campaign: the nu-matrix. It's considerably less fucking rage-inducing now that you actually have to move from cover to cover to evade the watchers, instead of dashing at THAT ONE AND ONLY POSSIBLE 1/2 SEC WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY to get past a cluster of 5 of them. Was it really that hard to implement this? Ffs.

Did the make the matrix critters tougher to kill? I haven't bothered with dashing past anything, because destroying 2-3 of those flying camera bots was usually enough to clear the way, making sneaking in the matrix pointless.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Did the make the matrix critters tougher to kill? I haven't bothered with dashing past anything, because destroying 2-3 of those flying camera bots was usually enough to clear the way, making sneaking in the matrix pointless.

Nope, but most docking here takes place during meatspace combat and is on a timer, which means triggering the watchers and initiating combat can make you lose time and get booted back for a turn to the real world.

 

[hell bovine]

Nope, but most docking here takes place during meatspace combat and is on a timer, which means triggering the watchers and initiating combat can make you lose time and get booted back for a turn to the real world.

Not unless they are tougher to kill, because I don't think those hacker area attacks ever missed. Sure, you loose some time, but then you get a quick way in, as opposed to having to wait for an opportunity.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Sometimes just initiating combat in the matrix even before you can start nuking is enough to boot you out to the meatspace. Not a very good deal when you have only 5 turns to accomplish shit in the matrix.

 

[orcinator]

I wouldn't describe fighting the same group of corp goons and cops (who are the same as corp goons but have one additional enemy type) over and over through various corridors until you get to the final fight where you fight a few more waves of cops and also some pushover drone tanks and then pick which ending paragraph you want to read as "going out with a bang".

 

[Darth Roxor]

what a shame

 

[Junmarko]

Wow, so Racter is a real person after all.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

As far as the series goes, the extended epilogue campaign is really good. While combat is as meh as ever due to the AI, the missions design (except the under water lab) are much better than anything in HK campaign and as memorable as the best of DFDC runs.

My only gripe about the game is the binary nature of the ending and some that I think to be minor characterization issues.

 

[Roguey]

I just wish the game would drop me after a run into a briefing/debriefing screen where I would do all my shopping and dialogue without having to run around town. I quit the game without beating it because I have no patience to go and look for the NPC's to talk to and buy weapons/get missions from.

Alpha Protocol did that, and quite a few people here reacted to it negatively. They like walking to and fro for dialogue and shopping.

 

[Gord]

I just wish the game would drop me after a run into a briefing/debriefing screen where I would do all my shopping and dialogue without having to run around town. I quit the game without beating it because I have no patience to go and look for the NPC's to talk to and buy weapons/get missions from.

Well, for what it's worth, in SR:HK the stories from the NPCs can be completely ignored.
The regular missions get delivered to you by your mission computer.
There's still running around for equipment of course, but without the talking, it doesn't take much time at all.
Exceptions are the companion missions and the different endings - the best ones needs a fair bit of talking with 3 different characters, but you won't miss that much by missing it.

 

[Mozg]

I'm looking at the summary of shit I did in SH:HK while importing to the bonus stuff, and it says I got Gaichu not to turn the guy he wanted revenge on into a ghoul. I am 99% sure I actually did let him do whatever gruesome shit he wanted. Known bug? Is it just a bug in the import display or will it actually think I did it that way?

 

[Rivmusique]

Remember when I said I'd prefer HBS's Shadowrun series to go out with a bang?

Shadows of Hong Kong is that bang. It's only 4 (and a half) missions, but it's absolutely fucking kickass. Only the Shiawase underwater lab is meh-ish. But the rest are better than pretty much anything found in base Hong Kong because they fix just about every single one of the flaws that plagued the OC.

Spoiler

;__________;7

Decided to have a look at the other endings you could get just by making different choices in those last few convo's, and found that the wording has been changed in that latest big patch.

Spoiler

Seattle feels strange after so much time away; it still feels like home, but it's curiously foreign at the same time. But with Kindly Cheng and your crew on your side, you rapidly make it feel like you never left Hong Kong. Kindly introduces you to Zheng Li-kwan, the Seattle Mountain Master of the Yellow Lotus, and through him you find both work and safety. With your help, the Yellow Lotus rapidly expands its influence in the Puyallup Barrens.

Business booms in 2058 when Don James "The Hammer" O'Malley is assassinated, kicking off a gangland war that affords the Yellow Lotus rapid gains in both influence and territory. Through your own skill and Kindly Cheng's trademark ruthlessness, your team steadily carves out a large chunk of the Seattle Metroplex for the triad. This expansion continues until the Renraku Arcology inexplicably seals itself off from the outside world, trapping its hundred thousand residents inside. The UCAS military cordons the structure off, casting a pall over the Metroplex. In response, the Yellow Lotus wisely chooses to slow their expansion, the better to remain off of the military's radar.

