Review of Shadowrun: Hong Kong. It's not candy, it's toffee

Two years ago, it turned out to be not so much a game as a demonstration of possibilities. Look, they say, we have a “shadow” universe here, the middle of the 21st century, cyberpunk, magic, special forces orcs and hacker elves, cyberspace, turn-based battles, a classless role-playing system ... Look? Well, that's enough.

So first serious the game in the new series was last year's . The authors used the capabilities of the engine to the fullest, and it turned out to be a wonderful tactical role-playing game - with a twisted plot about the adventures of a team of shadow agents in Berlin, with memorable characters, with a mountain of side tasks and variability in solving problems.

Moves the same way - almost does not change the game mechanics, but adds to the game more most.

Lay low in Hong Kong

This time we play as a tramp from Seattle, who, for personal reasons, ends up in Hong Kong without money and documents, but being on the international wanted list. For the same reasons, he takes command of a small group of mercenaries and begins to do dirty work for those who pay and want to stay in the background.

The principles of this activity have not changed a bit since Dragonfall: we walk around the shelter, upgrade equipment, communicate with comrades, view the list of tasks, select a mission, convene a team, leave.

Our team's new hideout is the Bolthole tanker. Without losing the subtext, the name can be translated as "Nest".

There is more than enough work: traditional burglaries, kidnappings, and data destruction. And even the jewelry subtlety of a task like "provoke a conflict between two corporations." Most of the tasks have several solutions, and in this Hong Kong goes much further than its predecessor: Dragonfall did not have so many missions that can be completed without (or almost without) shooting. You can almost always keep gunfights to a minimum - either chat enemies, or find a workaround.

Another important element of the local tasks is the national color. If shadow Berlin could be distinguished from shadow Seattle only under a microscope, then Hong Kong has its own atmosphere. Moreover, everywhere - in dialogues, in level design and even in the approach to work.

Let's say one of the customers asks to bankrupt a competing firm... disrupting the flow of chi energy in their office. We break into a corporate skyscraper to move tables a little, tear documents, break pencils, slosh water at fountains - in a word, imperceptibly spoil all feng shui. In Europe, we worked more straightforwardly.

As before, a charming character can learn the "codes of proper behavior" from a wide variety of segments of the population. And in Hong Kong you will have a lot of opportunities to put your knowledge into practice.

In many dialogues, you can show off not with charm, but with professionalism - for example, knowledge of computer systems.

See people, show yourself

The characters are the best. Harebrained Schemes have been on the right track for a long time: instead of chasing exotic characters, they work out in detail the characters, biographies and motives of their heroes. Few of those who played Dragonfall managed to forget Gloria - the story of a typical "closed silent woman with a gloomy past" unfolded into a deep, difficult drama and eventually led to a very ambiguous dilemma, the choice in which forever changed the girl's worldview.

A living debunking of all the "cranberry" stamps, Rakter is an engineer from Nizhny Novgorod who has devoted himself to the design of drones. His best creation is called Kashchei.

The calm and inquisitive Rakter in the closet so many skeletons to count.

The local partners fill the game with both touching and intense moments. Charming slob Gobbet- self-confident, carefree, but sometimes deadly serious teenage girl - would look great in a youth situation comedy if she were not an orc and a Rat shaman. dwarf Iz0bel— decker to the core, not thinking of life without a network — hates personal communication, but make no mistake, this is not a clinical problem that requires intervention. She is simply not interested.

More original than all team members came out Gaichu, a fighter of the elite Japanese unit of the Red Samurai and part-time ghoul - an outcast for his people. Looks disgusting, fights with bestial instincts, feeds on human flesh... and constantly improves the body and mind, comprehending the works of ancient Japanese masters.

As always, where there are strange magical disturbances, there is our old acquaintance elf.

Tricks with dressing up in the uniform of service personnel work only if you have a well-suspended tongue.

