REVIEW - SHADOWRUN RETURNS

Shadowrun Returns is an experience highly recommended to anyone patron of both role playing games and video games – or anyone who considers themselves a fan of noir detective mysteries. As role playing aficionados will be well aware, Shadowrun is the cyberpunk-fantasy role playing system. Now in its fifth edition (twenty five years old!), this game has a solid reputation and loyal fan base. Shadowrun Returns is the result of a phenomenally successful Kickstarter campaign led by Jordan Weisman – one of the team who originally developed the Shadowrun role playing system. Through crowd-funding Weisman was able to raise $1,836,447 towards this game. Needless to say, expectations were very high. 

I, however, have learned all of this since playing the game. My introduction to it involved reading a Game Informer preview which sparked my interest and then playing it a few months after its release. My interest in the setting has since expanded rapidly – I am now reading the fifth edition rules of Shadowrun with a mind to the run the game sometime in the future. Why am I telling you all of this and not actually talking about the video game? Because I want you to get an idea of just how awesome I find this setting. I greatly enjoyed the intricately woven plot of Shadowrun Returns and found the game’s art to be extremely impressive. Although the story is wonderful and the game is beautiful visually and mechanically it features some flaws which I hope to see rectified in its upcoming expansion Dragonfall.

Shadowrun Returns’  strategic, turn-based mode of play leaves plenty of time for the player to appreciate the lovingly crafted isometric world, which is peppered with details. Visually it cannot be faulted. Many elements of the game betray its progression from pen and paper to video game – in fact if you have experienced table top role playing you may notice that Shadowrun Returns is not so much a video game as a highly sophisticated single player role playing simulator. For example, instead of providing animation for all character interaction scenes and close-ups the camera will remain at a fixed third person distance and a detailed description of what is happening in the scene will be provided. This may not suit all players, but as someone who loves reading and appreciates the power of the imagination this is a really excellent approach to communicating story. An great original score accompanies this action. 

The combat is fantastic. Challenging and highly engaging, the turn based system requires constant attention and forethought. The game is balanced so that when you craft a team of runners to accompany your character on missions your choices actually matter. An impressive variety of accomplice runners are provided, all with unique skill sets. As a cyberpunk-fantasy setting, Shadowrun Returns features magic, guns, melee and tech-based combat. In every combat it is beneficial to have a variety of these fighting styles in your party and in many of the later missions it is necessary. The challenging nature of the combat results in a highly immersive game experience. 

The experience system is another area which provides a link to Shadowrun Returns’ tabletop past. Your character receives ‘karma’ for deeds they complete which is then spent on a skill tree. There are six main attributes and various skills you can enhance under each attribute. However, even if you receive the maximum amount of karma that the game allows it is impossible to create an overpowered, jack-of-all-trades style character which makes your karma distribution decisions meaningful.

Despite all these positive features the game has a few drawbacks. Minor ones include the fact that you can only save your game at pre-designated intervals, the lack of discoverable side missions and loot on the maps and the large amount of unexplained Shadowrun jargon included – an in game glossary would have been useful for people coming to the game who were unfamiliar with the role playing setting. However, the most prominent problem with the game was railroading. For any unfamiliar with the term ‘railroading’ describes an in-game situation where the player appears to have several options however, all but one of the these choices will be meaningless and the player will always be directed to the pre-designated choice that the designer wanted the player to make. Railroading in a game results in a lack of difficulty (and therefore a lack of engagement) for the player. In Shadowrun Returns a veritable wealth of dialogue and story options are provided throughout. However they are somewhat cheapened by the fact that most of these choices do not trigger any real consequences for the player. It is always too obvious what you have to do next. The plot remains intriguing but feels more like reading a novel than making choices in a game.

Shadowrun Returns is a game definitely worth experiencing first hand. The impressive visuals and soundtrack, intriguing plot, immersive world and challenging combat make up for the flaws of Shadowrun Returns. It is a great game, but even a great game has room for improvement.