From the creator of Shadowrun... Shadowrun

[jakonovski]

20 hours until unlock. I so hope tis is good...

[Phred]

So.....it is a very rare thing when I preorder games. Does Steam always unlock stuff at midnight?  Should I just get some sleep instead?

From what I'm reading it unlocks at 10am pst or something dumb like that

[Cadaverine]

Unlocking in approximately 12 hours.   

[Korachia]

Looks quite interesting those Let's play clips on youtube. But it does have lots of bugs in the version he is playing, so that's putting me a bit off for now.

[jakonovski]

RPS liked it, but apparently the campaign is a bit short.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/07/25/wot-i-think-shadowrun-returns/

[Lucas]

RPS liked it, but apparently the campaign is a bit short.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/07/25/wot-i-think-shadowrun-returns/

I was going to post that too; on the other hand, for €12.59, it's not too bad; I haven't read anything about the editor potential and its accessibility. Hopefully, a decent modding community will build around the game and put out some good adventures.

[Kageru]

I would assume the editor is the main selling point. If they can tap into user generated content they can sell tile-sets, assets and extensions of the game mechanics for a long and lucrative time.
 

[Fabricated]

I got a bit into it. It's pretty simple and a bit clunky, but reasonably fun and well written. Also the art is really nice IMO; the game looks good.

[Zetor]

I'm about 4 hours in. Game's really good, even though the main campaign is super-linear and there are a few typos and such here and there.

Now I just need like... 3 months of uninterrupted free time to make a campaign for this game based on my SR4 gaming group's exploits 

[Tebonas]

Dabbled a bit to get a feeling for the different archetypes and loving it so far.

It seems extremely linear, but all the tools are there to make great modules. And the story (unsurprisingly) plays out like a typical run. Which hits my nostalgia really hard in a good way.

I just feel the Rigger might get a problem with scaling real soon and the physical Adept feels underpowered. Melee isn't what it used to be in P&P 

[Zetor]

Yea, melee seems to have the advantage of being more accurate, but also a lot more exposed... enemies really like focusing on whatever is closest to them (for me it's usually an earth spirit... have fun beating on granite, drekheads). It -may- get better once you pick up the disarm ability. There are also some neat buff abilities like the water spirit's +2 dodge bonus that can help a melee char.

I ended up going with a rifle-toting shaman character. It's really powerful and I haven't been in any near-defeat situations so far... then again, one of the developers said that 'normal' difficulty is intended to be easyish to begin with. Anyone playing on hard/very hard?

[apocrypha]

Yeah this is pretty nice.

I agree about the simplicity & clunkiness, but I don't mind that so far. It's very nostalgic feeling - reminds me of Fallout (1, 2 and Tactics) mostly, and is definitely triggering old pen & paper memories!

I actually like the fact that it's not got any voice overs too. Looking forward to seeing what the community produce for it in short order :)

[Fabricated]

I wonder if a lot of people are going to 'get' that Shadowrun generally has a pretty shallow power curve for players.

[Tebonas]

At this point most people who play it are fans, so they should know. Progression happening mainly by gear is a reality to them.

Also, I find that the game has more progression than the PnP game due to the unlocks in skill tree.

[Quinton]

An hour or so in, taking my time and enjoying the ride.  Elf Street Samurai, Rifle specialization.  There is a little clunkiness, but nothing horrible, and I really like the art style so far.  Hopefully they'll do a bit of further polish to the controls/UI at some point, but nothing's so bad that it's seriously interfering with my enjoyment of the game.

[Fabricated]

Game has a very "Developed to be put on tablets" feel; or possibly the people who did the UI/general design were more used to tablets.

[Pezzle]

Ran into something fairly frustrating.  Finished a matrix run and had to sign some runners up for a mission.  Ok, browse runners.  Choose a runner, add them, and a different one is added.  It does not seem to matter which runner I try to hire, I get the same set.  Maybe it is a glitch?  Cannot change maps at this point so  I decide to close and relaunch the game.  My save point is just before the matrix run.

Finishing a matrix run does not save your game.  Not sure why the runner selection was wrong yet.





Other than that I find the game decent.  It really does have a feeling close to the older games.  So far it has been linear.  Community mods are already popping up, so maybe great campaigns will appear. 

[Father mike]

Pezzle, I had the same problem. You can not click on the 'add character' box at the bottom of the screen. You have to use the big yellow plus sign on the selection menu to add the correct character.

This and several.other UI oddities are beginning to wear on me

[Pezzle]

Will try that tonight, thanks.  Even with that problem AND the lack of manual saves the game is fine.  The game has not frozen or crashed, not getting stuck moving around etc.  I am pleased.  Hopefully they release more campaigns!

[ghost]

I'm liking this a lot so far.  It sounds like they stole the soundrack from Eve Online, which I like. 

[Fabricated]

The soundtrack was done by the dudes who did the SNES and Genesis Shadowrun games, which is pretty awesome.

[Falconeer]

WHAT?! I was buying this anyway, but what you two just said about the soundtrack just made me want it immediately.

[Velorath]

The soundtrack was done by the dudes who did the SNES and Genesis Shadowrun games, which is pretty awesome.

In fact if I'm not mistaken the music that starts playing during combat is the same from the SNES version (obviously updated a bit).

