Shadowrun Shadowrun Returns - Dead Man's Switch Original Campaign

[True Ukrainian]

I've never read that novel right, by purpose. I always chose to see replicants as a personification of the ultra specialized autistic mono-maniakish psychopaths that will slowly replace us.

And this is a right way to read that novel, ironically. Author doesnt try to evoke empathy or sympathy from the reader towards replicants.

I remember this old interview with Dick where he said that making reps sympathetic went against the entire message of the book.

 

[tky]

Spending points on a weapon skill while playing as a mage is a waste. Mages have a free use spell that serves the same role as a gun.

In my defense: it's hard to know that playing the game for the first time, but I do see what you mean.

Isn't playing a Decker kind of mandatory in this game? Since there are no companions to hack things for you.

So far, outside of a few speech checks, no mandatory Decker.





As it turned out, my choice of some extra health at the beginning was a pretty good one because I seem to start evey fight in the open, being shot in the face...

What's a better way to show you're a decendant of japanese than to say random japanese words in your phrases, huh? Because that's how ancestry works... Annoying is what it is.

Suprisingly, outside of the openning salvos, enemies barely touch me and fights are quite easy. I was expecting a bit more from the second highest difficulty.

There's also quite a bit of space that just goes unused.

The hardest fight so far, a random dog-like creature, and only because I can't take cover.

Some random Elf the game calls ugly. There's a 100% chance he's gonna be a vilain.

I'm running a mix of utility spells and damage. So far armor doesn't seem to be worth it.

First bug I run into; thankfully harmless. Apparently my character took it way too seriously to "run the shadows". Or maybe he just didn't wanted to be seen paying a bribe.

Finally, my build so far:

Overrall, game's been fun so far, if a bit too simplistic. Unless the game drops the ball too hard, I already have Dragonfall and Hong Kong lined up next.

 

[True Ukrainian]

DF and HK are both much better than the original campaign. Most people agree that DF is overall the best in the trilogy, but HK makes an effort to be a challenge and is far less generous with quest rewards.

 

[OSK]

Overrall, game's been fun so far, if a bit too simplistic. Unless the game drops the ball too hard, I already have Dragonfall and Hong Kong lined up next.

There's a turning point where the story takes a massive nose dive, but the combat encounters greatly improve. The sequels are much better.

 

[Ninjerk]

tky quit after the graveyard

 

[Delterius]

random japanese words in your phrases

your first cyberpunk?

 

[Ninjerk]

random japanese words in your phrases

your first cyberpunk?

what are you looking at gwailo

 

[True Ukrainian]

random japanese words in your phrases

your first cyberpunk?

To be fair, the sequels don't have this problem. The writing improved quite a bit.

 

[Mauman]

To be fair, the sequels don't have this problem. The writing improved quite a bit.

The sequels take place in locations that still have their cultural identities intact, and the implications (and flat out spelling it out in HK) that the game's dialogue is taking place in their native languages.

The conlang in Seattle is the way it is because Seattle has no real cultural identity of it's own anymore due to it's location, political and economic setup, and it's neighbors (unless you count the moshpit mess that it has become as it's own identity). So yeah, as much as it seems weird it makes perfect sense that the language would have a mess of extras peppered in.

 

[tky]

DF and HK are both much better than the original campaign. Most people agree that DF is overall the best in the trilogy, but HK makes an effort to be a challenge and is far less generous with quest rewards.

Good to know.

There's a turning point where the story takes a massive nose dive, but the combat encounters greatly improve. The sequels are much better.

tky quit after the graveyard

Yeah, the whole second part felt a lot like it was more on the "boulder punching" side of storytelling.
Another vilain going for a "complete global saturation".

your first cyberpunk?

In general, or just in gaming? In general, I've seen Ghost in the Shell, although the movie had a noticeable lack of Origa.
In gaming... well, I've played Digimon before. So it depends whether it counts or not.

The sequels take place in locations that still have their cultural identities intact, and the implications (and flat out spelling it out in HK) that the game's dialogue is taking place in their native languages.

The conlang in Seattle is the way it is because Seattle has no real cultural identity of it's own anymore due to it's location, political and economic setup, and it's neighbors (unless you count the moshpit mess that it has become as it's own identity). So yeah, as much as it seems weird it makes perfect sense that the language would have a mess of extras peppered in.

