Shadowrun Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Extended Edition

[Tzaero]

I didn't get into one of the offices because I didn't know the code, so might that be the reason why I didnt get that achievement.

 

[Jaedar]

So how long is the game now, actually ? Compared to DFDC ?

Steam says 15 hours. About the same length as Dragonfall, perhaps one mission less.

 

[Beowulf]

They should have communicated the new Matrix/hacking a bit better, imo.
Just a small popup about the basics (or where to find them) when you first do it would go a long way already to make the average player understand what he needs to do.

Well, there is help screen with basics for that, and other stuff. You just have to press the "?" button near your PDA button, that brings up the screen titled exactly that - "Basics"
But even with that I needed to fail the hacking minigame once to get a grasp on how it works.

 

[Kuurth]

Duncan is a beast, mows enemies with full auto and has protection from grenades, easy peasy.
Isobel is actually useful outside of the matrix with her little pistol, rare for a companion decker.
Gobblet is just another Shaman, felt a bit generic even though her Rat Spirit is very strong.
I killed Gaichu, i didn't want ghouls on my team.

The new Matrix is fun at first but quickly became annoying with the matching simbols and dodging those tracers. Fuck those guys.

I started a new playthrough with a cybered to the gills Orc and has been fun, slashes through enemies like paper. Gonna keep Gaichu this time for some close combat fun and spec Duncan for melee. Hoping for some fun fan-made modules.
The new Shadowrun games feel underwhelming. You finish some playthroughs with different builds and that's pretty much the variety they offer, the choices in-game aren't that different.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Can you actually completely ghost the matrix by avoiding tracers or do you have to get into combat eventually?

 

[Gord]

There are some runs that contain Matrix "rooms" which have old-style programs that directly attack you once you enter.
Usually you can avoid combat through evading the tracers, though.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Can you actually completely ghost the matrix by avoiding tracers or do you have to get into combat eventually?

Some systems have white IC prowling around certain nodes regardless, so it's impossible to totally avoid combat in the matrickz.

I found that it's also generally a good idea not to bother with the stupid wonky stealth too much and just blast a single 'key' tracer blocking your way and move on. There are no benefits to total evasion anyway.


The new matrix is a mess, btw. I've basically arrived at the stage now where I've realised it's not even an improvement over the old one. Maybe if it was turnbased like in Invisiburu Inc it would have been better, but as it is now, it's just derp.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Can you actually completely ghost the matrix by avoiding tracers or do you have to get into combat eventually?

There are some unavoidable combat encounters but they are mostly small groups which end quickly.

 

[Zetor]

The funny thing about the new matrix is, it CAN be turn-based and it's about 200% better that way -- there was a pretty tense situation where I had to make my way through a matrix room with three watcher IC and some jerk ranged white IC shooting me from behind heavy cover. I had to watch how much each watcher IC moved per turn, and position is0bel + the ESPs to never intersect their vision cones.

However, the matrix time limits were clearly designed for this RT version (if you don't get in combat, the timer doesn't count down... which is very helpful when e.g. shutting down the gas in the Ares run), which is sad.

 

[34scell]

HBS should give up design/programming to Klei and just do the writing. The Invisible Inc engine can handle combat and stealth, and doesn't take so fucking long to load.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Can you actually completely ghost the matrix by avoiding tracers or do you have to get into combat eventually?

You can, but you have to dance around like a retard avoiding all the scanning IC's. Or just get lucky.

Then you have to hack the blocker IC's through a minigame. MUCH easier to just pew pew everything.

 

[Kaivokz]

This made me chuckle:

shadowlands bbs spoiler

on the Shadowlands BBS - an autonomous internet group thought to be an AI hivemind...

 

[Darth Roxor]

i think im gonna count how many people have posted that screen already

 

[Gord]

The new matrix is a mess, btw. I've basically arrived at the stage now where I've realised it's not even an improvement over the old one. Maybe if it was turnbased like in Invisiburu Inc it would have been better, but as it is now, it's just derp.

Nah, it's still better than the old one, which was just a simplified version of the normal combat. I agree that making it turnbased would improve it, though (at least by offering the possibility to turn on TB mode similar to meatspace combat zones).
I'd also add scaling (relative to your decking talent) skill-checks to the minigames.

 

[Akratus]

Has hacking ever been turned into effective and fun gameplay?

 

[b931]

Hello all, lurker surfacing to post that laser weapon someone asked a few pages ago.

