Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut

Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut

Brothers to the End
DaveOfDeath 22 Apr, 2018 @ 8:44pm
DaveOfDeath's Review
So first off, the story seems good. I like the dynamic between Micheal and Stark. (I know nothing of the Genesis version, so if that is a play on their actual mechanics, I have no idea).

Tabitha was a fun character to read, but her "ninja-esque adept-ness" is a bit tiresome to read. Hopefully she mellows out in the future. Her being super fast, and kinda flirty is fine, but her being too fast to see, and chopping people up in seconds via dialoge seems a bit... forced? I dunno if that's clear at all, but it'd be nice if she was less of a "plot-mover by superspeed" character.

The Shaman (Took the "rescue the sister" mission) has 10 points of armor. Compared to Micheal & Starks 3/4... he seems out of place. He also couldn't hit anything. Not with is magic, or his weapon. But he is great for standing out in the open and soaking bullets.

MAPPING
Some of the maps felt huge, just for hugeness sake. (I'm guilty of preferring large maps, my old team mates even started referring to them as "Dave-Sized scenes") Shrinking them a bit, and some sort of navigation help would go a long way in making them feel less empty.

In the "Old Faith" run's seattle exterior, I found a gold key, that was never explained. It also had a couple of places to visit... but no noticable point in visiting them? The arcade? The map feels HUGE too, and completely empty. (Aside from the key crackhead, and the mono-rail that slid by with just one car?)

In two maps (the huge exterior leading up to the Old Faith Church, and the first time you visit the exterior of the Alabaster Maiden) both had unused 'floating' tiles that were visable. Quite a bit of the maps had rough wall junctions (didn't use "end" & "connectors"?) But I did stop paying attention to those as the game progressed.

SCRIPTING
You've come a long way. Your early scenes feel very out dated, while your later ones definatly felt more lived in. You might concider a pass back through the early ones, just to spruce them up a little.

POLISH
One pet-peeve of mine is that inspection interactions remain, after inspection. If the item in question is used again, or provides a clue to some puzzle... then it's okay, but if it's the same text, over and over, it should disable after you see it.

The banter between the characters during combat / exploration is kinda fun, but it seems flawed. It often felt like the wrong character was saying the line. Maybe double check the logic on them.

Inconsistancy between approaching some exits (regions, im sure) and clickable interactions was a bit annoying as well. Spent a bit of time wondering why the scene wasn't progressing, and then took one more step to get something to trigger.


COMBAT
Starks' inconsistancy with his claws was frustrating. I saw it posted out in the main bit at one point, but during the last mission, he was largely useless compared to my katana/enfield combo, or Tabitha's blender of death options. You might upgrade his stuff so he gets more armor tearing / lingering damage options, instead of less. His flush SMG skill came in handy a few times... but not enough to off-set his missing claws.

In the final (available) mission, most of the guards / scientists seemed to ignore me, even walked right through three of them to get to the server, without so much as a stern look. That was an oddity...

POV-CHANGES
The POV changing to the player controlled executive meetings was... odd. If didn't feel like I should be in control of the situation, and those dialoges in paticular shouldn't have had player access to control. I think those scenes would be better if done in an automated fashion, rather than under player control. This is just MHO... so ignore if you'd like.



All in all, I enjoyed your story, and your progression. The above comments are largely subjective, so take them with a grain of salt.
Last edited by DaveOfDeath; 25 Apr, 2018 @ 7:18am