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Called in sick, got it installed, ready to rage. I'll update the OP with my thoughts as I go.

Thanks for the update. Can't wait to try it myself

Chris Kluwe posted on his Twitter(three separate tweets though) about a bug for people to watch out for:

First bug encountered in Shadowrun Returns. Don't sell the armor you're currently wearing if you want to buy new armor. It glitches out and won't let you re-equip any armor, even if you go to your stash and try to do it from there. A naked runner is a dead runner. Other than that the game is awesome. Very nostalgia invoking.

Thought I would repost it here as a heads up for those who are playing.

First reviews are in...ouch.

tl;dr: Great story, bad game.

 Sigvatr wrote:
First reviews are in...ouch.

tl;dr: Great story, bad game.

not sure if you intended to include a link to a review?

 ironicsilence wrote:

 Sigvatr wrote:
First reviews are in...ouch.

tl;dr: Great story, bad game.

not sure if you intended to include a link to a review?

German review, by the biggest German gaming magazine - but since it's in German, I didn't include it. If you're interested, however:

http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/shadowrun-returns/test/shadowrun_returns,48087,3026022,2.html

Others, on metacritic, seem to be more positive about it. I'm looking forward to more.

Having watched TotalBiscuit's review I can say that I'll be downing the games that I bought in the Summer Sale and going for it. It will be nice to see mods that add new character portraits, tilesets and the like though. Hopefully that area of the community explodes, as it can really determine the longevity of a game.

¬¬ Unfortunately its no longer 10% off.

I've been playing it for a couple of hours now, and I'm loving it.
I was a huge fan of the SNES version and this is a faithful sequel to it, it even has nods to the old game, and recurring characters.
Seriously impressed.
I know how I'll be spending most of tomorrow.

Yeah, so far I've enjoyed everything - the only part I don't really like is the armor - not much customization and sometimes I find the stats on something useful but I don't like the look. I was running around in a Hawaiian shirt for the first couple of hours.

I hate the saving in the game. They need some kind of quick save.

Playing it, and loving it. The game is incredibly atmospheric, thanks to the level design and the great music score, and combat is basic but fun. What fascinates me is the quality of the writing, from the introduction texts to the dialogue. Occasionally, that game plays almost feels like a novel. I'm really not used to such writing in games anymore, but it succeeds in drawing me closer into the setting.

I agree about the autosaving, though - that's the one major criticism I have. How in the 7th World did they come up with that idea? I'm not playing this thing on a console.

Only got 2-3 hours of play in before I had to go to work. But the initial stuff was awesome. The turn-based combat runs smoothly and very intuitively. But there is definitely some depth there to explore.

The game allows for a lot of lateral problem solving. Going the face or decker route nets a lot of possible alternative means of running through things (Rigger for that matter, drones can squeeze in to some tight spots). The character creation system is fairly robust. You can either grab a pre-gen with a bit of extra karma for tweaking exact abilities or you can build a character from the ground up (good if you are going for something a little off the beaten path). So it allows a pretty good breadth of character concepts.

Gear is fairly simple (from what I have seen so far). And in comparison to the average TTRPG campaign of Shadowrun, you start off fairly street level. You wont be running around the barrens sporting half a million nuyen in top o' the line ware (in fact, outside of archetype-specific stuff, you don't start with any ware). Your guns will be low-grade black market stuff. It really helps lend a real down and out feel to the game (considering the story, this makes sense). It also gives them some room for upgrades throughout play. As you progress the quality and quantity of gear will improve, of course. But people used to the average starting levels from 3rd, 4th or the newer 5th editions (at least those that never played street-level campaigns) may be a bit surprised. But I quite like the effect it has on the tone of things.

The 2D art assets look amazing and ooze character. The 3D models are a bit blocky, but small enough that they don't really detract from the overall look in any way, shape or form (would have liked a few more options for tweaking the look; I found the facial hair selection on Orks to be a bit sparse). At the very least, they blend well and fit the aesthetics.