[Informative]

 

[tky]

Well, my work brought me to a Shaman, as things start shifting to the unnatural. At least she's paying. It's usually the other way around with these spiritual types.

But my journey can't continue before pulling Coyote ass out of the fire once again.

Back on track, I signed up these two for my future missions:

And they both ended up being useless throughout most of the campaign. A punching girl with no hit chance while punching and a decker with no decking in missions.


The only time my ettiquete ended up being used.

The one decking mission, which the game basically hand waves to you.

In between missions, I switched to a elektromage of sorts. It seems to be the best offensive spell type.

And there it is. The vilain. Weird that the game tried a half-assed justification for him to sound 'reasonable'.

Then the real baddie shows up.

Proceeded by the best battle by far in the game. The ghouls were a fun surprise. Died twice. Once because the ghouls caught me off-guard. Once because the RNG didn't go my way.

This show by Mercurial turns out to be being nothing at the end.

After dealing with extradimensional bugs, the demsel is undistressed and leads me to her daddy and his band of wackos.

After that, more bug squashing and the final confrontation:

Finished her off and went to receive my deserved reward: 100K.

And my final build. Basicaly BODY + WILL. The quickness was just because I had nothing else to buy:

Overall enjoyable, but I don't see it being replayable because there isn't much in the way of choices that change progression and buildcraft is quite straightforward. Still, as I said, I will be playing the sequels for sure. But first, I have unfinished business with a game I just recently purchased, and I need to have something in reserve to remove the bad taste in the mouth in case things go south with that one.

 

[Faarbaute]

Just finished The Dead Man's Switch for the first time and I'm not terribly impressed. I think I might have made a mistake playing as a Decker/Rigger as I didn't enjoy having all the weapon slots beeing taken up with the cyberdeck and drones.

Went online to try to find a way to extend the weaponslots but it was a bust. Seems there was a console command that did this but that was patched out at some point so I ended up bringing just a single drone and a pistol along with the cyberdeck.

The gameplay feelt pretty basic. It would have been servicable if it wasn't for the fact that everything feelt so sluggish and unresponsive. I tried toggling between single/double click in the options but it was just two kinds of bad.

The moment to moment gameplay really took a dive when you had to bring those bugspray shotties, also making my previous predicament about what weapons to bring a moot point anyway.

Are the sequels any better or are they just more of the same?

 

[Roguey]

Are the sequels any better or are they just more of the same?

They're both improvements but fundamentally similar.

 

[Sykar]

Overall enjoyable, but I don't see it being replayable because there isn't much in the way of choices that change progression and buildcraft is quite straightforward. Still, as I said, I will be playing the sequels for sure. But first, I have unfinished business with a game I just recently purchased, and I need to have something in reserve to remove the bad taste in the mouth in case things go south with that one.

Just finished The Dead Man's Switch for the first time and I'm not terribly impressed. I think I might have made a mistake playing as a Decker/Rigger as I didn't enjoy having all the weapon slots beeing taken up with the cyberdeck and drones.

Went online to try to find a way to extend the weaponslots but it was a bust. Seems there was a console command that did this but that was patched out at some point so I ended up bringing just a single drone and a pistol along with the cyberdeck.

The gameplay feelt pretty basic. It would have been servicable if it wasn't for the fact that everything feelt so sluggish and unresponsive. I tried toggling between single/double click in the options but it was just two kinds of bad.

The moment to moment gameplay really took a dive when you had to bring those bugspray shotties, also making my previous predicament about what weapons to bring a moot point anyway.

Are the sequels any better or are they just more of the same?

The main selling point and what the supporters asked for was the editor which is why the campaign is on the light side in terms of content.

 

[Faarbaute]

The main selling point and what the supporters asked for was the editor which is why the campaign is on the light side in terms of content.

Makes sense.

Gonna give Dragonfall a shot next as I already have it in my library.

 

[Falksi]

Only just seen that the Shadowrun games are coming to Switch soon.

So not long now before all the fuckwits who have ignored and dismissed these games for years, suddenly decide that they are the some of the greatest ever "RPGs ever made by Nintendo on any system".

