I loved this game series. It's a serious shame that Harebrained Schemes lost the rights to them, and they reverted back to Microsoft. Also with The Lamplighters League being a commercial flop, Paradox ousted Harebrained Schemes from the fold in a "mutual parting" but kept the rights to all of their games so far (Battletech, Necropolis, etc.). Who knows if we'll ever see another Shadowrun game ever again. A damn shame, because SR: Hong Kong Extended Edition truly was the pinnacle of how excellent this game series had evolved and improved over the years.

Mad respect for the speed and quality you're putting into these videos. Happy 2022, Mort.

This series is what actually introduced me to isometric RPG's. Before I thought they looked silly and stuck to more immersive rpg's like TES or just straight up fps shooters. One of the best game series I have ever played and made me buy all the Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale/Pillars of Eternity/Tyranny/Planescape/Wasteland/Divinity series after I realized what I had been missing

I feel in love for Shadowrun universe, at least for this trilogy, now I'm playing Dragonfall, and enjoying so much the plot overall. Man, you are a machine to 100% the games! Nice review

So quick! And nice take on things. Much of what you said reflects my own feelings about the game. And the others in the series as well. I haven't really missed the voice-acting since the writing itself was so nice. Even just the little loading-screen blurbs you read when you head into a mission, describing your surroundings or the trip towards the place set the mood so nicely. Harebrained Schemes really has a knack for writing interesting and engaging characters too. Some of them have become fast favorites for me within the CRPG genre and I find myself comparing other companion quests and personalities to the ones in these relatively simple games, often to come to the conclusion that Shadowrun did it better. The Battletech game they did after this was really just a full-on tactical combat game, but I would very much like the team they had for this to take on another RPG one of these days.

I kickstarted these games, no regrets, they are great! I'm glad to see KZfaqrs still dicovering them now.

I loved this series. The stories and characters were dark and gritty and even though combat felt lack luster, I enjoyed it all the way through.

Fun fact: hong kong uses the table-top's "essence hole" rule. Buy 2 arms, cost 2 essence. Replace 1 arm, normally costs 1.25 essence, subtract 1 from the cyberarm being replaced. Accrued essence cost: 2.25 essence

Wonderful game, they got better and better with each game imo. First game was good but needed alot, the next two games improved vastly over that first one. Hope we get a new one one day.

I recently found you channel and absolutely love your format. Very excited to see what you review next!

I absolutely adored the characters and writing in this game. Grew so attached to them, didn't want it to end. Anyways, have you ever thought of reviewing Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children? It's... quite a special mix or JRPG + XCOM + FFT-style time-based turns. Incredibly deep customization of character layouts, though every character is of a set archetype unlike traditional CRPGs when you can choose whatever class you want. Would be interesting to see your take of the game.

By far the best story in a CRPG IMO that's come out in the last 10 years

There's a LITLE voice acting in Hong Kong, in the small cinematic but that's about only Raymond. Love this game so glad i backed it. Glad you enjoyed it too.

I would recommend you to check out Wildermyth. Not necessarily a full fledged crpg buy it has an interesting concept . Kinda reminded me of pnp dnd

Thanks Mortismal, these games were a lot of fun and it's cool that you reviewed them. :)

I did enjoy walking the Matrix but mostly in a sense of make belief with some decent mini-game on top. It was dragging behind the main game in terms of polish, game mechanics, visuals and encounter design. Except sound design - It really sold Digital Mind-realm nicely, I think. I honestly believe that trying to include it as extensively as it were, was both ambitious and commendable. It's not great, and I believe this particular game couldn't do it full justice, but not having it would've been worse. Shadowrun can't not have deckers and cyberwarfare. And the saddest thing, that even much bigger, more expensive games, like Watch_Dogs and Cyberpunk 2077 didn't give that hacking what it deserves.

I loved the build up to the big bad at the end of the game. Won't spoil it but I thought it was awesome. There is a potential for an evil ending but considering all that you go through and learn I couldn't do it. This is the only Shadowrun game I have currently finished ( did not finish the sidestory part that takes place after the main story though.) Thank you for the review! One last tidbit: I was shocked to find out that Kowloon the Walled City was once an actual place in the real world. Sorta made me wonder if any thing creepy went down there...