As far as the story and writing go, they are quite good so far. They are really hitting the film noir angle hard for this and the characterization is excellent. It is a treat for any long time Shadowrun fan to see the world come alive like this.

And all of this is without me having gotten a look at the modding tools (one of the biggest selling points here). They are up on day one and are already integrated with Steam Workshop. The early birds have been busy and there seem to be a few scenarios floating about (I hear tell that some nutter has already gone to work re-creating the SNES game). If they are as robust as the user mod tools for NWN, TES or Torchlight II, then we should be in for a great modding community.

I'm currently sitting at work, watching the clock. Waiting until I can jack back in and finsih getting paid for the last run I did. The wait is maddening.

TLDR; This game feels like a modernized late-90's era CRPG (ala Baldur's Gate and the original Fallout games) and definitely seems to have all the makings of a classic. If you are a fan of isometric CRPGs from that era then you owe it to yourself to take a look. It is another one of those games to add to the nuveau-retro revolution we seem to be going through. It is one part old-school adventure game, one part turn-based tactical shooter and one-part classic CRPG. This is the kind of game I have been waiting for since they started dropping dead at the end of the 90's and the early 00's.

It is a good time to be a retro PC gaming fan (now... off to go help fund that not-Syndicate remake...).

My only major complaint is the auto-save only stuff. It usually triggers upon entering/leaving an area. But after a run, before I had to head for work, it didn't re-trigger when I shifted to a new area. So it is still running on my PC for when I get home. If they can come up with a hack in an upcoming patch (even if it is something cludgey like a JRPG "save-point" back at the home base), then it will be a beautiful thing.

Can't wait until they start pumping out more DLC for this. Apparently early priority is more outfits and the like. Wonder if the in-game mod tools can import assets (that was the general gist back in June, but I will need to have a look when I get home). I think they played it smart by making sure the mod tools were front and centre on day one. That kind of support tends to make for active communities (I think the delay for Torchlight II's tools was probably what caused its mod scene to be so slow). I'll probably dive in to 'em myself after I have a few campaign runs under my belt.

Alright, just two more hours until I'm done.

I'm enjoying the game a lot. And, yes, the save system is annoying. Having thrived in the Isometric PC RPG era, I feel right at home playing this game. It's refreshing and different to play a RPG that has no voice acting, so getting to read everything is nice. I just wish they had applied that to all the gear, too, since much of it only has a single sentence describing it. There should be a full fluffy paragraph describing all the gear, to help immerse you in the setting.

Loving the descriptions that everything has. Its a pity that they put so much effort into the story, but its lacking in other aspects. For instance it would have been nice to be able to mod the weapons, or perhaps upgrade the cyberwear. On the latter I'm conflicted. Is there any reason why you can't swap out older pieces for newer ones as they appear, or, as I said, upgrade them instead? I'm feeling a little redundant using stuff from the start of the game now that better pieces are appearing. Also is there any way to increase essence? In the RPG you did this by increasing your magical attributes, but I don't see anything that explicitly says that this is how you do it in the game.

For me Decking's an aspect of the game I'm avoiding. The one segment that's so far been forced on me was a bit dull really. TotalBiscuit used his decker at one point. However, it being an RPG where you have multiple solutions to a problem, I just blew away the enemy decker with a few shotgun blasts instead (which was much easier...). Though this may just be that generally I'm not into mechanics that complicate combat all that much (or at least add more dimensions to it).

Oh, and as a rule; there's been no combat situations so far in which a shotgun didn't solve them rather promptly. Frankly I'm considering just dropping the pistol altogether (though does the shotgun having the no AP to reload skill too? Or is that overkill?). Oddly my character's fit right into their archetype of Street Samurai pretty. Well, no magic, no robotic companions, just pure cyberwear. ...I really shouldn't take so many character design decisions from Deus Ex...

