Turn-based strategy. That’s a description that could turn off most casual players from trying a game, but think about it, some of the most popular games in the world qualify for that description — chess, checkers, battleships. Sure, add some Dungeons & Dragons rulesets, and things could get complicated for a while, but the basic premise is simplicity itself. Now it seems that turn-based games are experiencing a revival as far as public consciousness is concerned. Just look at the relatively high-profile titles that have come out or are in development — XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Wasteland 2, Transistor, Skulls of the Shogun, Frozen Synapse, Frozen Endzone, and Shadowrun Returns, to name the more famous ones.
If I had to guess at the reason, I would say that partly it’s because of the resurgence of indie games, through Kickstarter, and also the rise of smartphones and tablets as a viable platform. A touch-based interface is not the best medium for a fast-paced twitch game, but it works just fine for a game where you get to take your time and plan out your moves, which sums up turn-based strategy.
So, on to the main part of this writeup — Shadowrun Returns just came out a short while ago, and being one of the first multi-million dollar budget games to be funded on Kickstarter, it could end up being one of the first wave of games that champions the idea of crowdfunding, or just a serious letdown. After several hours playing this title, I finally feel I’m in a position to decide which.
Now the Shadowrun universe is an interesting mash-up of sci-fi and fantasy, which features all your classic fantasy races — Elves, Dwarves, Orks and Trolls — in a dystopian futuristic setting where megacorporations run the show, and the eponymous Shadowrunners are basically mercenaries hired to run covert missions by various parties. In addition to that, there’s magic in the world, so you can choose to go with guns and blades, become an attack mage, a summoner shaman, or a decker, who gets access to an overlying layer called the Matrix, where you can hack or disable enemy electronic systems.
The game ships with one campaign mission, where you are recruited by a friend from beyond the grave, in order to investigate and avenge his murder. Twists and turns ensue, sparks fly, and the mission turns out to be a well-written tale, though a little on the short side.
However, that is mitigated first by the low cost of the game and second by the fact that it ships with an editor that lets users create their own campaigns, which means that in a while, there could be lots more content available for the game at zero cost.
The game itself looks pretty decent — the backgrounds come off like a shinier version of the Fallout 2 art, which is great. Character models are a little boxy, and decking them out with fancy gear doesn’t feel as satisfying as in an ARPG dollhouse like Diablo. Animation is rough around the edges, and most times they just jump-cut instead of showing transition animations. Combat is simple and tight, though some options feel overpowered. Since the game has unlimited ammo for ballistic weapons, why would any gunman specialise in pistols over rifles? The Matrix sections are like regular combat, only in a different Tron-like skin, which is a bit disappointing. And the game suffers from a lack of quicksave, along with some poorly plotted checkpoints, which is a serious no-no. Ultimately, it’s the writing which really makes this game, and since there’s no voice acting, they get to put a lot of text in there and flesh out their universe.
Apparently, there are some people remaking the 1993 SNES Shadowrun game in the new engine, which is testament to the advantage of enabling user-generated content. While Shadowrun Returns may not be the best ever game entry in turn-Based strategy, it’s certainly a worthy poster boy for the new wave of indie turn-based games.