The Shadowrun Trilogy is coming to Switch, hopefully it runs well!

Be sure to look for Me. I'm in the game!

Despite some mechanical improvements, for me Hong Kong was a step down comparing to Dragonfall. I didn't enjoy constantly being under the mafia's thumb, and the run-and-hide aspect of decking was really frustrating for me. It is still a good game tho, and clearly worth playing.

So glad I found this channel!!

I used to play shadowrun on sega genesis. Last night i got the trilogy on steam for 10 bucks

"You can choose to be a classless person." Finally, a game that understands me.

The main plot felt very earthdawn-y for me, so I liked it a lot.

As someone who has played TT Shadowrun for years all 3 games felt like they were being GM'd by the same person who kept getting better. SRR they were newer and stuck to a book strictly. Dragonfall they were set on telling a story but were more familiar with combat/magic/matrix rules still. Hong Kong it felt like they had matured to where runs were more fluid and able to respond to a variety of approaches, felt more like doing "real runs" (even if a lot of runs in TT devolve into use guns and explosives)

After your first video, I checked steam and it was on sale for super cheap so I snagged it. It is also going to be ported to switch some time this year.

The Red Samuri are corperate special focres for Renraku corp. Guess that is what you said, but they are specifically the name of the special forces (like delta force in the US for example). I found the hacking quite annoying in this game as most of the game is turn based, and the hacking is real time for the stealth parts, with turn based combat. Would haev liked the hacking to be turn based the same as the other games. I do wonder if you missed some of the ways to avoid some of the combat in Dragonfall, but maybe there was more than I remember.

The writing in this game really is terrific.

Thx for the review...So now you should have time to finally play Wildermyth and give us your thoughts:)) Stay safe and Gruß from Germany

I definitely need to play these myself. Time to find some of that free time people seem to have...

I really enjoyed the simplistic take on the inventory and party management in the Shadowrun series. The fact that I couldn't decide on the other character's skills directly but only had the option to choose one ability/perk between specific set ones for them made the experience more immersive for me. And since I I did not need to babysit or manage their inventory either I would argue made the characters even more believable. => It made me feel like they are not just pawns or supporting characters that you can control however you want but are actual individuals with their own desires and needs which you can't change. Instead, in Shadowrun the player is only able to steer their growth somewhat which is just fine. I feel that I personally cared more about the companions in the Shadowrun series as opposed to other cRPGs and I think this is the reason why. In my opinion, too much control over your party is hurting the overall story experience because it also forces the writers to make the companion interactions and dialogue very basic and bland to fit whatever "build" you made for them. To give an example think of Lord of the Rings' "You have my sword, and my bow, and my axe" quote - it sounds super cool right? Well, if you are able to change your companions so that they use different weapons then that phrase will not be viable - even worse if you make all of them use the same weapon heh...so instead the writers and voice actors would need to have some bland and generic dialogue instead. Now apply that to all party interactions since you can't have any companion dialogue mention anything too specific and you get super bland companion interactions :/ Shadowrun basically made me realize how unrealistic a lot of cRPGs are in which you are able to for e.g. change a character's clothes from a tuxedo to some unwashed rags just because they would offer +1 armor and they wouldn't complain in the least or you can force some lost prince companion to invest all his skills into cooking without any issue. Characters should be more set in the overall world so as to make them actually interesting instead of being just some generic skilldumps but this is just my opinion :P

More or less a straight upgade to Returns/Dragonfall in every way but the Matrix bits imo, I loved the improvements made to the character models, sounds, and visual effects such as spells especially. The railroady background for the MC I can take or leave, at least it is used to build up stakes in finding Raymond and make you empathize with Duncan. Decking being more about stealth rather than just shredding all of the enemy IC/firewalls with brute force is probably realistic on paper but it's just not very enjoyable to play, by the end of Dragonfall after Blitz had some upgrades under his belt I actually enjoyed the strategy behind summoning ESPs and using my special programs to lock down enemy IC. Unfortunately it seems like every game "hacking" comes up in it always gets reduced to just being forced to solve preschool puzzles instead of any real thoughtful gameplay loop.

this is the only game of the trilogy that i ended, because as you said, it was more dialogue focus. tks for the review

One of the channels I hit like before I even start watching

I agree with everything you said. I enjoyed the decking in this game though. I definitely wasn't a fan of it I'm the previous games. I never actually finished dragonfall, I got to the massive decking portion of the end mission and quit there.

