Shadowrun Returns

Shadowrun Returns

The Price of Conviction: Coyotes Crusade
Thunderforge 24 Jan, 2014 @ 11:57pm
Some Feedback After a Playthrough
I just played through this mission and I generally enjoyed it. Here is my feedback:

==Things I Liked==
-Having the mission be about Coyote and Paco was excellent and you did a great job of keeping them in character.
-I liked that Ricky had some dialog to contribute and added to the party. It's nice that he wasn't just "hired shaman #4" like some of the ones were in Dead Man's Switch.
-I definitely felt like there was enough variety of choices in the game with some options for talking, some for fighting. I generally straddled between talking and fighting.
-Money was tight for a large portion of the game, which meant I had to consider if I wanted to bribe my way or not. Good call. (By the way, would you be stuck if you blow your money on gear from Voss and then not have enough money for the forgery?)
-When you return to the streets, you see the guy asking the drug dealer for a BTL and he replies something like "I don't sell those, where'd you get that idea?" which I thought was hilarious after I intimidated the guy earlier into not selling them. Nice brick joke there.

==Things I Didn't Like==
-I spotted lots of bugs and typos on one playthrough, which I've detailed in other threads. This mod could use a bit of polish
-Whenever you go into a fight, Coyote always draws her pistol first. Given the number of times her shotgun is mentioned in dialog, she should draw her shotgun first.
-I had a serious dilema about whether or not I should have Ricky talk with the spirit of the dead girl in the dumpster. But it turns out that there were absolutely no consequences for doing so. I dunno, I thought it was a setup between the lesser of two evils, but it turned out that necromancy was a wonderful thing for the good guys to do.
-I didn't like the dialog options that described how other people reacted. For instance, I could say something, or I could shove my gun in his face and see him smile? How do I know how he's going to react until I actually do it? Is Coyote precognitive? I don't know he's going to smile! This happens at several points in the game and it was always really jarring for me, especially since I would read my action, read how they would respond to that action, and then choose to say something that prevents either action from taking place.
-So I paid an arm and a leg to Voss to get the fake ID. I then spent most of my remaining money on a better shotgun, a better pistol for Ricky, and some other stuff. I picked up the Gold Doc Wagon from Dill. I'm armed to the teeth, ready to take down the Yakuza and then...I have a single 3 vs. 1 battle. It was really underwhelming. I kept expecting there to be a massive firefight since I just got a Gold Doc Wagon and a bunch of new weapons. But no, one dude who I killed in two rounds, who supposedly killed a dozen armed people before I arrived. If he is going to be the final boss, he needs to be stronger. Maybe give him higher stats. Maybe turn him into an Adept and give him some sweet powers. At least give him a medpack and a grenade!
-I kept feeling like there was going to be more to the scenario. Partly because of Alex being underwhelming, but also because his story was unresolved (why did he want me to kill him? and if he wanted to die so bad, why didn't he just stab himself? who hired him?), I kept feeling like there was going to be another segment where Coyote drops her companions and then goes to take on a bigger threat which would result in a big firefight. I suppose it was a set up for a sequel, but it just felt...unresolved.

==Things that Could be Improved==
-Most of the things I wrote that I didn't like are fixiable, so that's a start
-For some reason I got it into my head that this took place before Dead Man's Switch, which confused me to no end when she started referencing stuff like insect spirits. There should be a bit at the beginning about what Coyote has done since Dead Man's Switch (maybe talk about "helping a runner defeat insect spirits" or something) to help set the story and establish the time frame.
-A few times I made the bad tactical decision to keep most of my guys clumped together, but it didn't matter because nobody seemed to have grenades. Give a few of those to enemies.
-I don't think I ever saw an environmental spirit that Ricky could activate. I'd love to see one of those.
-The VPhones seemed like the Shadowrun version of using a pay phone, which just seemed odd considering that you have a cell phone in Dead Man's Switch that you get calls on occasionally. You could maybe just have forced dialog at some points where she whips out her cell phone and have Slidestep be the entry point for talking with Voss. Although in all honesty, this is probably the least important item on the list for me.
-Coyote has the ability to buy drones, so I think there needs to be a drone vent or something like that where she can use one. Or just drop the ability to buy drones.
-Maybe it's just me, but the fight difficulty seemed to start of reasonably difficult, then got easier as the scenario progressed. I had Ricky die in the first combat with the Halloweeners and had to use my Doc Wagon to resurrect him, then in the Devils Hideout, I mowed down everyone easily (although that was largely because I fought them from the back side). Devildive was pretty easy and Alex was disappointingly easy.
-Honestly, I'd say consider if Alex is even worth having in the story. I feel like you could drop him and just turn the end into a big firefight with some Yakuza folks, then save the girl and end the scenario with all the loose ends wrapped up. I think that would be a more satisfying conclusion for me.

Right now I'd rate the mod 3 1/2 stars. It's a great premise and is well executed, but the number of typos and bugs I ran into on my first playthrough, plus the precognitive actions in dialog and what I felt was an underwhelming ending, kept it from being a 5 star mod. I hope thought that these issues will be addressed so that it can become a 5 star mod :-)
Last edited by Thunderforge; 2 Feb, 2014 @ 2:02pm
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Showing 1-1 of 1 comments
apostrophejj 12 Sep, 2015 @ 10:22am 
(Pardon the necromancy, but I feel I can add to the thread)
Excellent points, Thunderforge. You seem like a great reviewer. Your points are sharp and true.

My worthless 2 cents.

Pros:
Good mission. Fun to play as Coyote, and having Paco along. Revigorating moral choice in the junkyard to make. Short but solid plot in a tight theme.

Cons:
It is written like a pulp story; clear cut good guys and bad guys in the world; corny texts. There's dialogue to be had with the thugs, negotiations even, but it's all foreplay to the shooting.
I hated having Paco and Ramsey lines as my own. It's ridiculous to have me making a NPC say something. They follow me and I control them in combat, but in the dialogue everyone is accountable for each line.
Also, the dialogue action choices are laughable. Choosing to do something and also its consequence made me gringe. Like the option to : [point shotgun barrel at thug's chest, he looks at it then at you]. I predict the future of things now?

3/5 for me.

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bug:
- as people are pointing, in the endgame, if you go back in the Yakuza lab, it'll be like it's your first time, and you'll have to complete it again to get out.
- with the cardkey in hand, the door samurai still offered me the chance to contact the hacker for 200 nuyen. what for?

-spoilers- criticism:
- some warning about the number of halloweeners in front of the btl lab would be nice; that's a tough first fight. suddenly it's 4, not the one guy I'm talking to?
- why couldn't I kill the Devilsdive whatshisname? wrecking his dirty scheme, murdering some 8 of this thugs, liberating empoverished folk to in the end joyfully accept the cardkey and let him walk scot free?
violence is not my first standard option, but the task to shakedown the father in the junkyard motivated me to really unload on the criminals, but ultimately, the catharsis was not to be fully realized, after all, all I wanted was the cardkey;
- after the warehouse cleanup, Ramsey stuck with me, but didn't say another word, and nobody noticed him anymore, even though he finished the mission at his side. he shouldn't be left aside like that.
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