Recent reviews by Stoney

Disclaimer, I'm a wrestling video game mark, I've played these series of games since WWF Smackdown on PS1 when Yukes and THQ developed them so I have a fondness and vague nostalgia for these games.

Firstly the biggest pro about this game is that you can do the Roman Reigns entrance with Paul Heyman where he gives him steamy looks as he holds his belt. If that's all you're looking for then buy immediately but alas the biggest downside is that you can't assign that entrance to your CAW.

• Gameplay - The wrestling aspect of this game is probably the best its been since 2K took over since WWE 2K14. It flows more and is alot more enjoyable than in previous years.
  
  
• Create-A-Wrestler - as usual is one of the best things in this game. Especially when you import either your face or another wrestler or person you want in the game you can make some impressive looking creations.
  
  
• Community Creations - When the servers work you're able to download so much from community creations. The customisation is second to none and the fact they allow you to add custom menu pics shows they know exactly what its used for i.e. downloading wrestlers/arenas/images from other promotions like AEW, ROH, NJPW and sometimes WWE too.
  
  
• MyRise - This is the replacement for career mode is far more bearable than some of the previous career modes where it feels like you have no agency or a borefest where literally you waited for weeks for something to happen. It strikes a decent enough balance to be enjoyable. Plus it has a mock twitter feed which can sometimes cause a laugh or two.
  
  
• GM Mode - its a okay enough mode; the fact its in is probably due to the WWE 2K20 debacle as its so barebones it hurts but its still an addition so a positive.
  
  
• Inconsistent Presentation - The graphics and presentation of the game can sometimes be genuinely stunning.

• PC Port - The lack of communication from launch on the state of the game for PC and whether it'd be like PS4 or PS5 etc (turns out it didn't matter.) and on launch the abysmal graphics options. I run at 1080p currently as my 1440p broke recently and it defaults your graphics fidelity to "normal" aka low. For some reason setting it to 1440p making it stretch between dual screens and hitting alt and enter to make it go back to 1080p screen allows me to play with set to the high pre-set but you can see already PC settings were an afterthought at best.
  
  Certain animations and entrances are locked at 30FPS with no reason for them to be. You can change stuff using (nvidia control panel for me but I'm sure AMD has similar options) to force V-sync but in this day and age why should we have to? I'm running a 3070 with a 5600x not Windows 98 PC let us pick the settings FFS.
  
  At certain times my graphics were hitting 90% use during some matches without any reason which fixed after restart so I suspect there are also some memory leaks at play.
  
  
• Inconsistent Presentation - in a Pandemic arena surrounded by computer screens you can hear fans yelling at you coming down the ramp.
  
  You can sometimes see your chosen character pop into existence at the top of the titantron instead of having them finesse the camera angles.
  
  You know they can do it because in the effort of not having to animate anyone remove a shirt or robe they cut the camera to the crowd and then shazam! its off. Its laziness on their part not to do this here where its even more appropriate.
  
  For every Roman Reigns with his immaculate hair you get a AJ Styles where he looks like he has palm tree leafs for hair or any multitudes of the female wrestlers who suffer the same issue but at least Becky Lynchs face doesn't look like its dissolving so small comforts.
  
  There's far more than this but each little thing adds up to take you out of it at times. This game was delayed for 7 months longer than intended why couldn't these small issues be ironed out?
  
  
• Roster - Now this is more to do with WWE than 2K but due to the releases there's alot and I mean alot of the roster here which no longer work for WWE. I read online that Bray Wyatt was found somewhere in the files for the game so you know because of Vince McMahon his cost cutting sidekick Nick Khan vast chunks of this game was probably cut and chopped to account for all these changes which I can sympathise probably wasn't the best for the development of this game.
  
  This also extends to the MyRise portion where you see wrestlers like Seth Rollins using outdated gimmicks (yet you can't assign his Monday Night Messiah stuff to any CAW you make) It makes me wonder what they cut from the game. You have to think The Fiend was going to feature heavily especially with the teleport ability they added as one of the comebacks where the lights turn off.
  
  
• MyRise - This was a pretty fun mode but like alot of things you seem to lack agency. You win the royal rumble? Nice one mate. Do you get a choice on where to use it, no its pre-determined. Now don't get me wrong I enjoyed the story where it was done in but having meaningful choices in a WWE game literally means who you fight at Wrestlemania and who to cash in money the bank on and you can't do either.
  
  Now in the interest of fairness, you do get some choices of matches or opponents in other stories but then it feels like it opens up the above even more. When you are champion though nothing really happens. I was US Champion, 24/7 champion and the WWE champion at once. After a while of a few generic matches you barely seem to defend the belt and after the story options run the course you don't even get those faux twitter DMs going "m8 put the title on the line" just for a match. It feels hollow but its still enjoyable at times. Other than of course when you get the Dusty finish done to you and believe me they pull it more than once lol.
  
  
• Servers - now I bought the deluxe edition for this game so I got to play a few days earlier and the servers were erratic and its been abit like that since release at certain times which doesn't give me great hope. One of the major peeves of any WWE game is that the servers tend to be down more than up. Hopefully it doesn't track with this game but I feel like we've been here before already and its getting old. I haven't played online to testify if its worth playing but competitive wrestling is usually better had between friends otherwise you just run into trolls online who bug abuse typically. Sad but true.
  
