GB Feature: Shadowrun Returns Review

One of the first major Kickstarter-funded titles is officially upon us, and since it also heralds the return of Shadowrun to a proper CRPG format, Shadowrun Returns is a title we couldn’t help but offer our impressions on. And so I’ll let you ease into WUE’s full review with the following appetizer:

It’s true that the game never patronizes you with its need to be taken seriously, but people who are looking for it will find characters with believable motivations that are mercifully delivered in a far snappier, efficient way than the melodramatic dialogue trees popularized by BioWare and other RPG developers. Some rather heavy subjects are also touched upon, albeit not excessively, adding texture to a setting that might otherwise feel a little too sanitized.

This is not to say that the game’s writing is perfect, far from it. I mentioned earlier that it tapers off near the end, and that’s largely because it eschews the urban intrigue, detective work and character drama with a less-than-great plot twist. With the sake of hindsight, it’s easy notice how this particular story beat informed the whole narrative, and the dialogue in the ending section and the ending proper does its best to make it sound less banal and more interesting, but this only slightly lessens the bad taste it left in my mouth.