Shadowrun Kickstarter

[heybeardo]

I finished the main campaign last night and was generally really happy with the experience. The last series of fights got a bit tedious for me and the combat system started to show its limitations more but overall I had a lot of fun.

 

Looking forward to trying Dragonfall now.

[clyde]

I also finished last night. I would have rather talked to characters about interesting things than fought a bunch of enemies that required a new pattern. Still, I hadn't used an adept all game and having one be mandatory showed me how much fun they are to use. I took both members that were recommended and had a great time increasing crit-chances as a team.

I subscribed to the highest ranked steamworkshop mod whose description sounds ambitious.

[clyde]

I played a little bit of the Shadowrun Unlimited mod this morning. I think this may be the first mod of anything I've played.

The tonal difference between this and the main campaign is immediately apparent. While in the campaign I was being treated as someone who paid admission for a fun ride, Shadowrun Unlimited is more alienating. Early on, an NPC says "What, you don't want to do fetch-quests? Take a fuckin hike. If you want to be a runner, you got to pay your dues." I don't think that the official campaign could have pulled that off, but this mod totally does.

There is a feeling that I can truly fuck up in the mod and that it owes me nothing. That's particularly appropriate for a cyberpunk setting IMO. I went into a run-down apartment complex to buy some spells and there were a bunch of unlocked doors that looked to be the doors to people's apartments. If it had been the campaign, I would have gone in every one of them, but because I don't trust that the mod is going to make sure I have a good time, I just went to find my contact and left. I didn't want any trouble. I still have no idea if those rooms were just loot-lockers or if my street-smarts were rewarded with no news.

Another thing is that you subscribe to an insurance plan that takes you to a doctor to get revived if you are killed. I have no idea if you lose your character without insurance, but I'm not taking the chance (and I don't really want to know). So every pay-day gets 100 some nuyen deducted from it for insurance so someone will care enough about me to keep me alive. Cyberpunk.

Another example is mission specific

I was on a courier mission and got shaken down. They asked me for 150 nuyen. My thought process was "This is a mod. These guys might actually kill me. 150 nuyen? Sure, I'd probably pay that in medkits or rent in order to heal anyway." If it had been the campaign, I would have just assumed I would be able to take them.

Now if I can just figure out where this stupid Jackal's Tavern or whatever is. My little yellow objective compass isn't telling me.

[heybeardo]

Nice one, that mod sounds really cool. I've downloaded Nightmare Harvest as well. Think I'll try a decker this time rather than a street samurai.

[elmuerte]

I've been playing the game since the flash sale. I'm a bit disappointed on how empty and linear the wold it. I'm not that far yet, but so far it's quite ok.

[clyde]

I was a decker in the campaign and it was a disappointment. In Shadowrun Unlimited I chose adept and now there are terminals everywhere thay I can't hack. I used a karma point for decking and then went to buy a Sony. It's like 5000 nuyen. I like the fact that it will take effort.

[mikemariano]

I am very near the end of Dragonfall playing as a Decker, and I'm very glad there are many more opportunities for decking.

[clyde]

What do y'all think about the dialogue UI in this game? I'm trying to figure out if the offset, tall format in Shadowrun Returns has advantages over the typical visual-novel format where a large text-box appears at the bottom of the screen and then choices overlap the screen with separate, centered boxes.

I enjoy the temporary speech bubbles that happen in the game-screen for flavor, though I've missed a couple of them.

[Tanukitsune]

I beat Dragonfall and at first it was kinda disappointing to know the campaign was mostly random missions to get money for the real quest.

 

On the other hand, in one of the quests I actually managed to use my charisma, intelligence and other skills to not have to fight at all during a certain mission.

 

I don't think it's a spoiler to say that this game for once does have a truly "gray" ending, in Teltalle Games I know my decisions will eventually get someone killed and sometimes don't even matter, but in this game? I really have no idea if I did the right thing...

[SilentBtAmazing]

I think that is an accurate statement. Personally I could have done without that final end text wrap up thing as well, but overall I really dug the writing.

[mikemariano]

Are there any Workshop missions that you really liked? I've been meaning to check some out, but I've had a pretty mixed experience with user generated content in the past, so I was hoping to find a list of good ones before jumping in.

 

I'm going to drag this over from Recently Completed Games to respond.

 

My favorite Workshop mission was Silver Angel 2050, which had well-realized characters to recruit—in this respect it was miles ahead of Dead Man's Switch.  The last time I played the mission, though, it was still unfinished, ending abruptly after a pretty wild fight.

 

I also liked A Lost Lamb, a backer-created level that got featured even before the launch of Dead Man's Switch.  It was simple, but well-crafted.

 

Similarly simple was Hauntings, a short trip through a haunted house with a few easy battles, but some weird things they did with the engine.

 

I somewhat enjoyed Spetsnaz 2045, but it had an extremely narrow path—you had to guess what the designer wanted you to do and then follow it exactly.

 

I haven't played a Workshop mission since before Dragonfall came out, so there might be improvements to these levels or newer, better ones as well.  Post here if you find anything good!

[Twig]

I've finally started on Dragonfall.

 

I liked the initial campaign well enough, but I'm already much more enthralled by this one. I think it's mostly just how much more open it is. I mean it's still no, say, Divinity: Original Sin in that regard, but it's nice to have some real choices (even if they are largely "how do I want to earn money today", so far)! I also like the characters a lot. Hurray video games!

 

I made a Shaman this time instead of a Decker, and I keep forgetting to summon spirits from the environment. Hah.

[mikemariano]

Party member Dietrich is also a shaman, though I noticed his summons weren't powerful enough in the late game.  I wonder if you can both summon the same environmental spirit at the same time...?

[Twig]

He is, although I obviously didn't notice at the time of character creation!

 

It took me a while to even realize what those spirit things were (I think I somehow managed to completely ignore them in the first campaign), but I'm fairly certain the icon disappears the first time you use them.

[mikemariano]

There is more Shadowrun on the way!

 

More specifically, they've only announced a Kickstarter, which means that there is more opportunity to lose money on the way.

[Dewar]

I'm in for pretty much anything at this point. I still wish I'd picked up some of the original art work at their exhibition here in Seattle.

[Apelsin]

Well, that was quick: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/webeharebrained/shadowrun-hong-kong/description

[Dewar]

Nice. I'd love to back around the $50 mark in appreciation, but most of their rewards seem pretty lackluster to me.