Shadowrun: Hong Kong

I have a lot of mixed feelings regarded this title. On one hand, there is a lot of interesting narrative and character backstories to follow in it, but on the other the pacing felt. so. sluggish. at times... The neverending dialogues between missions made me feel like nearly every team member and Heoi dweller wanted to tell me their life story. So, if you are planning to play SR:HK, be prepared for a lot of reading.

The actual shadowrun scenarios were fairly varied and interesting, a few of the goofier situations even got a laugh or two out of me. The combat was engaging and I appreciated how you got Karma/XP for completing your goals and not for killing enemies - lack of any combat rewards really made it feel like talking or hacking your way out of various situations was the superior choice.

But, speaking of hacking... I don't know whose idea it was to put a bunch of action minigames inside of a turn based games, but to me they were neither fun nor interesting. I remember hacking from Shadowrun:Dragonfall and it felt a lot better without the action elements.

So, it's a mixed bag, but considering all three parts of the Shadowrun Trilogy, it definitely felt more interesting than the barebones Returns. However, I felt that it was a downgrade compared to Dragonfall. Fans of the setting probably will want to play all three, but if you're new to the series, I'd recommend starting with Dragonfall and making your decision whether to play the rest based on that.

Ah, and the bonus/free DLC campaign was a good addition - I felt as it was better paced than the original, plus it gave a few nice challenging battles to give the player more opportunities to play around with the endgame gear. So if you do end up playing SR:HK, don't pass on that one.

Solid Story, Better Gameplay
The story is good—comparable to the previous Shadowrun game—but where this title really shines is in the gameplay improvements. I still consider Shadowrun: Dragonfall to have the stronger narrative overall. While the writing here is solid, the game sometimes overdoes it with long blocks of text, which can bog down the pacing.
However, the gameplay has clearly evolved for the better. The mechanics feel more refined, offering a smoother and more engaging experience than the last installment. It’s a well-rounded game that benefits from meaningful engine enhancements.

Not as long (or maybe even as fun/engaging) as Dragonfall, but still very worth playing. The characters especially REALLY hold the game up high, all the party members were really good fun and had interesting little stories. Decking was ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ trash, but whatever. The bonus campaign was pretty cool too.
Overall, yeah, if you like the other ones, def give this a shot too. I really enjoyed my time.

Great characters and an alright main story, the gameplay is more decent than in Shadowrun: Dragonfall.

Great game and fantastic writing. I usually am the type that skips big paragraphs of text when they come, but I didn't in this game. in fact I explored the vast majority of dialogue options to their conclusion even with NPCs.

The bonus campaign really wrapped up the story well. Made it feel like much more of a complete ending.

Great game

Really like the game it just seems like there is an unnecessary amount of dialogue that doesn't really mean much.
There have been a few conversations where it seems like they keep repeating the same thing in different ways and I just find myself skipping through. Other than that love the game.

This game is a masterpiece. The story, the characters, the visual style, the music - all it combined made a unique atmosphere. When you complete the game you feel a bit sad that its already over. Ten years after I still hope that Harebrained Schemes make another Shadowrun game.