Shadowrun Shadowrun Returns - Dead Man's Switch Original Campaign

[mindx2]

Well I finally received my Shadowrun Returns Kickstarter "swag" after the game came out months ago. Here is a picture:

Very disappointed in the "old school" boxed version as it isn't even the size of the old Gold Box or Phantasie games. It included the game disk and soundtrack in plain white sleeves, my personalized Doc Wagon card and a tin box with the KS dog tag and game usb stick. I like the card and dog tags and mine were not broken or damaged but the box is just really cheap looking/ feeling. Worst of all is THERE IS NO MANUAL!!! What is this, some popomole AAA game?!! There isn't even any game description on the back, just a generic "thank you" to backers. The t-shirt is... well a t-shirt with a logo. The one thing I noticed right away was the Microsoft copyright stamp underneath the logo (the box obscures this in my photo) leaving no doubt who owns SR. The bright spot in all the "swag" is the anthology book with a SR poster. The book is much longer than expected at 181 pages of actual stories then six pages of backer names. I've only flipped through the book but I like the layout, art and what little snippets I've read. This is by far the best part of the lot and am actually looking forward to reading it.

Now if only the game had been better*...... Here's hoping that the Berlin Campaign and mods "fix it."






*Though I enjoyed it for what it is

 

[Grauken]

Looks disappointing, expected a bigger box and the cover design is a bit boring.

How does the game actually compare to the old SNES/Genesis games. I have only dim memories of them

 

[TigerKnee]

The only advantage I give Shadowrun Returns over the old console games is tactical combat, and not particularly well-done tactical combat either. Both the console games use weird Real-Time combat.

Everything else including non-linearity is beaten out by the console games, which is pretty sad.

 

[Junmarko]

Well I finally received my Shadowrun Returns Kickstarter "swag" after the game came out months ago. Here is a picture:
View attachment 1943

Very disappointed in the "old school" boxed version as it isn't even the size of the old Gold Box or Phantasie games. It included the game disk and soundtrack in plain white sleeves, my personalized Doc Wagon card and a tin box with the KS dog tag and game usb stick. I like the card and dog tags and mine were not broken or damaged but the box is just really cheap looking/ feeling. Worst of all is THERE IS NO MANUAL!!! What is this, some popomole AAA game?!! There isn't even any game description on the back, just a generic "thank you" to backers. The t-shirt is... well a t-shirt with a logo. The one thing I noticed right away was the Microsoft copyright stamp underneath the logo (the box obscures this in my photo) leaving no doubt who owns SR. The bright spot in all the "swag" is the anthology book with a SR poster. The book is much longer than expected at 181 pages of actual stories then six pages of backer names. I've only flipped through the book but I like the layout, art and what little snippets I've read. This is by far the best part of the lot and am actually looking forward to reading it.

Now if only the game had been better*...... Here's hoping that the Berlin Campaign and mods "fix it."






*Though I enjoyed it for what it is

Fuuuuck. As soon as you mentioned the MS logo, I instantly felt my blood boil. Cunts.

 

[Wizfall]

How does the game actually compare to the old SNES/Genesis games. I have only dim memories of them

Only talking in comparison of the Snes Game
Combats and character development is much better in Return (it was so minimal in the snes games...).
Everything else is worse, especially exploration : while the snes game was linear you have to figure things by yourself and have enough "rooms" to feel you are not railroaded.
Intelligence of the story and coherence with the setting really suck horribly in the second part of Returns (and for the most part unnecessary so).
Returns part 1 was good for what it is though and enjoyable if nothing else.

 

[Blaine]

Fresh from the SRR Kickstarter comments page, get a load of this guy:

Boxes ticked:

• spews anime smiley faces
• obnoxious
• backseat moderation
• LARPing on a comments section on the Internet
• shameless apologist
• disgusting sycophant
• lives in NYC according to profile

 

[Grunker]

he's like a parody

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

When is the big DLC getting released?

 

[Infinitron]

Blaine Careful now, somebody might accuse you of projection.

