Quick Look: Shadowrun: Hong Kong

@tunesmith: that portrait seems inspired by the too human video thing

@tennmuerti: Ah, I thought it might be a Demon's Souls to Dark Souls situation where they introduced a new integral mechanic like the jump and the kick. Which if I had played them in reverse it would've been a bit hard to go back to Demon's Souls at first without those abilities.

Confirm/deny the existence of Jiangshi in this game?

@austin_walker: @vinny: This quick look would make a great jumping off point to start a GBEAST Unplugged: Shadowrun feature.

The inclusion of stock fantasy races in this world always struck me as contrived; in 40k, there's enough dexterity to ace the landing, but here it was like BOOM TOLKIEN just cuz.

@austin_walker: Did you name your character "Malik Rose" or was that the default? Cause Malik Rose is also the name of a journeyman NBA player from the late 90s to the 2000s.

D.

@humanity: cool thanks

Fun fact: Alex Navarro in binary is actually this!

01000001 01101100 01100101 01111000 00100000 01001110 01100001 01110110 01100001 01110010 01110010 01101111

Probably my favorite game this year. Sorry, Witcher 3. I enjoyed it even more than Dragonfall, which was also excellent.

@tennmuerti: Satellite Reign is released? I didn't back it but followed it for awhile, then totally forgot.

Is it very Syndicate like?

I can never tell if the video descriptions/blurbs are supposed to be jokey anymore.

@razielcuts: I'd go for Dragonfall Director's Cut first, it's a polished product. Wait for a few more updates on Hong Kong before you play it.

Definitely, I think it would have been a far different Quick Look without him.

HMHVV, that Ghule sickness is full called "Human Metahuman Vampiric Virus", the same virus that turns some people into ... well ... Vampires

Hmmm, that's a tough one to describe I think :P

It definitely borrows a LOT of ideas, concepts and details from Syndicate, I mean it really wears it's inspiration on it's sleeve. But that's as far as it goes. In the end it is very much it's own game that does things it's own way the way it's creators designed it that in spots differs quite a lot from Syndicate, especially on the mechanical level. They are not selling it as a spiritual successor and for good reason as that would invite a lot more false expectations.

So like here's the shared DNA:

• it's a top down tactical rts where you control a squad of 4 agents
• cyberpunk setting, corporations, cybernetics, set in cities and industrial areas with civilians and armed factions around
• you do research to get better toys and upgrades for your soldiers
• and that's pretty much the big stuff, the rest are smaller touches like
• the research graphs, the cursor to pickup items on the ground, the similar weapons, being able to "persuade" enemies, agents rolling with pieces out or hidden, the visual radar ping

But there are also a ton of differences:

• all of the game takes place in 4 large connected hub zones, not missions around the world, there is no going back to base, research happens on the fly in realtime
• the entire basic game play loop, because it has concepts like stealth, going undetected if you want, silent kills, hacking, alarms, reinforcements, alert levels, cover mechanics!, so in terms of that there is definitely much more choice of how you want to do things
• the pace of shootouts is quite different, less instantaneous and there is way less collateral damage on civvies
• you got 4 soldier classes with their own skill upgrades and specialties, that if they die transfer personalities to a new clone
• "persuasion" is way more limited as it is on cool down, only 1 agent can do it, it takes time, and limits your energy regen
• oh yeah so there are no separate drug levels, just one energy reserve for things like sprinting or abilities
• but then there are also way more items and cybernetic implants, with separate bars for armor and shields with weapons that excel at taking down one or the other
• the visual style is more like the video intro to Syndicate, or Syndicate Wars, then what actually Syndicate looked like playing
• so if you are looking for the same visual and music vibes like in Syndicate you will be disappointed, it's more traditional in it's cyberpunk setting
• all of this kind of makes it a very different game in the way it plays, when you get down to it

Nah dog, this is just very much the case of a person being more familiar with the lore/explanations of one universe settings vs. another. Because I can tell you right now if someone is unfamiliar with the "deep intricacies" of 40k from the outside looking in it also looks very much like, BOOM TOLKIEN just cuz.

After starting this, I was inspired to get off my butt and start playing Shadowrun Returns (I love it and my troll street samurai). But if anyone's interested in jumping right into Dragonfall like Austin suggested, it's on sale at the Humble Store today for $4.4.9!

Just finished another run of SRR last week and started up a new SRDF run this week. Trying to give some room for patches to come out for HK before I jump into it.

Really, really dig these games and the world. Never did get into the tabletop, sadly.

Came to the end of this thread to say exactly this.

But since it was taken I'll just say that between his clear affinity for these games, which I am also way into, and this morning's Dragon's Dogma fervour, Austin has skyrocketed to the position of favourite bombduder super quickly.

Dunno if @austin_walker is familiar with Matt Lees or his work (gonna guess probably) but seeing as he's the only other person I've encountered with anywhere near the same enthusiasm for DD I feel like they should hang out or something.

I played a ways into the first of these games, also my first and only encounter with Shadowrun. I remember really really likning it but I had to put it down after I failed a battle two times where each try took about an hour. Not being able to save really killed it for me.

@bungalowbill79: Not as echoey as their podcast. They definitely need something to dampen that shit.

If you REALLY need Vinny out of your hair at any point I'd suggest dropping a hint about Earthdawn's links to Shadowrun. That kind of deep lore hole is pretty much his jam. Now if only there was a way to tie in Battletech's pseudo European history and political intrigue.

Really?! Shadowrun but not Satellite Reign?

