Shadowrun: Returns is live, 20 years since the SNES, 19 years since Genesis Options

[ShadowDragon8685]

I also really wish that Coyote, Paco and Shannon Half-Sky were always available to go with you.

Sure, they're not the greatest, they're not super-pros, they're sure not

[ Spoiler ]

Har'lea'quinn

, but you know what? They've got skin in the game, directly or indirectly. They make a great "team" - not people you hire for a quick mercenary run and then go your separate ways with, but folks who have been touched by the plot and want to touch back - with a machine gun.

It'd also be nice if you could spend their Karma/equip them out of your equipment pool as well.

[Stahlseele]

Coyote at least is, in my eyes, BETTER than him.
Because SHE gets a frigging shotgun with good damage, spread and later on burst fire!
Fragging Idiot runs up to where i unload a metal storm with a friggin iron poker <.<

[ShadowDragon8685]

Coyote at least is, in my eyes, BETTER than him.
Because SHE gets a frigging shotgun with good damage, spread and later on burst fire!
Fragging Idiot runs up to where i unload a metal storm with a friggin iron poker <.<

Wouldn't it be nice if he had a gun, at least?

[Stahlseele]

Yes.
A Gun.
ANY GUN!
Or at least some better offensive spells.
So he has no need to run into my line of fire <.<
I lost count on how often i killed him by now . . .

[FuelDrop]

Yes.
A Gun.
ANY GUN!
Or at least some better offensive spells.
So he has no need to run into my line of fire <.<
I lost count on how often i killed him by now . . .

I honestly never had a problem with killing ol' Leroy Jenkins due to friendly fire. The hostiles on overwatch took care of that fast enough. (Though when I beat the game I made it through with no casualties despite the most worthless hireling I have ever seen.)

[Stahlseele]

i had to spend more doc wagons on him than i spent the entire game before him <.<
and most of the time it was me who killed him. burst fire shotguns and 44 damage spread.

[FuelDrop]

Actually, my third and final runthrough of the final level was pretty much a perfect run.
No medkits. No docwagon. One heal spell between the 4 of us.
One millstone hireling.
0 fatalities. only one guy under half hp.

I'm glad I chose being awesome as a career.

[Elfenlied]

Wow, Kneecap finally got its deserved nerf.

[mister__joshua]

So, I just finished SR:R...

I think it's a good game, but it has its flaws. I like the text-based adventure bit, but I think it's sadly, largely too linear. There is a bit of a branch where you can take a proper side-job working for a Mr. J, though it's outright heinous that my high-Charisma elf simply didn't get the option to negotiate for more pay.

Among the flaws, though... Some are engine-related, some are mission-building related in the main missions. For instance...

You shouldn't invest too heavily in decking. I mean, you can make a Decker and survive and all, but you only get one shot at getting that Fairlight Excalibur, and even if you get it, you only get two chances to use it in the course of one Run. Even if you do so, though, it won't matter after that bit, so you're paying 5K for a great advantage in two hacky-bits and then nothing else. This is mainly a matter of story-building: more opportunities for decking could have been put in the game; for instance, a quick decking here or there in the climactic finale to get some auto-turrets installed by one of the slightly less insane members of the cult online and working for you.

Charisma and Etiquette. Some Etiquettes are more useful than others, and I think a few are only called up like, once in the game, and it doesn't get you anything to be able to do so beyond being considered a clever girl by some big-name NPCs. It's also frustrating that there's no "so you have really high Charisma, you can talk the bad guy out of it" option at the end, like a really masterful negotiator in Fallout or Arcanum could talk the BBEG to death.

Some things were more disappointing in the way they were implemented. Wired Reflexes - that should be a no-brainer, they should give you +1 AP. Instead, for some reason, they make you auto-dodge the first "effect" that happens to you after you trigger them. Even if that "effect" is a buff, healing spell, or reloading your own freaking gun. Drones were a massive disappointment, often the only reason to have them along is to have them passively offering another target for bad guys to randomly choose to shoot at, and Spirits, I found, were often literally worse than useless, and they would turn on me when I most desperately needed them to be on my side.

Also, honestly, they just plain-out missed an opportunity to have a 'world hub' and the ability to have your preexisting character go on different storylines and such.

Still, it wasn't all that bad. I was hooked from start to finish. But I agree that it was more of a Shadowrun novel (or novella) with a heavy combat tactics game attached to it, light on the other game aspects.

This echoes most of my feelings on the game. Overall I enjoyed it, and that's what matters, but I think they've missed out big time on what was possible, and what from their Kickstarter Vids I thought they were going to do.

Pros:
- I liked the story, and enjoyed the dialogue.
- The tactical elements of the combat were nice.
- The NPCs are nice. Coyote is very useful.
- My Bear totem ability was cool.
- The decking, while infrequent, was fun and well executed.
- Overall I had fun playing it.

Cons:
- Conversation choices weren't meaningful and often did nothing at all.
- I played a Shaman and the further I got into the game the more I though 'I wish I'd made a troll with a shotgun'.
- The game was far more linear than I thought it would be. Even just the chance to go back to areas would be nice. I swiped a necklace for a guy, forgot to give it to him, and could never visit that area again.
- Pretty much everything comes second to street sams, especially shotgun-wielding ones.
- The spirit summoning was a bit sucky, and I put a load of points into it.
- I thought the characters would be more customisable appearance-wise


In the main, I think this game has all the tools to be awesome and I'm really hoping for some good community created content. However I was a little disappointed with 'Dead man's switch'.

