StoryBored

Well, I have to say I've had every error that anyone has encountered on this game up until now. Unable to login, instances crashing and dropping me, the game crashing unexpectedly and being unable to log back in, limited full servers and poor connectivity when I do connect. I understood at the end of the Beta, I even understood during the early access, but now we're several days into the actual release and STILL several days away from a *potential* solution. I wish I could expand more upon the gameplay so far, but getting up through level 20 so far is the standard MMO fanfare. Good graphics, a familiar interface, lackluster story and characters, and quests you can play with your friends. Most of what this game has to offer is no different at all from what it's competitors have except the FF name. Nothing besides the graphics so far indicating the game is anything other than average, and all the issues I've experienced have dragged the rating far below that. Avoid this game like the plague AT LEAST until mid September 2013 and even then, proceed with caution. There was not a sufficient amount of testing and preparation on this game by the development team, period.

Almost everything a great RPG has is here, but the drawbacks are so annoying sometimes that it can ruin the fun. It did for me, at least. For all of it's negatives, a game that could have been a 9 fell back to a 6. Gameplay: Overall it's standard turn-based RPG fanfare with a lot of customization. The RPG fanfare is help up with a decent storyline with a fair amount of dialogue choices. The customization and everything generally working the way you'd expect make me like the game and I enjoyed the main campaign. However, the gameplay is slow and unbalanced. How slow? Unbelievably slow. I don't mind turn based combat, but the animations in Shadowrun Returns makes games like Baldur's Gate feel like fast action gameplay. Then there's a lot of tweaking still to be done before I'll come back to this game. There's plenty of character options that just aren't viable in the game's opening build. Graphics: They're just not good, really bad. I didn't expect much, but even my low expectations weren't met. Not only does the game look pretty bad, the levels are extremely small and there aren't very many tilesets to appreciate. Also, for as poor and limited as the graphics are, the performance of this game is not good at all. High temperatures and regular slowdowns were rampant on a machine that plays Skyrim without issue on higher settings. I was able to complete the game without any crashes or gamebreaking bugs, however. Sound: A few wonky sound effects here and there. Otherwise nothing noteworthy. Gamelength: This game is short. Very disappointingly short. By the time I got to the end I didn't feel like I could really appreciate all of my character's potential. Story: The story was good, and kept me interested for the 10+ hours it took to complete. Some of the dialogue was a bit cliche, but overall it was well written. The developers did stay very true to the Shadowrun name, and this is definitely the game's strongest point. Unfortunately by the end there wasn't anywhere left to go, ending it rather abruptly. The game's editor is promising though as Shadowrun fans everywhere are promising amazing user created content in the near future. This could help add extra content the game desperately needs, solving issue with the game's length, and possibly even improving some of the graphical and variety shortcomings the game has. Until then, I have to give the game mixed reviews, and can only recommend this game to die hard fans of turn based RPG's and the Shadowrun franchise.