Shadowrun Shadowrun Returns - Dead Man's Switch Original Campaign

[DeepOcean]

Just did the Telestrian run. I have to say that was a gripping experience, with my decker made unconscious by a Black ICE, revived using a trauma kit and hacking the Matrix again but now also fighting Telestrian deckers. The location after was also cool.

Now that I have a, uh, new type of launcher [avoiding spoilers here] the game seems to be coming close to finish. That's sad; the 2nd half is a lot better!

Finishing this mission when your character is a decker is piss easy but if you have to use the useless decker that they recommend to you, things can get complicated on the Matrix. It is a pity that it is the only somewhat challenging Matrix fight in the game.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

The Matrix is terribly underused in the official campaign. I was really hoping for more missions where you would need guy inside while also doing some objectives in meat space.

 

[Spockrock]

Troll no-class that got turned into an Adept somehow. if you're willing to try something similar don't repeat my mistakes: don't pump Willpower, 1 point in Chi Casting is more than enough to make your monk a killing machine (Killer Hands); decking proved to be useless, because I'd usually let the NPCs deal with the Matrix stuff, and skill checks aren't reason enough to waste so many points on it; I still have no idea why I took 2 ranks in BioTech...

also, armor seems to cap at 10, which is a fucking bummer, since there's this trenchcoat that gives 10 armor, and any other buffs/cyberi mplants are a waste of turns and Nuyen.

taking spellcasting at the start was a mistake as well, never had to use a single spell, and not worth it if you want to go full-on man-machine.

all that is applicable while playing on Normal. I have a terrible urge to replay it on Very Hard with all these points spent on Dodge, Unarmed and Body, but first I'll try a Rifleman.

the music is awesome, by the way, whoever says it's not doesn't understand music, and I can only feel sorry for him. the story? my only exposure to the universe was back in the mid-nineties when I bought that Shadowrun game for the Genesis. and since I couldn't into RPGs, I got stuck somewhere in the middle doing endless runs to try and make money. so I had no knowledge of all the cool shit happening in the world around me, I didn't know who that fucking Harlequin character was. and I didn't care.the only guy I actually knew was Armitage from the SNES game. and it was kind of cool to meet him as an NPC and even have him run with me for a bit.

all that considered I found the story in SRR pretty decent and fun. sure, it's somewhat predictable. but not knowing anything about the setting I thought it was engaging and well-written. in hindsight, though, I would've expected Dodger and Harlequin to be more powerful then they are.

I will disagree on one point: the story didn't look like a "save the world" scenario to me. more like my character found himself in the middle of something really big, but with a possibility of making good money and getting a couple of contacts from it. the game hints at the fact that wiping out the UB branch in Seattle didn't really change much, and the only benefit was in field-testing Aegis. from that point of view I am completely satisfied, and it doesn't feel nearly as epic as some of you make it out to be.

 

[sea]

No chance? That "jack out" emergency evac button is there for a reason

Maybe I'm retarded, but can you do that while enemies are taking their turns?

 

[Elwro]

Just did the Telestrian run. I have to say that was a gripping experience, with my decker made unconscious by a Black ICE, revived using a trauma kit and hacking the Matrix again but now also fighting Telestrian deckers. The location after was also cool.

Now that I have a, uh, new type of launcher [avoiding spoilers here] the game seems to be coming close to finish. That's sad; the 2nd half is a lot better!

Finishing this mission when your character is a decker is piss easy but if you have to use the useless decker that they recommend to you, things can get complicated on the Matrix. It is a pity that it is the only somewhat challenging Matrix fight in the game.

Yeah, I used "Dodger". My char is an Ork Street Samurai, mainly using his shotgun.

 

[Darth Roxor]

When it comes to NPC deckers, the Nephilim 'combat decker' is easily the best one. His decking is on par with the shadowrunners, has all the useful programs on high levels (blaster, killer, medic, suppress), and the few points he has in SMG actually don't make him deadweight in shootouts. He also costs only 1k nuyen.

