 |
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| I'm enjoying it more than not and will finish it by a dick of disappointment 02/22/2026, 11:00am PST | ||||
 |
 |
|||
| It's just a 6.5-7/10 compared to Dragonfall's 9.5/10. Returns was an "incomplete, see me after class"/10. Had I played Hong Kong before Dragonfall, I'd call it a decent improvement, looking forward to what comes next.
Also don't judge it by the first mission (Strangler Bao) it gives you. It's Shadowrun Returns level of barebones proof of concept. Plow through it quick (bring the Decker, despite the briefing giving you every indication you won't need one). I keep noticing a lot of spots in missions that were begging to be fleshed out, but they ran out of fucks to give or something. Early mission is robbing a museum. You can steal 9 exhibits before the alarm goes off, with bonus milestones for stealing above a certain total value. Oh cool, this could be a neat puzzle where you have to piece together scattered clues in order to figure out their values in order to only swipe the most expensive stuff. Maybe read some news stories, hack some emails, scan the shipping manifffffffffuck it just plainly display the value of each object right next to it. Can we talk about the Decker, Is0bel? She feels like three different pandering fetishes in one: tech nerd, shy insecure pixie in need of guidance, and midget. Also continuing Harebrained's Shadowrun legacy of not being able to balance combat to save their lives. Is0bel the decker actually starts off as your best combat character. Like Dragonfall, all your party member equipment is set in stone, and for some reason the decker starts with a grenade launcher. It does high damage, area damage, can miss and still do good damage, can fire twice(?!!) before reloading, and only takes one action point to shoot. Meanwhile your street samurai ork spends two action points to miss an aimed rifle shot :( She's clearly the writer favorite. You get her backstory therapy mission right away. It's way more fleshed out than any of the primary missions I've done so far. In fact, it's practically the fleshed out copy of the movie producer mission. Both have you show up at a party. Both have you try to use the party to gain access to a higher floor room where you have the final confrontation. Is0bel's version is a tech trade show with tons of conversations, multiple steps in gaining the floor access, and multiple snags on the way up. Movie producer party? Three very simple ways to get into the party, all right next to each other half a dozen steps from the party. Talk to ONE person at the party (max of 2 1/2) who automatically hands over the top floor key. Go to the top floor. Immediate "boss" fight. Mission done. They're practically Stage I and Stage II examples of the mission design process. One is an outline, the other an actual mission. The game is fine. I just miss Mount Eiger and Glory going apeshit on people. I miss interesting mission shit like the cyber zombie or going through the aftermath of a botched berserk rigger. Maybe I'm bitter at making the mistake of giving a physical adept build a try for the first time. Five missions in, all that's amounted to is "your punch now does more damage".  |
||||
 |
 |
|||
|
I waited 10 years to play this! by 02/22/2026, 1:56am PST  I was considering playing this recently, too! Thanks for the heads up. NT by 02/22/2026, 5:42am PST I'm enjoying it more than not and will finish it by 02/22/2026, 11:00am PST I think I remember people saying the post-game expansion is higher quality. NT by 02/22/2026, 6:29pm PST I'm downgrading it to a 6/10 by 03/03/2026, 8:55pm PST I am taking this opportunity to talk about Boston by 03/03/2026, 10:13pm PST ^ that was the last time I played it by 07/14/2026, 11:22pm PDT |
