Shadowrun Is Shadowrun Returns a cRPG? Case study

[IncendiaryDevice]

I've been waiting a few years to play this game, and the other day I finally completed it, all 16 hours of it! I had a lot of trouble getting into it initially, falling asleep quite quickly the first two attempts to get into it. But get into it I did and, by the end, I found myself finally enjoying it.

But is it a cRPG?

I can't for the life of me think why it's considered a cRPG aside from the character stats and development. What else has it got that one might consider 'important' aspects of a cRPG?

Loot? Nope, fuck all loot. Once in a blue moon you might find a genade in a locker, and an enemy might very ocassionally drop a quest item, but Loot? No, the game doesn't have a loot system.

Exploration? Well, kinda, maybe, but not really? It's entirely linear aside from maybe 2 'optional side quests' (?) and none of the environments feel 'alive' to free roaming. Looking in every nook and cranny just results in one wondering why the game even has any nooks and crannies 95% of the time and large amounts of the gameworld are literally inaccessible. It's a short game, but it plays long on replays as there is no means to speed run anything as there's no content that isn't required (bar the rare equally linear 'side quest').

Dialogue or story C&C? It has a bit here and there. Mostly flavour with little substance. What some might describe as Biowarian C&C, but, in truth, probably less so than that even.

Itemisation? None really to speak of. Each item you trained in will have 4 or 5 upgraded versions of itself that there's no reason not to upgrade to aside from cash-flow. No unique weaponry to speak of and certainly nothing 'exciting', for want of a better word.

Monster variety? About 4 different types of encounter throughout, and three of those are human. Five if you include the turrets you'll probably have turned to your side anyway. Bumping off legions of human/oids gets a bit waring after a while and kinda leads to the murder-hobo path & probably why I ended up liking the game is because, finally, the game provided its one genuinely interesting encounter, the bugs/ghost bugs.

Puzzles? Nothing memorable aside from that timed picture pushing thingy (one reload for me).

Not that all these things need to be in a game to make it a cRPG, but the sheer lack of virtually any of them? Is it a different game now?

I get why it could be called a cRPG, in that it has buildable character classes in a team-based game where each character has a specific role, but, other than that? Isn't it more like an X-Com genre than an RPG genre game?

?

 

[HeatEXTEND]

no way in hell the new SR games are cRPGs, enjoyable but cRPGs they are not.
more like a my-first-tactical-spin-off-with-words™

 

[Mustawd]

It has alltne components of crpgs, as you listed. They just aren’t super well done.

 

[frajaq]

I wish I was around here when Shadowrun Returns first came out, christ that game disappointed me so much

 

[Xeon]

Not sure about it being cRPG but it was a terrible RPG for me iirc.

I think I dropped it after some bugs were revealed or something, game was kinda of a hassle and not fun, tho iirc Roxor's review got me hyped up for the game so I might have been too let down with my high expectations or something.

 

[Roguey]

Defining RPGs as a checklist of features.

 

[Mustawd]

RPGs are about combat

FTFY.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Deus ex has no "itemization". Gee wiz! Not a cRPG?

 

[Big Wrangle]

I'm pretty sure nobody has called Deus Ex a cRPG, all I saw outside of immersive sim was 'FPS/RPG with RPG/FPS elements and stealth.'

 

[Jokzore]

Don't try to boil down cRPGs to a checklist.

cRPG is far more than that, it's an attitude, it's a philosophy, it's a way of life man.

 

[Tytus]

Don't try to boil down cRPGs to a checklist.

cRPG is far more than that, it's an attitude, it's a philosophy, it's a way of life man.

So you are saying that crpgs can change the nature of man?

 

[Micormic]

Don't know, but i played it for a couple hours and thought it sucked, got a cd key as a christmas gift from my sister since I liked the snes game.


Way too linear.

 

[Bladeract]

I stopped reading when you said you enjoyed it, just can't process that.

 

[RNGsus]

Don't try to boil down cRPGs to a checklist.

cRPG is far more than that, it's an attitude, it's a philosophy, it's a way of life man.

Still some ontologists descrbe the cRPG as a place in the fringes of our dreams.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

I dunno, felt more like a tactical game to me.

But it does have a lot of elements in place for a cRPG.

Then again, what do I know? I only played Dead Man's Switch, and DMS is notable for being a linear combat-fest.

