Shadowrun Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Extended Edition

[Prime Junta]

Yeah the AI is bad.

If it was good, Hard difficulty with these encounters would be murder. As it is, combat is still kind of fun (although the fights get repetitive), even though it would need another difficulty setting (or two) above Hard. But then SRR never was about tough fights.

Racter needs a little nerf (e.g. ACC penalty to Overclock) and Gaichu a significant buff though. His hit percentages were rarely above the 60's when Koschei, PC, and Duncan were in the 80's and 90's.

The main problem with SRR combat though are the AP's. Anything that gives you more (or takes them away from the enemy) is crazy powerful, and once you go from 2 to 3 per round things get really nutty. The system would've been better with split points for attacks and other actions so you only got one per round, with perhaps special abilities giving you another one with a major ACC penalty. Fairer on the AI too.

 

[PlanHex]

Spoiler

Actually he offered me a deal when I walked in -- he gave me full access to the core systems (allowing me to get the dirt on Tsang) in exchange for finding some financial data he could use to blackmail Tsang himself as well. I took both, gave him the financial data, and left without firing a shot. I don't think this lead to a different outcome than killing him and then jacking into the core system...

Huh, my game must've bugged or something, because trying to make a deal just resulted in the dialogue ending abruptly. Thought it might lead to some extra stuff down the line or something.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Just started and I like what I am seeing so far. New portrait are some of the best cRPG portraits there are, although it holds true mostly if not only for humans. Writing is improved. In DMS protagonist responses were always smartass (good natured smartass, evil smartass or something in between). In Dragonfall player responses were usually kind of bland. Hong Kong so far gives the players responses which are often both smartass and adequate. Also I like how there are more of descriptive dialogues for npc reactions and are more varied. In the previous installment npc mostly were shruging. In this they are still doing it often but their reactions seems more varied. So far at least.

I miss the lack of very hard difficulty

 

[Cadmus]

I miss the lack of very hard difficulty

I could care less, its you're problem.

 

[i.Razor]

Finished the game on this weekend. Very good game for 6.5 bucks i paid for it. Not so good as previous in the series, but still. I'd put three of them in that order:

SR : DF (most exciting) > SR : DMS (better feel/mood) > SR : HK.

I think there is too much reading compared to actual runs and action. And I'm not a native speaker, so it just made me tired to read all those walls of text (SR : DF has a better font btw).
And seems devs approached quantity over quality as someone said above.

Also first 2 games have very nice music that fit just right in the games and the SR setting. I think it affected heavy on the games' mood and feel. Shame they dropped out original composers - they could try to add them as stretch goals at least.

 

[ArchAngel]

There is a lot of reading and it comes from too little NPCs. I would prefered if they took the amount of words and spread them through more NPCs that give you more mini quests with them.

 

[Immortal]

There is a lot of reading and it comes from too little NPCs. I would prefered if they took the amount of words and spread them through more NPCs that give you more mini quests with them.

I would prefer this amount of reading provided throughout a 20 mission campaign where you had to work to find it..
Instead of Kindly Chen doing narrative dumps of the entire game in one conversation.

 

[Jason Liang]

I just tried opening the Editor. The Editor crashed, and now the game doesn't work for me anymore. The game now freezes at chapter transitions; the chapter prologues wont load. Not just my current game but my old saves as well, and rewind didn't fix it either.

 

[Immortal]

I just tried opening the Editor. The Editor crashed, and now the game doesn't work for me anymore. The game now freezes at chapter transitions; the chapter prologues wont load. Not just my current game but my old saves as well, and rewind didn't fix it either.

Steam or GoG?
If you are on steam try validating your local data.

Aside:
Make sure you aren't editing base Packages, When you run the editor - create a new package then import Hong Kong and Core as Dependency packages

 

[Gremius]

Finished the game on this weekend. Very good game for 6.5 bucks i paid for it. Not so good as previous in the series, but still. I'd put three of them in that order:

SR : DF (most exciting) > SR : DMS (better feel/mood) > SR : HK.

I think there is too much reading compared to actual runs and action. And I'm not a native speaker, so it just made me tired to read all those walls of text (SR : DF has a better font btw).
And seems devs approached quantity over quality as someone said above.

Also first 2 games have very nice music that fit just right in the games and the SR setting. I think it affected heavy on the games' mood and feel. Shame they dropped out original composers - they could try to add them as stretch goals at least.

I subscribe to this entire post.

IMO weakest game in series so far. Bigger disappointment than Pillars of Eternity.

Oh, did I mentioned that new music sucks?

