Wednesday, July 31, 2013

My Eyes, They Burn! Shadowrun Returns Impressions

A while back, I kickstarted Shadowrun Returns.  My Shadowrun experience is entirely through the Sega Genesis version of the game back in the 90's.  I remember liking it quite a bit then, so I was definitely on board for a new RPG experience in that universe.  The shooter version of the game has been stricken from the record.

I was happy to learn that the game was released last week.  I believe that is the 2nd game I've kickstarted that has been released, StarDrive being the first.  Thankfully they got on steam, which meant no fuss getting the game and installing it.  I entered my backers code, and voila, there it was.




So far I have not put too much time into the game, just an hour or so.  I can say I like what I see though.  The first thing I noticed was the art.  Sure, it isn't really stressing my graphics card or anything but I think they are excellent.  They are quite detailed and colorful.

Now to the title reference.  Shadowrun appears to be entirely text based.  I must admit, I've been spoiled by games lately and their voice overs.  I'm just not used to reading large amounts of text in computer games anymore.  Even though I found the dialog engaging, it was just hard for me to read.  I need to get used to doing that again.




One aspect I don't like about the game is the save system.  The developers opted for automatic save points instead of a manual system.  This makes it tough for me to hop in for some quick action as I have to get myself to the next save point.  So far it seems like the save usually happens when you change areas.  I really wish I could just save whenever I wanted to.

Combat is fun so far, no real complaints.  The quest system works pretty well.  It seems pretty flexible with the dialog system.  I was impressed by getting different dialog options based on items I acquired, stats and my style choice during character creation.

Playing Shadowrun Returns reminds me I really should try and finish the new XCOM game too.  Not sure why I stopped playing, think it was because I chose Ironman mode and did pretty much lost all my guys.