Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut Reviews

Nice game.

This game I both love & hate...it is so good but so hard it makes me want to hit my head against a wall...love this.

Pretty fun, I enjoyed the setting quite a bit. I'd love to see more games in it.

Played two times, first time as a elven mage second as dwarf adept gotta say compared to hong kong,dragonfall does indeed have a better story, but hong kong have better mechanic the decking cyberspace is definitely an improvement from shadowrun return. generally all the mechanic is positive improvement from return, and having an actual squad and free teammate is just a huge improvement, i havent seen anyone actually rented non squad shadowrunner

Use magic, become cyborg and do crimes 10/10

Shadowrun: Returns was a fun but flawed CRPG that was only around 11 hours. It was straightforward, but kept you guessing with constant set dressing changes and a very fast-paced plot. This standalone expansion is 30 hours with none of those strengths, resulting in an experience which feels padded. While the writing is generally improved, the setting is used less effectively in the shift to anarchist Berlin and the focus on the core "team" of characters was unwelcome. You are especially punished if not playing a Decker by having to put up with Blitz, an inferior Decker who also happens to be insufferable. The long duration with relatively few plot developments also serves to make this title feel more like a marathon. The final "mission" is 5 levels long (3+ hours) without a resupply. Ultimately, despite many improvements in the encounter design and writing branch density I found myself enjoying this a lot less than the original game. There's also a game-breaking bug that can occur in a specific mission; good luck with that.

I've tried starting this game multiple times but every time is has managed to lose my interest. There's really nothing special about the two main parts of the game being combat and the story. Only time where I really enjoyed playing is one section with multiple extended combat encounters where I had to plan out a strategy and ration my consumable items. Not sure if it was scripted or a random chance on doing a mission but I ended up getting a surprise combat after I believed everything was finished. The hacking "decking" mechanic is a complete waste of time and consists of even worse combat just to use cameras for vision where it doesn't matter or turrets in areas where no enemies go. It also uses turns in combat so you're missing a fourth party member just to do it. The Shaman class is one that I want to like but can't because of your summons have a chance to escape and turn on you every turn with increasing chances. I love the idea of support classes in general, but even its haste buff feels underwhelming. The range on the starting Shaman NPC's damage reduction aoe is also so short that there's no point in using it. The story isn't great either. A good majority of your supporting characters either do not like you or do not trust you which leads you to pry scraps and pieces of information from them over time. You're also mostly doing a bunch of disjointed side missions ranging from mildly interesting to a waste of time that makes you dislike your party members even more because they disapproved of you doing the morally right thing or doing anything risky. All of this is sometimes broken up by story exposition that goes on for too long and does not result in anything except your team's information broker saying that he'll look into it.

Long story short: this game is the last one on my backlog, so I am rushing through it to be done with the whole shebang after 2 and a half years of working on it. But the character specific missions have extended my playthrough. DON'T DO WHAT I DID. Take your time with this. Learn your squad's stories, abilities and preferred type of combat. I am seriously doing the game a disservice by being hasty so don't do it ! It's a very very good game !

Loved this. I slept on the SR series for years, picked this up mostly for research, and found a lot of unexpectedly interesting design and narrative decisions. It's hard to pick one thing that SR:DF does unusually well, but the ambience, systems, narrative, writing, art never fall below 'very good' and they work together harmoniously. And of course it's really faithful to the original IP if you were there for that in the early TRPG days, so if you're here for nostalgia, fill yer boots. Really sad when it finished - glad I have SRHK to go on to.

there are a few weird new reviews complaining about things that really aren't like the way it's stated, so I want to correct the record: the fights are not a slog. they are difficult. this is one of the very few games of this kind where I always felt challenged. I wouldn't want to re-play it, because it has little such value, but it is an amazing game for the first time. people act like this is a brand new game, when it was one of the first of its kind and originally released in February 2014! 11 years ago. the first shadowrun (returns) was ok, the second one, this one here, Dragonfall is fantastic. the third is not good -- way too much text... it's kinda like the Mass Effect situation.... 1st made people hope for an improved version, second was masterclass (for the time!!) third killed the franchise. I never bothered writing a review because I got really upset about how they handled the franchise: they could have all gotten rich if they had just listened to the criticism, but they didn't. instead they doubled down on the worst parts of 1 & 2 when they made 3. but this game is good. I have never had such good and tactical fights in any other game. usually it's way too easy for me. the GAME part of the game is great. the biggest issues the game has is the stong wahmen syndrome, but you could argue, that's just the dystopia of the original pen and paper game. ...and the hot chick dies in the beginning (if I do not mix this up with another game)