Shadowrun: Hong Kong Released, Reviews
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Harebrained Schemes' third (or fourth, depending on your interpretation) iteration on their turn-based Shadowrun RPG series, Shadowrun: Hong Kong, has been released today on PC. The game is available on Steam and GOG for €19,99/$19.99/£14.99. In case you backed the game, you'll want to get the information on how to redeem your rewards directly from the latest Kickstarter update.
If you're considering whether to get the game instead, you might be interested in the reviews that have started coming out today, like this unimpressed piece from Rock, Paper, Shotgun:
If you've been round the neon block a few times already, then Hong Kong's going to feel pretty familiar, despite being perfectly solid and having a few new toys plus a wider, more ostentatious stage than ever before. This might well be what you want, of course, but speaking as someone who isn't here first and foremost for the love of the setting, I'm not entirely sure all those Kickstarter funbucks have been spent quite as effectively as they could have been.
Hardcore Gamer was significantly more enthusiastic, 4.5/5.
We've said it practically with each new Shadowrun Harebrained Schemes puts out, and we'll say it again for Hong Kong: this is the most definitive, comprehensive and polished version of Shadowrun on the market. It builds on the past games in subtle but smart ways, fixing what was broken, and not touching what wasn't. As a result, players are left with a magical cRPG that gives players so many options. Whether it's dialogue and story or character, combat, exploration and loadout options, this is about as close as folks are going to get to a tabletop experience. The best part is, you don't have to be a Shadowrun fan to love it. If you are, though, there's just that much more to get lost in here. This is a game that transcends its name and should be spoken of in the same breath as the genre's best. In years to come people will be comparing the new cRPGs to Hong Kong, because it's easily a benchmark for what developers in the RPG arena should be looking at when designing their games.
Finally, PC World criticizes the aimlessness of the game's structure, 4/5.
The problem with becoming a (known quantity) in gaming is you open yourself to comparison. When Shadowrun Returns first launched I was blown away here was the best isometric CRPG we'd seen in ten years, with strong XCOM-style tactical combat and a mature cyberpunk story to tell.
Then along came Dragonfall and it was so damn good I was forced to admit it was the campaign Shadowrun Returns should've launched with to begin with leaps and bounds better, with more variety to both its story and its mechanics.
Shadowrun: Hong Kong is still an excellent CRPG Harebrained has turned out another great campaign for fans, and I highly recommend playing through it if you loved the two previous iterations. I'd even wager it's better than the original Shadowrun Returns campaign. But it's no Dragonfall, and that's a shame.
