Shadowrun Returns Review (Switch)

Shadowrun has been a massively underutilised franchise when it comes to the world of video games. There are countless Dungeons and Dragons titles but only a handful set in the murky shadows of mega corps and monsters.

Of the four games before this revival, one of them was a Japanese only Mega CD title and another is a team based shooter which doesn’t really keep the ethos. The ones fans will remember are the excellent SNES version which saw Jake Armitage taking on a Dragon and the Genesis title that never made it to European shores. To say we've been starved of Shadowrun fun is somewhat of an understatement but now the three most recent PC title have made it to Switch all that is about to change.

Shadowrun Returns is a turn based strategy game set in an isometric viewpoint and is about as old school feeling as a new game gets. It’s very close in mood and graphical style to the SNES game and benefits immensely from it. The areas of the city are dank and polluted and neon tinged signs cast light over the many citizens that walk the streets in this imagining of a dystopian future. 

Conversations are carried out via dialogue trees with pictures of the characters face to the side of them. There is no voice acting or animation here but it doesn’t really detract from the game and if anything adds to the retro feel. Although, the text could be bigger fir handheld mode. 

The story goes that your friend has been murdered and now it’s up to you find out who the killer is. At first it seems a fairly standard tale but there are a few decent twists to keep you on your toes and what starts out as a neo-noir thriller will soon go off into all sorts of strange and gruesome directions.

You can build your character from scratch from five races and a host of different class types which at least on the surface adds some depth and replay value. In practice we found the classes that deal with robots or computers had their skill sets somewhat underused (especially in the beginning), with the combination of magic and guns often the best way to proceed. This is something future instalments amended.

The game is split into three different sections. There’s the part where you run around the area talking to people and looking for clues, the turn based combat sections and parts where you enter the matrix. The first part plays out like a point and click adventure, all be it in a confined area.  Combat can occur quickly and it’s always best to be prepared and ready. When combat does occur your characters are given a number of action points to move, shoot and cast spells. It’s not ground breaking but it works simply and effectively enough. You also have to keep an eye on characters strengths with Trolls and Orcs better at taking damage than Elves for instance.

Most of the time you’ll have a team of four and your missions will generally be to get into somewhere, retrieve a person or object and get out. Sometimes you just have to kill people but it becomes a step by step process of running to cover, concentrating fire and carefully moving forward. Mistakes in the original pc game could be costly and if you die you would start the whole sequence again. This is one of the flaws that has now been ironed out as you can now save during missions. 

There is still a slight issue with picking sensible gear as being auto-saved into a difficult place means there may be no way to get out alive if you haven’t brought the right supplies or team. This can be somewhat frustrating considering you won’t know what you need until you get there.

The matrix sections of the game are also a little dry. They play out in much the same way as normal combat with the Decker moving around a virtual system setting up combat programmes and fighting drones. It would have been nice to distinguish this more from the normal combat but it works.

Overall, Shadowrun Returns is a positive return to form for the series. It’s not perfect but everything is in place and built upon by the later releases. The game as it stands is solid, well written and will provide a good few hours of gameplay. A few more side quests and a bit more variety wouldn’t have gone a miss but it’s an easy world to get drawn into and any fan shouldn’t be disappointed. It’s a streamlined turn based strategy game set in an interesting world and is quite unique for the Switch.

Overall 6/10

* There is currently a game blocking bug late in the game. It is due to be patched. Keep this in mind when purchasing.

Shadowrun: Dragonfall (Switch)

Starting out as the first major piece of DLC for the original Shadowrun Returns, Dragonfall went on to get a fully functioning solo upgrade of its own soon after.  It changes the setting of our murky world of magic and science to the streets and shadows of Berlin and does things a little differently than before and is all the better for it.

Having fled Berlin after a betrayal, your new character soon finds themselves on a job described as a ‘milk run’ with an old friend. In Shadowrun things are never usually as simple as they seem and predictably things go wrong quickly and keep getting worse. You soon uncover a dangerous secret and by then it’s too late to back out. Just remember – never cut a deal with a dragon.

One of the areas where Dragonfall differs from the original in that you now have a consistent pool of runners to choose before going into each mission. This means that the writers have been given more scope to build up the personalities of your team who occupy the now expanded hub area. More team members can be picked up during missions as well and it means players are rarely faced with situations that they are completely unequipped for. Instead, the missions become more about how you want to go about completing them which removes a lot of the frustration found in Shadowrun Returns where you could find yourself grinding through with a poorly chosen team.

