I Beat Shadowrun Returns

Elves with turn of the century mustaches. I am bewildered as to why I have never thought of that before.

This was everything I hoped a Shadowrun sequel could be. The battles were basically just a graphically updated version of the original SNES version, and since Shadowrun's fights play a lot like Xcom's, I'm better at them now too. The story was impressive, blending a metropolitan cyberpunk murder mystery with a large-scale insectoid alien invasion of Earth. Like I do with every game I decide to write about, I kept a list of pros and cons next to me while I progressed through Shadowrun, but the cons seem trivial now that I finished the game. There are a couple things I didn't like, small things, irrelevant things, certainly not any flaw large enough to hide that Shadowrun Returns is a blast to play.

I'll start with the microscopic bad stuff just to get it out of the way. A small gripe that I have has to do with skill points, and that really cool things can be unlocked during conversations, but if you don't have the necessary skill points assigned to a specific category, then you're fucked. For example, the corrupt police chief will cough up a key to a secret safe, but you need a strength of 6 to get it out of him. If you don't have 6 points assigned to your strength stat, then you are out of luck, the key isn't accessible later. There's no way to know that's coming, (the same thing happens in Fallout constantly) which can get a little irritating, especially when you know that you're missing something good.

My dwarven street samurai's name was Blood Grape, and he lived to get paid. The decisions and talking points the game gives you really let you mold your own moral mercenary. Like the Mass Effect good/evil spectrum, Shadowrun Returns allows you to be a protecter of the innocent, an intimidator of the defenseless, or just a ruthless mercenary with no soul and an obsession with cash. You won't be altering endings or changing boss fights with your moral decisions, but your choice of personality absolutely changes what people say to you. The atmosphere in the local Shadowrunner bar is shapeable. The other mercs will show you respect if you're all about the money, while Mr. Kluwe, the giant troll bouncer will befriend a man of justice. It's a little addition that the original SNES version lacked, and it's certainly a welcome one.

Chris Kluwe's character is the absolute best part of the game

My initial feeling about the game after the credits finished scrolling was that Shadowrun Returns is really well made. The HD graphics and portraits are stunning, the combat is tight with minimal frustration, and the futuristic Seattle is really fun to jog around in. Back in the 90's, the original Shadowrun felt like a groundbreaking experiment, taking RTS RPG combat and putting it 100 years in the future with elves, dwarves and orcs. Unique games like that tend to develop some form of a cult following, and I always thought that us Shadowrun fans were just too small in number to ever be given the sequel we wanted so desperately. I am so fucking glad that I was wrong about that.