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'Dragonfall' opens up the world of Shadowrun Returns


It's no secret that computer RPGs trace their roots to the tabletop storytelling of games like Dungeons & Dragons. But while D&D serves well in providing sword-wielding, spell-casting, level-gaining group-authored epics, the high-concept RPG known as Shadowrun aims for a different flavor. A strange mix of high fantasy and cyberpunk, Shadowrun's world is populated by megacorporations and dragons, hackers and elves. 

Over the course of twenty-five years, Shadowrun has maintained a consistent cult following, despite the tumultuous fortunes of tabletop role-playing games. The kind of following that saw a Kickstarter campaign succeed in financing an old-school computer game based on it. The resulting game, Shadowrun Returns, was released last year and is one of a handful of videogame Kickstarter successes that resulted in actual product.
 



Shadowrun Returns is modeled on the kind of computer role-playing game classics that desktop grognards spent long nights with. The campaign, entitled 'Dead Man's Switch', casts you as a shadowrunner of your own creation as he or she sets out to solve the mystery of a dead colleague. Whether you choose to be a troll shaman or an elf samurai, players engage in your typical point and click interactions: use objects, talk to people and buy gear. 

All this occurs in several meticulously crafted two-dimensional isometric maps ranging from hospital interiors, run-down apartments and abandoned warehouses. And when you're not 'interacting,' you're not engaged in a variety of intense turn-based combat encounters, slinging spells, swinging swords and blazing firearms against your enemies. Ultimately, Shadowrun Returns is well received for what it is: a game that taps into the collective nerd boners of different kinds of geeks.

Enter Dragonfall. Made available as paid downloadable content (or free to those who backed the Kickstarter), Dragonfall is an all new story campaign, set in a new city with no connection to 'Dead Man's Switch.' You create an all new shadowrunner to play with, but for all intents and purposes, he or she might as well be the same character with reset statistics, as his or her role in the story is that of an expat whose cut all ties to Seattle, the capital of Shadowrun, and relocated to Berlin.
 


Two things are immediately apparent when you start up Dragonfall. First, there is an all new save system that lets you save anywhere, replacing the checkpoint-based autosave that was a source of frustration. This really opens up the experience, letting you save your game before trying out new gear and letting you rewind in case you make the mistake of going into combat without a medic or a spellcaster.

Second, the writing is just plain better. While 'Dead Man 's Switch' isn't a bunch of chicken scrawl, it did suffer from taking a stab at too many plot threads with barely the resolve to bring them all together. Dragonfall is simply better paced, not to mention better written. There's a greater sense of texture to the world, and not just because of the seeming foreignness of Berlin. Dragonfall evokes a world still dealing with the lingering memory of recent catastrophes and the ominpresent political, racial and economic tensions that threaten to damn it.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of Dragonfall's writing is the characterization. Characters in 'Dead Man 's Switch' tended to wear their hearts on their sleeve; you make them for who they are pretty early on. Greater attention and care has gone into presenting characters, whether it's the cantankerous Turkish coffee shop owner who also manages free wi-fi throughout the district or the race rights activist collecting charitable donations across the street. Each one has an interesting story to tell, but they won't always share it just because you ask.

The sense that every individual has layers to them is best exemplified by your crew. You inherit leadership of the group after what was originally thought to have been a milk run goes wrong. That means that although they are mostly strangers to you, they have all the group dynamics and deep histories of a pack of veterans. Eiger, the argumentative but honest ex-military sniper who serves on your crew, will bite back if you try to boss your way into authority. But try to hard in making nice with her and she will see through you and question your sincerity. 

Make no mistake, your squad of runners aren't just for show. They're in it for the long haul. 'Dead Man's Switch' rotated runners in and out for the purposes of the plot, with the option to hire 'faceless' runners to fill in any gaps you have in your party roles. You can still do the same in Dragonfall, but there's little incentive given how effective your crew is. Glory is mighty effective in close quarters with her cybernetic razor claw and stacks bleed on enemies. Dietrich, the aging punk rocker and shaman can cast a good dose of buffs and can give Glory an additional action to make enemies suffer even more.

Dragonfall also presents a larger and more liberating cyberpunk playground to work with. 'Dead Man's Switch' placed the entire plot on rails, including your trip back and forth to your base of operations, and effectively dictated the pace of the entire experience.  For the majority of Dragonfall, your goal is to raise the capital to acquire the services of a highly secretive and extremely powerful information broker. Effectively speaking, that makes the middle third of the game is about going on missions to bank the money you need to keep the 'big arc' going. 

That doesn't mean that Dragonfall is an open world sandbox in the mold of Skyrim and Fallout: New Vegas. What it does mean instead is that Dragonfall focus is on what it's like to be a shadowrunner. It lets the 'big arc' get out of the way lest it threaten to overshadow everything. You get to sink your teeth into that mean streets vibe, dealing with clients of less than honorable intent and treading cautiously in missions where complications are guaranteed. The city of Berlin isn't just a linear series of shoot outs, but a loosely connected collection of adventures centering around your safehouse in the Kreuzbasar neighborhood.

That isn't to say that Dragonfall isn't without its problems, though most of them are born out of the restrictions of the base program. Precise positioning during combat is still tricky, and for all the color and detail to the maps, they serve solely as wallpaper for colorful reams of descriptive text. As DLC, Dragonfall requires you to have Shadowrun Returns also installed. That's a shame, because although there are those willing to plunk down $15 for this, there are those who would hesitate before the initial $20 cost of the base game (unless they already bought it last year.) 

All told, $35 isn't exactly a mortal wound inflicted on one's wallet, but Dragonfall's audience could have been bigger if the entire investment was a no-brainer. That being said, Dragonfall is the campaign that Shadowrun Returns should have shipped with, as it realizes the richness of the setting even as it threatens to be constricted by the mechanical and aesthetic limitations of the Shadowrun engine itself. It simply makes a stronger case for the Shadowrun universe. — TJD, GMA News
Tags: shadowrun, gaming