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

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.

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

One of my favourite games of all time.
Having played the previous two I can say this one spoke to me the most. It streamlines and optimizes a lot of the jank from Returns and Dragonfall, and the art has improved a lot too, especially if you compare it to Returns. The music is also on par with Dragonfall, if not a little stronger in parts. The encounters do feel reasonably challenging on normal. I got through it reasonably well but still had to use my brain in some of the more tense encounters later on.
It's still a bit more light on the mechanics compared to other CRPGs like the ones from Owlcat or Larian, but where it really shines is its writing, especially when it comes to its characters. Every single one of your crewmembers and associates has something interesting going on. This extends even to the player character, since they have a predefined past which they can process in their own way. The main and sidequests really help flesh out its setting, mixing real life history with fiction. Between sabotaging a megacorp with feng shui, investigating murders around a zombie samurai for technopriests inside an abandoned shopping mall and befriending a B-Movie directors vampire secretary there's a lot of really unique sidequests to go through.
Where it falters a bit is the strength of its main story. The mystery about Raymond and Kowloon Walled City is still really well written but just not as tightly paced as taking up Monika Schäfers legacy in Dragonfall. Also while the writing can be good, it can go overboard a bit with some of the side characters.
Also while it finishes some loose threads, I don't really care for the extra content added by the definitive edition. There's still some great stories and characters in there but overall I just think it's just not as polished and ends on kind of a sour note with a binary decision that just doesn't quite feel earned.
Mechanically there are still some issues grandfathered in from the other games as well as some new ones. I appreciate the attempt of the devs to make hacking a little more involved, but playing simon says to break code was maybe not the best call. Luckily hacking is for the most part optional.
But yeah, overall I still had a great time with it and wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who likes mechanically lighter but well written CRPGs.