This latest episode is better than the last game. It's on par with Shadowrun: Returns in terms of story and gameplay.

Do these Orks turn invisible when they paint themselves purple?

I thought not. :P

I'm a huge fan of Shadowrun, but playing the original one of these did nothing for me. I get that these are "indie" games, but the reliance on text really just bummed me out. Even though it's a complete asshole attitude, it's 2015, show me rather than tell me.

The connection between Earthdawn and Shadowrun is nuts. I bet Vinny would love that. But the sheer ammount of cool stuff in Shadowrun alone would be his jam I bet. We are talking about dragons leading mega-coorporations, blood-magic, whole citys infested by body snatching insect spirits, AI running rampart and on and on.

God I love Shadowrun.

Man some huge fans of Dragonfall commenting here. In my circles I feel like i'm the only guy who knows these games exist.

I sincerely hope Hairbrained is doing alright with this franchise. Dragonfall Director's Cut was great (Really helped during the dry year that was 2014), but with both that and Hong Kong, I can't help but notice how low profile their games are.

This game looks pretty alright. I like the tactics stuff and the mechanical differences between guns, swords, magic, and hacking all seem really interesting.

Really though, rogue poetry slam AI might have done the most to sell me on this game.

This. Oh please, this.

Also, maybe just do a GBEast Unplugged with Austin running Shadowrun for Vinny, Alex, and Special Guest Jeff Bakalar? That might be The Best?

If anything it just sounds like Gibson being honest instead of diplomatic. Sure it pisses him off but he admits it's fair and that he stole ("was influenced by", whatever) from others too.

The new Matrix stuff looks a HELL of a lot better than it was in Shadowrun Returns, where it was "Hey, Look! It's exactly the same gameplay as meatspace, but with Tron-like graphics!"

(Disclaimer: I own Dragonfall, but have yet to finish it.) Hong Kong looks coo, though.

Also, I appreciate FASA's attempts to at least marginally move their "elves and goblins and monsters" away from Tolkien-esque sterotypes and more into real-world folklore. As someone who followed both for decades, 40K took the opposite route -- they took Tolkien-esque stereotypes and amplified them to such a degree that they became satire.

All in all though, I side with Gibson: the ONLY reason Shadowrun came to exist on the tabletop in the first place is because some long time D&D players said "we should play D&D, but in THE FUTURE".

Me, I'll take R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk 20XX series any day. Cyberpunk 2077, baby!

@dasakamov: It's shitty stealth gameplay unless you wan't to trigger alarms and fight tons of extra dudes in cyberspace. The actual combat isn't any different.

Since I play that game being as quiet as possible for as long as possible it was a significant step back.

Thankfully, the game is light on telling (voice acting) and is heavy on showing (displaying text on the screen)

:b

More Shadowrun is always fine by me, even if I also think the Cyberspace parts look weaker than before.

Also I'll say it again: Austin was just a fantastic addition to the crew. Love how enthusiastic he gets with games (on par with Vinny) and his taste in games in general.

Vote Billionaire Dragon 2016

@humanity: "My literary DNA" I'm sorry but this guy an idiot. He never created the cyberpunk genre. The first cyberpunk novel and subsequently the novel that created all the tropes that last to this day, was published nine years before "Neuromancer". Gibson is just the most well known.

@marblez3: Neuromancer set the precedent for all future cyberpunk though. I'm not sure what novel you're referring to but I know that almost all modern cyberpunk alludes in one way or another to his work. Even if he didn't, in this case the game is quite literally messing with his literary DNA as Shadowrun somewhat shamelessly borrows almost all of it's core concepts from Neuromancer. Deckers, razorgirls, the tech, the look and feel.. it's all completely ripped from his books so hey, he's not wrong.

An interesting anecdote that Gibson tells is way back in the day he went to see Blade Runner when it first appeared in theatres and left completely devastated because it was so similar to what he had written thus far, making him think that everyone would naturally assume he copied his ideas from the movie, and causing him to completely re-write the whole novel from scratch.

@humanity: The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner. Came out nine years before Neuromancer. It has all the staples of cyberpunk that still exist today.

Also Blade Runner is based on the novel 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' which came out in 1968 -16 years before Neuromancer. So if he thought Blade Runner was so similar to his novel he must have inadvertently copied off the book on which it was based.

Gibson may be the most well known cyberpunk author, but he is by no means the creator of the genre.

@marblez3: Well thats cool I'll have to check it out. The reviews say it's not as much a book with a traditional plot but an idea expanded onto a novel like setting. Seems interesting and it's always fascinating to see people describe the modern internet so many years ago which is exactly what has always impressed me about Neuromancer - apart from it's great sense of style and setting.

I actually have read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep although many years after having watched Bladerunner. It was really humorous to see just how little the story had to do with the movie apart from borrowing a few characters and themes. I'm not quite sure what Neuromancer looked like before Gibson revised it as the book in it's current form is nothing like the Philip K. Dick short story, which all in all is for the better.

Of course there is no single creator of the genre, as many authors, over a span of great many years have explored the many elements that we collectively attribute to cyberpunk of today. I was simply stating, as you yourself have said, that Gibson certainly popularized it by a large degree, and a lot of terms and concepts going around today stem specifically from his novels - this is all fully acknowledging that he was most definitely influenced by authors that came before him. Gibson himself speaks highly of John Shirley who also wrote a variation of cyberpunk way back in the day.

Replaying this game now with the audio commentary. Still a good game, guys.