Shadowrun: Hong Kong--Subtle Changes

My first Kickstarter venture has turned out to be a good one.  The $15 I contributed toward the making of the third game in the Shadowrun series has been well worth it.  Shadowrun:  Hong Kong takes many premises I have enjoyed in the series and improves on some features that needed some tweaks. I haven't quite finished the game but have knocked out a significant chunk.  There have been some frustrations along the way but I am enjoying the subtle changes that make certain aspects of this game different from the previous entries in the series.

Here's what's wiz (my attempt at Shadowrun slang):

A new cast of shadowrunning crewmates--each with an engaging backstory.  Your crew consists of Duncan Wu, an ork security specialist (this isn't a new class but does feed into his story), who was a childhood friend of the character you play.  One of the fun aspects of this relationship is that through dialogue options the player can craft many of the memories shared between themself and Duncan.  You character and Duncan grew up rough on the streets of Seattle and were eventually rescued and raised by a mysterious Chinese businessman named Raymond Black.  Duncan opted for the straight and narrow and became a cop.  His talents are combat oriented but I mostly enjoy his stunning abilities.  At a specific level you can choose a talent that allows Duncan to disable and take out of commission a stunned enemy target.  This crowd control ability is a handy way to eliminate at least one bad guy during a fight.

The next member of your crew is Is0bel, a dwarf decker who grew up in the region of Kowloon Walled City.  This region of Hong Kong is a notorious slum with some disturbing paranormal phenomenon that makes the squalor that much worse.  As a decker, Is0bel possesses the same talents and abilities as deckers in previous games--the most obvious is the ability to hack into the matrix and virtually unlock doors, hack cameras and security, and help your team gain valuable intelligence.  The matrix in this game is slightly different than the virtual interface depicted in other games.  Now players much try to avoid the security programs rather than defeat them all in order to achieve their goals.  Hostile programs patrol and it is more beneficial to avoid them than to try to face them head-on--getting spotted too many times will result in an alarm going off and more baddies popping up along your path.  Another fun new aspect of the new matrix is hacking firewalls.  When you approach a firewall there are two steps involved.  The first is to play a game similar to the classic color/sound matching game "Simon" where you have to match a pattern of numbers.  Each time you match a set of numbers the amount of time you have to complete the second part of the hack increases.  The number matching gets harder the more times you match them and matching them all is no easy feat.  The second part of the hack involves matching a set of symbols before a timer runs out.  Depending on how well you did on the "Simon" step this part can be fairly challenging.  Matrix 2.0 is much more fun than the simple combat mirror in the previous games.

 Probably the most interesting new shadowrunner is the ork shaman Gobbet.  Gobbet is a rat shaman who seems to take her totem quite literally as she is constantly accompanied by her two rat pets Madness and Folly.  Like Is0bel, Gobbet grew up on the streets and has lived a tumultuous life in the shadows.  As a shaman Gobbet's talents are mostly used help supplement the rest of the team.  She utilizes spells that allow her to manipulate the combat field through AoE fogs or give squadmates additional action points.  Her backstory involves a youth spent running the shadows and narrowly avoiding death.  She takes on a sort of mentor role to your character who is new to the criminal life.  Gobbet also seems to have an insatiable appetite and is willing to scarf down anything resembling food.

The squad is rounded out by Racter, a human rigger and depending on the choices you make possibly Gaichu.  It appears that the rigger's abilities have been changed in this game and that you can choose to either supplement the abilities of your drone through a strange gun-like tool or that you can try to participate in combat (which is mostly pointless).  The only downside to these new abilities is that riggers must stay very close to their drones.  You meet Gaichu on a job where you are investigating a series of murders.  Gaichu is a ghoul (remember the fight in the sewers in Dragonfall?) who can use his affliction to his advantage through applying DoT's or he can use his skills as a sword wielding samurai.  The option to choose between those talent sets allows him a great deal of flexibility in combat.  I haven't been able to utilize Gaichu much as I opted to make my character a melee class.

Restaurant showdown.

The new setting in Hong Kong is a nice change.  The floating city that becomes your home turf is colored by vendors with their own unique backstories.  Your base of operations is an old abandoned freighter called the "Bolthole."  There are opportunities to interact with various characters in your home area and you will meet some interesting individuals.  Missions will take you to a wide variety of corporate buildings, slums, floating junkyards, and even a fancy seafood restaurant.

Another added feature that I am cheering for is the ability to start combat on your own terms.  With the click of a button you can enter into a combat phase and begin positioning your team to attack.  I was always irritated in the old games that you just had to maneuver your team into the middle of a group of enemies and then wait a turn, generally while you got shot up, before you could position your group.  Now you can set up ambushes and do a more thorough job of preparing for combat.

Here's what's drek:
Bugs.  There are still some bugs that need to be worked out.  I haven't run into anything game breaking but have had a few minor annoyances.  One of those annoyances was the fact that I could not use Is0bel's target marking ability for several missions (it will show up after you complete her personal sidequest).  Another annoying bug involves picking an etiquette when you create your character.  I did not get the option to pick an etiquette, which is something fairly minor but can offer some unique dialogue options.  I have read of other more serious bugs where certain missions won't complete or update but have been fortunate not to run into those.  Like any new release it will probably take a few patches before most of these bugs are worked out.

While not necessarily a bad thing I am also noticing that there seems to be fewer enemies on missions.  I felt like in Dragonfall there were so many times when the battlefield was crawling with bad guys.  In Hong Kong there seems to be fewer which makes combat significantly less challenging (maybe it changes with difficulty?).  I don't think the story is quite as engaging as in Dragonfall but I an eager to unlock the story of Raymond Black.

Shadowrun:  Hong Kong takes the Shadowrun formula of turn-based combat and cyberpunk and tweaks it slightly from the previous games.  Is it better?  Hmmmm...that's a tough call.  The new matrix is fun but I don't feel the same affinity for my shadowrunning buddies that I did in Dragonfall.