“Good mornin-afternoo-vening, dear Nonsensiac chummers and welcome back, to Shadowrun September!
Today I’ll be looking at the second game in the Harebrained Schemes loose trilogy of Shadowrun games, Shadowrun: Dragonfall.
Since this is the second title in the series, it should be clear from the get-go that I will be comparing it quite a bit to its predecessor, so make sure to check out my Shadowrun Returns review first, to better understand what I’m referring to when I make comparisons. Also check that one out to better understand what this whole Shadowrun September thing is about.
But now, let’s delve deep into Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director’s Cut.
Shadowrun: Dragonfall’s setting
While Shadowrun Returns set the story in Seattle - which is very appropriate since this tends to be the default setting for the tabletop game - Dragonfall moves things across the pond and sets them right smack in the middle of the Old Continent. In the Shadowrun version of Germany, in Berlin.
But just like everything else in the world since the Awakening, Europe and Berlin are changed. While talking to the various companions and NPCs in the game you can put together different parts of the local post-Awakening history. At a certain point there were some EuroWars and one can assume that as an aftermath of these events, the once-cohesive European countries shattered into numerous city-states.
Berlin is one such city-state but with an anarchic twist. As opposed to most of the other city-states in the world which are controlled and ran by megacorporations, Berlin exists in a state of stable anarchy - where pretty much everything goes, since it doesn’t have any sort of government or corporation to impose and enforce laws. Stable anarchy is something of a contradiction in terms true, but the gist of things tends to focus on the fact that influence and power tend to be exchanged between the various gangs and other organizations that make Berlin their home, creating a sort of precarious balance based on this flow. The one thing that most of these powers have in common is that they all like the current situation and like to see it perpetuate, as such most will band together to fight off megacorporations trying to muscle in from the outside.
This is why the city is known as the Flux State, because due to the inherent chaotic nature of anarchy, power is in constant flux within the state, it has to be, otherwise it wouldn’t be anarchy.
And just from this very short description of the setting you should be able to tell that Shadowrun: Dragonfall has a completely different type of story in store for the player. Gone is the pulpy and noir-ish vibe of Shadowrun Returns’ serial killer mystery, Dragonfall sets up a much more mature, complex and interesting staging ground in which the player can have a much greater and fulfilling role.
Shadowrun: Dragonfall’s story
Despite the much grander scope of Dragonfall’s story, it starts you in a similar spot, your character doing a run with an old friend. Suffice to say, in proper Shadowrun style, the run goes sideways fast and you’re off on what begins as a revenge tale, but as time goes by and you start gathering intel, it becomes something much bigger and insanely more dangerous than your average revenge story.
The current state of the Flux State depends on certain and several powerful individuals and organizations in the community to keep it going, but not everything is as open as one might expect in the Flux State. With at least one faction dedicated to fighting for freedom and liberty of information - but there are also some very powerful entities out there, biding their time to make Berlin just another corporate-run city-state.
Due to the way in which the story is set-up, the player will steadily become one such powerful individual.
Combat system
Combat wasn’t changed from Shadowrun Returns, at its core it is still turn-based and awesome. It was however, improved with some changes to the combat User Interface and adding some more abilities and features, like a different armor system as well as the potential of flanking, thus making positioning during your combat turns extra important.
The interface change is one of the things that the original game needed most. Now you’re able to see all of your available weapons at once, no more need to scroll through them. It’s a small thing sure, but it makes planning your turns that much easier since sometimes, you might be so focused on what to do next that you’ll forget a particular character has another set of attacks perfect for a situation or other. Seeing more, usually is best, when it comes to RPGs.
Dragonfall companions
No real reason to talk about the classes, these are consistent throughout the series and you can get the best information about them from the handy-dandy help information available in the game. So make sure to check those out to know where you should be focusing your Karma points.
Instead of talking about the classes though - which I do in the Shadowrun Returns video, so if you haven’t watched it till now, you might want to - I will be focusing my attention on talking about the companions you have in Dragonfall. Because this time around, you actually have your own team of shadowrunners who won’t cost you any money to take with you, and these are some of the most compelling companions that you’ll find not only in the entire Shadowrun series, but in most RPGs.