When is the big DLC getting released?

http://www.rpgcodex.net/article.php?id=9107

 

[DalekFlay]

As bad as the save system was (for some people, I didn't really mind it) it's not something they can "fix," as that commenter suggests. It's pretty core to the design, I suspect.

 

[Zetor]

I only got the PDF, but the book is pretty good -- most of the stories are definitely a cut above the average SR novel. "Dinner with a Friend" was especially amusing when you consider the context (Food Fight).

Fresh from the SRR Kickstarter comments page, get a load of this guy:

Boxes ticked:

• spews anime smiley faces
• obnoxious
• backseat moderation
• LARPing on a comments section on the Internet
• shameless apologist
• disgusting sycophant
• lives in NYC according to profile

Not so backseat, considering that RC is an administrator on shadowrun.com... not that it makes anime smiley faces and LARPing any less annoying.

 

[Blaine]

Not so backseat, considering that RC is an administrator on shadowrun.com... not that it makes anime smiley faces and LARPing any less annoying.

That's even worse. On the other hand, I can't imagine anyone actively involved with modern-day Shadowrun not being a cringeworthy Asperger's sufferer.

 

[Roguey]

All right I finished the book. In general: standard mediocre genre fiction. A lot of the stories wouldn't even make sense unless you've already played Shadowrun Returns and/or are familiar with Shadowrun lore, which makes them a failure in my view. Cherry Bomb by JC Hutchins was the absolute worst because it's utterly gross MRA-type shit. The titular character is also completely different from how she acts in the game; in the afterward, Weisman even apologizes for any discrepancies the short stories have with the game itself because they were all written before the game's story was completed. This one still should have been axed for quality concerns. I'm glad they did eventually became aware enough to scrap CB's horrible original concept as a sociopathic prostitute. SR itself was actually pretty decent in regards to sex and race stuff as far as I could notice.

The afterward also explains why the second half of SR goes Epic: Weisman wanted to do some continuity house-cleaning (that most people don't give a damn about) regarding some book and established lore. Superhero comic writers often fall into the same trap.

The final pages contain a list of backers organized by how much they donated. David Gaider put up $2,500 yet didn't take full advantage by submitting any portraits. What a shame.

 

[Grunker]

That choice of avatar Roguey

 

[Tigranes]

Hoi Chummers!

 

[Shannow]

That choice of avatar Roguey

Yeah, considering that I'd been suspecting for quite some time now...
Roguey, what do you think of Ed Greenwood?

 

[Infinitron]

http://www.egmnow.com/articles/mobile/afterthoughts-shadowrun-returns/

EGM: Can you tell me a little about the project’s inception, its start leading up to the Kickstarter, during, and, of course, after?

Jordan Weisman: We had been wanting to do Shadowrun for a long time. I had tried to pitch a kind of larger-scale game with publishers unsuccessfully, due to the restrictions on the license and publishers not wanting to take up property that another publisher owns. So it was kind of laying dormant, because we knew it was out of the scope of what we could do ourselves—at the time the studio was Mitch and I and eight other people, and we were totally just bootstraps. We didn’t have any kind of significant development budget available, so it was laying over dormant until we saw Tim [Schafer’s] success and said, “Alright, let’s go give it a shot.”

We had developed this level editor for Crimson: Steam Pirates, which we thought could be extended to Shadowrun, and we thought we could eventually release that editor so that people could create their own content, their own stories and adventures in Shadowrun. And the top-down view would make that simple because, you know, developing 3D levels is beyond most people. But the top-down nature would make that accessible. So that’s what we went out and talked about, and the response was so overwhelming that the budget went up to almost five times the original budget. We ended up with a lot more money than we thought we were going to have, and so the scope of the game grew dramatically. So did people’s expectations. People’s expectations grew higher than the budget allowed, and that was kind of a continual thing for us, to try and manage those expectations, because—by videogame standards—the end budget is still very modest.

...

In the same vein, is there anything that didn’t make it into the game that you were really trying to get in or really couldn’t quite get right?

