Install Steam
login
|
language
简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)
繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese)
日本語 (Japanese)
한국어 (Korean)
ไทย (Thai)
Български (Bulgarian)
Čeština (Czech)
Dansk (Danish)
Deutsch (German)
Español - España (Spanish - Spain)
Español - Latinoamérica (Spanish - Latin America)
Ελληνικά (Greek)
Français (French)
Italiano (Italian)
Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
Magyar (Hungarian)
Nederlands (Dutch)
Norsk (Norwegian)
Polski (Polish)
Português (Portuguese - Portugal)
Português - Brasil (Portuguese - Brazil)
Română (Romanian)
Русский (Russian)
Suomi (Finnish)
Svenska (Swedish)
Türkçe (Turkish)
Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
Українська (Ukrainian)
Report a translation problem
Discussions Rules and Guidelines
Report this post
How much you think i should read before playing? Going to only read things prior to the start of the game unless there is backround information to be had in other parts.
Spoilers for the game and the book follow.
First of all, meeting Ray. In the game, the kids meet him in the teen center, introduced by their friend Double-Trey (who is not mentioned in the book). In the book, Ray finds them in the steets while he is being attacked. He kills his attackers (this whole situation seemed very unlike him) and takes them in because MC helped him. The year is also different, in game they meet him 2038, in the book 2044, which shortens the time you character lives with him to 2 years. In the book, Ray is said to have a noodle shop, a small repair business, opened a youth shelter with a gym. In the game, only the gym is mentioned and that he wanted to help the unfortunate. Of course, the shop and the business are not impossible, but I doubt it. In the game Duncan described him as a community organizer. So imo this, and taking care of his adoptive kids later, is his sole occupation. He had enough money anyway, something MC and Duncan had always wondered where it came from.
MC mentions foster homes in the book, this never came up in game. The way it's told in the game, I always imagined they lived in some shelter or little community when they were very young and then on the street in different squats when they met, a while with the Atzlan family (and their dog^^) and the gang including Double-Trey and Lockjaw. Also, I always thought they had been SINless back then and only got one when they were adopted. So nobody would care if they were taken care of or not. And even if they had one back then, I doubt the government would search the Barrens for homeless kids and put them in foster families.
Duncan as depicted in the book is a skinny, scared human kid who goblinizes into an ork. In the game there is not a single talk of his goblinization as a kid. Sure, he still could have but the way I understood it, he was always an ork. I only recall a conversation with him in which he said Raymod didn't care that he was "a damn ork". Also, he was not skinny but chubby and very violent. He was able to keep it under control when MC called the shots. Before, he could not cope well with it when he thought of his victims at night, now he could blame his actions on his new friend. Also, this leads to your character not thinking of him as a burden to feed and take care of and shield from the world, although you can tell Is0bel he was just a means to an end. The arguments Duncan had with Ray as well as MC's mediation of them are non-existent in the book. His arc feels different because of it.
The book is a bit inconsistent with how long ago MC left. First it's ten years, then it's eight (as in the game) when they meet in Hong Kong. In the book you leave and are a shadowrunner for two years before you are thrown in prison. In the game you are arrested three days after you left and have never been a shadowrunner before the things in Hong Kong happend. Except maybe if you pick the "it's a job" option in the flashback, but even then it was just one job which went sideways anyway. The prison is also different. In the book you are released because your time is up, in the game the corporation which owned it is bought by another one and they released the prisoners because of some reform agenda. It seems like a normal prison in the book where your character also does a lot of jobs and learns new skills, while in the game it is described as more secret without all the labour for crime bosses and making connections. You can even tell Kindly Cheng and Duncan that you have nothing back home. However, MC probably learned a thing or two and had to work in jail.
In the book, Ray has private comm account for the MC to keep in touch. In the game he just tracks your char down after prison, no mention of this account ever. At the beginning on the docks, Duncan replies when you ask him why he did not call you concerning Ray's absence, that he doesn't have your number. So I guess you just have a new one after the eight years.
The stuff with the SIN. In the book you get yours burnt during your two years career and then get a criminal one in prison. In the game it is not mentioned that something happended to it and since you can get it back in Shadows of Hong Kong, I assume it is still clean.
It is implied in the book that MC is a human male. Ray calls him boy. The prison warden is a (really big) troll and towers over him. And when it is mentioned that Duncan liked it when he goblinized which made him bigger than MC, that also rules out being an ork, a troll, an elf and a dwarf (because then he would have always been taller anyway). The implant for low-light vision would not be necessary for orks and elves as well.
All in all, it is not a bad book, but I prefer the story and details as described in the game. To me the novel feels like an alternate version due to the differences.
Decking seems out, doubt i'd have the resources or opportunity to ♥♥♥♥ with that any.
Hermetic magic similarly seems unlikely do to presumably lack luster education with few resources.
Physical Adept what I most wan't to play might work but, carries more of a street brawler narrative what with no formal training or resources. If skillware or what ever its called was a thing i'd install the ♥♥♥♥ out of that (♥♥♥♥ my essence) so i could think of them more like a swordsman than just some megic'd up brawler.
Having any substantial amount invested in biotech seems like a hard sell.
Shamen kinda works, don't need any formal education or resources to talk with spirits, but shamen is my least favorite arch type. There to much to the narrative of being a shamen that i don't see in game or don't care for my self. You've no connection to speak of with any totem you'd choose in game so its left to you to follow the characteristics of that totem with out ever any feed back or acknowledgment in game that you have one. The prospect always being in contact with spirits in general sounds like more trouble than its worth to me and pretty much has to be entirly constructed in you're mind. Having spells confered to you by you're totem like Dietrich in dragonfall kinda puts me off because than you're dependant on them for you're abilities and i don't like being beholden to a spirit for anything let alone any magical ability i may have.
Street Sam works (Cybered up fellow?) can sell being a good shot and willing to cyber you're self to hell and back pretty easy. But i've played the ranged weapons to death and i'm not really interested in being Frankein Stein's Monster.
Still havn't played this just because any play style i'd be interested in seems contradictory to the story. And the backround story its self pisses me off a bit with how little room there is for it for any assumption of competance, health, or education.
To be clear i've played the game before and talked with every body multiple times via save and reload to check what all they had to see but i stoppped playing before i got to far in the game beause i had no idia who the ♥♥♥♥ i was or how i wan'ted to play and i was finding out ♥♥♥♥ about my story as a wen't while trying to act in a way that accounts for information i don't ♥♥♥♥♥♥ have.