 

[Jason Liang]

Honestly the gameplay difference between Shadowrun Returns and Jagged Alliance 2 is absurdly narrow. The most obvious reason why Shadowrun is considered a rpg and JA2 is not is that Shadowrun is based on an original PnP rpg system while JA2 is not. The same is true for Bloodlines and why Bloodlines is considered a RPG despite using the Unreal engine.

 

[Falksi]

Returns & Dragonfall are two of the best games which I've played in years. However folk clasify them, that's exactly what I want to see more of.

 

[Cross]

It's a cRPG, albeit a highly streamlined one.

Honestly the gameplay difference between Shadowrun Returns and Jagged Alliance 2 is absurdly narrow.

Absurdly narrow? Jagged Alliance 2 has a non-linear open world, a completely different combat system, a stealth system, party management and a normal inventory and equipment system (as opposed to the bizarre limited inventory system in the SR games), just to name a few differences. The two games are nothing alike apart from both having turn-based combat.

 

[lophiaspis]

And all the streamlining is for the better. Who the hell likes inventory management in RPGs?

 

[Tytus]

And all the streamlining is for the better. Who the hell likes inventory management in RPGs?

Inventory management in RPGs can be tedious true, but it only get's that way where there isn't a good itemization/crafting/alchemy system behind it. And often there isn't. But when you know that every picked up shit in the world can affect your game in some way you get invested in the process. I wish more games would do that.

 

[Micormic]

Honestly the gameplay difference between Shadowrun Returns and Jagged Alliance 2 is absurdly narrow. The most obvious reason why Shadowrun is considered a rpg and JA2 is not is that Shadowrun is based on an original PnP rpg system while JA2 is not. The same is true for Bloodlines and why Bloodlines is considered a RPG despite using the Unreal engine.

Well the difference is one game is great, the other game is dogshit so I don't see how that is absurdly narrow. Do you have cerebral palsy?

 

[Curratum]

I could not ascertain whether it was a cRPG or not because I quite literally fell asleep during the opening hour slog, trying to play it on two occasions, six months apart.

So I guess I will never know. Hopefully pacing and writing in Dragonfall and Hong Kong are not as tedious as I have those queued up.

 

[Beowulf]

I guess it was pretty good as far as tablet games go.

But good thing eventually came from it, as they improved the formula with Dragonfall; which was still quite shallow, but much more enjoyable experience. A decent RPG lite.

 

[Jason Liang]

It's a cRPG, albeit a highly streamlined one.

Honestly the gameplay difference between Shadowrun Returns and Jagged Alliance 2 is absurdly narrow.

Absurdly narrow? Jagged Alliance 2 has a non-linear open world, a completely different combat system, a stealth system, party management and a normal inventory and equipment system (as opposed to the bizarre limited inventory system in the SR games), just to name a few differences. The two games are nothing alike apart from both having turn-based combat.

I mean in terms of general gameplay. Both games have
- Squad based tactical turn-based combat
- Multiple party characters with story, backgrounds, improvable statistics, skills and inventory
- interactive optional NPCs that you can talk do, buy stuff from, give stuff to, etc...
- story progession
- limited character generation (as opposed to say ToEE where you generate multiple party characters)

Gameplay-wise, Shadowrun Returns and Dragonfall are barely distinguishable from tb squad-based tactics games like JA2 and X-Com, except for a slightly more detailed story and the PnP rpg setting.

 

[Bladeract]

Honestly the gameplay difference between Shadowrun Returns and Jagged Alliance 2 is absurdly narrow. The most obvious reason why Shadowrun is considered a rpg and JA2 is not is that Shadowrun is based on an original PnP rpg system while JA2 is not. The same is true for Bloodlines and why Bloodlines is considered a RPG despite using the Unreal engine.

You can't have multiple groups at once, don't have an army invasion to deal with/don't defend sectors. Don't have stealth. Don't have fog of war. There's nothing tactical about about shadowrun, tactical means positioning means something and is what the game is about. You also hire on characters, up to a dozen or so, and give them all kinds of tasks. JA is about strategy, money management, and tactics basically a full war game. SR is about walking around and talking to people and trying not to fall asleep/.

Your other post is even more absurd. There's CHARACTERS and NUMBERS like wow, so much similarity. Deus Ex is virtually the same game as JA too!