I'm probably going to end up with a character not dissimilar to Jake, the protagonist from the SNES game...

 marv335 wrote:
I'm probably going to end up with a character not dissimilar to Jake, the protagonist from the SNES game...

Jake actually shows up at several points in the game, joining your team. Less dog shaman, more fireball throwing combat mage.

It's a great game so far. I especially enjoyed reading the atmospheric descriptions and dialog. It feels a bit like an interactive novel at times.
The save system on the other hand is a bit limiting and not very intuitive, e.g. if you like to keep one of the auto-saves from being overwritten as soon as you switch to the next scene you need to go the system->load->copy-route for every save. And of course I am missing a save-and-exit function.

I hope coming mods, updates and DLCs will bring new 3d character models, as the otherwise great game is not really deserving of some of the current ones, especially female orks and trolls which resemble a barrel with huge breasts attached. The character portraits are quite varied and fit right into the Shadowrun setting though.

I only got halfway through chargen before a friend called me last night ...

T_T

Will try to log some hour tonight.

Any idea on when it will be available on ipad? I didn't see it yesterday.

I didn't know they were making a port to iPad.

I got about 15 minutes of game play in yesterday. While its not a super crazy cutting edge game I found it to be good fun. The system is easy to understand. From my perspective its a solid quality game for the cost. Dont think I would have paid $60 for it but at $20, or $18 since I preordered its well worth the money IMO

About 2 hours in and I love the game. Feels like an actual Shadowrun RPG.

I agree about the downsides though - combat does not have anything to do with tactic as the AI is terrible (at least on Hard) and even continues to stand in the open while getting shot...meh. Made a Human Rifleman and I basically 1 hit everyone with the 2-AP special skill right now

Sure, it's no AAA title. Not even AA. But it's a damn good RPG so far, at least for such a small developer. Worth the 15€ imo.

I'm not missing cutting edge graphics and physics.
A lot of games these days spend too much on the look of the game, rather than the feel.
I'm getting totally sucked in to this one.
I'll be playing it again when I've done this time, and I'll create my own character rather than one of the pre-made ones.
I need an armoured trench coat though
I've burned up about 12 hrs so far...

Having just completed it all I can say is. ...More.

Not to say that there wasn't enough content in there (it took 13 hours to complete for me).

The prospect of importing a character for subsequent campaigns intrigues me. It'll be nice to see what they come up with.

Overall the game really played like an RPG (the tabletop version). The storyline was written so much like them (including all the contrived coincidences). Someone coming into it not understanding that may have found it cliche or maybe even a little predictable, but to me it was this style that carried it through. It would have been nice to have seem more repercussions for your actions, in lieu of Deus Ex or Mass Effect, instead of mostly playing to a script (lampshaded by Harlequin at the end perhaps). Major changes to the plot would have been nice, but I can understand that that would have require more development time that wasn't available. However small things like say the Halloweener's gang leader coming back if you spared him or just off hand comments from random gangers would have been nice.

Perhaps it was its desire to resemble a traditional rpg that meant the lack of content outwith the main story. I mean there was the odd sidequest, but other than one (in which you capture a scientist) these all took place within the standard mission areas, and could be mostly completed just by following the established path. I would have really liked if there had been more like the aforementioned side quest to fill in the gaps between the main missions. Though this type of short quest will probably instead make up the bulk of user generated content. It'll be nice to see how the DLC is handled, and whether there will be a string of quests that don't link to one another contained as some sort of a pack. Then again, with it emulating an RPG perhaps its the case that the developers felt that every quest should lead onto another and develop into a greater story.

