Exposition, as is common in games in the Dungeons & Dragons family tree, is punctuated by combat sections, giving the narrative a clean, satisfying pace. It's a classic environment of bonding and one that has been historically difficult to transfer to the electronic world. Not only can you picture yourself 'running the shadows' in the dark alleys and slums of Berlin in the 2050s, but you can alternatively imagine sitting around a dining room table, beer in hand, as a friend reads off his meticulously tweaked campaign with melodramatic effect. Dragonfall excels here, far surpassing the Dead Man's Switch campaign from last summer.Īll of this has the added benefit of perfectly mirroring the game's source material: the Shadowrun tabletop RPG. Rich descriptions that in a longer format would come off as heavy and plodding instead clearly define the stage and its actors. Even so, the writing is Dragonfall's forte. The environments are lovingly and painstakingly crafted, and on the soundtrack, rushing electronic beats with a smattering of ominous flourishes, all arranged by the man behind the soundtrack for the 1993 SNES game, set an oppressive, tense tone in this neo-Berlin. The minutiae are fairly cliche, but the beauty of this expansion and its base game is in the atmosphere. Monika, your group's decker (a snazzy term for hacker) is killed by some neural feedback while trying to force open the mansion's vault. The expansion opens just as your group of mercenaries is starting out on a mission to infiltrate a mansion and grab some valuable data. While drama and suspense are the fuel for much of the game, unexpected bits of comedy are layered throughout. The eponymous Dragonfall refers to the defeat of one of the toughest and most genocidal dragons unshackled by the Awakening: Feuerschwinge. With that catastrophe, dragons of unimaginable power have been released, humans have been torn and split into different metatypes (that is, dwarves, elves, orks, and trolls), people can hack computers with their brains, and a precious few individuals have learned to tap their soul and fuel magic of all sorts. The game takes place in an alternate future following an event known as the Awakening, which reintroduced magic into an otherwise ordinary world.

Shadowrun is a mishmash of dystopian science-fiction themes and standard high-fantasy tropes. With the Dragonfall expansion, Harebrained Schemes has buffed out many of Returns' blemishes, making it the closest any video game has come to embracing the unabridged spirit of this classic cyberpunk setting. The Shadowrun franchise has seen several video game adaptations, but until last year's Shadowrun Returns, none of them managed to capture both the atmosphere of the sci-fi/fantasy hybrid universe and the flexibility that tabletop games typically allow.

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