![shaftwhores only by [EXE]dann](/files/avatars/2007/51852-shaftwhore.gif "shaftwhores only by [EXE]dann"){kind=small}
The soundtrack for this journal entry:
Looked through similar artists to Alan Parsons Project, because I've listened to the album I Robot a bit over the past two months.
Shadowrun Returns is the video game equivalent of a Choose Your Own Adventure book, teasing a promise of problem solving that has so far been padded by what i judge to be limitations inherent to the interactive format of the game. With an open world, the magnitude of problem solving and consequence could be greatly increased, but it's possible that such functionality wasn't economically possible, given the $1.8 million earned as a Kickstarter project.
My choices in conversations with NPCs so far have been cautious and somewhat calculated, and I am wondering whether or not I'm overly concerned due to past experiences with similar games, or if the developers have given particular lines of conversations consequences.
In scenes I am presented with a few characters I can initiate into dialog. There have been, so far, at least two conversations of less than at most twenty, and that's a very high estimate, that have resulted in the conversation abruptly forced to end and no further interaction allowed with that particular NPC within the context of that particular scene. This indicates that my experiences in the game are limited by how conversations are pursued, and hints at the possibility of such pursuance of certain lines of conversation affecting development of the story. It's a refreshing sense of confrontational gravity of responsibility, considering the autonomic button mashing involved in many modern RPG dialogs.
I have so far recorded two pages of notes that I am hoping will come in useful when considering possible courses of action, a couple excerpts:
ORGANS HARVESTED
HEART
SPLEEN
LIVER - SAM
EVIDENCE FROM MURDER SITE
BIG TROLL IN GREEN HOSPITAL SCRUBS W/ CYBERWARE ON RIGHT HAND
The 30 minutes researching and investigating a missing bartender led to a warm buzz of satisfaction at having solved a few simple missing information puzzles, but when the puzzles were over and the information from the area all exposed, when I expected to have to act upon the information I had gleaned from the scene and then face the consequences of my decisions, I was instead forced to speak to a character to trigger permission to exit the building, and by speaking to the character was given no choice except to advance the story down a forced path.
In the hour playing I could have spent $16 on seats in a movie theater smelling vaguely of the musty remnants of a recently departed animal circus with an exceptionally large horse and elephant show on an exceptionally disruptive diet, only to have my ear drums excited to the point of cellular suicide as the bombardment of epileptic light seared the ghosts of 60ft. of probably passively digested entertainment into my eyes, and indeed, my brain, forever altering the physical structure of the collection of matter I sometimes pause to consider the meness thereof. Based on my experience of the cost of entertainment and the value of entertainment offered by various forms of costly entertainment, Shadowrun Returns can be considered a Relatively-Low-Cost-Moderately-Interactive-Entertainment-Experience(tm).
It is interesting to note that the soundtrack to this journal ended as I applied the finishing touches to a few phrases.
Esreality, meet Stinky. Stinky, ESR.
Looked through similar artists to Alan Parsons Project, because I've listened to the album I Robot a bit over the past two months.
Shadowrun Returns is the video game equivalent of a Choose Your Own Adventure book, teasing a promise of problem solving that has so far been padded by what i judge to be limitations inherent to the interactive format of the game. With an open world, the magnitude of problem solving and consequence could be greatly increased, but it's possible that such functionality wasn't economically possible, given the $1.8 million earned as a Kickstarter project.
My choices in conversations with NPCs so far have been cautious and somewhat calculated, and I am wondering whether or not I'm overly concerned due to past experiences with similar games, or if the developers have given particular lines of conversations consequences.
In scenes I am presented with a few characters I can initiate into dialog. There have been, so far, at least two conversations of less than at most twenty, and that's a very high estimate, that have resulted in the conversation abruptly forced to end and no further interaction allowed with that particular NPC within the context of that particular scene. This indicates that my experiences in the game are limited by how conversations are pursued, and hints at the possibility of such pursuance of certain lines of conversation affecting development of the story. It's a refreshing sense of confrontational gravity of responsibility, considering the autonomic button mashing involved in many modern RPG dialogs.
I have so far recorded two pages of notes that I am hoping will come in useful when considering possible courses of action, a couple excerpts:
ORGANS HARVESTED
HEART
SPLEEN
LIVER - SAM
EVIDENCE FROM MURDER SITE
BIG TROLL IN GREEN HOSPITAL SCRUBS W/ CYBERWARE ON RIGHT HAND
The 30 minutes researching and investigating a missing bartender led to a warm buzz of satisfaction at having solved a few simple missing information puzzles, but when the puzzles were over and the information from the area all exposed, when I expected to have to act upon the information I had gleaned from the scene and then face the consequences of my decisions, I was instead forced to speak to a character to trigger permission to exit the building, and by speaking to the character was given no choice except to advance the story down a forced path.
In the hour playing I could have spent $16 on seats in a movie theater smelling vaguely of the musty remnants of a recently departed animal circus with an exceptionally large horse and elephant show on an exceptionally disruptive diet, only to have my ear drums excited to the point of cellular suicide as the bombardment of epileptic light seared the ghosts of 60ft. of probably passively digested entertainment into my eyes, and indeed, my brain, forever altering the physical structure of the collection of matter I sometimes pause to consider the meness thereof. Based on my experience of the cost of entertainment and the value of entertainment offered by various forms of costly entertainment, Shadowrun Returns can be considered a Relatively-Low-Cost-Moderately-Interactive-Entertainment-Experience(tm).
It is interesting to note that the soundtrack to this journal ended as I applied the finishing touches to a few phrases.
Esreality, meet Stinky. Stinky, ESR.
Edited by brandan at 20:36 BST, 31 August 2013 - 2614 Hits
DamianLillard
