Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut Reviews

Shadowrun

It slaps.

I don't think I've played a single game where I cared about the characters more than Dragonfall. The little kiez in Berlin and the team sticks in my mind as one of those things that games can do perfectly, where you can have a beautiful little bit of stability in an uncertain and dangerous world.

Great game, it is well thought out and fun to play and explore.

works great on steamdeck despite showing up as unsupported

[h1]Short review : [/h1] Shadowrun Dragonfall adapts the tabletop RPG mixing futuristic aspects with fantasy elements like magic. The game displaying gorgeous backdrops and amazing music mixes text-based sections with tactical turn-based combat where each of the different classes fulfill a distinct role. If the gameplay can sometimes be repetitive, Dragonfall’s writing is above the rest and offers a memorable experience, albeit a bit on the short side. Overall Shadowrun Dragonfall is a memorable experience that offers an emotional and compelling narrative that many could enjoy. [h1] Complete review: [/h1] [h2]I.Form[/h2] [b]a.Graphics[/b] Shadowrun Dragonfall has a very strong aesthetic identity. The game takes place in a futuristic cyberpunk version of our world and the very detailed backdrops, sometimes colourful, sometimes very dark perfectly convey the atmosphere of 2050’s Berlin. The game is a top-down RPG, and you thus see the world from above and the level of detail is frankly more than enough for how close you get to see it. Just like a lot of CRPGs, most of the characters you encounter have a stylized portrait that usually go well with their in-game model. Those portraits perfectly fit the cyberpunk aesthetic, and the style gives a strange mix of classic RPG with comics art. [b]b.Music [/b] The music is incredibly good (if you like electronic music that is). A lot of the themes from the game really render the sombre vibe of the future world. Sometimes I would just stop and listen to the music. I will say however that sometimes you feel like the game could be a bit more music variation especially when you change screen in the hub and the two same music tracks are playing all over again. If you want a taste of the music those tracks are quite good: • No overkill • Dragonfall • Alpha Mike Foxtrot [b]c.User Interface [/b] Comparatively to a lot of CRPGs out there, I found Shadowrun DF to have a very nice UI. First, everything is easily accessible, every skill is clearly displayed and all the numbers presented are clear and you do not need to search for hours to understand what is in front of you. However, I thought that for such a nice UI they completely missed the opportunity to add a proper journal to the menu. The quests are always displayed as a list even if they are unrelated objectives. With that many information and details, it would have been nice to have proper pages for each quest and all the quest details provided by your team leader. [h2]II.Content[/h2] [b]a. Character creation and classes[/b] Just like Baldur’s gate is the adaptation of the tabletop RPG DnD, Shadowrun is the adaptation of the science fiction RPG tabletop Shadowrun. This universe is an alternate future of our world where technology, guns and cybernetics co-exist with magic and fantasy creatures, and this allows the series to offer a good variation of classes to play (named archetypes here). You can play close combat characters, soldiers who rely on their firearm, mages with very powerful magic, support characters such as Shamans or the popular “decker” which is this world version of a hacker that can either fight by himself or use drones. Even if those archetypes are presented to you, you have a certain freedom in how you build your character and place your karma (skill points). Everything is clearly explained to you during the skill selections process. And best part is that you don’t earn karma by fighting enemies but completing tasks. This means you don’t need to make a combat oriented character if you don’t want to. [b]b. Gameplay[/b] There are two main parts to gameplay (like most CRPGs) the first and main part is a text-based dialogue system to progress the story. Expect a lot of reading because there’s no voice acting in the game. I personally don’t mind it, but I thought that it was a bit annoying that they wouldn’t display the whole conversation on the screen, they would display a paragraph that would simply disappear when the next paragraph starts. But it’s not just passive reading, you must select the answers you give in dialogues and those answer vary in term of nice or bad but also depend on the skill levels of your character. This means sometimes your skills allow you to find solutions that you wouldn’t have otherwise. The second part of the gameplay is combat which you have to do quite a lot through the game. Dragonfall has a tactical turn-based combat system where each character has a certain number of actions per turn (2 to start). Depending on their class and equipment your character has a different set of skills. At any time, you can see the percentage of chance you have to hit your enemies above their head, and you aim to place your character in a way that optimize your chances to hit your target. You also have to pay attention to the cover to protect your character and not leave it in the open. The different classes really have a nice dynamic during those fights, and you quickly develop habits at the beginning of each fight. Since we are in the future, there’s also something called the Matrix which is a virtual world that a decker (one of the game classes) can access to hack particular things. The whole matrix acts exactly like the combat system but has a different set of skills that work only for it. [b]c. Story[/b] Probably the strongest part of Dragonfall is its story. It takes place in 2050s Berlin, and you are part of a team of Shadowrunners, criminals tasked with certain types of shady jobs. During your first mission, you’ll uncover a mystery so grand that it will change the course of the game. In order to solve that mystery, not only will you have to directly collect information about it during main missions, but you’ll also have to complete secondary jobs to collect money to buy the key info to finally understand what is going on. This is an interesting premise although the fact that you can do other jobs than the main mission kind of kill any sense of emergency that the main story would create. To this add the ability to build relationships with the members of your team until you consolidate it through a personal mission (ala Bioware style). The personal missions of the team members were for me so well written that sometimes they would overshadow the main quest. [h2]III.Others[/h2] [b]a.Replay Value[/b] For a CRPG, Dragonfall is quite short. Of course, you could replay it from a different angle, but I do not see it having that many variations that you would replay it again and again. I would say if they had added a system of secondary quests only based on combat that would just allow you to farm money it would probably have made it more relatable. Since the sense of urgency doesn’t exist anyway why not go deeper into it. [b]b.Achievements[/b] The game has 39 achievements, most of them story based and depending on your choices and actions. They are not hard to get if you know what you’re doing. [h2]IV.Pros and Cons[/h2] [Table] [tr][th]Pros[/th][th]Cons[/th][/tr] [tr][td][list] [*] Well balanced classes [*] Excellent writing [*] Amazing music [/list][/td] [td][list] [*] A bit short [*] No proper quest diary [/list][/td][/tr] [tr][th]Conclusion[/th][td]★★★★★ [/td][/tr] [/table]