The world turns, seasons change, and life moves on. In the following months, Ares Macrotechnology takes over the contract for the HKPF from Mitsuhama. The Tolo Harbor Complex is completed, and a new, heavily-militarized police force walks the streets of Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, the feud between the Red Dragon Association and the Yellow Lotus erupts into a full scale gang war in the early 2060s. The Red Dragons prevail in the conflict, and the Hong Kong branch of the Yellow Lotus is completely annihilated; the triad's traditions live on in the Seattle Metroplex, under the stewardship of Zheng Li-kwan and Kindly Cheng. Duncan's fate is forever a mystery to you. If he lives, you never hear from him again.

You and your team remain as tightly-knit as ever. Together, you look to the future, and the promise that it still holds.

An odd thing to do.

 

[PlanHex]

An odd thing to do.

Makes sense to me. The new one makes it much clearer that it is just the HK Yellow Lotus that are screwed and you're still working for Cheng. The old one sends mixed messages with the "YL totally destroyed, but the traditions live on" thing.

edit:
Also

Wow, so Racter is a real person after all.

What movie is this from?

 

[Junmarko]

What movie is this from?

It's Eric Roberts, not sure what movie - just always thought Racter's avatar seemed based off his likeness.

 

[Gord]

I'm looking at the summary of shit I did in SH:HK while importing to the bonus stuff, and it says I got Gaichu not to turn the guy he wanted revenge on into a ghoul. I am 99% sure I actually did let him do whatever gruesome shit he wanted. Known bug? Is it just a bug in the import display or will it actually think I did it that way?

It seems to happen for some people. Don't know whether it will change anything meaningful, however. I've seen some flavour text making mention of your earlier achievements, but that's it.

 

[Mozg]

Someone tell me a good reason to take Gaichu or Rachter on a mission. Isobel is the hacker, and Duncan and Gobbet can both force enemies out of cover to eat 50 point pinballing PC leyline fireball crits on top of being fine in other ways.

 

[Brutan]

Very nice expansion, I really enjoyed it. I have to hand it to HBS, they work fast, they deliver good and can keep expectations low. As far as KS projects are concerned, I'm most satisfied with HBS all-around . Sure, others games might be better (like PoE) but those took years to make. These guys release like a game a year, with solid gameplay and some C&C at a very affordable price.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Samurai be cool brah. Is that enough reason? To be fair out of the companions arcthype, melee specialist is the one that the PC could definitely better than Gaichu. He sucks.
As for Racter, combat wise, not much, but he is useful for rigging skill checks.

 

[Stompa]

Someone tell me a good reason to take Gaichu or Rachter on a mission

Koschei is a murder machine with more AP than anyone else, strong as fuck weaponry and plenty of stun damage. Gaichu auto-cirits on flank in Heaven stance and is entirely self-sufficient due to multitude of lifesteal\healing abilities, though he's not as strong as Duncan or Racter.

 

[PlanHex]

Someone tell me a good reason to take Gaichu or Rachter on a mission

Koschei is a murder machine with more AP than anyone else, strong as fuck weaponry and plenty of stun damage. Gaichu auto-cirits on flank in Heaven stance and is entirely self-sufficient due to multitude of lifesteal\healing abilities, though he's not as strong as Duncan or Racter.

To add to that, there are also opportunities for Koschei to go through vents in several missions and Gaichu in Metal stance can AP damage people out of the fight quite easily while tanking everything thrown at him.

 

[SniperHF]

Glad to hear the missions other than the Water Lab are better, I just started and that's the first one I did. Extremely linear.

Someone tell me a good reason to take Gaichu or Rachter on a mission

Koschei is a murder machine with more AP than anyone else, strong as fuck weaponry and plenty of stun damage. Gaichu auto-cirits on flank in Heaven stance and is entirely self-sufficient due to multitude of lifesteal\healing abilities, though he's not as strong as Duncan or Racter.

And with all that AP, you can use him to break enemies cover via melee attacks. Also he has a FREAKING LASER.

 

[Mozg]

It was really nice to get some more Shadowrun for free and I thought the crux of the story

Spoiler

working out the final solution to the Duncan vs. Shadowrunning problem

was fine.

OTOH where other people think the combat got fun was where I saw a lot of very long, tedious slog fights in a system I already know all the tricks of. I played on hard and all that shit. That fight where you start in between two large corp forces and the smartest course of action is to go wait in a corner while 30 minutes of shitty animations fight each other was especially irritating.

Writing wise I thought the main shit was fine (Qui is a great character), although random NPCs you find with elaborate writing and doofy portraits feel like some kind of crappy backer inserts.

Spoiler

Was there anything consequential that could happen with the undersea lab mission later on? I got but didn't sell the SARS gold anniversary edition paydata

 

[Prime Junta]

I've been plodding on. Still find it meh. Finally beat that one hard fight the hard way with my badly-chosen party that everyone's raving about and still thought it was more of a slog than something exciting.

But the gameplay just isn't doing it for me. I never was a big fan of SRR combat, and in this one the fights are just bigger and take longer. I'm still cycling through the same abilities to grind down the mobs, and if I do it right I barely take any damage. It's not that it's easy -- if I don't do it right I will get overwhelmed and there's not much I can do to turn things around -- it's just repetitive, rote, tedious, and takes really long.

Put another, way, I feel about SRR combat the way Darth Roxor feels about PoE combat. Weird.