PC Games I am Playing Week: Shadowrun Returns

Hey there all and welcome to PC Games Week.   As you know I do reference more than a few console based games and that has been fun but at the end of the day I admit I would rather be behind the screen on the keyboard slaughtering villagers, having FPS gunfights and solving a few brain teasers.  Today’s game hails from the realm of table top based role-playing games from as far back as 1989 from FASA Corporation. Bringing technology of cybernetics and virtual reality hackers in mixed with sorcery, dragons and metahuman creatures to the world.  In 1993, Super Nintendo brought us the first story arc based on the cyberpunk fantasy RPG involving character Jake Armitage, a man suffering amnesia, wounded by assassins trying to figure out who wants him dead and completes his overall mission.  

Your swinging bachelor/bachelorette pad...definitely a fire hazard.

1994 Sega Genesis created a third person based game of both combat and exploration with Real Time standings along with the cause and effects of each battle. 

 13 years go by and we had not seen hide or hair of one for the newer consoles or PC until 2007’s abysmal failure that worked solely on Windows Vista which was a glorified verse of Quake.  Heartbroken were so many fans that 6 years later we had heard rumors of a company called Harebrained Schemes were raising money on Kickstarter to finance their own cyberpunk fantasy game under the title Shadowrun Returns.  So grab your trauma patches, call out the doc wagon and lock and load. This is Shadowrun Returns.

That is one seriously bizarre elf.

Spoilers are the Wiz, man.

Following under tactical RPG, this single-player game has all the bells and whistles the chummers have been scanning for. Character generation starts with the five races running the streets: humans, orcs, trolls, elves and dwarves.  Each species has its pros and cons so choose the archetype that works best for what you want to do.  And if that isn’t enough to make you happy how about classes as well?  Ranging from all the greats: Street Samurai (fighter), Mage, Decker (electronic and cyber thief), Shaman (cleric or holy person), Rigger (robot drone master) or Physical Adept (magically strengthened).   Our story opens with your character looking around a slum lord’s wet dream of an apartment.  The rats and cockroaches are fighting over who gets to leave first and your vidphone gives you a call from a fellow Shadowrunner (fellow illegal adventurer or privateer) tells you he has passed away and this payment plan is set up as insurance to find out who killed him and why.  The natural loyalty of the runners is pretty sound and you begin your investigation.  Our hero even runs into Super NES’s hero Jake Armitage as a NPC as you discover a new spin on an old classic Ripper case.  

I have just a few comments at this point to be made.  The combat is turn based; you fan out your fellow runners in any formation you so choose and there is a bit of problem solving to be had.  Best advice, chummer is to diversify your character to decking (computer skills), healing and lots of etiquette (Corporation, Security, Gang and Street speak) The storyline also hails from the same timeline as the Super NES and Sega Genesis games so that includes the lingo, gritty look of the streets and alleys and while it lacks a voice cast it returns us back to traditional RPG turn based formats of the like of: Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, Fallout and Planescape: Torment.   I found it entertaining, warped and everything the game systems have been aspiring to reach and finally made.  Dead Man’s Switch is just the first installment as this is linked to Steam Workshop for newer campaigns.   My only nitpicks is the loading time from mission to mission and we don’t get to play with any vehicles.

Gunfight in the nut house...a tad odd admittedly.

PC Games I am Playing Week!

Hey gang!  So thought I would shy away from movies and TV shows for a change and get back into another aspect of my reviews which is: video games!   Yeah I know I did the 1997 PC games not long ago but at the end the day...it's my friggin' blog so lump it.   That in mind I would also point out what games may have slipped past your notice or just didn't get nearly enough airtime and advertisement.  

Travelin' the wild wasteland!

Christmas and birthday provided me with just a bit of gaming fun to try out so why the heck not give my opinion of its playing style, the graphics, whither or not it had a decent story or voice cast.   Only seems fair to give back some love from a hobby that brought me hours of entertainment.  So these games are not in a chronological order but more of an order of what I found to be fun that particular time.  Keep in mind I am tackling all these games due to their replay ability.

PC Games of 1997: Fallout

Hiyas spawn campers and welcome to Day 1 of PC games of 1997. I thought I would pick my personal favorite of this time era. An RPG of post-apocalyptic proportions of war torn United States with no Government to speak of and justice is dispensed from the barrel of a gun or the edge of a knife.   So grab your stimpacks, get that Action Boy extra and improve your Small Arms skill.  This is Fallout.

I'd fight the law but the law wins.

Mayor Killian Darkwater: Sure bet. May not be as big as in the Spoiler but most people find what they are looking for.

First off this game is approximately 16 years old at this time what with being produced in 1997 by Black Isle Studios.  A post-apocalyptic role playing game that is turn based similar to a table top RPG by Steve Jackson Games called GURPS. 

The world as we know it was destroyed due to atomic fallout during the year 2077.  Most technology is derived by this timeline hails from the conception of the 1950’s.  You will also find that most of the science-fiction tech from movies, pulp comics and magazines are an influence as well.

Just let him go walkies before the gunfight.

Your character is a vault dweller.  This means you have spent the better portion of your life underground in a fallout shelter that was contracted by the government.  Your task is to replace a water chip to replenish your water recycling and main plumbing or everyone you know will die of thirst.   So you will trek out into the unknown and encounter inhabitants of this wasteland that was once the world.   You are the vault’s last hope.   You and you alone will decide the fate of dozens of lives depending on you.

 As you progress throughout the game your skills will increase as you level up.  The lands have mutated into vast deserts and remains of once proud cities. You will see items, landmarks and vehicles that you will recall from your data tapes.  Your PIP boy 2000 is a device that will map your locations, describe artifacts that you pick up or examine and keep track of each task or furthering plot to each new town you happen to.

 The mass radiation has caused simple creatures of the past to grow in size and making it more deadly than before the Great War.  Rats and scorpions as your history stated are now twice if not ten times the size of their predecessors.

Bartering and conversation will be a must in order to collect more data about the world around you.  Townsfolk are leery of strangers but in general of good spirits to newcomers.  It boils down to proving if you are the sort that can be trusted.  Because the citizens of each town are comprised of farmers, cattle ranchers and laborers so you will seem out of place so they will be naturally confused and cautious.  

Main characters in each town will be voiced by many esteem actors.  The likes of Richard Dean Anderson, Clancy Brown, Ron Perlman, Tony Shalhoub and CCH Pounder.  Again, it is vital that you talk to as many people as are willing to talk to you.   Random encounters will raise an eyebrow or two depending on each thing, man, woman or monster so keep your wits about you and your weapon of choice handy.  To survive in this world means to take a life to keep yours.

The Farmer's Market really has changed.