  
• Glitches - Its a WWE 2K game. If I can't accidentally eliminate myself from a royal rumble by floating over the ropes during an animation am I even playing it? To be fair its alot less than other years but it is incredibly annoying and doesn't give them a green pass to be lazy especially with the increased development time and delays.
  
  
• My Faction - Micro-transactions. Especially with the pre-order editions prices of this game with the baggage of 2k20 is laughable.
  
  I would say its a net positive as they are trying to re-create a Mortal Kombat challenge tower without the wacky conditions and add some collectability to make it an engaging mode but it relies on the ailing servers to be up which when you're in a match and finish and the game tells you the servers disconnected and you don't know whether you receive credit for trying to hit all your challenges for the match just ends up making it a frustrating experience.

Overall its a mixed bag. Alot of the problems are consistent with WWE 2K games at this point and this is hilariously one of the less problematic games they've made so far. If you're a wrestling fan and lets face it you're looking at reviews of a WWE game so you probably are you'll have more fun than not with this game despite its issues.

Firstly, before this review a disclaimer; I like the Shadowrun setting. I was introduced to it through Shadowrun returns and Dragonfall and like it very much. Also, this game is made by a different developer and is not to do with the "SR returns" games so don't go in expecting that.



This is a tactical "XCOM" or FF Tactics style online turn-based grid RPG
The plot revolves around a quarantine being enforced in Boston after a virus breaks out. The idea is the entire area is cut off from the rest of the country. You play a shadowrunner trying to make a few Nuyen and get to see the events which lead up to that.



Combat:
The combat is extremely fun and addictive. I personally played my first character all the way to the end of the game solo using the ingame henchmen. The game is unrelenting if you are not prepared but very rewarding when you beat it.


Co-op:
This game really shines in the co-operative department; despite as mentioned I finished this game initially solo. On playing a second character I opted to try the co-op gameplay and it is extremely enjoyable and sometimes a lot more tense relying on other people. There is a great deal of camaraderie felt with the people your playing the missions with.

Customisation:
You have a great deal of customisation options over the character you create. There is a wide array of clothes/hair/tattoos etc you can equip your runner with. You really identify that this is your guy. There is also a heap of these which are unlocked through the game through RNG item drops so you can chase your perfect outfit if you so desire.
Ontop of that the game has several customisable skill trees you can spend your skill points/Karma into so if you want to play a Decker moonlighting as mage who is a male troll with high heels...go for it!


Lore:
The Shadowrun universe is very deep and far reaching. Characters in this game such as your fixer/Mr. Johnson has made appearances in previous Shadowrun novels/sourcebooks. It feels great playing in a universe which such an expansive back-story it feels these characters are in this city for a reason not just because it was made that way.


Community:
The community in this game is very open and friendly for the most part; the ingame chat is not full of the sort of things you would see in the Barrens chat of World of Warcraft. People seem genuinely friendly and helpful if you ask for it.


Developers:
The Developers/Community Managers at Cliffhanger are frequently seen on the steam forums replying to posts as well as the official shadowrun forums. They seem genuinely interested in Shadowrun universe itself for the most part and wanting to help make the game a success.



Lag
Upon release this game experienced problems with lag between actions. The reasoning for this being that this game is online only. However, it has greatly improved from release and while its still persists partly it is being worked on and everyone is being kept informed. During early access which I played prior to the game this was not a problem so sadly for the Developers this only started since release. Patches have been churned out frequently and sever restarts are happening to prevent it becoming a problem.


Unbalanced Classes
Some classes such as the rigger seem unbalanced for the moment where at some points it feels definitely OP to play as one. In that same sense only 2 character controlled minions are allowed in one group which affect the summoner class also. Causing problems if two riggers/ or a summoner and a rigger is in the same group. However, this is being discussed with a community and headway is being made on what to do to address this problem in the forums.


Mission vareity
In the context of a tactics grid RPG there is only so much you can do; the missions currently boil down to the following:
Kill all the enemies.
Find x and leave.
Stop x enemies from going to the exit point.
Explore x and continue
Accomplish x objective with x turns
Personally I don't mind that as the story and enemy variety makes up for the current mission shortcomings although honestly the enjoying the combat on my end is a big part in not being bothered by the above.


End Game
The game is quite lengthy and enjoyable ride till the end of the story missions. Currently however there is no repeatable missions or anything to do other than stand in the hub and talk. You can get invites from other runners and join a co-op and run with them on a mission they are doing if you want your Shadowrun fix. However, if you group with low levels you essentially are too OP for the enemies. Although some people willingly do this to unlock extra Karma so may not be a downside for some people.



Personally I find this game highly enjoyable to play and not made a secret that I find the setting and lore very interesting personally. If you love Shadowrun this is probably a no-brainer. If you are not so inclined to the universe yet I'd still say this is worth a punt or if you want to investigate further watch one of the numerous lets plays of the game and see if this looks like something you would enjoy. It definitely a game you can play solo if you like a game that's not going to hold its punches if you play sloppy. In that token its also perfectly fine to play co-op with friends or hell make some new ones like I have playing this game. More content is going to be churned out for this game in the long-run including endgame content. They've made a hell of a enjoyable game so far so I can't wait to see where they go with it.