Shadowrun: Hong Kong

A damn fine game that continues the legacy of Returns and Dragonfall. For the love of god though, DO NOT PLAY THE EXTENDED ENDING DLC. The epilogue plot is hilariously binary in its final ending options for no real reason and spits upon basically everything you and a certain someone went through in the base game by destroying your relationship over a single decision that has a laughably obvious compromise the writers either somehow didn't consider, or didn't want to allow. It also cheapens some of the ending arc of another character by effectively undoing his sacrifice. Just left a really poor taste in my mouth with how they just couldn't let the original ending be.

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.

This game is fkn amazing, best one of the three by far , the companions are one of the most interesting in the genre and the dialogue varies crazy depending on your choices and who you take with you. Buy this if you like CRPGs, so sad this is the last one in the series

I've never played a Shadowrun game before, but as a fan of other turn-based games and DnD, I figured I'd give it a go. I've really enjoyed it so far: the writing is excellent, the world feels grimy and alive, and there's a lot of depth in the skill tree to build a character you enjoy playing.
That said, 12.5hrs into my first run and...I'm going to have to start again. Without any sort of guidance or tutorial at the start (the tutorial is a laughably tiny booklet accessed through the menu) I automatically started playing the simplest character I could - Big Ork Go Bonk.
Big Ork Go Bonk does not have any charisma. Big Ork Go Bonk does not understand the Matrix and avoids hacking at all costs.
Big Ork Go Bonk has a big problem in the final missions when Charisma AND Hacking are mandatory to not be utterly destroyed.
By this point, I vaguely understand how the gameplay works (outside of the Matrix) and am just crushed that I'll need to revert to a previous save or start again entirely to build a character that can actually progress.
Still, it is a good game. Just don't make the same mistake I did and assume Big Ork Go Bonk is easier than other builds. It is...definitely not.

I thought Dragonfall was a big step up from Returns, and Hong Kong managed to potentially be even better. I think this game is a genuine masterpiece. I wish they'd made a fourth game... but I'm very happy with what we got, too. And it's even got custom scenarios!

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

The best story and writing for sure, even despite my only paying half attention to the story. Also, the best abilities. This was a massive upgrade, game-wise, from both earlier games in the series. The biggest drawback, IMO, is that it feels small. It feels short.
This game was set entirely in HK, meaning it was limited in terms of space, so it could have - should have - had a lot more runs to make it feel like a larger setting. We could have made a run to Henan, hit a real terrorist cell, that sort of thing. It would have been great if, after the end of the main game, there were add-ons for hitting Tsang as a sort of personal vendetta, maybe a run to get Duncan back into the Star, that sort of thing.
In addition, the main villain seemed really weak to me. (I played a rigger using Koschei - the definition of an overpowered drone - and took Duncan, the rat shaman, and the ghoul, and the main villain was easy to beat.) I never once had to heal any of the metahumans, and only had to heal Koschei once.