The mechanics themselves are pretty much the same as before. The core rule set of the original game was always decent and here you get to see how flexible it can be as you now have specifically designed characters to use in levels created for their skill set. Level design is also of a higher standard for the most part with more optional objectives and a better way of picking up and identifying side quests that helps to build the illusion of player freedom.

Unfortunately, the matrix sections are still dull and uninspired. These needed a complete overhaul from pretty much the first day of the PC release and have got no better with age. The series really would benefit from taking these sections back to the drawing board though as they seem to drag on endlessly and lack pace and excitement. One other minor criticism is that Berlin looks an awful lot like the Seattle of the first game. It would have been nice to give it more of a visual identity as it’s certainly an iconic city.  People at least talk in a German accent for the most part.

On top of this the Switch version has some quite nasty bugs. From our experience these seem to be mainly restricted to the hub area between missions, but we wouldn’t bet on everyone saying the same. The frame rate skips badly here, and players seem to teleport around. You also lose the lock on information for both objects and people which then involves a little dance as you try and interact with what you want to. The game also locked a couple of times when changing areas and once we completely lost the camera which just refused to follow our movements. We should highlight this was restricted to the hub area, during missions we found this didn’t happen which at least meant we never died because of it but maybe that’s just us. It also suffers a bit from handheld play with some small text and no improvement with regards to colourblind users since the original game, something that was always a bit of an issue.

Dragonfall is basically more of the same but refined and improved in a number of key areas. If you liked Shadowrun Returns then you should love this as just about every aspect from story to mission design is improved. It does need a patch though as the hub area does just about all it can to break the immersion currently. If you can put up with that there’s still a lot to like about Dragonfall, it’s just not the game it was on PC currently.

Overall 7/10

*since this review was written a patch has been issued which does stabilise the frame rate. 

Teleglitch: Die More Edition Review (PC)

Somewhere in the future, on the edge of a particularly dark area of space is an experimental research facility. Said facility is doing some particular nasty military experiments and now you have woken up and realised it’s all gone to hell. Your only chance is to escape but that isn’t going to be easy.

Teleglitch is an action rogue-like come survival horror title viewed from a top down perspective. Controls are similar to Hotline Miami but it shares none of that games neon tone, instead using a rotten and decaying colour palette designed to inspire feelings of dread and despair as you explore the lonely research outpost.

The games visual style is at first jarring but you’ll soon begin to adjust to the haze of greens and blocky characters. It all begins to take on a certain grotesque beauty and certainly adds to the atmosphere. Sound is the other key component of the game and the outpost hums, bangs and clatters as you explore. Noises are designed to keep you on edge and you’re never quite sure if what you’ve just heard is the station or a monster lurking nearby.

The game follows a pattern of shifting momentum as you move from treating it like The Chaos Engine or Smash TV to running for your life from hordes of mutants and zombies. This change is brought about by what weapon you are carrying and how much ammunition you have left. A few monsters on their own aren’t much of a match for a well-equipped player, but having a few bullets left in a weak gun makes you creep around very carefully, even on early stages.

Teleglitch is a difficult game, something emphasised by the semi-random Rogue like elements of it. Level are randomly generated and randomly populated with monsters. This means you can’t just learn the layout of a level and then dash towards the exit.  It also means that on occasion you will be completely swamped by monsters almost from the off and you’ll need to adjust your strategies quickly in order to survive. Death is permanent and results in starting again from the first level so every move is crucial. There are checkpoints at level five and beyond which allow for a restart from those stages but then where’s the adventure in that? 

Much like games like Spelunky the skill required here is being able to understand what you are up against and react accordingly. Doing this is your best route to survival, though it’s highly likely you’ll still be dashing around looking for the exit with hordes chasing you before long.

The important thing is you always want to dive back into the murky and rotten world. It has the same bite as all the best Rogue-like games and you’ll react with the same joy at finding a useful weapon or despair at opening a door to see hordes of monsters in front of you. You’ll die, a lot, but you’ll always want just one more go.

The other problem that a lot of games in this style face is repetition. Teleglitch does have some issues with regards to re-using environments but there are a wealth of different enemies to take on and a whole lot of different firepower to use as well. This, along with some suitably huge boss type monsters later in the game help to keep things fresh.

Overall, Teleglitch tries to bring something a little different to the Rogue-like sub-genre and succeeds. It may well be going through randomly generated dungeons again but this time there are enough twists and more than enough style to set it apart from its competitors. It’s a hard as nails survive-athon than no fan of the genre should be without and in a crowded market that’s very impressive.

8/10