City NPCs are not inferior in thoughtfulness of images. If you are not too lazy to run around the quarter where our shelter is located from time to time and talk with its inhabitants, you can not only learn a lot of interesting things, but also discover several new storylines. Everyone has it - everyone!- a friend will find a secret, and who has more than one. Some of these mysteries are related to the main storyline; Moreover, the whole ending directly depends on whether you have found a common language with your neighbors.

It's not candy, it's toffee

But running around the block is just completely uninteresting, here the dimensions only get in the way. It irritated in Berlin, irritated in Hong Kong too: we finished the mission - we definitely made a circle of honor among neighbors, friends and acquaintances, suddenly something has changed somewhere, and we will miss this branch! That's why? To admire static beauties? If our base was ten times smaller, the game would not suffer at all.

Combat programs are not activated immediately when hacked, but only if you raise the alarm. But the use of matrix hide-and-seek is a little - only annoying.

To hack servers in the matrix, you now need to complete a simple mini-game.

But you can spit on all of the above and hack the network the old fashioned way - right through.

Even the scale hurts, oddly enough, the main storyline. Three words: drawn out, not intriguing.

The whirlpool of events that the game meets us with is replaced by a long, detailed ... terribly monotonous period in which the hero is burdened (or, conversely, admired) by his new job and comprehends the secrets of the shadow life. Yes, the authors wanted to show in detail the changes in the character of the hero - yesterday he had a different life, and today he is a nobody and in an illegal position. But after the first fifteen minutes, it causes a reaction: “Yes, yes, we already understood, now his world is shadows, can we go further, please?”

For a seasoned agent, Gobbet all too often makes you want to pat her on the head.

Gaichu with a katana in his hand is deadly. One of his special stances increases defense, the other provides regular critical hits.

A good half of the script only makes it difficult to focus on the really interesting things: side quests, shadow work and character stories. Closer to the finale, events will accelerate again, and both intrigue and interest will return to the plot. But don’t expect dashing turns from the scenario anyway, by the middle of the game you will guess what awaits you at the end, and there will be no more surprises.

But now and not 2012, when the gaming Kickstarter was new to everyone. Let's see how Harebrained Schemes spent the amount received and whether Shadowrun: Hong Kong is better than and.

Shadowrun: Hong Kong

Genre role-playing game
Platforms Windows / macOS / iOS
Developer Harebrained Schemes
Publisher Harebrained Schemes
Website harebrained-schemes.com

Grade

Colorful cyberpunk world, a huge amount of dialogue and text, new skills, updated gameplay in the Matrix

Huge amount of dialogue and text

Improved and expanded version of Shadowrun: Dragonfall with new characters and plot

Given the activity of the community, which in the past two years since the release of the original game has created a sufficient number of interesting user missions and even full-fledged campaigns for Shadowrun Returns and Shadowrun: Dragonfall, the developers could rest on their laurels or do other projects, which the studio actually has enough of, but Harebrained Schemes does not let up, trying to bring the game to mind. And if Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut was an improved and expanded version of the original Shadowrun Returns, then Shadowrun: Hong Kong became such an upgrade for Shadowrun: Dragonfall itself.

This time the plot will take us to Hong Kong, however, the events in Seattle and Berlin will be remembered during the game. The city on the islands is flooded with neon and really resembles the real Hong Kong. There are many bright signs in Chinese, street stands with food, trading junks near the shore, and oriental flavor has appeared in the faces of local trolls, orcs and dwarves. However, slums, dungeons, warehouses and offices are the same in all countries of the world, so don't look for any special differences.

You arrived in Hong Kong at the urgent request of your adoptive father and met here with your named brother, from whom fate separated you many years ago. Like Dragonfall, events in Shadowrun: Hong Kong are gaining momentum rapidly. Just now you were an almost honest citizen looking for a man lost in a big city, and literally five minutes later you are a nameless outcast, a terrorist who is being hunted by police and mercenaries all over Hong Kong. Why everything went wrong, where your foster father disappeared, how strange dreams that many Hong Kong residents see are connected with all this, you have to figure it out. The plot revolves around the Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong's famous slum with the highest population density in the world and the highest crime rate.

