Tag Archives: video game review

Video games

Shadowrun: Hong Kong – Video Game Review

The first two parts of what I’d call the “Shadowrun Returns Trilogy” – Shadowrun: Dead Man’s Switch, and Shadowrun: Dragonfall, showed steady improvement over their earlier installments, reaching a zenith in Shadowrun: Hong Kong. Dead Man’s Switch re-introduced the game mechanics and the world of Shadowrun to video games after decades of absence, along with telling a story that adapted parts of the setting that hadn’t been adapted before.

Dragonfall, for the first time, took Shadowrun, in video game form, out of Seattle – and in the process gave some fanservice to the game’s very vocal German fan base. It also demonstrated elements of the evolution of PC RPGs that the first game lacked – regular party members each with their motivations and story, along with quests specific to those characters that helped to progress their story. However, both games had some mechanical hiccups that made them frustrating to play.

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Video games

Video Game Review: Beneath a Steel Sky

Point and Click adventure games are interesting from a review standpoint. They are a lot more narrative focused than, say, shooters, because they rely so heavily on their story, and the puzzles, if executed well, feed into the narrative.

So, Beneath A Steel Sky is a point-and-click adventure game made using the SCUMM engine (at least the version that’s available on GOG), put out by Revolution Software in the UK (the same people who do the Broken Sword series). It’s a cyberpunk story that focuses on Foster, a part of a society of scavengers living in the Gap, outside of a cyberpunk dystopian city that Foster’s mother died trying to flee from with her son. Presumably this is set in Australia, as Foster is named after Foster’s Lager, but considering that brand of beer is now available all over the world (and considering a few other UK-isms in the game’s dialog), it could be in Australia or the UK. Continue reading →

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