Harebrained Schemes' turn based tactics RPG Shadowrun Returns is free for the taking on Humble Store for another 24 hours at the time of writing, in other words until 19:00 CEST or 10:00 PDT on Saturday 23 June 2018. Link to the page below.
Shadowrun Returns Deluxe normally costs €/$22,99 or £18,99 on both Steam and Humble Store, but you can pick it up on the latter by visiting , logging in, adding the game to your cart and checking out for free. Please note that you will have to follow the link sent to your mail in order to redeem the Steam key Humble will send you.
Shadowrun's futuristic cyberpunk setting may also prove as a temporary refuge from Cyberpunk 2077 induced hype, even though it's almost entirely different. This game doesn't have that many RPG elements and is focused on storytelling through reading the dialogue between yourself and NPCs who are interacting with your or vice versa.
Said dialogue will take you on a journey through a well written conspiracy through futuristic Seattle as you investigate the murder of your former friend. The story in Shadowrun feels like a bottomless pit filled with conspiracies, serial killers and secret societies with ties to paranormal entities.
While Shadowrun definitely features the typical cyberpunk themes such as implants and even cybernetic limbs, players will also be presented with a higher sense of spiritual presence as there are shamans who literally commune and summon spirits.
To top off Shadowrun's feature ensemble, the game's universe, which started decades ago as Jordan Weisman's tabletop RPG, is set in a futuristic fantasy setting and features Dwarves, Elves, Orcs and Trolls, beside regular humans. The game stayed true to RPG elements in that aspect as each race has distinct features. For example, elves have Charisma bonuses but they can never match an Orc or Troll's potential strength.
Harebrained Schemes
Shadowrun Returns has 88 per cent positive reviews on Steam at the moment. However, knowing the times we live in, we're bound to see a few negative ones as well, since many players who don't understand what it is will have grabbed it for free by now. Hardly anyone expects an isometric video game to actually represent a table top RPG with deep lore.