[mister__joshua]

You get to talk to people afterwards, just not at the Union.

I didn't think the last fight was all that bad. The fight that really kicked my butt was the graveyard fight.

I found the graveyard fight the hardest. I think it's because, for some inexplicable reason, they just target your runner and not either of your tem-mates. This results in quick death. I had to use a lot of 'nades to escape.

Actually that's another thing for my Con's list
- There are trauma kits to bring back dead team-mates, but the PC going down results in instant game-over.

[DWC]

I found the graveyard fight the hardest. I think it's because, for some inexplicable reason, they just target your runner and not either of your tem-mates. This results in quick death. I had to use a lot of 'nades to escape.

Actually that's another thing for my Con's list
- There are trauma kits to bring back dead team-mates, but the PC going down results in instant game-over.

In an amusing twist, since my runner was a street sam with a cracked out Dodge, I tended to stand out in the open and breakdance my way out of taking damage, keeping my team unharmed.

[Tanegar]

In an amusing twist, since my runner was a street sam with a cracked out Dodge, I tended to stand out in the open and breakdance my way out of taking damage, keeping my team unharmed.

From now on, all characters in my game who make their Defense roll will be described as breakdancing out of the bullet's path.

[Vegetaman]

Any of the UGC missions that I should check out? Been dinking around with the SNES alpha so far, but I think the 1.0.2 patch broke a few things.

[Tzeentch]

In an amusing twist, since my runner was a street sam with a cracked out Dodge, I tended to stand out in the open and breakdance my way out of taking damage, keeping my team unharmed.

You son of a bitch, now I can't get that imagery out of my mind. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Bigity]

I want to say I've seen something like that before.

[RHat]

I found the graveyard fight the hardest. I think it's because, for some inexplicable reason, they just target your runner and not either of your tem-mates. This results in quick death. I had to use a lot of 'nades to escape.

Actually that's another thing for my Con's list
- There are trauma kits to bring back dead team-mates, but the PC going down results in instant game-over.

Easy way to win that fight: Go through the first wave of guys, and take cover up the path. You can actually set it up so that they just end up fighting the ghouls and you can just come in and do cleanup. Bonus points if you have the wall conjurations, or drop a strong spirit into the crossfire zone (as once it goes free, it's still attacking all the right people).

[Vegetaman]

Any of the UGC missions that I should check out? Been dinking around with the SNES alpha so far, but I think the 1.0.2 patch broke a few things.

Found my first favorite work in progress. Check out Jacked-Up, it shows a lot of promise. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cyber.gif)

[DamHawke]

So, the first patch is out, and they're working on the Berlin DLC already with a potential late October release.

http://harebrained-schemes.com/post/whats-...and-whats-next/

[ShadowDragon8685]

So, I'm re-running Dead Man's Switch for a laff with a massively powerful starting character (~410 Karma instead of 34, 20,000 starting nyuen,) and... Well, it's the same old campaign it always was. However, I've just noticed a rather glaring plot hole. Well, not so much a plot hole as a "why the hell can't I do this, again?"

[ Spoiler ]

The side mission Johnson after you go to the UB the first time wants you to kidnap a Renraku scientist. You can offer the scientist the option to pay better (and really, anything over 9,000 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) , or even if you lie, 15,000 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) is a steal for your own personal freedom,) than the run Johnson and you'll walk away from him. However, he tells you that he can't beat their money: Renraku froze all of his funds for "security" (bad move, guys,) and he only has 5,000 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) on him.

Let me reiterate: he has five thousand nuyen on his person.

Why do we not then have the option to coldcock him, relieve him of the 5,000 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) he has on his person, and hock his ass for the 9,000 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) the Johnson already promised?

Also, there's Paydata available in this mission. The Run Johnson will only give you an additional 1,500 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) for it... Why on Earth don't we have the option to sell it to Van Graas instead? It's just the kind of thing that would make good trade for a Corp or Academic etiquette call.

Gah, gonk.

[Wounded Ronin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXPUkrz7Uow

(Big in Japan, Alphaville)

I think that this music video should be part of the Berlin campaign. It involves the pseudo-Japanese 80s aesthetic of Shadowrun (STR + 3 M, with the + 3 coz Asian) with a German band. Few things are a more direct representation of what a Shadowrun game set in Germany should be.

[Doc Chaos]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXPUkrz7Uow

(Big in Japan, Alphaville)

I think that this music video should be part of the Berlin campaign. It involves the pseudo-Japanese 80s aesthetic of Shadowrun (STR + 3 M, with the + 3 coz Asian) with a German band. Few things are a more direct representation of what a Shadowrun game set in Germany should be.

Ironically, this song is unavailable on YouTube for users in Germany because of licensing drek. ;D

[phlapjack77]

Ironically, this song is unavailable on YouTube for users in Germany because of licensing drek. ;D

In my opinion, you're not missing that much. (no offense, WR)

Now on the other hand, THIS video that I found on reddit...this has that 80's SR feel in spades...