Shadowrun Dragonfall: Gameplay and Review: Page 2 of 10

Shadowrun Dragonfall
Is the Second Return Better than the First?


Story

An urban hellmouth

Hellmouth downtown

Despite all the apocalyptic forecasts, 2012 was, in the cosmic grand scheme of things, a fairly normal year. Not so in the Shadowrun universe. Magic with a capital “M”, and perhaps a “k” at the end, came back in the most pyrotechnical way possible in Shadowrun’s 2012, and it brought with it an assortment of creatures that most folk thought were merely legends, fairy tales, or just plain made up.

The friendliest among Earth’s returning guests were the elves, orks, trolls, and dwarves—all of whom were lumped into the “metahuman” category by the categorizers. The drop bears, nagas, wraiths, and hellhounds were rather less friendly, and quickly got to the business of hunting down human and metahuman alike.

As you can imagine, the sudden appearance of all of these fantastical creatures, along with the newfound magical abilities bequeathed to some “Regular Joe” humans, caused quite a disruption to the status quo. New powers clashed and old ones fell, and eventually every geopolitical boundary on the map had to be redrawn and redrawn again.

Only those entities that could adapt quickly to the new situation in which the world had found itself survived. Continent-spanning “megacorporations” proved to be more adaptable than most, and they thrived as a result. These megacorps, in fact, came to replace the old governments, and even had private armies at their beck and call.

Private armies have their limitations, of course. For one thing, any action that a private army undertakes leads back to the owners of that army—which is not always desirable in a world where rival megacorps have armies of their own. And yet, there are still trade secrets to be stolen, assets to procure, and key players to eliminate: That’s where the Shadowrunners come in.

Murder and mayhem

Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap

Shadowrunners are not an organization unto themselves, rather, they are the crème de la crème of the criminal world. Some shadowrunners work in loosely-affiliated crews, while others work alone; some are specialists in Hermetic magic, while others are experts in wielding military-grade assault weapons and explosives. All that shadowrunners have in common is that they work for the highest bidder, and rarely turn down an op—no matter how black it is.

In Shadowrun Dragonfall you take on the role of one a shadowrunner who is appointed leader of his crew after an op goes bad and the crew’s former leader is killed. As the crew’s new leader, it will not up to deliver on lucrative contracts, but to find out who or what is responsible for the death of your predecessor.



Raconteur of the RPG scene.
Favorite Genre: RPG
Currently Playing: The Witcher III
Top 3 Favorite Games:Fallout: New Vegas, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic


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