Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Review @ HardcoreGamer

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HiddenX

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Bradley Storm (HardcoreGamer) has reviewed Shadowrun: Hong Kong:

In this day and age of gaming, it’s rare to find a developer that consistently releases not just good titles, but fantastic ones. When Harebrained Schemes first came onto the scene back in 2013, fans weren’t sure what the brand new studio (comprised of industry veterans, mind you) were going to do with the beloved tabletop roleplaying game Shadowrun. After all, the series has had a spotty past in the world of gaming, spawning both great games (like the SNES/Genesis entry) and just mediocre ones (like the multiplayer-centric Shadowrun for Xbox 360 and Windows).

Needless to say, audiences were worried about Shadowrun Returns. Of course, that anxiety disappeared the moment the game released and then became but a fleeting memory when the even more wonderful Dragonfall expansion launched last year. Here we are now in 2015 with Hong Kong, the third Shadowrun in three years. That’s a lot of Shadowrun, right? Seeing as annual franchises often go to the well once too often, Hong Kong — despite Harebrained’s now impressive resume — comes with trepidation of its own: do we really need another Shadowrun game already?

[...]

Closing Comments:

We’ve said it practically with each new Shadowrun Harebrained Schemes puts out, and we’ll say it again for Hong Kong: this is the most definitive, comprehensive and polished version of Shadowrun on the market. It builds on the past games in subtle but smart ways, fixing what was broken, and not touching what wasn’t. As a result, players are left with a magical cRPG that gives them so many options. Whether it’s the dialogue and story, combat, exploration, or the amount of loadout options, this is about as close as folks are going to get to a tabletop experience. The best part is, you don’t have to be a Shadowrun fan to love it. If you are, though, there’s just that much more to get lost in here. This is a game that transcends its name and should be spoken of in the same breath as the genre’s best. In years to come people will be comparing the new cRPGs to Hong Kong, because it’s easily a benchmark for what developers in the RPG arena should be looking at when designing their games.

Score: 4.5/5
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User reviews so far have been extremely positive. Fyi: There has been a few 'serious' but not 'game breaking' bugs noted in the bug forum (steam). I've not started yet; probably won't for a couple of weeks.
 
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do we really need another Shadowrun game already?
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If people are still contributing to the Kickstarter for a Shadowrun game, then the answer is a gob-smackingly obvious 'yes'. Critics.
 
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rjshae said:
If people are still contributing to the Kickstarter for a Shadowrun game, then the answer is a gob-smackingly obvious 'yes'. Critics.
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I agree rjshae but I always hear this brought up on many preview's, and internet forums. As for me I will gladly pay more money to get games that I enjoy playing.

One example would be the older infinity engine games. Now almost 15 years later a developer is finally developing more of those games due to a small demand.

I also never tire of playing the same settings, and save the world stories either. Still I don't mind playing some variety now and then either as well.:)
 
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As long as the quality of the game and the writing stays consistently high, I will keep buying them. I enjoyed the first two immensely though only had time to play about an hour of SRHK. I am interested in seeing what people do with the level editor too.

Some games do get a little long in the tooth after too many iterations - Kings Bounty seems to be going that way. I really enjoyed the first reboot and Armored Princess, but the last two have not held my interest. It seems to be the same game over and over with not enough unit variety and changes between games, where so far Shadowrun has not fallen into that state and each new game seems fresh.
 
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JDR13 said:
The exception seems to be in regards to the new matrix. I'm seeing a lot of very negative comments about those sections of the game.
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Hmm, I thought they'd improved that aspect?

Too bad, as I was planning to play a Decker/Rigger…. I love hacking stuff, but I don't particularly enjoy the grinding down enemies approach to the Matrix in this game.
 
If the quality stays at least as good as the predecesors and people buy it, then yes, you can always use another Shadowrun RPG.
I have played Returns and found it a bit flat/too railwayed. I still have to play Dragonfall, but am looking forward to it and I'm sure I will buy Hong Kong at some point.
For myself, I'm REALLY looking forward to their Battletech game. I sounds sooo good and I'm already very excited!
 
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JDR13 said:
The exception seems to be in regards to the new matrix. I'm seeing a lot of very negative comments about those sections of the game.
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Yes, the matrix system is very lacking in the original game. Dunno about the newer iterations, though I never understood why they didn't just skip it and let the hacking happen in dialog or something like that. For me it was just reskinned boring combat.
 
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DArtagnan said:
Hmm, I thought they'd improved that aspect?

Too bad, as I was planning to play a Decker/Rigger…. I love hacking stuff, but I don't particularly enjoy the grinding down enemies approach to the Matrix in this game.
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Actually you might like the new system better. The 'improvement' problem is that it added quasi-real time aspects (stealth) to a turn based game. I've done 2 or 3 Matrix runs so far, and I ended up just blowing everything up anyway, like I always do in stealth games, because I suck at stealth.
 
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