Shadowrun Shadowrun Returns Pre-Release Thread

[WetWorks]

Thx for that info in your mini review, Roxxor. I must admit the codex negativity and the reviews snippets were starting to take its toll on me, but now i'm back to being slightly optimistic, while knowing what to expect.

 

[Skunkpew]

I'm pumped for this game. I even dreamed about waking up and having it a day early. Time to put down Wasteland and install Steam for the first time.

It's pretty funny that they open with

we'll pretend that Microsoft's 2007 competitive shooter take on the series didn't happen.

considering that at least two, possibly several of the same people, including Mitch Gitelman, worked on that 'Microsoft's 2007 competitive shooter'. Hah.

Mitch has admitted many times the Shadowrun FPS was a disappointment (it's even in their kickstarter video,) and that he took pride in staying with the company and returning Shadowrun to what it should be.

 

[J_C]

Wow, you guys got riled up by a Eurogaymer review? So much for independent critical Codex thought that laughs at popamole media. I guess I should have left some other impressions after all

In fact, I have some justified doubts that this reviewer has NOT finished the (ridiculously short) game before penning this review.

Anyways!

First off, Roguey is a dirty liar (as if that wasn't obvious). The game has an easy/normal/hard/very hard difficulty setting. Finished my first playthrough on normal, only briefly played and started a hard one, but I already noticed differences - on normal NOBODY uses grenades, on hard I got mortared by the first street punk I met. So that's that. No idea how it changes later during the course of the game.

But still, on normal difficulty, the game felt pretty easy to me, too easy even. I died only a whole grand total of 3 times during the entire playthrough, and two of these times were not even in "actual" combat, but in cyberspace. It's also really BLEH-kind of easy for most of the early game, but fortunately picks up a bit when you finally start doing "full-time" runs with full parties of runners that you recruit. This is mostly around the middle of the game.

The low difficulty, however, is the product of one very, VERY bad thing. It's not the design of the set piece shootouts because some of the later ones are actually pretty damn gripping and cool, but from the fact that this game has no resource management whatsoever. Having one mage guy with heal means you'll probably never use medkits. Ammo never runs out. No special ammo to manage. You hardly ever use grenades. No reason to bother with stat-boost drugs. Some of the runs (especially the final one) WOULD actually be pretty damn hard IF you had to manage your supplies, ammo and medkits especially. But as it is now, the only things you gotta manage are shaman fetishes and rigger droid repair kits (cuz you cant heal them with magix).

The karma thing, I'll need to test it with my second playthrough to see how different it is to play an asshole, but the way this eurogamer review says it blows it out of proportion. Doing "goody-two-shoes" activities like returning a hobo's blanket from an alleyway 5 steps away from him (literally) happens ONCE EVERY BLUE MOON. Most of the karma you get for doing actual missions and shit that you'd get anyway even if you showed everyone the middle finger. The amount of skill points you'd miss on by ignoring these "good guy" things is negligible.

The game is pretty linear, yeah, which is unfortunate. BUT! it does allow for some side stuff and flexibility. The combat setpieces have many funky things for most classes, which adds a little to the tacticool/replayability layer. Rigger drones can flank shit from air ducts, shamen can summon spirits out of environmental links, mages get boosted by ley lines. Most of the talky-kind of runs supply different ways of tackling problems, one of the undercover missions has actually quite a few options that you have to actively dig for. You've obviously got the skill checks and shit as well. The missions are generally neatly varied and strike a good balance between raiding and going undercover.

Also, where the game definitely excells is portraying the "punk". The world is darkmaturegritty, people use all kinds of slang, it's dog-eat-dog, druggies, hobos, strippers and cyber-augmented doods on every step. Writing generally is also very good, except for the plethora of typoes.

Oh and the musix. Them musix. It's like a mix of Crusader: No Regret, System Shock 2 and Blake Stone. The game is worth playing for the music alone.


There are obviously some more things that I'll be writing about in solid detail, and I still have to go through my second playthrough to see different shit, but my bottom line for this game is this: It's only good while could have been truly great. It's generally rather 'limited' or 'shallow' in most areas, and all of them could have been expanded really easily, but I suspect Harebrained simply had to focus on just putting out a focused and "full" game with the limited funds they had. And that they managed to do. Despite the shortcomings, I had massive fun playing this game, and I was only left with a hunger for MOAR.

Fucking Codex falling for the Euroderp review. And fucking me for listening to the Codex. I have to flip-flop and say, it doesn't sound bad afterall. Can't wait to finish work and go home to play some SSR.

 

[m_s0]

I'm pumped for this game. I even dreamed about waking up and having it a day early. Time to put down Wasteland and install Steam for the first time.



Mitch has admitted many times the Shadowrun FPS was a disappointment (it's even in their kickstarter video,) and that he took pride in staying with the company and returning Shadowrun to what it should be.