[Margalis]

Watched a stream of this for a while, it looks kind of cool but something about it seem off. I think it's the environments - it looks too clean, the individual pieces of art don't come together very well (stuff looks sort of pasted together, without proper shadows to tie them to the same space) and you can't really do much with anything in the environment. It feels less like you are walking around a gritty city and more that you are walking around on a set.

The overall resolution and fidelity works against it in some ways - now that you can clearly see individual doors you want to be able to open them, if you can clearly make out a motorcycle you want to be able to ride it or blow it up. It's sort of in the uncanny valley of interactivity.

That said overall it seems pretty decent.

[ghost]

That's not a bad take on it, Margalis.  You definitely won't be playing this one for the gameplay, and it is definitely a "throwback" game.  I liken it to Torchlight in feel, although Torchlight was a lot smoother in its production.  This isn't to mean that the games are anything alike.  Maybe a good comparison would be Torchlight is to Diablo I as Shadowrun is to Neverwinter nights?  This is definitely a story driven game.  Actually, now that I think about it, it reminds me a lot of Arcanum.

[Kageru]

Is there character progression across user-made content or do you reset to a default state at the start of each?

[Fabricated]

I dunno, it looks pretty good to me. It's a weirdly clean, crisp artstyle. More neon/shiny than dark/grimy. There's not much to the engine other than some sorta weird perspective scrolling of foreground objects and characters kinda look pasted on. It's what $1.8 mill buys you though.

I'm really enjoying it outside of the really slow movement speed. It's a bit agonizing moving through areas in combat mode.

[Threash]

This is awfully fun.

[carnifex27]

Dabbled a bit to get a feeling for the different archetypes and loving it so far.

It seems extremely linear, but all the tools are there to make great modules. And the story (unsurprisingly) plays out like a typical run. Which hits my nostalgia really hard in a good way.

I just feel the Rigger might get a problem with scaling real soon and the physical Adept feels underpowered. Melee isn't what it used to be in P&P 

Heh, unarmed Adepts feel a little overpowered to start with, their first ability is a spell that gives +10 damage in unarmed combat for 5 rounds.  Maybe you should try it without the machete untill you can find a decent sword :) 

As for the no loot thing, I kind of like it. Personally, I find there are a lot of situations where I use skills to avoid combat, knowing there is no loot for killing enemies and the same amount of karma for avoiding combat as there is for killing everything. In the newest Deus Ex I would always feel like I had lost out if I missed the chance to loot corpses, even if avoiding combat was the smarter choice for my character. Not having to worry about what great items I might miss by avoiding combat actually allows my loot whore self to relax and choose the path that makes the most roleplaying sense for my character.

[Fabricated]

Also with loot unless you go straight to fighting high end corp security you're not going to be all that impressed or make all that much money.

Like pretty much all the guns in the core book are relatively balanced against eachother. An Ares Predator is a good allrounder, a Super Warhawk is the typical big bang with the shallow ammo pool, etc. And a starting character in PnP can pretty easily afford any of them + some attachments and smart link. You really aren't going to find a gun of shooting mans better +2.

Now, the lack of ammo types is kind of a bummer.

[Threash]

Shit, I'm already falling into the reroll to try another class --> get sick of repeating content trap.

[Kitsune]

The developer for the game had only cranked out semi-good tablet games before, which is why Shadowrun has a feel of tabletitis.  This sadly is not a game made by the XCOM crew and it shows.  Time and patches can take care of some of the rough edges though, and hopefully they do take the time and effort to improve the game, as Shadowrun is a fantastic setting and deserves the effort.

[Strazos]

Liking it so far, feels like I've plowed pretty far through the campaign without breaking a sweat.

Two questions:

 - If you're going to use ranged weapons, is there a point to using anything besides a rifle? A shotgun I can maybe see, but I'm struggling to see the point of SMGs or pistols.
 - Do Deckers have a point? I've hardly seen a point to having one around. The one time I took one with me, all there was for her was to mark enemies, which wasn't particularly necessary.

[Zetor]

Liking it so far, feels like I've plowed pretty far through the campaign without breaking a sweat.

Two questions:

 - If you're going to use ranged weapons, is there a point to using anything besides a rifle? A shotgun I can maybe see, but I'm struggling to see the point of SMGs or pistols.
 - Do Deckers have a point? I've hardly seen a point to having one around. The one time I took one with me, all there was for her was to mark enemies, which wasn't particularly necessary.

Make sure you're playing on Hard or Very Hard -- Normal is way too easy. According to a developer, you have a stat advantage over enemies on all difficulty levels under VH.

Shotguns are very powerful for aoe, especially once you get 'wide load' (basically a cone attack) or if you can Kneecap multiple people. They're especially nice when you need to hold a position. SMGs are kind of meh... they are a bit better at hitting soft targets than shotguns/rifles (since every attack is a burst, and SMGs do decent damage on each hit), but they consume ammo like crazy and shotguns can do even better burst against the same targets. Pistols are a late bloomer with the disarm and triple-shot (chainshot) abilities, both of which are quite awesome. They're also free to reload.

Deckers aren't useful at all for the first 1/4 of the game except for a few skill checks, but it picks up once (almost) every mission starts to have a Matrix part that can be used to turn turrets to your side and whatnot.. they're also required to get data from those matrix sections in at least two missions. That said, IMO it's better to bring an NPC decker, or -even better- an NPC decker/rigger (there's one guy in the Nephilim group who does this, Aruba?).

[Strazos]

Hmm...


I've only seen one Matrix section so far, and I was given a decker for it.