Game News Concept art of how Shadowrun Returns will look in-game

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Tags: Harebrained Schemes; Shadowrun Returns

Harebrained Schemes posted something about some convention they were at. That's not all too interesting. But there was something of interest in their latest update. A (fake) screenshot!

Click for a bigger version.

From the update:

While this is concept art – not a screenshot – it’s representative of the fidelity and art style we’re shooting for. For the uninitiated (or those seeking a quick refresher!) the concept above depicts the infamous Redmond Barrens* of the mid 2050s.

The game environment will be composed of painted 2D elements, so we should be able to deliver the level of detail, depth and expressiveness that you see here. Characters in Shadowrun Returns, on the other hand, are being constructed in 3D – which allows them the fluid movement and wide range of character design and equipment options you’d expect from an RPG. We’ve done a number of tests and the 2D/3D mix feels very natural.

Painted 2D environments! I'm swooning!

Looks p. cool but not really digging the art style.

well bro I think it is fan fucking tastic except for the damn characters

this bent knees curved posture shit just doesn't work for me at all

That's what I mean, and the characters look like paper miniatures

hey yeah, they have flat shading on, I didn't catch that, was distracted by the crap I mentioned

the blob shadows that make them look like they're floating top it off nicely

I'm not too fond of the post-90s Disney character design either but whatevs.
Characters will be 3d once in-game.

The environment itself looks great.
Though there are a lot of characters in that concept piece marked with a "golden glow" that don't really fit...

The characters looks a bit weird but the background is great,I hope the actual game looks like that

I like it. I don't like the character glow, though.

Agreeing on the sentiments here about the background- the cityscape looks great. The characters are...ok, I don't mind the cartoony look but they do look a bit to bright and shiny and not grungy enough to match the cyberpunk aesthetic of the rest of the city.

The glowing on what I assume are notable NPCs looks a little odd to though I guess that's how the devs will differentiate the NPCs worth interacting from the generic ones.

yeah perspective looks good, characters... ehhhh... wall-E over there looks kinda cute, but the others, meh.

A world suffering from vitamin D deficiency.

It could be worse.

I just want to see some cyberpunk street hookers is that so much to ask

I knew the characters would look like Flash garbage.

Environment looks great and the 2d/3d choice is exciting for me. But the chars look like child cartoon characters. I really hope they fix that because that isn't what SR fans expect that I'm sure.

Yeah, very curious about that as well...

Background looks great, but why such shitty cartoonish characters? WTF for? Can we vote anywhere and steer characters more in the style of the rest of the game?

Raptor-legged blobs are just the new fashion in character modeling.

I know, but that's just shit design. I mean their "sister" project Shadowrun Online has "realistic" character models, and what's wrong with that?

I hate that overly clean, photoshop airbrushed look. Looks like fucking Bastion.

That was bigger than I expected.

I like it. Nice to have hand painted backgrounds again and the perspective looks good. I agree that we can lose the "glow" around characters. That's just as bad as a huge exclamation points floating over their heads. Give me good clues or directions to where these important NPCs are within the game's narrative (where is Caius Cosades?!).

Looks better than the Wasteland shot.