I never checked out the user generated content, guess I should reconsider.
Also: in truth I have a giant work-in-progress combined analysis post for Dragonfall and Hong Kong (charting certain story and gameplay threads through every mission), but I lost control of it and then I moved on to other games. Here's some highlights to partially salvage that effort though:
On Dragonfall:
One thing that really struck me though was how much more effective Dragonfall was in charming me with its world, story, and dialogue. I was grabbed for a ride from the very first musical beats on the Harfeld Manor run. The ambient mood of the Kreuzbasar and the local dialogue is pitch perfect. Dragonfall just makes me sit up and take notice every time the scenery and tone changes.
Making the story revolve around Monica's death is an incredibly effective way to start the game too. It is very impressive, really. I mean how much time do you really get to be around Monica? But I guess the trick is pretty simple: take a charming character, make her the only one in the group who really respects the player, and for good measure add a dash of playfulness directed towards you. Then when she goes the player cares that she is gone, and boom they are invested.
Glory's mission 'Feuerstelle' is arguably the peak of Shadowrun's storytelling. Its setting and music create a one of a kind feeling. Because you have some sort of connection to your companion's feelings and motivations, the stakes and consequences feel quite dramatic. RPGs routinely put the world on the line for stakes, but they get more mileage out of characters who have unresolved personal stories.
Like literally all stories and missions in Shadowrun, it is a tale that could be told elsewhere but here it has been infused with elements that require the fictional setting of cyberpunk and magic. I was unsure if 'Feuerstelle' would really be the most distinguished segment upon this revisit since it is so easy for your memory to pigenhole that particular storyline as the Oscar bait / "cliched" pick for best moment, but no it's definitely great.
~ ~ ~
On Hong Kong:
Hong Kong, meanwhile, has a weaker story, majorly downgraded writing quality, and oh-my-gosh far more text than it needs. Once I noticed the pattern with the writing, it was hard to not be bothered how almost every character responds to your dialogue choices by contradicting some portion of what you just selected, perhaps by pointing out a subtlety or being some kind of know-it-all about this one fine detail you'd never expect to know. Gaichu is perhaps the worst with this.
One example where the general "too much text" problem is really easy to point out is the Prosperity Tower mission, which is something of a story climax. It represents the most involved mission yet and you finally rescue Raymond, which was the big looming primary objective of the game so far. The "reward" for this is a very long cutscene (20+ minutes?) in a subway where most of that time is Raymond draining the player's patience going "oh, ah, mumble, mumble, can't speak straight" as he barely stammers everything out to move the plot forward.
I'm still appreciative of Hong Kong (I ended up replaying both games multiple times), but my first playthrough of Hong Kong was far less satisfying because I had to selectively choose when to care about all the text reads.
I'd actually say that the opening tutorial mission in Hong Kong is quite fun every time, one of my favorites despite being so simple. Perhaps because you don't often have the "advance through entrenched positions" feeling elsewhere in the game. The first 6 or so real missions from your ship's computer are probably the best, and the first 3 have the most creativity in giving the player multiple levels of superseding the objectives, which elicits more engagement during the mission.
The low point of Hong Kong on a first playthrough is how the player is likely to pick 'The Outsider' as the first selectable mission, and without any special effort, they are likely to resolve it without any combat. Unfortunately this adds up to a very text heavy mission sandwiched before and after by two text heavy Heoi segments. The first selectable mission is where the player will be expecting the combat to finally get going, not to mention they will have just purchased weapons and gear from the vendors. I don't know what a less colorful phrase for "blue balling the player" would be, but that's what this is.
~ ~ ~
On Gameplay/Combat Design in the series:
If I can be more critical here, then I would say the gameplay cadence drops significantly when you gain +1 AP. Really, the problem is moreso that once player becomes strong enough to easily focus fire and take out 1-2 enemies each turn it feels like a downgrade to the prior early game balance. The whole Shadowrun Returns series has the problem that the abundance of your combat abilities and combat items doesn't match the demands of the game, which rarely has good places to use most of those things. Every turn is also effectively 2 or 3 turns per character where you may decide to revisit, after each action, your options for turn orders and cooldown abilities, but only for marginal improvements in odds and effectiveness. A little more tedious than a SRPG ideally should be, which messes up the feeling of just watching the battle unfold and seeing the bad guys fall over.
The Shadowrun Returns series also has many fights that don't offer anything new (opposite of "Shining Force" design, in my view). Too often have you will have fights that ramp down in pure strength/numbers just for the sake of having incidental encounters, something that might make sense from a verisimilitude perspective but not a gameplay one. There's also this sense of back solving, based on difficulty and context, to what degree each combat encounter is more akin to "the dialogue tree with bullets" or more akin to the substantial and satisfying outcome you came for.