It's actually a laser sniper rifle with damage comparable to the top tier sniper rifle, except it doesn't have a smartlink, and has armor piercing effect of 2 (higher than normal sniper rifles).
It also appears to have a chance to set targets on fire (i.e, a weak damage over time effect),
and its easy to get around the limitations of the 3 round mag by using the auto-loader cyber arm.
Probably a little OP at the time you can get it.
It also sounds fun (pew-pew!)

 

[omega21]

Has hacking ever been turned into effective and fun gameplay?

Does Uplink count?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Has hacking ever been turned into effective and fun gameplay?

System Shock 2

 

[Jaedar]

Has hacking ever been turned into effective and fun gameplay?

Considering there are entire games built around it (like uplink), I'm going to say yes.

So, I finished the game. I give it 7 dings out of 10 dongs.

The game has a couple of issues. It's cute that they kept the non party runners for hire, but they're a trap. If you hire 3 of them there's a good chance the mission will be a net loss in terms of nuyen. This was sorta the case in dragonfall too, but I found money to be more tight in HK.

The new matrix is definately a step back. The stealth is not fun. The minigame is not fun. The combat no longer allows for stacking programs, and ESP's appear to be one time consumables and they're not even needed because there aren't really any hard deckings. The fact that the stealth is real time also synergizes really poorly when you have meatspace combat at the same time.

There were some cool runs, but a lot of them felt short. Two three convos, followed by one gunfight and then its over. They often have cool flavor, but that flavor also tends to manifest as simply "interact with the hotspots"

The biggest issue is the massive amounts of text in the game. Runs are often just a little bit too wordy, but I wouldn't even notice if it weren't for the massive walls of text that await each time you go to the Hub. When the runs are fairly short, and you spend more time talking to NPC's in the hub than shadowrunning... there's something off. It is cool that most runs have fights that are skippable with the right skills or etiquettes but there's perhaps a bit too much of it going around or at least not enough left if you skip.

I found the plot to be a bit hard to believe and poorly paced. The fact that you are not a shadowrunner, but you are somehow capable of keeping up with two experienced ones right from the start? Not to mention where you got those weapon skills and such when you apparently spent most of your life dirt poor on the streets, as a wage slave, or in prison. In terms of pacing, it starts out developing, but then stalls for most of the game, mostly going on about "baed dreams" and then its final missions time and it finishes. Some kind of mandatory plot mission halfway through would have been good.

The game also has a couple of bugs. I ran into matrix jacks I couldn't get into except during combat, dialogues I had the prerequisite for but still couldn't select, conversations getting stuck on a single speaker.

The game was actually very easy in general. It is a great shame they removed the very hard difficulity. Once you get 2-3 missions under your belt, the rest of the game is pretty much a cakewalk.

 

[Gozma]

New matrix stuff was decent for something you do once an hour or so. You do the little dance through a camera maze, if you fuck up you probably kill a camerabot in one turn. Depending on how well you did on the camera mazes you get to skip the minigame, which is also an ehh thing you won't mind once an hour. Whenever they put too much of it in one place it wears out real fast.

It's still a big improvement on DF where the matrix is 100% boring slog every time.

Edit - also the correct minmax answer for my question about what cyberware to take with your 1 "free" essence on a mage with 3 cyberaffinity is the silly ass grenade returning arm. The AI pretty much cannot resist throwing a grenade if you have two dudes standing abreast. The arm even returns grenade launcher shots.

 

[omega21]

What's this about "free" essence?

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

i think im gonna count how many people have posted that screen already

Dude you totally should.

 

[Gozma]

What's this about "free" essence?

You get up to two extra points of essence for putting karma in a "cyberaffinity" skill (which is a subskill for the body stat). If you're using a mage, spending that extra essence on cybershits won't hurt your magic score, therefore "free".

The first point of extra essence only costs six karma since it's at cyberaffinity 3 (plus technically another three points in body, but you'd buy a few points of body just for the HP) so you can easily afford it on a magician.

Another option would be getting a cybereye + datajack so you could get the smartlink bonus on a gunwizard.

 

[Excidium II]

You get up to two extra points of essence for putting karma in a "cyberaffinity" skill (which is a subskill for the body stat). If you're using a mage, spending that extra essence on cybershits won't hurt your magic score, therefore "free".

the fuck

How does essence go up, let alone from cyberware? Are those people unfamiliar with their own setting?

 

[omega21]

hahah what the fuck
thanks for the tip Gozma

I plan to go Street Sam again anyway, since that playstyle seems the most fleshed out, but good to know.