Shadowrun Shadowrun Returns - Dead Man's Switch Original Campaign

[DeepOcean]

Why do i get the feeling that there is this huge pink elephant in the room and codexers are too afraid to point it out because they don't want to go against the hivemind?

This plays like an android/ipad game that was ported to pc. It even feels like I would be better off using one of those touchscreen monitors.

Granted the game has good points such as an excellent writing style that really paints the gameworld inside your mind. I just didn't expect codexers to just shrug off the conspicuously mobile feel of the game.

Waiter, take my food back! There's not enough codex rage on my plate!

That it was an upgraded android/ipad game was something known since day 1, the original plan was a even more limited game to make you don't even doubt it was a mobile game. I think most codexers understand that there isn't going to be other TB Shadowrun RPG made by other companies with bigger budgets and more respect for the ip, in this case you accept what you got and hope for a better future or you get nothing and the game is far from being mobile shovelware to be considered lowering your expectations to popamole levels to like this game. For now Harebrained can get away but it is better that they improve the Berlin campaign and possible future campaigns and don't get confortable with the way the game is now. They decided to add isometric 2d art to the game and that made the budget skyrocket. They broadened the scope when they got more money and as result bit more than they could chew. The reason this game feel limited in comparison to classic isometric RPGs is because doing isometric 2d art of good quality for a complex RPG with 1,2 million dollars (discounted rewards and kickstarter cut) is unrealistic, you can get 2d graphic whorism or a more complex game that looks like knights of chalice at that budget not both.

They tried to make a complex, isometric RPG with cool 2d art with almost no budget and the result was very good for their limitations but what really bothers me isn't the linearity or kinda simplistic mechanics (the lack of resource management and stealth skill are crimes that need to be fixed on the Berlin campaign) that can be understood by just looking to the budget but they could had easily made this game with more challenging combat and better enemy composition and placement, the way it is I never had that feeling: Oh, my God! I'm going to be raeped by a group of rampaging dwarfs! It is obvious that they didn't wanted to scare people that don't like challenging combat.

 

[Infinitron]

More and more, it's sounding like what this game really needs is a difficulty overhaul mod.

 

[Blaine]

It's aggravating that 35 Karma must be spent to raise Charisma to 8 in order to obtain 4 Etiquettes, out of a possible 9 or 10. With all 4, and depending on which ones you choose, you'll get one (perhaps two, perhaps zero) Charisma-based Etiquette check per prelude/mission. This relegates Etiquettes to archetypes that use Charisma only, because it's not worthwhile for any other archetype. 35 Karma is enough to go from 6 Body to 10 Body and have 1 Karma left over.

There's no easy solution to this, given the brevity of the game. You could stuff several different types of Etiquette checks into nearly every conversation, but this would probably give Charisma-based archetypes too much of an advantage over the others. You could give players more Etiquettes and faster per Charisma point spent, I suppose, but again, that seems like too much of a boon to characters who use Charisma for combat. All in all, buying pure Charisma for Etiquettes only seems like a bad deal. Now if it reduced the cost of hiring on extra Shadowrunners, that would be something (but again, too much advantage for Charisma-based archetypes).

One saving grace is that some other attributes (Strength for intimidation, Quickness for sleight of hand) occasionally get a skill check of their own.

 

[catfood]

They tried to make a complex, isometric RPG with cool 2d art with almost no budget and the result was very good for their limitations but what really bothers me isn't the linearity or kinda simplistic mechanics (the lack of resource management and stealth skill are crimes that need to be fixed on the Berlin campaign) that can be understood by just looking to the budget but they could had easily made this game with more challenging combat and better enemy composition and placement, the way it is I never had that feeling: Oh, my God! I'm going to be raeped by a group of rampaging dwarfs! It is obvious that they didn't wanted to scare people that don't like challenging combat.

I think they were afraid of ramping up the combat difficulty due to the autosave only system that they have in place. Perhaps they figured that they prefer to have an easy game, rather than have the player replay entire sections over and over again. Still, one can argue that they could have at least made the last difficulty level a challenge, and warn the player beforehand that failure came with its dire consequences.

 

[Surf Solar]

Huh, nice, I only found 2 of these haunted items, the ear ring and the shoe with my samurai.

 

[Disgruntled]

Gonna skip this one. A few too many oversights for my liking. Might get it on sale with a subsequent modder overhaul.
Conquistadors was awesome though. Looking forward to Wasteland 2, should be worth full price if the codex previews check out.

 

[TigerKnee]

Technically, humans do get +1 karma advantage over meta-humans except Trolls. All metas start with 36 points total worth of Karma but 2 of those points are already spent on a stat (Troll get 38 because 2 stats are increased for them). Humans get 37.

I imagine for VERY short campaigns that humans might be dominant and bad for very long ones. Or maybe they'll add in modules where there are characters racist against meta-humans...

