One Life Left: Dragonfall

In 2013, Harebrained Schemes kickstarted Shadowrun: Returns, their first title. Billed as a successor to the classic SNES game, Shadowrun Returns offered up two main options for players: they could create their own content using the built-in story editor, or they could play the campaigns released by Harebrained Schemes. The game’s first story, Dead Man’s Switch felt a little empty. With no fixed party for the player to interact with and a fairly linear story, player choice felt limited and not particularly meaningful. It still provided an entertaining story set in an interesting universe, but it did not make me feel like I had much impact on the story.

Shadowrun Returns’ new campaign, however, does. Entitled Dragonfall, the new story not only improves upon the foundation that Dead Man’s Switch laid, but also presents one of the most engaging stories I have ever experienced in a game. The beginning of the game is standard enough. The player creates a character who can be one of five races (human, elf, dwarf, ork, troll), and picks one of six premade classes (Street Samurai, Mage, Decker, Shaman, Rigger, Physical Adept) or creates their own. The setup to the story is that the player character has gotten themselves into trouble in their old home city, and flees to Berlin at the behest of their old friend Monika. What exactly that trouble is and why the player character decided to head to Berlin can be decided by the player in later conversations. Without giving too much away, the first mission sets up the dynamic between the player and their fellow Shadowrunners (the name given to elite mercenaries who undertake dangerous and often dirty jobs), and gives the player an introduction to the turn-based combat system. Everything seems to go off without a hitch, until unforeseen circumstances force the player to take command of the team of Shadowrunners, as well as the neighborhood that they live in.

This setup is where Dragonfall really shines. Their characters are some of the best-written in the business, and the neighborhood and its inhabitants come to life as you explore it. Within an hour of play time, I felt completely responsible for these people, and each decision I made after that point felt weighty and nerve-wracking. It helped that Dragonfall also throws your small team into a highly dangerous conflict that they have almost no hope of surviving. With these high stakes and the well-presented characters and choices, Dragonfall immersed me in the world in a way that few other games of the genre have. I stuck by my decisions, and I made them because I thought they were the best calls, not to fill out a karma slider or to get the best ending. With no alignment system and with well-written protagonist dialogue, I felt like a part of the world, and a part of that struggle.

Unfortunately, while immersion is where Dragonfall really shines, it is also where it has some trouble. Shadowrun Returns is set in the same universe as the long-running tabletop game Shadowrun. As such, the game possesses an extensive background fiction which is often not properly explained. Acronyms and terms are thrown around with no explanation, and even the gameplay seems to assume that you understand the way the tabletop works. While the game does tell you that only experienced players should attempt to create their own class, it also does a poor job explaining what it means to be a Decker, or how a Street Samurai can be effective out of combat, or why I would specialize in pistols instead of assault rifles. While many RPGs struggle with teaching the player how to build a character, it can be especially frustrating in Shadowrun Returns when combined with the somewhat confusing backstory of that universe.

That being said, those issues are not anywhere near large enough to hurt this game all that much. They are merely a small blemish on an otherwise excellent experience, one that people versed in Shadowrun lore will not have to worry about. I personally opened up a wiki in another window and took a look at that when I really needed something explained, or just gleaned the important information  from the dialogue.

Shadowrun Returns offers players quite a bit. The starting package includes the suite of creation tools as well as the Dead Man’s Switch campaign for a cool $19.99. The Dragonfall expansion costs another $14.99 on top of that, and gives the player a new campaign and the content creator some new toys to play with. While the original package easily justifies its expense with a decent campaign in Dead Man’s Switch and a suite of campaign design tools, Dragonfall seals the deal, even as it brings the price up. If you are a fan of Bioware games, the Shadowrun tabletop game or RPGs in general, this is not one to miss.