Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Review

Complete Nonsense Reviews review Shadowrun: Hong Kong.

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Shadowrun: Hong Kong Extended Edition is the last title in the cyberpunk turn-based rpg series of games from Harebrained Schemes. As such, it is also the final part of my Shadowrun September event, so make sure to listen till the end to hear my finishing thoughts.
Shadowrun September Reviews Playlist - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oZ_S…

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SR:HK is a solid game. I would have preferred more combat missions, but it's still pretty good.

Definitely needed more combat. I thought it was the worst of the 3 Shadowrun RPGs by far. Way too much filler dialogue that wasn't really relevant to anything. New Matrix was god-awful. Also, not much control over your party members' progression or gear. Overall a mediocre RPG.

In my opinion it is the second best Shadowrun after Dragonfall.

The main shortcoming is the combat. Compared to Dragonfall it is very uninspired and a tad bit boring.
Although, I loved the atmosphere and most of the chars. For this you have to read… a lot. Apparently, that was not everybodies cup of tea.

I definitely don't mind reading. Torment:ToN is my favorite game over the last year or two atm (though haven't yet played D:OS2). But still thought Shadowrun: HK was excessive in this area…it wasn't that there was a lot of text, but just that so much of it felt completely tangential, excessively verbose, and not that interesting.

Originally Posted by Stingray
Also, not much control over your party members' progression or gear.

In other words, it's exactly like the other two SR games in that aspect.

Indeed, IIRC all 3 of them suffered in that regard.

Originally Posted by Stingray
I definitely don't mind reading.

Sorry, if that came off the wrong way. I was not referring to your comment. It was just a common sentiment regarding SR:HK, that there was too much reading. I thought it helped to create a very nice atmosphere. But yes, much of it was just "filler."

There is definitely a lot of reading, but with very little "purple prose", adjectives or excessive metaphores put so the writers can admire their own skill.
And it has some of the best ( companion) characters in crpgs with far more interactive dialogue and strong backgrounds…even Duncan was great as window into player's past/characterization ( compared to say, Imoen).
What it comes as "filler" is more open to interpretation…I loved it personally, and it's much better to learn ( of world) through direct npc dialogue ( here it is loaded with humor) than audio logs ( I'm about to die, I'm about to die!…but first let me tell my story to an adventurer who will stumble on my corpse), books, codex entries, etc.
Combat is nothing exceptional, but it has some decent encounter design ( Dragonfall was a bit better though) and doesn't overstay it's welcome.
Also it was a bit more "cyberpunk" than Dragonfall…compared to it, Walled city should have been more integrated into story/runs.