Weisman: Many things. Probably the one that’s the biggest is our save game strategy—that’s something we’ve taken some hits for. As we looked at what we were trying to do, the power and the trigger system could create very, very sophisticated behaviors, but it also meant that the state engine was really disseminated. And so the ability to do instant saves was going to be really, really hard if we wanted to put all that power in the hands of the player—all the level generators and our own internal level generators as well. It’s not that it’s an unconquerable problem, it’s just an unconquerable problem within the time and budget that we had to do both. We chose to go with the content creation power, not the instant saves. Certainly we knew that was a very tough choice at the time, and I still thought we would have made it—giving the power of the creation—but I think we could’ve done a better job of informing people about how the save game works, because the game doesn’t even tell you. It’s a rude surprise.

(thanks GameBanshee)

 

[Infinitron]

EGM: There came a point in the game when I realized it was getting rapidly harder than the first few stages. Is that jump in difficulty scale and the absence of communication to the player intentional? I’m not a tabletop role-playing gamer myself, but some of my workmates are, and they inform me that this level of difficulty is common. Is that something that you wanted to replicate within Shadowrun Returns?

Weisman: This is one of the challenges of having so many different archetypes. Depending on how different people play different archetypes, some people view the campaign as being very easy and some view it as being very difficult. We had to find a balance that was exactly even across all of them. But yeah, we did want the game to go through a ramp of difficulty. We were trying to make sure that we gave the player the tools to meet that difficulty as it occurred. Maybe, as you said, for people who weren’t as familiar with the mileau the communication wasn’t sufficient enough to give them a heads up about it. That’s certainly something we’ll pay attention to and try to correct more. But I think your goal in a game is to challenge a player enough to make them think that their victory is something they feel is an accomplishment, but not make it such that the frustration level is one that they stop playing. It’s a hard edge to walk down, and you’re lucky when you get it right.

And this is why Sawyer does what he does.

 

[mindx2]

EGM: There came a point in the game when I realized it was getting rapidly harder than the first few stages. Is that jump in difficulty scale and the absence of communication to the player intentional? I’m not a tabletop role-playing gamer myself, but some of my workmates are, and they inform me that this level of difficulty is common..

That quote right there speaks volumes. What, are games not supposed to present any challenge unless it's some "HARDCORZ-TABLZ-TOP" inspired game?! And this guy works in the games journo business?! Man, it's reading things like that that really makes me sad....

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I don't think he means difficulty in general, so much as he means a sudden jump in difficuly.

 

[DeepOcean]

EGM: There came a point in the game when I realized it was getting rapidly harder than the first few stages. Is that jump in difficulty scale and the absence of communication to the player intentional? I’m not a tabletop role-playing gamer myself, but some of my workmates are, and they inform me that this level of difficulty is common..

That quote right there speaks volumes. What, are games not supposed to present any challenge unless it's some "HARDCORZ-TABLZ-TOP" inspired game?! And this guy works in the games journo business?! Man, it's reading things like that that really makes me sad....

I think he wanted a warning:"Hey dumbfuck! This gonna be a difficult one, so stop LARPING and play for realz this time."

 

[Rake]

If someone found SRR hard... All you had to do in hardest difficulty was come close and shoot the enemy. Zero tactics required.

 

[Roguey]

I think he wanted a warning:"Hey dumbfuck! This gonna be a difficult one, so stop LARPING and play for realz this time."

The first boss fight should have been the biggest hint that they were ready to ramp things up.

That being said, the cemetery fight is a pretty massive jump in difficulty, but it immediately slides down into slightly-more-demanding-than-the-first-half and stays there for the remainder of the game.

If someone found SRR hard... All you had to do in hardest difficulty was come close and shoot the enemy. Zero tactics required.

Bullshit.

 

[Rake]

If someone found SRR hard... All you had to do in hardest difficulty was come close and shoot the enemy. Zero tactics required.

Bullshit.

With the exeption of two missions, that was all that was required. Even the last mission was beatable that way.

 

[Roguey]

With the exeption of two missions, that was all that was required. Even the last mission was beatable that way.

Nope. Finding good cover: pretty important. Healing damage: pretty important. Scouting in a way that doesn't leave you vulnerable: pretty important.