2.5/5 ★ – cha0sknightmare's review of Shadowrun Returns.

Shadowrun Returns is a throwback to the old-school CRPG genre with a modern twist. It’s far more linear than its ilk of old, and utilizes an XCOM-inspired tactical combat system; a more involved and satisfying experience than the auto-combat dice rollers often associated with the genre. Some might be put off by this in theory, but in execution, it works surprisingly well, making the game feel far more accessible for a modern audience. Shadowrun Returns creates an engaging and immersive world that blends Cyberpunk and magic/dragon-fantasy, a combination that feels like it shouldn’t work, yet developer Harebrained Schemes have clearly studied the Shadowrun table-top game and pull it off. The selection of "hand-painted" backgrounds drip with detail, and when paired with the atmospheric soundtrack, gives the game a distinct and palpable vibe. While the character models themselves are somewhat basic, the game makes up for it with brilliant character portraits, well written descriptive text, and lots of interesting flavor dialogue. You'll learn everything you need to just from character chatter, and what you don't learn directly you'll be able to peice together. The writing here is smart, strong and engaging, easily one of the games strongest assets. The campaign takes roughly 10-12 hours to complete, with a few optional quests scattered throughout. As you progress, you’ll gain XP (or Karma, as it’s called here), which you can allocate to your character sheet to upgrade your stats. There’s flexibility; you can choose to mix and match, or pool all your points into one area. Along the way, you’ll meet a small but diverse cast of squadmates (both permanent and temporary) that you can call upon for each mission. These characters are decent enough, but do feel like they could be fleshed out better. If needed, you do also have access to a network of specialist gun-for-hires to bring along to. These are mostly blank slates though, and don't bring any personality to the table outside of combat functionality. The story for this campaign, Dead Man’s Switch, begins with your created character receiving a mysterious message from an old friend. A brief flashback scene follows, serving as the combat tutorial, and from there, you follow a mostly linear journey. However, while the overarching story follows a set path, individual missions offer surprising flexibility. Depending on your class, choices, equipment, and character stats, you can approach objectives in different ways. There are even some immersive sim-lite elements, allowing players to discover new and creative solutions with each playthrough. The first third of the story starts out as an almost noir murder mystery, but you'll soon find out that there is actually far more to the over-arching plot than meets the eye. The second act manages to maintain the mystique and intruigue to. It's only really the third act here, where Shadowrun buckles under it's own weight, seemingly rushing to the finale before it feels like it has earned it. It doesn't help that from a gameplay perspective, the final few levels also feel too brief and too stripped back, missing much of the interactivity and flexibility that defined earlier parts of the game, instead, opting for linear point-A-to-point-B shooting galleries. While I like the ending itself, it feels like at least a few more hours of content were needed to truly tie everything together. Some last-minute characters could have been given more depth, the story and new reveals given more context, and the missions more ambition, all of which would have made the game feel like it built up to a satisfying crescendo. Overall, Shadowrun Returns feels solid in execution, with only a few issues. The game can be slightly buggy at times, with occasional brief lock-ups or crashes. Fortunately, the lenient save and checkpoint system (while not a fix) mitigates some of the frustration. As a whole, Shadowrun Returns is a respectable revival of the franchise and serves as a strong foundation for its sequels. It's definitely a proof of concept, but one that is worth playing.. just know that this is just the start and the sequels; Dragonfall and Hong Kong both go alot further with the formula here. If you like this, I absolutely recommend them to. The last thing worth mentioning is that on PC, Shadowrun Returns includes an incredibly deep Editor mode, allowing players to create their own campaigns with meticulous detail. This creator is a powerful tool, and if you're interested, there are hours upon hours of custom content available to explore. One of my personal favorites was a full remake of the SNES Shadowrun game using the Shadowrun Returns engine. The base game is worth the asking price on its own, but the Editor makes the package an absolute steal. It’s just a shame that none of this custom content has been ported to the console versions.