After ten months of development the team at Harebrained Schemes revealed today the first actual gameplay footage of Shadowrun Returns, their Kickstarter funded tactical RPG that received over 1.8 million dollars in backing. It looks like money well spent!
Shadowrun Returns takes a few cues from both the original and rebooted XCOM games. Characters move and shoot based on how many action points they have available but they will take cover and hunker down automatically keeping action flowing and firefights more convincing.
Jordan Weisman, founder of FASA and original creator of the Shadowrun tabletop rpg pointed out on multiple occasions that everything; the levels, conversations and mission objectives are all designed using the editor that will ship with the PC and Mac versions of the game.
This generous 20 minute video shows a variety of gameplay mechanics and features including:
- Movement in and out of combat
- Conversations with stat based branches
- Several lore references including Lone Star Security and Never Deal With a Dragon
- Changing firing modes on weapons
- Cycling through several weapons at a character’s disposal
- Summoning of elemental spirits to do your bidding
- Gathering reconnaissance using a remote control drone
- Player taking advantage of an NPC’s perception of a situation to ambush him
- NPCs expertly using grenades
- Magical awakened beasts like basilisks
- Leylines that when occupied increase a Mage’s spellcasting abilities
If you want to learn more you can check out our Shadowrun Returns Primer to become more familiar with the Shadowrun Universe.
If you missed your chance to support this game on Kickstarter you can still preorder Shadowrun Returns and even pick up some pretty awesome swag!
Ryan DeBraal
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