 

[Rake]

More and more, it's sounding like what this game really needs is a difficulty overhaul mod.

That. Because of my idiocy i spent all my money on cyberwear and i was forced to go an a mission with only a cheap mersenery instead of a full team, and no medkits. At top difficulty. It was the only mission that i was forced to play tactically, and i still had to restart the mission 3 times. And it was the most fun and memorable excperience so far in the game. If the full campain had that level of difficulty with a full team, that game would be brilliant. Add more open environments and it is a masterpiece. I trully hope the Berlin campain in addition to more open, to be more difficult us well.

 

[Blaine]

More and more, it's sounding like what this game really needs is a difficulty overhaul.

What it needs is an additional dimension of depth and complexity added to every aspect.

There should be more to explore, and exploring should be more involved. There should be more to interact with, and interactivity should be more involved. These two (exploration and interactivity) should overlap to provide missable hidden areas (cubbyholes, catwalks, rooftops, etc.), missable rewards, and even optional locations. Running from hotspot to hotspot doing the obvious in a tiny cramped area isn't much in the way of exploration or interactivity.

There should be more conversations to have, such that you aren't simply running from one flashing talk icon to the next exhausting conversation options. There should be more C&C stemming directly from conversations; the tone you choose to use (and it's standard BioWare goodie two-shoes, neutral cop-outer, and mean bastard in this game) should affect conversational outcome more often.

I could go on, but really it applies to absolutely everything in the game: Another dimension (perhaps two) of depth and complexity would go a very long way.

 

[sea]

I think they were afraid of ramping up the combat difficulty due to the autosave only system that they have in place. Perhaps they figured that they prefer to have an easy game, rather than have the player replay entire sections over and over again. Still, one can argue that they could have at least made the last difficulty level a challenge, and warn the player beforehand that failure came with its dire consequences.

This. I think the lack of a "drop out autosave" that triggers when you exit the game is a crime, but other than that I have a strong feeling that the goal was to force a bit more resource management and planning, and not allowing save scumming of any sort. I really don't have a problem with the save system at all, except for the fact that the game seems to think it's important enough that it should put your life on hold, or make you leave your computer on until you return to it.

 

[Surf Solar]

1. The "cinematic" text that appears at the bottom of the screen from time to time must be closed by clicking the X button, which is a non-standard location

Those texts disappear after a while without you clicking the X button

 

[Marquess Cornwallis]

Hmm. I wanted to sum up my impressions, but they're almost identical to what evdk said above, so I'll just add that I'd very much prefer for HS to focus on future Shadowrun campaigns (Berlin and beyond) rather than their somewhat bizarre new KS project. What we've got now is a really atmospheric and entertaining (if a bit short) proof-of-concept game that serves well to demonstrate how everything is basically in place for creation of a really good RPG by simply adding more content and tweaking and fine-tuning what they've already got (more dialogue branching with real options, more skill use, more world interactivity, more combat options, at least a "save on exit" feature if they want to keep the checkpoints, etc.). I'm pretty happy about having backed this (the game is technically pretty much what we've expected except it's actually more atmospheric and fun to play than I personally hoped) and I'm sure the community can come up with some really good modules, but it's Jordan & co. who should really try to live up to the potential.

 

[Cool name]

Oh and then there are etiquettes which basically give you additional options based on which you took. Except good luck trying to guess which etiquette the dev used since you can't have many and the options for them appear very rarely.

As a human you can have all but two etiquettes. As an elf you can have all but one. I have been focusing on Charisma and I had it almost maxed by the point I did rescue Coyote. Only two more 'raises' to buy before I am at the 'all but one' point.

Sure, you have to focus on it to get all the Etiquettes early enough to get the most out of them but having all the diplomatic options unlocked has always been the province of characters focused on it.

And I believe it does also help you control the spirits (I have been keeping spirits on 4 AP for three or four turns before they get a good chance to break loose, though every now and then one goes berserk on the second round just because the RNG hates me) so it is not really a sacrifice if you go Shaman.



Anyway, does anyone knows if there's a way to get ALL the Etiquettes with a Charisma focused Elf?

Theres a pile of garbage in the hallway you can animate into some lethal pestilence killing machine.

Do you know if there's a way to summon spirits out of combat, or to enter turn-based mode at will? :S My main gripe with the game is that it does act like your character is 'pointman', which is kind of ridiculous when you have Body 1.

Since we are at it, is there a way to use items outside of combat? I bought this Kamikaze thingie to give me +2 Body in case I needed to solo, but it is kind of worthless if I can't use it until after combat did begun.

 

[Surf Solar]

You can use consumables through the normal menu outside of combat. Just click on the big button on the upper left, go to your inventory and use it. Not sure if it works for drugs, but it should

 

[aris]

I'm starting the game over as shaman, as a mage, there seems to be a seriously huge bug: I got my number of spell slots permanently reduced to three for unknown reasons. Unless there is some weird ass hidden game mechanics that triggers this, it is definitely a bug.

