Shadowrun Returns is a new game in a series of games that has had a great cult following for many years, a series with games that keep being held in high regard with the passage of time. It's one of the few series where more people continue to become enthralled by the games, even as newer games come out and generations pass by. With this new entry in the series, we see a modern game with the same greatness of the earlier Shadowrun games.
This game is one part tactical combat, one part story-telling, and as a whole it's awesome. As you go through the game, you'll see that there is a lot of detail packed into the environment. All the love and care that has been put towards Shadowrun Returns is showing up all around as you play the campaign that Harebrained Schemes has put together for us, the The Dead Man's Switch.
Unlike the previous Shadowrun games, this time you create your own unique character. Everything from an elven samurai to a dwarven shaman to a troll decker. When you first see the character progression it appears to be daunting and complex. However, once you get into the game and start playing around, it turns out to be much simpler than at first glance. It's easy to figure out what you should be doing in order to develop a character that can be played the way you want.
The strategic and tactical battle system is a lot like XCOM: Enemy Unknown. The cover system and Action Point based movement and shooting are very similar to XCOM. It's all turn based, switching back and forth between your team and the enemies. However, unlike XCOM, the battles are a lot easier to get through. Summoning spirits from items lying around in the environment make for some great surprise attacks on the enemy. There's enough variety to keep everything interesting, but not so vast a selection to make me say wow.
The varying weapons all work differently enough that there is a reason you might want to use a variety of them. It's possible to approach combat from a few angles depending on what skills you have available to you. In some instances, it's possible to jack into the Matrix and mess around with the enemies systems with a decker's abilities. In other cases, you might stand back and make use of the overwatch ability to mow down anything headed your way. There's enough choice and randomness in battles that each fight will feel different enough to keep you interested.
Battles are fought by you and your team of hired muscle. At the start of every mission, you get to put together a crew of mercenaries to make a team of 4 characters. The money they get paid comes straight out of your pocket, so it's up to you to make the most use of your team. If you think you come back alive with only 3 people you could save a lot of money. Maybe you'll pick from the lower-end of hired help, and the quantity will make up for the quality.
Here comes the best part of Shadowrun Returns, the quality of the campaign's story. The game has a good amount of dialogue, all of which is great to read. The story is an enjoyable ride, with highly interesting characters and comedic writing. The game starts off fairly simple, you're going out to get revenge for a guy who died, and it's because you're getting paid a ton or it's because you're a good friend. It's all your choice to decide your own mindset, although it only affects the dialogue a bit depending on what kind of choices you make during each conversation. As you get deeper into the campaign, the plot thickens, resulting in an interesting and thrilling story to follow.
Unfortunately, even though the world feels somewhat open, it's still very linear. There are small bits where you can optionally explore in a slightly large area, but this ends up leaving more to be desired. The puzzles left for you to solve are quite well-done, requiring you to investigate an area and use your brain a little to figure out the answers.
The part of Shadowrun Returns that I'm looking forward to the most is what will from the creative minds of the community as they get to work with the editor. It's a complex editor, and it will surely end up being used to make some of the best content we've yet to see.
8.5/10
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