Shadowrun: Hong Kong (the Bonus Campaign)
So, when last we left off we had a pretty good tactical game that involved going SINless and saving a chunk of Hong Kong from supernatural badness. And... I was waiting for this mini-campaign that was promised as a stretch goal of the Kickstarter campaign. It took longer than I was hoping to get here, but it's here.
It is a mini-campaign, but it's nice to go back to a runner team and continue on some. I think I counted three primary story missions and two side missions. With the way it was paced, I sort of expected more side missions to be available, but didn't see them. So I can't give high marks for length of engagement.
What it does well, though, is make the player feel like they're commanding an experienced team of shadowrunners. While money was tight in the main campaign - basically enough to get top-tier gear for a single specialization and second-tier for another - things open up a bit here. I was able to upgrade my decker's assault rifle and invest in several cyberware/bioware upgrades I'd longed for in the main game. A little over halfway through, I even picked up a Panther Assault Cannon to supplement that. At the same time, the missions dropped me into situations that had me saying "good grief, there are sooo many of them." For all the feeling of power and experience, there was also a feeling of being genuinely challenged (especially telling two groups at once to go screw themselves), and that was good.
Why the story isn't quite as grand of scale as the main campaign, it's still tangling with Corps and such. It offers some chance at revenge. And while there's not a lot of fanfare in the process, the ending actually provides a choice that is (if you feel invested in the characters) somewhat painful to make.
You can complete your mission as intended for your backer and get new SINs for the main character and Duncan (your character's foster-brother) to return to normal life, leaving behind the life of a shadowrunner (as well as all the other NPCs). Or you can decide to remain a runner, which pisses Duncan off and you lose him as he takes an offer to... well, it's a little unclear if he gets a normal, SINned life back, but you don't see him again.
It is a mini-campaign, but it's nice to go back to a runner team and continue on some. I think I counted three primary story missions and two side missions. With the way it was paced, I sort of expected more side missions to be available, but didn't see them. So I can't give high marks for length of engagement.
What it does well, though, is make the player feel like they're commanding an experienced team of shadowrunners. While money was tight in the main campaign - basically enough to get top-tier gear for a single specialization and second-tier for another - things open up a bit here. I was able to upgrade my decker's assault rifle and invest in several cyberware/bioware upgrades I'd longed for in the main game. A little over halfway through, I even picked up a Panther Assault Cannon to supplement that. At the same time, the missions dropped me into situations that had me saying "good grief, there are sooo many of them." For all the feeling of power and experience, there was also a feeling of being genuinely challenged (especially telling two groups at once to go screw themselves), and that was good.
Why the story isn't quite as grand of scale as the main campaign, it's still tangling with Corps and such. It offers some chance at revenge. And while there's not a lot of fanfare in the process, the ending actually provides a choice that is (if you feel invested in the characters) somewhat painful to make.
You can complete your mission as intended for your backer and get new SINs for the main character and Duncan (your character's foster-brother) to return to normal life, leaving behind the life of a shadowrunner (as well as all the other NPCs). Or you can decide to remain a runner, which pisses Duncan off and you lose him as he takes an offer to... well, it's a little unclear if he gets a normal, SINned life back, but you don't see him again.
Comments
Post a Comment