 

[Renevent]

Just did the Telestrian run. I have to say that was a gripping experience, with my decker made unconscious by a Black ICE, revived using a trauma kit and hacking the Matrix again but now also fighting Telestrian deckers. The location after was also cool.

Now that I have a, uh, new type of launcher [avoiding spoilers here] the game seems to be coming close to finish. That's sad; the 2nd half is a lot better!

That's the best mission in the game IMO.

 

[Elwro]

Yeah, I used Kendon a few times but I thought that if Dodger is mentioned during dialogue he'd be important. He wasn't ;D

 

[Elwro]

Meh. I'm taking a break for some time. There is a sort of enemy you can only kill using a certain weapon. You get 2 copies, but one of them comes with an idiotic NPC that is completely useless otherwise and will die soon if you don't keep him at the back. (His basic attack deals 7 damage.) Now, you may not realise that he's so bad at the start of the mission. But after that, you can't give the weapon to anyone else.

Now, after you damage the baddies properly you have one turn to kill them - they revive otherwise. It takes 3 shots to do it if you don't score a critical. Each weapon can fire twice each round. So basically you really need 2 guys with those weapons.

But after some time my useless NPC addition got killed. And since you cannot loot corpses, I got stuck with a single baddie-killing-weapon-wielding character. An hour of my life lost, since there's no reloading or inventory management.

[Unrelated: after some time in the game started throwing me to the desktop every minute. I had to keep alt-tabbing back. It's not fun when you can't just save the game and restart it.]

Also, before the mission you're told you'd get one extra NPC, but you don't actually get him.

 

[Rake]

Meh. I'm taking a break for some time. There is a sort of enemy you can only kill using a certain weapon. You get 2 copies, but one of them comes with an idiotic NPC that is completely useless otherwise and will die soon if you don't keep him at the back. (His basic attack deals 7 damage.) Now, you may not realise that he's so bad at the start of the mission. But after that, you can't give the weapon to anyone else.

Now, after you damage the baddies properly you have one turn to kill them - they revive otherwise. It takes 3 shots to do it if you don't score a critical. Each weapon can fire twice each round. So basically you really need 2 guys with those weapons.

But after some time my useless NPC addition got killed. And since you cannot loot corpses, I got stuck with a single baddie-killing-weapon-wielding character. An hour of my life lost, since there's no reloading or inventory management.

[Unrelated: after some time in the game started throwing me to the desktop every minute. I had to keep alt-tabbing back. It's not fun when you can't just save the game and restart it.]

Also, before the mission you're told you'd get one extra NPC, but you don't actually get him.

You can hire another one with the special weapon. The first one in the list , ghost something. That way you will have 3 to kill bugs.

 

[NotTale]

To limit the spoilage, you can get a third guy. And I'm not sure if it's effected by difficulty, but they don't always revive the next round.

 

[Rake]

Yeah, I used Kendon a few times but I thought that if Dodger is mentioned during dialogue he'd be important. He wasn't ;D

All the "legendery" fanservice NPCs are actualy underwhelming ingame.

 

[sea]

The cheesy 2nd half plot isn't retarded per se in the general world overview so to speak, if you ask me. It's just that the transition into it from the first half is so jarring.

Also,

Spoiler

The "evil cult that worships giant death bugs and feeds its followers to them for sustenance and/or reproduction" thing is such a ridiculous cliche it's kind of hilarious and impossible to take the game seriously past that point.

 

[NotTale]

To be fair, the first part isn't without cliche.

Spoiler

Oh hey, they're stealing body parts from people who've had transplants. The girl with new eyes lost her eyes, the guy with the drinking problem lost his liver. They couldn't possibly be rebuilding someone, that's too obvious.

 

[Elwro]

Thanks guys; of course, to recruit someone else I'll have to replay the previous level, but I think this'll be worth it.

 

[Vault Dweller]

The cheesy 2nd half plot isn't retarded per se in the general world overview so to speak, if you ask me. It's just that the transition into it from the first half is so jarring.

The transition is so jarring, it feels like these are two different, very loosely connected plots. When the woman says "oh that shit? I don't care about it anymore, giant bugs are all the rage now", it's a big WTF moment.