Not only are they all very distinct personalities and bring a varied and diverse array of skills to the team, at least two of them have very interesting backstories and one of the two has quite possibly the most believable, realistic tragic backstory that I’ve found in games.
I need to make myself clear and make sure to stress this next point.
If you don’t spend time talking to your companions after each run, you will be missing a large chunk of what makes Shadowrun: Dragonfall’s companions some of the most compelling fictional characters that you’ll ever have the pleasure of reading about. The combat and main story are all fine and dandy, but the strength of Dragonfall is in its companion’s backstories, so not taking the time to talk to them will ensure that you’ll be missing the real heart of Dragonfall.
And the writer did this with considerably less space than a full fledged novel, not even the size of a short story, so as a wanna-be writer myself, I can only tip my imaginary hat to you, mister Andrew McIntosh.
One other important thing related to you having companions in Dragonfall is the fact that you also have a say in how they advance through their levels. Mind you, your control isn’t as detailed as with your character, but you can choose which abilities your companions focus on as they gain experience alongside you. This is a great touch since it allows you to further customize your team’s capabilities, for instance making Eiger into an insanely powerful long-ranged sniper or a more close quarters focused runner.
Replay value
Depending on your party make-up, you will be locked-out of certain avenues during missions. But that’s a positive because it increases the game’s replay value. Also keep in mind there are quite a few optional side-runs which you can choose to take or not, some of them depending on how much you interact with your companions. These latter ones are by far the most interesting from a the player’s perspective, since these are a result of you investing time and interest in your companion’s stories and they tend to bring some form of closure to your companions.
Also the earlier mentioned fact that you can decide the types of abilities that your companions get as thei advance, only adds to the game’s replay value.
Soundtrack
Dragonfall’s soundtrack adds some more songs to the previous Shadowrun Returns soundtrack which was a requirement from two points of view. First of all, Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director’s Cut is a stand-alone product and as such should have a distinctive soundtrack of its own. Second, the game’s different theme and story required the soundtrack to build a different mood, a more pensive and ominous one, to fit with the heavier subjects discussed in the game.
Don’t get me wrong though, Shadowrun: Dragonfall is not all tragic characters and broody subject matter, the humour from Shadowrun Returns is still very much present, because even though we’re in a different part of the globe, people, and shadow runners especially, are still still the same. However, in Dragonfall much moreso than in the first title there is one quest in particular that has a heavy dose of comedy.
The quest or run I’m talking about is the one called Lockdown, in which you get introduced to one of the most captivating pieces of fiction within fiction since the Silver Shroud radio-plays of Fallout 4. I’m talking of course about the series called “Knights Kings of Lightninghold”, a horribly bad Z-grade fantasy series prominently featured during this quest. It was such fun, reading about the show that it actually made me want to either read the thing outright or write episodes of the show. I am a big fan of B-movies from the ‘80s and this sounded like something that would totally fit my eclectic tastes.
Conclusion
So to sum things up, Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director’s Cut is an extremely well-made computer RPG, with challenging turn-based combat, extremely interesting and compelling characters and a solid soundtrack.
Remember when I said that Shadowrun Returns is something of a proof of concept or very elaborate demo for what was planned to come? Well Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director’s Cut is everything that was promised during the first game and more.
In case Shadowrun Returns did not convince you to jump into this series, then don’t hesitate to jump into Dragonfall Director’s Cut. You can usually find all three titles as the Shadowrun Collection for a discount on Steam but occasionally you’ll find them as a Humble Bundle at a crazy huge discount, something around 80%, so keep an eye out for that. (It is actually available from Humble Bundle at the time of writing this so I will link it at the bottom of the article)
So now that we’re done here, make sure to head on over to @free999enigma and check out his series of Fallout videos, I’ll link their videos into the video description and make sure to tell them I sent ya’ ;)
See you next time with the last title in the series, Shadowrun: Hong Kong Extended Edition.”
Fallout 1 review - https://steemit.com/gaming/@free999enigma/gaming-history-fallout-1-20-years-of-post-nuclear-greatness-201791t20484243z
Fallout 2 review - https://steemit.com/gaming/@free999enigma/gaming-history-fallout-2-when-more-was-better-201799t145119384z
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