After a very vigorous start, the plot traditionally takes a break, giving you freedom of action and the opportunity to earn some money, upgrade and equip your team for future missions. Like Dragonfall, there is a central hub with a team base, merchants, and side quests. No one asks you to be a nanny for the inhabitants of Hoya, as was the case in Berlin, but it's still worth talking to the locals and getting additional bonuses and information.

In general, communication is the basis of the gameplay of Shadowrun: Hong Kong. If in Dragonfall, according to estimates, there were 18 thousand lines of text, then in the new game - already 25 thousand lines. Logs of hacker forums, letters, documents and conversations, conversations, conversations… You will have to talk not just a lot, but a lot. Traditionally, some missions can be completed without firing a shot at all, choosing the right way to communicate, using your charisma and intelligence. Thus, the search for a serial killer in the hacker community consists of three hours of conversations, interrogations of witnesses, examination of evidence and search for information. And all this ends with a fight for exactly 15 seconds (15 seconds, honestly!), And it can be avoided if desired.

Given the use of good bookish language with frequent inclusions of rather rare words and colorful comparisons, we recommend playing with a dictionary. The translation of the game into Russian by the community has already begun, and by the same team, which recently translated Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut very well. But this is not a quick matter, especially given the volume of text, so I would not expect this localization earlier than in six months.

Of the innovations, the redesigned gameplay in the Matrix and hacking security systems immediately catches the eye. If earlier it was the same turn-based mode as in a normal battle, now you can run around the Web in real time, calculating the patrol routes of security bots and hiding from them. In case of detection or exceeding the alarm level, the battles go into turn-based mode. This switch looks a little strange, especially during real-world combat, but in general, the new Matrix is ​​clearly better than the previous version.

The character development menu has also been redesigned, now different characteristics and skills are presented in different tabs, which makes it easier to navigate. Plus, a new branch of skills appeared - Cyberware and, accordingly, new types of weapons.

To finish with the innovations. Shadowrun: Hong Kong has an updated sound engine with contextual dynamic music, a redesigned inventory interface, the ability to switch to combat mode at any time of your choice if the enemy does not see you yet, plus animated cutscenes at key points in the plot.

Personally, I liked the characters in Shadowrun: Hong Kong more than the somewhat straightforward Dragonfall characters: they make mistakes, change their minds, tell interesting stories. Plus, everyone has their own cockroaches in their head and their own missions that they will offer if they trust you, so do not forget to communicate with your party members.

In general, the tasks in Shadowrun: Hong Kong turned out to be excellent. Each "run" is an interesting story, with different ways to unravel it and different endings. Here, almost always, everything does not go according to plan and there is where to prove yourself. You've just robbed a historical museum, and now you're breaking into a corporation's laboratory to destroy office feng shui by scattering documents on tables on your next mission, or visit a local geek exhibition to deal with your partner's childhood grievances. After every two or three tasks, you are given a puzzle piece related to the disappearance of your named father. It's not easy there.

In general, Shadowrun: Hong Kong, despite all the innovations, is played as an additional module to Shadowrun: Dragonfall. The module is certainly interesting, deserving the attention of all cyberpunk fans, but you should not expect revelations from the new game - it's still the same Shadowrun. If you liked the previous parts, you will definitely like the new one. If cyberpunk turn-based strategy isn't your thing, then Satellite Reign is on its way, a tactical real-time strategy game somewhat reminiscent of the legendary Syndicate (yes, cyberpunk is in vogue now!), But that's another story.