 

[veevoir]

I'd go more in line of DMS < SRHK << SRsmileyC

Somehow HK, while retaining the system upgrades of DC and moving just a tiny bit forward with it - lost the flow that DMS and DFDC had. Even of DMS was linear as a pencil the story flowed nicely and in the end it was fun. DF improved on that and was both nice and tidy experience.. HK somewhat started to drag on, despite the fact it used almost the exact formula DF had. It is still better than DMS, cause total linearity is shit and cancer.

 

[Jason Liang]

Steam or GoG?
If you are on steam try validating your local data.

Aside:
Make sure you aren't editing base Packages, When you run the editor - create a new package then import Hong Kong and Core as Dependency packages

Thanks, but I think I'm going to wait for a few more patches.

 

[Immortal]

Thanks, but I think I'm going to wait for a few more patches.

Wait you opened the editor and dicked around with something and now your game is broken?
They can't patch stupid - I have had zero issues with the Shadow Run Editor.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Not sure what Dragonfall did better than Hong Kong. HK seems to do everything better. Story, the runs, the team, the soundtrack...

 

[Jason Liang]

Wait you opened the editor and dicked around with something and now your game is broken?
They can't patch stupid - I have had zero issues with the Shadow Run Editor.

No, I TRIED to open the editor. It crashed instead. And then when I tried playing the game it broke.

 

[Gremius]

Story, the runs, the team, the soundtrack...

Everything you have mentioned is worse in HK.

 

[Excidium II]

So did the writers give up on shadowrun lingo or is it because of the "we're actually speaking chinese" thing?

 

[i.Razor]

I would prefer this amount of reading provided throughout a 20 mission campaign where you had to work to find it..
Instead of Kindly Chen doing narrative dumps of the entire game in one conversation.

Yeah, narrative dumps all over the hub.

Oh, did I mentioned that new music sucks?

I think it's alright, but first two OSTs were definitely better for my taste.

It is still better than DMS, cause total linearity is shit and cancer.

I see your point. But DMS's pace and mood was better. Might be because it's first shadowrun video game i played though.

 

[Immortal]

So did the writers give up on shadowrun lingo or is it because of the "we're actually speaking chinese" thing?

These guys definitely know their Shadow Run Lore. There are some pretty obscure references in those games.

So unless they hired a new batch of writers that are just friends of friends and crap - hooking up people with jobs and they had no fucking clue what Shadowrun is.
I am definitely leaning towards the [Spoken in Cantonese] disassociation like you said.

 

[ZoddGuts]

I think it's for the best if Harebrained gave Shadowrun a rest for a bit. Go work on the Battletech games and come back to the Shadowrun IP after a few years with some fresh ideas and hopefully a new game engine as well. At this point I've had my fill with Shadowrun games.

 

[Kem0sabe]

I think it's for the best if Harebrained gave Shadowrun a rest for a bit. Go work on the Battletech games and come back to the Shadowrun IP after a few years with some fresh ideas and hopefully a new game engine as well. At this point I've had my fill with Shadowrun games.

Agree, I want them to make a glorious battletech trilogy before resisting shadowrun with a new expanded engine.

 

[Cadmus]

Agree, I want them to make a glorious battletech trilogy before resisting shadowrun with a new expanded engine.

you will lament wanting a new engine because they'll make a cheap-ass 3D that'll look like Neverwinter nights and lose all the art style. The engine is fine, it only needs some fixes. It's the game that matters.

 

[Kem0sabe]

you will lament wanting a new engine because they'll make a cheap-ass 3D that'll look like Neverwinter nights and lose all the art style. The engine is fine, it only needs some fixes. It's the game that matters.

The art is glorious I admit, and hopefully any future games will maintain the background style, but the engine needs a massive upgrade in terms of rpg features, including a proper persistent game world, improved stealth mechanics, improved inventory and npc companion systems, much improved modability, etc.

 

[eXalted]

you will lament wanting a new engine because they'll make a cheap-ass 3D that'll look like Neverwinter nights and lose all the art style. The engine is fine, it only needs some fixes. It's the game that matters.

No, no, no, no! No 3D environments please. I can't stand 3D isometric games (not counting characters and such).

 

[dukeofwhales]

Okay so finished the game last night. Not many additional throughts to what has already been said, but I enjoyed it more than Dragonfall. I think it was because the story appealed to me more (though I think the main story C&C was better in Dragonfall with the AI and the dragons? Can't remember if it was real or just illusion of choice/consequences. Would happily pay $20 again next year for another campaign, but would like it to be a little less rpg-lite.