I'll be keeping it installed and perhaps looking into the development toolkit. If its not too much to get my head around I may give a short quest to go. ...Not that I have a small fetish for writing text based games at all. ...Nope, never. ^^'

So, terrible run of luck last night - I'm on the mission where you

And they hinted that I might need a

So, I took my decker/rigger (I have like 7 Intelligence and Decking to match, a Fairlight deck, and level 3 of the important programs (but I forgot to buy Esps)), a good gun bunny guy (Pistols, Assault Rifles, SMGs), The recommended mission dude (he was only 1k, save money right?) and a hybrid shaman/adept with a katana. First thing I notice when I go in, is my shaman/adept doesn't have the katana he was supposed to have. Balls, but I keep going cause he still has killing hands and haste. Then I'm at the part where you


and first try, I go into the Matrix, and I am cutting through ICE like nothing, straight cowboy stuff. I'm in the damned node with the

....

and the thrice damned Water Spirit my Shaman was moving around breaks loose, turns around and crits my poor innocent dude from across the room, while he was hiding behind a desk for 42 damage, one shotting me.

Second time around, I figure I didn't have any real trouble with the ICE, so I will stay out - that way me and my drone can fight, so I send ol' "one of the best deckers in the city" into the matrix. Realize this dude is sporting all of 5 decking and has a Fuchi VirtuX and like one level 3 program. So he is goofalumping his way through the matrix, taking like twice as long to get it done - and I can't get through before the alarm goes - 2 Black ICE and two enemy deckers pop in and one shot him one node before the end. I got pretty pissed at that point.

I'm at the same point.
I got so pissed at that level that I rewound the game and started the mission again with a different crew.
The recommended decker is a waste of time, in my opinion.

Yeah, I ended up beating it pretty handily the 3rd time - I went in and used the other guy to run around marking targets and taking pot shots. My gun bunny did probably 75% of the damage that area, by himself.

The balance is...meh. I chose to go for Rifles at start and my main character is insanely overpowered. I am not that far in (just solved the Ripper case), but I instantly kill everyone with a single shot with my pew-pew-pew 5 shots ability. Furthermore, with the Cyberware upgrade and my armor, I feel almost invulnerable...and I got Body 8 now

I hated that part with the elevator controls too.

Finished the game last night and enjoyed it. Looking foward to move. I really enjoyed the game but it very much feels like a budget title. There are problems and bugs that need to be ironed out but I think its well made all in all.

I tried the modding tools a little last night and map making is really difficult.

Alright, I am going to freely admit, that is the first elevator shootout sequences I have actually enjoyed in a game. Probably helps that you were simultaneously the defence team and the guy hacking the door.

It was frantic, but a lot of fun. I ran my Ork street sammie (loaded out with rifles, SMGs and shotties to give me some flexibility), Coyote (because shotguns are love), the Nephilim utility mage (love this utility dorf) and the recommended decker (because I'm cheap!).

When I got in to the main room and got hooked in, I had taken the time to set up a defensive cordon on all entry points. The mage laid down flame walls and continued to boost and heal the street sam duo of death. As things came through the door, they were lit on fire and then buried in bullets. The hack itself was pretty tense (had some horrible aim in that one, but the fact that the recommended decker can lay down 3 ESPs makes for some great action economy), and I finally managed to slice through and shut down the elevators.

Then I managed to set up a great little kill zone. Double-layered flame wall with a smoke grenade just ahead of it. The last of the security team run through the door. Half of 'em die in the fire and the rest can't hit the broad side of a troll through the haze. Cleanup is relatively simple at that point.

Very well designed encounters in that run. Can't wait to see more user generated two-tier runs, this type of stuff works way better in a computer game than it does in the PnP version.

Can't wait to see what they do for Berlin. Now that they aren't trying to build a robust mod system, a basic game engine AND designing a 10-15 hour campaign, they can spend more time on the specifics of gameplay. Should be a recipe for a lot of improvements.

Edit - Just got word about Berlin from a podcast. It sounds like, while DMS was inspired more by the SNES title, Berlin will be more of a callout to the more "open-world" Genesis game. I can't wait, looking at the editor, doing an open world with radiant content should be quite doable.