This game is an awesome Shadowrun Rpg. Great Characters, great story, great writing overall. I am still salty, that HB Schemes decided to follow another IP after Hong Kong.

Decent game but nothing to write home about. Bought it on the premise that it bears resemblance to Planescape: Torment (according to reddit) but sadly it's nothing like it. There just isn't anything memorable about Dragonfall, with the exception of a bug that renders the game unplayable after nearly 40 hours in. The bug occurs in the Apex mission (late game) so Steam won't refund the game and the developers have given up on fixes (why fix it? you can't refund the game so no pressure on the devs). Shame on Steam and shame on the devs for selling a broken product.

Buy Dragonfall Director's Cut So you wanna be a shadowrunner, but nobody to play with? Purchase Dragonfall Director's Cut! Director's Cut [b]includes Dead Man's Switch[/b], the mission for Shadowrun Returns. DF is more stable than either Shadowrun Returns or Shadowrun Hong Kong, and [b]fans re-made the 1996 SNES Shadowrun game as a workshop mod[/b]. Dragonfall is [b]game crack for laptop users[/b] because it is a turn-based game which can be played offline with minimal resource usage. Dragonfall is [b]game crack for tabletop RPG players[/b] because they don't have to roll dice or spend hours doing the math; the game does it for you. Dragonfall is game crack for anyone who loves dystopian futures or urban fantasy, giving the chance to explore either Seattle or Berlin in a magical but dystopian future. Dragonfall is [b]game crack for modders[/b], as it includes ShadowrunEditor.exe in the folder \Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\Common Files\Dragonfall Director's Cut\ and more advanced changes can be made with Unity development tools. [b]DFDC will also play any working mod produced with the ShadowrunEditor.exe of Shadowrun Returns(SRR)[/b]. You can copy fan missions from C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\\234650\local\ugc to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\1113015989\300550\local\ugc and DFDC will display it in the CONTENT button listing. The personnel involved in Dragonfall and Dragonfall Director's Cut include... - Creative Director [b]Jordan "Zapper" Wiseman[/b], who created the Shadowrun, BattleTech, Renegade Legion, and Earthdawn tabletop RPG universes. - Former Shadowrun Line Manager [b]Mike Mulvihill[/b] is one of the designers credited for the Dead Man's Switch (Shadowrun Returns) campaign. - Many DF developer staff went on to work on the Lamplighters League (2023) - Dragonfall and the other two Shadowrun games in the trilogy were all Kickstarter projects. - Dragonfall has a level editor provided by HBS and 58 fan created Workshop mods. Fan Missions extend the replayability of Dragonfall Director's Cut... Top Notch Fan Missions include: - [b]SNES Reboot[/b] - a three fan team re-made the SNES 1996 game with the Dragonfall editor. - cirion's "[b]Antumbra Saga[/b]" - rise from a lowly shadowrunner to a pivotal player in the struggle between CalFree and Tir Tairngire. - [b]Mercurial[/b] - A 7 fan team re-made the Shadowrun tabletop RPG module Mercurial playable in DFDC. - SekhmetCLS's "[b]Codename Cherise - The Galaxy Case[/b]" - This is how to code a Fan Mission for a sniper. Must play. - dante_ph's "[b]Be Careful What You Wish For - Act I[/b]" - subsequent acts never appeared, but this is a great story about a runner's terrible first run. - icemann's "[b]Old Habits Die Hard - Episodes 1 & 2[/b]" - Decker focused missions. Bridges SR and System Shock universes. - molefixer's "[b]Desert Wars[/b]" - What to do when you finish DFDC with a 150 Karma character but want to keep playing. - molefixer's "[b]Darkness Falls, part 1[/b]" - What to do when you finish DFDC with a 200 Karma character but want to keep playing. Also, look for part 2 and part 3. SRR Fan Missions which are also playable in DFDC include: - omensign's "[b]The Shadows of the Salish Shidhe[/b]" Play a tribal shaman. No, [b]REALLY[/b] play a tribal shaman. Get your shaman spells the way a tribal shaman has to really get spells. No nuyen, you gotta do quests for other shamans or spirits. Incomplete, but what's there is totally awesome and gives commercial devs a run for their money. - Shina's "[b]Spetznatz 2045[/b]". Stealth infiltration hostage rescue mission with realistic consequences for being seen. - Kyle Francis's "[b]Nightmare Harvest[/b]". Welcome to the Shambles. Import your character. While laying low and waiting for heat to die down, you get stuck in the middle of local trouble between tribals and yakuza. - Beefcake's "[b]A Stitch in Time[/b]". COM. BAT. MOD. Decker not recommended. - Gevrik's "[b]The Deep One[/b]".