 

[NotTale]

Do you know if there's a way to summon spirits out of combat, or to enter turn-based mode at will? :S My main gripe with the game is that it does act like your character is 'pointman', which is kind of ridiculous when you have Body 1..

Been looking for this myself to no avail. I'm a mage and I'd like to occasionally be able to pre-position companions or pre-cast my armor spell.

 

[Mortmal]

Oh and then there are etiquettes which basically give you additional options based on which you took. Except good luck trying to guess which etiquette the dev used since you can't have many and the options for them appear very rarely.

As a human you can have all but two etiquettes. As an elf you can have all but one. I have been focusing on Charisma and I had it almost maxed by the point I did rescue Coyote. Only two more 'raises' to buy before I am at the 'all but one' point.

Sure, you have to focus on it to get all the Etiquettes early enough to get the most out of them but having all the diplomatic options unlocked has always been the province of characters focused on it.

And I believe it does also help you control the spirits (I have been keeping spirits on 4 AP for three or four turns before they get a good chance to break loose, though every now and then one goes berserk on the second round just because the RNG hates me) so it is not really a sacrifice if you go Shaman.



Anyway, does anyone knows if there's a way to get ALL the Etiquettes with a Charisma focused Elf?

Theres a pile of garbage in the hallway you can animate into some lethal pestilence killing machine.

Do you know if there's a way to summon spirits out of combat, or to enter turn-based mode at will? :S My main gripe with the game is that it does act like your character is 'pointman', which is kind of ridiculous when you have Body 1.

Since we are at it, is there a way to use items outside of combat? I bought this Kamikaze thingie to give me +2 Body in case I needed to solo, but it is kind of worthless if I can't use it until after combat did begun.

I've only seen it once at the beggining in chip addict place, you can summon a ghost wich scare npc in the hallway, but thats about all. You cant even summon the crash disaster victims yourself , evenif your char is more skilled than the shaman npc . Theres very little optional choices ,no use of spirits to distract or investigate getting extra info . Its one level, fight, one or two info computer, rince and repeat. Tbh the shaman spells are useles 100% of the time except the summon spirit . I dont know if you can still call it a rpg when your character build matters so little, i invested only one point in gunnery and it still enough to take down everyone . Its a nice game but the character build you make doesnt seems to influence anything at all, its a 3D isometric point and click adventure with xcom combat topped on it .

 

[SmartCheetah]

Still on very hard. Had to load only on the "roof" run.

I played a little while with editor. It's fairly easy to use but making something big will probably take a LONG while. Creating maps is quite...Well, tedious.

 

[Shaewaroz]

So what's the verdict so far? I only get to play the game next week so I have no idea what's going on. Does it get Codex's Seal of Approval?

 

[buzz]

What's the deal with RPG writers and their obsession for religious fanatics?

Anyway, had to ragequit because

Spoiler

The battle with Jessica has glitched on me twice. By the way is this the last battle or is there more content after it?

Also, fuck the Harlequin dude, he's a joke!

what a goddamn drag.

EDIT: I don't know how the matrix was implemented in the tabletop game, but it was pretty boring in SRR. I didn't enjoy the Tron-like level in Mass Effect, I almost never enjoyed lockpicking or hacking minigames, and here I have both at the same time.

 

[Volrath]

I have to somewhat agree with HHR; it's a nice game as for $20, but it's far below the expected incline. So much for ppl saying, "I'll be enjoying SDR while popamole retards will be playing their CDPR crap". CP2077 is going to beat the shit out ot this.

Location: Polandia

 

[ERYFKRAD]

What's up with the sound causing stuttering, bros? Any fix for that?

 

[DalekFlay]

People wanting more difficulty... that has to come with a new save system, in my opinion. I might go hard on my second run but I would never touch very hard, or an improved hard mode of any kind, with the current save system.

And I think the best part of this game might be the Steam forums.

 

[Necroscope]

I have to somewhat agree with HHR; it's a nice game as for $20, but it's far below the expected incline. So much for ppl saying, "I'll be enjoying SDR while popamole retards will be playing their CDPR crap". CP2077 is going to beat the shit out ot this.

Location: Polandia

Polandia ≠ CDPR and I have no problem admitting that tWitcher did a shit job in many aspects. Some epic apologism and distraction tactics in this topic.

 

[Anthony Davis]

I'm starting the game over as shaman, as a mage, there seems to be a seriously huge bug: I got my number of spell slots permanently reduced to three for unknown reasons. Unless there is some weird ass hidden game mechanics that triggers this, it is definitely a bug.

Did you use up your essence with cyber parts? That has some sort of negative effect on mages.