The worst thing is that the first plot is very low-key and noir, whereas the second plot is epic and world-saving. Combat does get better though, so thank god for small miracles.

 

[Grunker]

^ I think that the first part of the game is written a lot better as well. Second part has a lot of "LOL, HE'S SO POWERFUL AND MYSTERIOUS"-cameos that are jarring even for people who don't know the universe, and the Insect Spirit Invasion is stale and uninteresting. The first part is smart, slick, fun and exiciting, and the writing and graphics almost flow completely together to create the game's charm. That feeling of all the game's pieces fitting together isn't there in the second half.

The Matrix is terribly underused in the official campaign. I was really hoping for more missions where you would need guy inside while also doing some objectives in meat space.

The original plan was not to have the matrix in the game at all.

 

[Darth Roxor]

but one of them comes with an idiotic NPC that is completely useless

The 'useless guy with the bugspray' is hardly useless. Just abuse stride and double/triple strike (bonus points if you have a shaman to give him +2 ap as well).

But to be fair, I also thought he was shit on my first playthrough

 

[Hegel]

Spoiler

The spirit insects are a part of the Shadowrun lore, don't bash HBS too hard for that. Also Dodger and Harlequin were nice cameos.

 

[Name]

Is Coyote supposed to be hirable in the final level? I can't find her in the recruit list, but the spoiler suggests she should.

And the writing of the dialogue trees... there are a few instances where the flow is not right, like you suddenly get some information (such as names, relationships) that you haven't figured out because the player clicks the all the 'wrong' lines to progess the dialogue... and another one standing out is that the barmaid suddenly forgets that you knew her ex past the middle point of the story... so the writing is really uneven from a purely technical point of view...

 

[Aeschylus]

The 'useless guy with the bugspray' is hardly useless. Just abuse stride and double/triple strike (bonus points if you have a shaman to give him +2 ap as well).

But to be fair, I also thought he was shit on my first playthrough

Well, he gets less AP than a PC adept (who gets 4), and uses the non-ap draining melee weapon (which is the only real benefit of melee weapons vs ranged), and has poor armor and dodge. Not *totally* useless, but pretty underwhelming.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Spoiler

The spirit insects are a part of the Shadowrun lore, don't bash HBS too hard for that. Also Dodger and Harlequin were nice cameos.

It's not about the bugs in general, but how they are used in the story.

 

[Hegel]

Is Coyote supposed to be hirable in the final level? I can't find her in the recruit list, but the spoiler suggests she should.

And the writing of the dialogue trees... there are a few instances where the flow is not right, like you suddenly get some information (such as names, relationships) that you haven't figured out because the player clicks the all the 'wrong' lines to progess the dialogue... and another one standing out is that the barmaid suddenly forgets that you knew her ex past the middle point of the story... so the writing is really uneven from a purely technical point of view...

The second part of the game is rushed, hopefully they will fix things up (plotholes included : what happened to Samedi? Dodger without any dialogue line, Marie Louise not getting any closure)
Harlequim is strong, just use him correctly (the aim buff is powerful).

Spoiler

The spirit insects are a part of the Shadowrun lore, don't bash HBS too hard for that. Also Dodger and Harlequin were nice cameos.

It's not about the bugs in general, but how they are used in the story.

Honestly I think they shouldn't have included the bugs at all, problem is, if you start adding extradimensional spirit creatures that really have no place into a beginner's module you're kinda forced to balance the continuity by adding good guys on par with them (hence the addition of people like Telestrian, Harlequim and Lowfyr's emissary).
Only a handful of beings in the Shadowrun world are aware of things such as these.

 

[Gondolin]

I got Rifle to 6, but Double Tap doesn't show up in my fire options menu, which is fucking annoying. Currently using the Ares Alpha, if that matters.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Why there is no smart Ares Alpha? It's lot better gun than M-23. Finale was anti climatic; bitch got a few magazines to the face from my Lituanian Elven Hit Woman and James bodyguard and died soon after. Was expecting epic battle after the ambush in previous map. I am curious if playing Decker Dwarf would be different enough to play it second time.