The idea of a matrix were you face ai is imo best ececuted in Tron and Mass Effect 3. Such a beautiful writing of a mindful AI and how to interact in a node.

The world needs a new Shadowrun game! Get on it devs!

Wow, after seeing the video i realized how new it is. Just found your channel, already sus and ill be looking around! Good video, have a good one!

Brilliant video, i've love this series you have done. I assume you don't need to play them in order to understand them and that you can't import from the other 2 games?

I’m gunna expand on essence cause it’s cool if you’re to low on essence you’re soul mistakes you’re body for a corpse or robot and leaves the body left behind normally becomes a cyberzombie which is super dangerous due to being super enhanced

My favorite of the three, mostly due to enjoying the setting and characters. Haven't seen anyone mention it, but I loved the soundtrack. Haven't played this in years, but I still listen to a few of the tracks sometimes. Liked DF as well, Returns not so much.

You're crushing it man, starting to really trust your opinions

It’s one of my favorite games.

When Hong-Kong came out I've seen a lot of comments, how it is worse, than Dragonfall, but I don' see it. It has good dialogue, nice theme. Specific background doesn't hurt the options you have to outline your character's career. Also I like, that main character is allowed to know stuff and deliver expository lines. A lot of games default to player asking anc picking other's suggestions, while answering questions and making own suggestions might be done just as easily. The only thing, I'd changed is that there's too much dialogue between missions you don't want to skip. I can't say I'd prefer less of it, it just sometimes I end a mission, go to hub, save, load it the next time and I already know, that if I want to go on a mission I have about 1-2 hours of cool dialogue before I can actually do that. Not all dialogue feels like progressing the story, however interesting and important it is

He's a man of focus, commitment, and sheer fucking will.

The story is enjoyable, the combat is fun if a but too easy (even on hard), but by god are the bugs frustrating when they come up. Sometimes NPCs will begin combat but pass all their turns, not moving or attacking just letting you pound on them. Sometimes you will get locked into combat when you shouldn't be and be forced to restart the mission, one time my decker jacked out and the bruiser ESP didn't disappear so I was piloting that around in the matrix, unable to leave until I restarted the mission. Sometimes your characters can't be selected to take their turns, sometimes the enemy AI just runs in circles. They are so predictable with their grenades that the magnet arm is just free damage and stun through most of the game, just put two of your characters next to each other and all the nades will be thrown at them. The new dragon veins are absurd with the summons. Gods above and below fear the large dragon vein earth elemental, that guy can permastun entire encounters by itself.

Have you played "Age of Decadence"? It's a game I quite enjoyed.

This whole Shadowrun Trilogy reviews made me really "wish" we could get Cyberpunk 20XX/RED CRPG. Maybe, by making it some kind of party based tactical shooter CRPG, such game can have a more proper/faithful Cyberpunk RED TTRPG System that simply amazing when it comes to "detailed" role-play & world building elements. Even the simple "essence" system in Shadowrun HK is basically akin to "cyberpsychosis" system from Cyberpunk 2020/RED TTRPG, which unfortunately totally missed in CP2077, despite having tons of references/stories/missions that related to it.

I’d like to see a review for shadow tactics: blades of the shogun. It’s so good

The character writing is easily the best part of this game. For all its other faults, that actually makes me like it more than Dragonfall.

Thank you again for the reviews of these games. I do enjoy all 3, though they're each rough in their own ways. I never enjoyed decking either. But the semi-RT of Hong Kong's felt out of place to me in a TB game. Also, the characters in HK just didn't relate to me like Dragonfall's did. Duncan was a block of wood. Gobbel was an inferior version of Dietrich. And the others were.. OK. Not bad. But they made Blitz feel like he had personality. And that's saying something. That said, the music, character building, and amount of free-form choice in HK make it a solid game regardless. Just not Dragonfall, imho.

