Shadowrun Returns (Alpha) - Now Playing

@jamesthemaxwell No, it's not 3D, the backgrounds are pre-rendered still images. The only thing in the game that's 3D are the character models. 

Lack of heavy voice acting allows for dialogue options and mechanics that are more detailed and indepth. I'm not scared of doing a little reading. 

When you're making a certain type of game with a limited budget you need to focus on the things that will define your game. A turn-based RPG does not hinge on the existence of a third-person option, so spend your time focusing on the things that MATTER, like the story, combat and mechanics, because the primary topic of discussion once people play the game will not be how much they missed that one thing that was not essential to the game's design or vision. 

You asked the question "who would buy this" and the answer is people who are fans of this type of game. Yes, it's a niche crowd, but it's bigger than you might think and that's who their target audience is. It may not appeal to you and that's fine. That's the appeal of crowd-funded games, that people can make the kind of games they want to make and not have publishers pushing them to appeal to some asinine, mythical mass market. There's no need to resort to meaningless tripe like "hipster" and "half-assed retro garbage". It is what it is and it's what we funded. If you don't like it you don't have to play it.  I'll take Shadowrun Returns over the likes of Dragon Age 2 ANY day.

@jamesthemaxwell @liam82517 The sad fact is games have a set budget and limited development time, so having people focus on up to date graphics really does eat into time and money that could be spent making the gameplay or storyline better. Those up to date graphics you love so much are usually forgotten within an hour or two anyway, leaving behind the gameplay, which suffered because a small company spent all it's time and money focusing on making everything shiny. For me and many others it's visual design that matters far more anyway; a game like Planescape: Torment, with an interesting visual art style and handcrafted backgrounds looks infinitely better to me than many games with all the latest graphics behind them. Shit even some SNES games (Chrono Trigger for example) look better to me than a lot of the AAA games that went all out graphics, but with a completely bland, generic art style.

As for voice acting, only AAA games can really do that well enough for me to want it in. Anyone with a more limited budget either hires a few fairly bad voice actors that you hear repeated constantly in the game, pretty much hurting immersion more than helping it. An example of that would be the Bethesda games. I'd rather imagine the voices like I'm reading a book than hear the same whiny voice for every single child in the game. If they do it well however, it just eats into the budget massively like implementing all the latest graphics does. Hiring many good voice actors is not as cheap or easy as you seem to think.

Maybe what's lacking here is imagination.

@jamesthemaxwell @liam82517 

Really? because the entire game is being developed using kickstarter money, that means the game is tailored to the backers liking. 

Like I said, if it's not your kind of game then don't bother, they're not going to change it anytime soon.

@jamesthemaxwell 

You most certainly did, because apparently a game having a good story isn't good enough it has to have glorious 3d graphic, you said yourself that it has to have both, it doesn't need to have both.

I don't care for a rotatable camera, Planescape Torment and Baldur's Gate didn't have any and yet they are considered the epitome of cRPG. 

And calling an Isometric perspective retro garbage is stupid and ignorant beyond belief, first person shooters were available even before DOOM and 3rd person shooter existed since 1979 (check Radar Scope), by your logic every modern game with these perspectives are hipster retro garbage, including 3D isometric angles since Dark Reign 2 was one of the first to introduce it 13 years ago.

Bottom line is many people love this style of gameplay considering that the game got over 200% in crowd funding. It's simple really you don't like what they are offering then don't buy it. Me and the 40,000 other "hipsters" that funded this game are going to be enjoying this. 

@liam82517 I hate first person shooters, when the hell did i ever say this "should be" or "should be more like" a first person shooter. Now you are blaming me and/or people like me for killing the gaming? Than people who like third person view RPG games kills the gaming, fuck logic.. I mean is asking for a optional camera angle is too much? Is asking for a decent RPG game who has both good, if not great visuals with a solid story is a lot? People like you who set the bar too low kill the gaming industry not me..

@jamesthemaxwell You clearly have no idea what youre talking about. God forbid people make different games with a different style every once in a while. If being a hipster means being bored to DEATH of first person shooters, then Im a hipster!