It's completely beside the point so no need to defend him.

 

[Rake]

Darth Roxor
How polished the game is? Have you found any bugs?

 

[Zed]

Fucking Codex falling for the Euroderp review. And fucking me for listening to the Codex. I have to flip-flop and say, it doesn't sound bad afterall. Can't wait to finish work and go home to play some SSR.

Are you gonna hate on Double Fine too, now?

 

[MicoSelva]

Thank you for that DR. Your post really made this thread readable again.
Short but good campaign is so much better than a long boring one, like NWN1 OC.
The editor looks like it could give us a lot of fun. Hopefully I will have the time to implement a few ideas I have.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Eight more hours...add that half a hour download(if my provider is having a good day ofc...)
Dwarven punk squad on its way !

 

[Grauken]

I can already start the campaign, odd

 

[Zed]

Eight more hours...add that half a hour download(if my provider is having a good day ofc...)
Dwarven punk squad on its way !

Oh yeah. I'm an idiot... I thought it was gonna be at midnight, but it's actually at 7PM. Woohoo! Maybe I should order a pizza in honor of the day.

 

[Wizfall]

Thanks for your mini review DR.
Lot of idiots ready to talk nonsense.
Turns out to be exactly what i expected right from the start of the kickstarter : a somewhat limited cRPG in the spirit of the console one but very enjoyable to play (like the console one).
Fuck the retards that expected a new JA or new PST, it would have been impossible to make and not the objective anyway.

Also people that can stand the "fantasy" side of shadiwrun should read the lore before criticizing it.
I was like them before bit once i read the lore i really like the way it was implemented and considered it after a great asset.
So make an effort to read the lore, give it a chance i bet you will not be disappointed.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Maybe it's a good thing that it's short, a long campaign with the streamlining and lack of complexity Darth Roxor mentioned, would probably be a more grating experience.

For example, although i had fun with Conquistador, the lack of depth and polish showed through in the end and it only lasted so long before i got bored and annoyed with the campaign.

 

[Elthosian]

Hey DR, can you choose any of the difficulty levels the first time you play the game or do you have to unlock the highest ones? Thanks in advance man, can't wait to try it.

 

[General Maxson]

Hey DR, can you choose any of the difficulty levels the first time you play the game or do you have to unlock the highest ones? Thanks in advance man, can't wait to try it.

You're mistaking it for a Blizzard game.

They would be morons if they did that with this game.

Edit: Yes, you can change the difficulty immediately from the options menu.

 

[Zewp]

LOL.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/234650/discussions/0/864974396538341991/

 

[catfood]

So...

uh...

guys...

considering that today is my birthday I wouldn't suppose anyone has an extra key to spare? Late to the (begging) party, I know.

EDIT: there's no need anymore. I already got one from a secret benefactor :D

 

[Cyberarmy]

LOL.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/234650/discussions/0/864974396538341991/

I'm calling in an Exterminatus! Brace yourselves!

 

[Infinitron]

Is this going to happen with every new Kickstarter game that's released? Just wait for somebody to show up and offer keys.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Hey DR, can you choose any of the difficulty levels the first time you play the game or do you have to unlock the highest ones? Thanks in advance man, can't wait to try it.

All difficulty levels are available from the start.

How polished the game is? Have you found any bugs?

Pretty polished. Runs smoothly, no crashes. The only bug I've found so far was that a (non-vital) hotspot wouldn't activate a second time after inspecting it once.

 

[Elthosian]

Hey DR, can you choose any of the difficulty levels the first time you play the game or do you have to unlock the highest ones? Thanks in advance man, can't wait to try it.

You're mistaking it for a Blizzard game.

They would be morons if they did that with this game.

Edit: Yes, you can change the difficulty immediately from the options menu.

Thanks! I feared it would be the case with this game after seeing how many devs (including some of my favourites like Retro Studios ) tend to force you to play in baby's first mode even if you want a real challenge from your first playthrough.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

So, where does someone start catching up on Shadowrun lore? And rulesets?

 

[CWagner]

So, where does someone start catching up on Shadowrun lore? And rulesets?

http://harebrained-schemes.com/shadowrun/primer

It's pretty comprehensive

No rule stuff though, it's pure Lore and that should be all you need for SRR. If you need the rules you'll have to acquire the 1st or 2nd edition corebook.

 

[Cyberarmy]

So, where does someone start catching up on Shadowrun lore? And rulesets?

This is good for starters

https://s3.amazonaws.com/www.harebrained-schemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/shadowrun_primer.pdf

Edit : Ninjad

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Thanks bros. This should be something to do whilst I download.

 

[CWagner]

By the way, I made a small review compilation on Reddit if you want to check out some more: http://www.reddit.com/r/shadowrunreturns/comments/1j0lcg/srr_reviewlist_post/