Post-mortem: Shadowrun Returns

Haven’t had much to update with as of late in regards to projects(though I do have a small update on Shadowrun SCD), so here’s some thoughts on something related that I recently finished.

 

Shadowrun Returns was the first kickstarter I backed, and also the first one I got to play. The gameplay is not what one would call innovative: you use cover, weaponry, and magic during turn-based combat to kill your foes with ease. It is, however, effective and enjoyable.

At least up until the crazy final battles which involve lots of nigh-unkillable beasts attacking en masse.

What most hopefully came for was a return to the Shadowrun universe, and all the character drama and rich mythos that entails.

Boy did Harebrained Schemes deliver on that front.

Shadowrun Returns has a plethora of well-written NPCs with their own motivations, character arcs, and intriguing dialogue leaving you wanting to know more about them, their backstories, and the universe of Shadowrun, everything good writing should do.

Even throwaway NPCs with one or two lines have more weight to their dialogue than certain game characters with paragraphs if not novels of dialogue to drone on about.

Better still is the campaign editor, offering creative designers an entire world of tools to play around with.

My ream is to take the script I have here for Shadowrun SCD and make a SRR campaign out of it using the editor. Given my inexperience with graphics and module editing, that could take a while.

But hey, it’s a nice dream.

Oh yeah, Shadowrun SCD.

The good news is that the script is 40% don, two campaigns out of five. The bad news is that we’re still waiting on an alpha to test the insertion, due to some technical difficulties. We’re currently isolating the deckers involved, and have dispatched some Black IC to remove them from our branch of the Matrix.

Short version: we’ll get there, and soon.

See you in the sprawl, chummers.

(Disclaimer: iwakura productions in no way endorses the unlawful use or distribution of urban pacification firearms and shall not be held accountable for any death, dismemberment, or stolen organs/limbs that results.)