Lets take a little look at xcom. FPS planned because they said it wouldnt sell as a tbs game. 2K made one anyway after fan outcry and oh look an average 90 score and it sold really well. People like you are whats killing gaming. You want everything the same as everything else. No variety at all.

@MAD_AI@jamesthemaxwell@WereCatf@Janpieterzun What the hell are you talking about! When the hell did i say definition of a good game is good graphic? I said A GOOD GAME SHOULD HAVE BOTH! Don't take my words and bend them in a way you want and think you can win an argument by doing that. Secondly this game is not 2d, it's 3d and it can have both over the top and the third person view. All they have to do is to add support for those camera angles. Just because you want to be a hipster all games should be half assed retro garbage... Thats just great...

@jamesthemaxwell @WereCatf @Janpieterzun Not at all. I'm saying that you have poor taste in games if everything must always happen in first-person mode and that it's your loss if you don't like the game, the rest of us will gladly enjoy it.

@jamesthemaxwell @WereCatf @Janpieterzun 

Half assed? if your definition of a good game is graphics or perspective then you have a warped definition of what a good game is. 

First Shadowrun was always meant to be top down, this game was conceived as a cRPG from the beginning, and believe it or not there are a great deal of people who love cRPG games. 

Second the budget for the game is 1,800,000 $ not exactly a AAA budget. And I prefer them to deliver a great story with that money then squander it away on making a half assed third person shooter with no story or character to appeal to the mainstream market. 

@percuvius2 @faceless-mask @Nodashi @killer90210 @Tak666 

You're such a dumbass, for Christ sake, FPS? Really? A RPG system should be a fps? Crawl back to your cave, troll.

@percuvius2 @faceless-mask @Nodashi @Tak666 If they made a top-down Fallout game i would instantly buy it. Even though the last two Fallout games were in first person, so screw that reasoning of yours

@percuvius2 @Tak666 The only FPS in the first one was the computer hacking. 90% of the game was Isometric overhead.

I'm sad that this isn't an updated, improved version of the FPS shooter Shadowrun, but I'm interested to see what this turns out to be.

As absolutely idiotic and trollish as percuvius2 is, I do have to ad that Shadowrun FPS was horribly underrated.  It's multiplayer community is just now starting to wane.  I didn't like it the first time I played it, but one of my best friends convinced me to keep playing and get past the learning curve, and I found out what a tactical, addicting game it was.  Could've used some patches and DLC, sadly, but the studio doesn't exist anymore.

@percuvius2 @faceless-mask @Nodashi @killer90210 @Tak666 You fail hard the video is about Shadowrun not Shadowrun from the Xbox360, so your point falls moot.

@percuvius2 @faceless-mask @Nodashi @killer90210 @Tak666 

Why do you even bother talking. You are dumb as hell. We get it you are one of the few who liked the FPS Shadowrun. Most of us liked the old console games we grew up with because they were actually good.

Now piss off, no one likes you and your opinions.

@Nodashi @killer90210 @faceless-mask @percuvius2 @Tak666 Well, looks like he learned how to keep his mouth shut at least, eh Nodashi?

@Nodashi @killer90210 @faceless-mask @percuvius2 @Tak666 Lol, the guy started talking shit about the game without even knowing about it's legacy.

@killer90210 @faceless-mask @Nodashi @percuvius2 @Tak666 
My whole point, thanks folks. See, pervicus? And you managed to do that in the age of wikipedia. Next time google stuff before being pretentious AND bashing stuff people obviously like (a sucessfull kickstarter).

@faceless-mask @Nodashi @percuvius2 @Tak666 yer the 2007 pc/xbox version was the only FPS n the series actuallly

@Nodashi @percuvius2 @Tak666 My mistake, it was actually 1993 when the first video game was made. As far as I know though, the only Shadowrun game that was an FPS was the one made in 2007. Otherwise, it was an RPG.

@Nodashi @percuvius2 @Tak666 1989 actually. It was started as an RPG.

@percuvius2 @Nodashi @Tak666 Gosh, I'll try again... year/console, smart person.

@percuvius2 @Nodashi @Tak666 Ok, I'll play along, what's the FIRST Shadowrun game, genius?

@percuvius2 @Tak666 Like the FIRST one? Rofl, I really hope you're trolling XD