Well so much for my idea to make a channel:/ but you’ve gained a sub! You’re a masochist just like myself🥰

Fun set of games, and I think Hong Kong had a fun visual style, I think the hardest part of these games is just getting in the mindset that there is no voice acting. Which for some used to older titles works fine, but I think for a lot of people today is just a deal breaker.

Interesting news, the Shadowrun Trilogy is going to Console, wonder if this will lead to more.

Amazing series I’ve jammed in a while but really buggy, had to reset back multiple save points just to fix shitty bugs. Matter of fact I’m stuck in one right now and can’t even progress past my point because the door refuses to open.

hi this version work by adding the shadowrun return story adding mode?

I really enjoyed all the reading in this game because, as you said, it was so well written (unlike Dragonfall which had some terrible writing). Hong Kong is one of the pinnacles of CRPG if you ask me, along with Fallout 2

With this speed I guess there aren't enough CRPGs total to get you through the year.

Shadowrun Hongkong? Wonder where it could possibly be played out? 👀

Anyone else think that the Bonus Campaign felt like an afterthought? It's as if the developers were told at the last minute they needed to make more content, which resulted in rushed and lackluster content being added in.

While Hong Kong is a better cRPG, I enjoyed DF much more, Dietrich is best man. P.S Take a look at Hairbrained schemes Battle tech, it's basically a cRPG pretending to be squad tactical game.

I agree about the difficulty... except for this one mission in the DLC. You know which one, if you played it... and without a Shiawase loader arm you're so fucked.

Nice review as always, I felt like I had less Karma to do what I wanted in this game than Dragonfall, though it could have just been less money so I couldn't build the Decker/Rigger hybrid that I did in Dragonfall, that plus the set in stone background makes Dragonfall better for me. Though I am a big fan of decking, and if anybody else has played older editions of pnp Shadowrun Decking has always felt almost like a seperate game until like 4th edition so I enjoyed Hong Kong's version of Decking the best. Interesting thing about essence i. Shadowrun is that anything less than 1 makes you start to lose emotional connection and make you less than human, 0 will kill you except some Corporations have kept people alive short term with a mix of cyberware and advanced magic, Cyberzombie's are scary things, and I've played super low essence characters whose lack of essence makes them psychopaths at best, its one of my favorite subjects in this setting.

The hacking here felt a lot weirder than the other two.

Now that you've finished the Trilogy, what's next?

Just out of curiosity. What kind of build did you go with?

DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW ATTACK ROLLS WORK IN THESE GAMES?!

I really like dialogs in crpg. Love them. But there is only 2 games which overwhelm me with text, in the bad way. It's Shadowrun Hong-Kong and Pillars of Eternity.

already?

Please take this as constructive criticism and unless I am hallucinating, if you listen carefully I think there is a static echo of your voice. Trips me out, man. Intro and Outro audio seem fine though, so might want to check your mic recordings, perhaps?

Huh... I played 51 hours of this game back in 2015 and had no idea there was a dlc.

Hey Mort, Dark Souls when? You know you have to :)

I always skipped the bonus campaign after the first time.

for the algorithm

I just finished watching your 100% dragonfall review. Pls review games slower (jk jk)

what anime is this

Loved all 3 Shadowrun games, but Hong Kong was the weakest by far. Returns was great, but Dragonfall was hands down the best! I've replayed these each several times, but Hong Kong, despite having endings, more cyberware, etc, it lost something. Shamans were ruined, and summons were too expensive, summon sources were rare, and didn't last. There wasn't enough essence loss for cyberware. They ruined netrunning. The balance was all over the place

here's the free comment that you haven't ordered.

Hong Kong is an overall improvement and the best of the trilogy. My only and biggest issues are : 1) Isobel. God I hated that character. Very poorly written IMO. 2) You are kinda forced to take a specific path with you and Raymond being brothers ( as you too mention in your review). I would have loved to have the option to just put a bullet in the back of his skull right at the start of the game. You know be able to play as a douche. I kinda like doing those runs as well. These are however minor things and the overall quality of the game is obvious. Very good and honest review Morty. Your skill ability and speed with which you go about these is admirable.

i hated the new matrix minigame in this, skills dont help with the dumb real time skill based change, i dropped the game after my 1st hack, dragonfall was much better