Overview: A turn-based tactical RPG. Originally released as an expansion for Shadowrun Returns, the Dragonfall campaign is featured here as a standalone release with improvements and extras.
20190823:
Today I decided to play this game to break even on my purchase of the Humble Classics Return Bundle.
Setup: Normal difficulty. I decided to make a female elf with the Street Samurai archetype.* Spent 6 karma as follows: Ranged Combat to 4, Biotech to 1, Chi Casting to 1. For my first etiquette I chose Shadowrunner.
Gameplay Log:
Tip: Apparently one can play the characters in any order, just click on the character. Only press "End" when you're done.
I played for 59 minutes, reaching the point to where I have to survive for 10 turns after Monika dies.
I played another 1.5 hours
Then I played for another 1.9 hours
Tip: The player only has to worry about his/her own items. The player can loan items to NPCs and get them back after the end of a mission (unless the item was a consumable that was used).
Tip: Glory's medkits are free to use. They will replenish on their own without using money.
Steam Game Time: 4.4 hours (total game time)
*In hindsight, after putting 4.4 hours into the game, I should have went Decker.
20190824:
I was thinking about moving on to another game. However, I did a lot of reading and couldn't help and so I wanted to try a new game with a different set-up. In particular, I wanted to put points into rifle instead of pistol.
Setup: Normal difficulty. Female elf with customized karma points: Body (4) | Quickness (3) \ Ranged Combat (3) \\ Rifle (3) \ Dodge (3) | Intelligence (3) \ Biotech (3) \ Decking (3) \ Drone Control (3) | Charisma (3) | Unspent: 2 karma. For my first etiquette I chose security. [I read corporate, street, and security are good; though some players would recommend roleplaying and doing what feel natural]
Gameplay Log:
I played for 1.3 hours (5.7 hours total).
Charisma to 4: chose street etiquette.
Went to an old save file (start of sewer mission) and lost about 1 hour of progress. In the future, I should save before going back to an old save file.
Steam Game Time: 9.9 hours (total game time) / 5.5 hours (session game time)
Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Story and text choices is engaging; replies feel like they matter
+ A true role-playing experience; design your character the way you want to play and generally there are good dialogue choices to respond as you feel your character would respond
+ Benefits from multiple playthroughs (create a character that fills a different role)
Neutral:
~ Movement feels slow
~ It looks strange to have the team members follow the lead character as opposed to collapsing into the lead character
~ The aspects of the game are fairly easy to learn, yet the developers could have probably included a handful of tooltips for the beginner.
Cons:
- No undo button for movement. Sometimes I walk somewhere expecting line of sight, but the line of sight is blocked (see next).
- I wish there was a way to preview line of sight (e.g., provide a movement preview, see previous)
- In battle, sometimes it's extremely difficult to move a character to a specific location because the location is essentially blocked by another character: hovering over the intended tile triggers the blocking character's info; other games handle this by allowing the player to cycle through potential targets.
- Some of the combat text is misleading; for example, when using the healing spell, a character that is wounded but out of range will read as not wounded.
Summary:
This game is different from the games I usually play (e.g., action-adventure, puzzle games, shooters) and I suppose for that alone I enjoyed it. Actually, I tend to enjoy a good story and this RPG has a good story. With that being said, some of the game's mechanics could have been improved. For example, none of the etiquettes have explanations and yet the first-time player is expected just to pick one. It's also very easy for a beginner to waste karma before being told that specializing is important.
Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut (PC) (2014)
Relevant Links:
Shadowrun: Dragonfall (Wikipedia.org)
Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut (Steam Store Page)
 |
| Talking to Lucky Strike |
20190823:
Today I decided to play this game to break even on my purchase of the Humble Classics Return Bundle.
Setup: Normal difficulty. I decided to make a female elf with the Street Samurai archetype.* Spent 6 karma as follows: Ranged Combat to 4, Biotech to 1, Chi Casting to 1. For my first etiquette I chose Shadowrunner.
Gameplay Log:
Tip: Apparently one can play the characters in any order, just click on the character. Only press "End" when you're done.
I played for 59 minutes, reaching the point to where I have to survive for 10 turns after Monika dies.
I played another 1.5 hours
Then I played for another 1.9 hours
Tip: The player only has to worry about his/her own items. The player can loan items to NPCs and get them back after the end of a mission (unless the item was a consumable that was used).
Tip: Glory's medkits are free to use. They will replenish on their own without using money.
 |
| Eiger apologizes. |
Steam Game Time: 4.4 hours (total game time)
*In hindsight, after putting 4.4 hours into the game, I should have went Decker.
20190824:
I was thinking about moving on to another game. However, I did a lot of reading and couldn't help and so I wanted to try a new game with a different set-up. In particular, I wanted to put points into rifle instead of pistol.
Setup: Normal difficulty. Female elf with customized karma points: Body (4) | Quickness (3) \ Ranged Combat (3) \\ Rifle (3) \ Dodge (3) | Intelligence (3) \ Biotech (3) \ Decking (3) \ Drone Control (3) | Charisma (3) | Unspent: 2 karma. For my first etiquette I chose security. [I read corporate, street, and security are good; though some players would recommend roleplaying and doing what feel natural]
Gameplay Log:
I played for 1.3 hours (5.7 hours total).
Charisma to 4: chose street etiquette.
Went to an old save file (start of sewer mission) and lost about 1 hour of progress. In the future, I should save before going back to an old save file.
 |
| Dietrich |
Steam Game Time: 9.9 hours (total game time) / 5.5 hours (session game time)
Thoughts:
Pros:
+ Story and text choices is engaging; replies feel like they matter
+ A true role-playing experience; design your character the way you want to play and generally there are good dialogue choices to respond as you feel your character would respond
+ Benefits from multiple playthroughs (create a character that fills a different role)
Neutral:
~ Movement feels slow
~ It looks strange to have the team members follow the lead character as opposed to collapsing into the lead character
~ The aspects of the game are fairly easy to learn, yet the developers could have probably included a handful of tooltips for the beginner.
 |
| Fighting a giant scorpion. |
Cons:
- No undo button for movement. Sometimes I walk somewhere expecting line of sight, but the line of sight is blocked (see next).
- I wish there was a way to preview line of sight (e.g., provide a movement preview, see previous)
- In battle, sometimes it's extremely difficult to move a character to a specific location because the location is essentially blocked by another character: hovering over the intended tile triggers the blocking character's info; other games handle this by allowing the player to cycle through potential targets.
- Some of the combat text is misleading; for example, when using the healing spell, a character that is wounded but out of range will read as not wounded.
Summary:
This game is different from the games I usually play (e.g., action-adventure, puzzle games, shooters) and I suppose for that alone I enjoyed it. Actually, I tend to enjoy a good story and this RPG has a good story. With that being said, some of the game's mechanics could have been improved. For example, none of the etiquettes have explanations and yet the first-time player is expected just to pick one. It's also very easy for a beginner to waste karma before being told that specializing is important.
 |
| Start of the Dragonfall campaign |
Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut (PC) (2014)
Relevant Links:
Shadowrun: Dragonfall (Wikipedia.org)
Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut (Steam Store Page)
Date/Time
Friday, August 23, 2019
@
15:00
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