Also: in truth I have a giant work-in-progress combined analysis post for Dragonfall and Hong Kong (charting certain story and gameplay threads through every mission), but I lost control of it and then I moved on to other games. Here's some highlights to partially salvage that effort though:
On Dragonfall:
One thing that really struck me though was how much more effective Dragonfall was in charming me with its world, story, and dialogue. I was grabbed for a ride from the very first musical beats on the Harfeld Manor run. The ambient mood of the Kreuzbasar and the local dialogue is pitch perfect. Dragonfall just makes me sit up and take notice every time the scenery and tone changes.
Making the story revolve around Monica's death is an incredibly effective way to start the game too. It is very impressive, really. I mean how much time do you really get to be around Monica? But I guess the trick is pretty simple: take a charming character, make her the only one in the group who really respects the player, and for good measure add a dash of playfulness directed towards you. Then when she goes the player cares that she is gone, and boom they are invested.
Glory's mission 'Feuerstelle' is arguably the peak of Shadowrun's storytelling. Its setting and music create a one of a kind feeling. Because you have some sort of connection to your companion's feelings and motivations, the stakes and consequences feel quite dramatic. RPGs routinely put the world on the line for stakes, but they get more mileage out of characters who have unresolved personal stories.
Like literally all stories and missions in Shadowrun, it is a tale that could be told elsewhere but here it has been infused with elements that require the fictional setting of cyberpunk and magic. I was unsure if 'Feuerstelle' would really be the most distinguished segment upon this revisit since it is so easy for your memory to pigenhole that particular storyline as the Oscar bait / "cliched" pick for best moment, but no it's definitely great.
~ ~ ~
On Hong Kong:
Hong Kong, meanwhile, has a weaker story, majorly downgraded writing quality, and oh-my-gosh far more text than it needs. Once I noticed the pattern with the writing, it was hard to not be bothered how almost every character responds to your dialogue choices by contradicting some portion of what you just selected, perhaps by pointing out a subtlety or being some kind of know-it-all about this one fine detail you'd never expect to know. Gaichu is perhaps the worst with this.
One example where the general "too much text" problem is really easy to point out is the Prosperity Tower mission, which is something of a story climax. It represents the most involved mission yet and you finally rescue Raymond, which was the big looming primary objective of the game so far. The "reward" for this is a very long cutscene (20+ minutes?) in a subway where most of that time is Raymond draining the player's patience going "oh, ah, mumble, mumble, can't speak straight" as he barely stammers everything out to move the plot forward.
I'm still appreciative of Hong Kong (I ended up replaying both games multiple times), but my first playthrough of Hong Kong was far less satisfying because I had to selectively choose when to care about all the text reads.
I'd actually say that the opening tutorial mission in Hong Kong is quite fun every time, one of my favorites despite being so simple. Perhaps because you don't often have the "advance through entrenched positions" feeling elsewhere in the game. The first 6 or so real missions from your ship's computer are probably the best, and the first 3 have the most creativity in giving the player multiple levels of superseding the objectives, which elicits more engagement during the mission.
The low point of Hong Kong on a first playthrough is how the player is likely to pick 'The Outsider' as the first selectable mission, and without any special effort, they are likely to resolve it without any combat. Unfortunately this adds up to a very text heavy mission sandwiched before and after by two text heavy Heoi segments. The first selectable mission is where the player will be expecting the combat to finally get going, not to mention they will have just purchased weapons and gear from the vendors. I don't know what a less colorful phrase for "blue balling the player" would be, but that's what this is.
~ ~ ~
On Gameplay/Combat Design in the series:
If I can be more critical here, then I would say the gameplay cadence drops significantly when you gain +1 AP. Really, the problem is moreso that once player becomes strong enough to easily focus fire and take out 1-2 enemies each turn it feels like a downgrade to the prior early game balance. The whole Shadowrun Returns series has the problem that the abundance of your combat abilities and combat items doesn't match the demands of the game, which rarely has good places to use most of those things. Every turn is also effectively 2 or 3 turns per character where you may decide to revisit, after each action, your options for turn orders and cooldown abilities, but only for marginal improvements in odds and effectiveness. A little more tedious than a SRPG ideally should be, which messes up the feeling of just watching the battle unfold and seeing the bad guys fall over.
The Shadowrun Returns series also has many fights that don't offer anything new (opposite of "Shining Force" design, in my view). Too often have you will have fights that ramp down in pure strength/numbers just for the sake of having incidental encounters, something that might make sense from a verisimilitude perspective but not a gameplay one. There's also this sense of back solving, based on difficulty and context, to what degree each combat encounter is more akin to "the dialogue tree with bullets" or more akin to the substantial and satisfying outcome you came for.