 

[Roguey]

The main selling point and what the supporters asked for was the editor which is why the campaign is on the light side in terms of content.

It's on the light side because they made it in 15 months (and had to borrow more money to get that much time because they ran out of Kickstarter funds). Focusing on the editor contributed a bit, but it wasn't the "main selling point" and it's not even that good (NWN this isn't).

 

[Sykar]

The comparison to NWN is not even remotely fair and yes the Editor was a main selling point. They asked the community/backers what they should focus on and the majority voted "Editor".

 

[Faarbaute]

Gonna give Dragonfall a shot next as I already have it in my library.

Because I'm retarded I've gone and made another rigger, this time without decking though. Quickly ran into that decker/rigger companion and I'm thinking about restarting with another build and bring this nigga along instead. Anyone have any suggestions for a fun character? Or should I just stick with my rigger?

The game seems alot better on first impression. It feels more like an actual game and less like something I threw together in Unity as proof of concept. The UI has been redesigned for the better IMO and it just feels snappier. Like, there are less needless pausing/lockout when swapping between diffrent UI elements and navigating and using actions in combat feelt alot less cumbersome somehow.

Off to a good start!

 

[Faarbaute]

Gonna give Dragonfall a shot next as I already have it in my library.

Because I'm retarded I've gone and made another rigger, this time without decking though ... I'm thinking about restarting with another build

Ended up rerolling as a rifle/decker and finished the game without too mutch hassle on hard. Overall it was an enjoyable experience, one that benefited greatly from having played Shadowrun: Returns beforehand in my opinion. It set the bar appropriately low and made for a pleasant surprise when they had indeed improved on most aspects of the game. I had to hold my nose at the narrative at times but that's mostly down to personal preference, I imagine.

Already bought and downloaded Shadowrun: Hongkong and intend to play it sometime in the near future, athough it might be a bit mutch to go back to back to back, we'll see.

I give it a solid 3.5 out of 5 - Good for what it is.

 

[Faarbaute]

Something that's been bothering me about these games is how bad and juvenile the writing feels at times.

Specifically the characters feel really gay and juvenile, reminiscent of something a 14 year old would come up with. Is this just Hairbrained Schemes writers writing what they know or is this the quintessential Shadowrun experience? It's been getting worse for each successive installment but HongKong really takes the cake. The dark secret pasts, the quirky personalities, the unique snowflakes, the daddy issues... It makes me want to puke. As far as the rest is concerned, I don't even know anymore. All I wanted was to wear a trenchcoat and bop some bad guys with my cyber pistol, maybe tangle with some dystopian mega corps but It's getting really hard to see past the writing, the characters, the motivations.. ugh.

To any connoissuirs among you, are the modern Shadowrun games representative of the genre overall in your opinion? Or even representative of Shadowrun in general? I'm slowly starting to hate the whole thing.

 

[mediocrepoet]

To any connoissuirs among you, are the modern Shadowrun games representative of the genre overall in your opinion? Or even representative of Shadowrun in general? I'm slowly starting to hate the whole thing.

No, I didn't hate the games, though I've never finished Hong Kong. Dragonfall is actually pretty good imo. But the games felt very sanitized and "rated PG" compared to any of the Shadowrun tabletop games my friends and I played years ago. Our games were far more mature and dark in tone, whereas I feel like HBS aimed for a younger audience of like early teens or maybe even tweeners.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

To any connoissuirs among you, are the modern Shadowrun games representative of the genre overall in your opinion? Or even representative of Shadowrun in general? I'm slowly starting to hate the whole thing.

Decent games but I was shocked to learn there's apparently quite a few people that think they're amazing.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Decent games but I was shocked to learn there's apparently quite a few people that think they're amazing.

I feel like HBS aimed for a younger audience of like early teens or maybe even tweeners.

... and Redditwitter manchildren.

 

[Lacrymas]

There are a lot of mature themes that get explored in these games, but with very little nuance and some of the takes are ice cold. It's obvious the writers haven't really experienced the things they are writing about and so they come off as campy at best. The nu-Shadowruns are popcorn games and not much else. That doesn't mean they are bad, just a bit inconsequential.