Steam Sale Purchase #2--Shadowrun

I'm making sure to keep tabs on the Steam winter sale so I can get some great deals on games.  I made a few purchases that so far have turned out very well.  I've only had time to dip into one of them, but it's great!  If you enjoyed X-COM:  Enemy Unknown or the older turn-based RPG's like the Fallout series you will enjoy Shadowrun Returns.

I had never heard of Shadowrun before seeing it on sale.  Apparently it started out as a popular pen-and-paper RPG and has expanded into the video game world.  I am enjoying the strange fusion of traditional fantasy elements--magic, elves, orks (with a "k")--with a futuristic world.  The result is a genre I am not at all familiar with called "cyberpunk."  Currently, I am playing through Shadowrun Returns which was released in 2013.  I also managed to snatch up Shadowrun:  Dragonfall for a nice price.

The character creation process in Shadowrun Returns reminded me a lot of Wasteland 2.  You pick a class and then choose from some pre-made portraits with options to change features like your skin and hair color.  The classes are pretty unique and I decided to go with something semi-traditional in the form of the street samurai.  There are other options that utilize both tech and magic, you can choose to be a mage or a "decker" who can hack into "the matrix."  The street samurai that I picked has skills suited to both ranged and melee combat.  You can opt to put points into ranged combat or melee combat, this makes for a versatile mix that lets you choose how you react in combat.

A Seattle landmark still exists in the future.

After you've created your character you enter the weird world of Shadowrun.  The main campaign involves a story about a former shadowrunner and friend named Sam Watts who sends you a message from beyond the grave using something called a "dead man's switch."  The switch is a piece of tech that is meant to activate and send messages after the user has died.  You learn that Sam was murdered and that he's offering a hefty insurance policy to solve his murder.  The campaign follows your efforts to solve Sam's murder and is set in a futuristic Seattle.  As you find more clues the plot thickens and turns into something much larger than just the murder of a former friend.

The combat is somewhat similar to X-COM:  Enemy Unknown, it's turn-based and utilizes a cover system with differing values for the type of cover you use.  As a street samurai who specializes primarily in melee skills I spend much of my time up close and personal with enemies.  If you choose the right companions they can buff your melee characters increasing their armor and making them into nice bullet sponges.  You can miss and critically hit enemies using a wide variety of traditional, tech, and magic attacks.  It's fun, but not overly challenging (you can change the difficulty settings).

The story, setting, and cool combination of traditional and modern make Shadowrun Returns a great game to add to your library.  If you're into modding or creating your own maps it also features Steam Workshop support and an editor tool for you to make your own worlds.  Grab it while it's on sale!