Eight years ago, shuddering over a monstrous online shooter, I could not even imagine that in the future I would see not one, but three decent games in this universe at once. And not just any, but an RPG with tactical turn-based battles! True, after passing it was time to say: "Pot, do not cook."

hard-boiled

IN shadow run where the plot is more important, and here I went to the fullest. Unlike Seattle, which has retained a more or less familiar political system, and anarchic Berlin, Hong Kong is a place where, as it should be in cyberpunk, power and corporation are one. Companies rule here not from behind the scenes, but directly in the open, through the board of executive directors. The police, officials and the press are only the conductors of his will.

It is worth moving a little further from the noisy downtown, and a different Hong Kong appears - the eternal battlefield between criminal clans. In the center is a black spot known as the "Kowloon Walled City". The slums, demolished by the city authorities in 1997, by the middle of the 21st century again became the last refuge for the poor and despised, but this time they settled something.

Our ward will have to reveal the secret of Kowloon, although he did not come to Hong Kong from Seattle for this at all. He was called here by his adoptive father, Raymond Black, who sent a mysterious message and soon disappeared. Having met with the named brother Duncan Wu, who works in the North American security corporation Lone Star, the hero followed in the footsteps of Black and was immediately ambushed. After escaping the trap with the help of two shadowrunners, the shaman Gobbet and the decker Iz0bel, the brothers realized that their problems were just beginning. The cops have put both of them on the wanted list, and the only way to escape the chase is to destroy the personal identification chip.

You can’t just erase yourself from the system, but, fortunately, the fugitives were taken under the protection of Good Chen, who runs the Heoi district, which adjoins Kowloon, on behalf of the Yellow Lotus gang. Not out of the kindness of her heart, of course - she needs "shadowrunners", especially those who are indebted to her.

old order

The team is the same: an ex-cop, a hacker with an erased memory, a shaman with a dark past, a sociopathic Russian cybermechanic who dreams of the imminent onset of the singularity, and a reasonable ronin ghoul. As in, the authors came up with for everyone not only kilometers of dialogues with a well-developed background, but also personal assignments. If you are not afraid of "multi-bookoff", I advise you to communicate with friends upon returning from the task - this way you will get used to the world more tightly, get a chance for the best ending out of the four available and open good special abilities. Yes, it’s worth talking with ordinary NPCs - they won’t give you quests, but you can learn something useful from conversations.

It is clear that very quickly the process degenerates into a routine "bypass of the chambers" - we run around Heoi, poke the cursor at all the figures with a white cloud above our heads and hope to hear something new. What's nice is that important citizens are a couple of mouse clicks away - the squad lives on an old ship, standing in the docks.

But fuss with "pumping" and the things of our companions is the bare minimum. We only occasionally choose one of the two new skills and press the "Confirm" button. No one needs to be equipped - the developers have given each companion a decent set of weapons and supplies, which improves as the campaign progresses. However, it doesn’t hurt to buy spare first-aid kits and distribute them before the start of the mission (anyway, unused good will then return to the general inventory).

The tasks themselves are pleasing variety. Escort, hostage-taking, theft, detective investigation... There are a lot of episodes where everything can be solved with intelligence and charisma, without firing a shot. That very “best ending”, by the way, cannot be obtained by violence alone. It's great that in most cases we stumble upon a catch that forces us to make a choice. Even when the surprise is easy to guess "by the first three notes", it is clear that the authors have been working on themselves, let them plow and plow to the level of "".

But there is also a sense of stiffness, as if its creators have found a cozy corner, curled up in it and do not want to get out. This is noticeable in the stubborn unwillingness to ennoble the interface, in a rustic picture, which is saved only by the skill of 2D artists, in the approach to filling the world. Enemies have not grown wiser over the years - as soon as they are squeezed from both sides, they panic, often leave cover and rush between targets.

Hong Kong looks flashy and colorful, but almost devoid of life; after the recent one (also acting in the neon cyberpunk genre), where something is constantly happening in the frame, this graveyard despondency puts pressure on the nerves. Both games, by the way, came to us with Kickstarter, so the problem is clearly not in a modest budget.

* * *

Fatigue, it seems, was felt by the developers, who decided to change the surroundings for the next project. Their new