If Shadowrun is a Cyberpunk 2077 game

[Junkyard Junkie]

If there's a new Shadowrun game that is like Cyberpunk 2077 but takes place in the Shadowrun universe, would you buy a copy?

[Silhouette]

Yes. Was actually literally bored just a week ago and brainstormed a whole Shadowrun game like that. All in my head, though.

[Clockwerks]

Nope.

[Death Approaches]

I really wish it WAS JW's Shadowrun not MP's Cyberpunk that first got the immersive 3D FPS realtime experience, but you know, without your squad it's a shadow of what it should have been.... but, you get what you get when you're not a millionaire investor doing what you want in life. I do so love CDPR's creation, nonetheless.

But if you happen to be rich, start a publisher and get some top-end industry contracts, make it happen, c'mon man hurry up !!!

[Zeithri]

You know you can just download mods for C2077 or make mods to turn it more Shadowrun. I know I downloaded a mod to have my beloved Elf ears.

But frankly, C2077 is a very, rather dull game. It lacks the soul.
The cyberware is largely dull, the world is uninteresting, and it's not what I'm looking for in Cyberpunk. I really need to play it a lot more, I admit that. But I need to play a lot more gamse, a lot more...

Anyho, just need people to make mods for it. Lots of mods..
Like better cyberware, metahumans and metahuman-variations.
Jackie would make a fantastic Troll!

[Kurio]

The expansion was great. But yeah, game was just okay to me.

[gurugeorge]

CP2077 is a fun game, once you get past the disappointment of it not being a CRPG as was initially promised (and hyped for most of the game's development) - it's a decent action/adventure game (with vestigial CRPG elements) with some cool and very well presented (and occasionally thought-provoking) cinematic story and questilines, plus it's got some reasonable longevity just from the fact that the city is big enough, and there's enough open world encounters, that you can just wander about dispatching fools with style for ages, with different builds, and it takes a long time for that to get old.

But I think the Shadowrun setting is much more tied to roleplaying, especially with a lot of the "political" side of the game (e.g. a multitude of factions and corporations, depicted racism in the setting). Also, the Cyberpunk setting is pretty straightforward "basic" cyberpunk, limited essentially to one megacity, whereas the Shadowrun setting is much more complicated and world-spanning.

So I don't think a Shadowrun-ified CP2077 would be anything more than a partial re-skin of CP2077 (just adding some magic, orks, elves, etc.), it would lack the roleplaying depth that makes Shadowrun good.

Now of course if CDPR had made CP2077 as a genuine CRPG like they'd initially promised, a proper computer roleplaying game, it would be different, then you could slot Shadowrun rp into an engine and graphics that were set up for rp. But it just doesn't have anything you could plug proper rp into (e.g. consider there are no lifepaths properly speaking - they're just cosmetic - there's not much faction interaction, no climing up the fixer hierarchy, etc., etc., so because there's no mechanics for that in the CP setting, there would be none for the analogues in a Shadowrun-ified setting).

Some modders have tried to introduce more rp elements over the past few years (e.g
there are mods wher the factions have distinct strengths and weaknesses in combat, or where your fashion dress can affect how you're reacted to), but again, it's difficult to make anything like that "stick" in a mod, because it's not in the base game.

[Silhouette]

I actually think a semi-open world, location based Shadowrun could be viable. 3rd person, exploration and run"missions" locations like Mass effect or knights of the old republic is along the lines of what I imagine. That way instead of making an entire explore able city that ends up feeling fairly empty like cyberpunk or GTA, it could feature a few different cities that have a different vibe to them, and only need to make a portion of the city that is much easier to fill out. Set the entire game world in europe to justify the immersion of using transit trains between hubs, throw in plane flights to specialized locations/cities authorized by the questgiver. The 3rd person would help with bringing along squad mates and becoming a rigger to bring along drones, while still making city exploration feel immersive. Throw in Morrowind/Oblivion style quest lines, by which I mean make separate missions from the same faction/Quest giver go in sequence in order to add a progression feel to the game, rather then just grab every single mission as soon as you hit town. That also gives opportunity to switch sides coming up. Also adds in not feeling ramrodded into following the latest quest, but to also have some freedom bouncing around and completing the quests you want, and a reason to go back to towns and explore as the game progresses for followup quests.

[Robert Zerker]

Originally posted by Junkyard Junkie:

If there's a new Shadowrun game that is like Cyberpunk 2077 but takes place in the Shadowrun universe, would you buy a copy?

I guess I would prefer "a new Shadowrun game that is like Baldur's Gate 3 but takes place in the Shadowrun universe".
Of course, bonus points if the 3D engine allows you to switch to first person for everything non-combat related.

If it really has to be a 3D real-time action/shooter game, I think I would play some sort of squad-based multiplayer pseudo-MMO. Thinking about some stuff like Dark Tide / Pay Day.

[BbNaB]

In a heartbeat, except I didn't like CP2077 much

[BbNaB]

I'd like to be able to have the Astral Plane, Matrix, and regular material world be in play at the same time in a more open world setting: Deckers shutting down traffic or making security alarms go crazy to distract law enforcement while the rest of the team moves in for the job. Perhaps with enough of an increasing alarm level other real players could get contracted to chase down the original team.

[Silhouette]

For a single player game, with how hard it is to truly bring decking into simultaneous run gameplay, not letting the player be the decker but instead making the decker part of your squad as a background character to kind of do the same things. Where he/she is actively doing things, influencing the game world as you go along, making the character sort of the Joker from mass effect, the cortana from halo.

Having him be the one to open the elevator doors already while your fighting off waves of baddies, Etc, Etc.

Kind of my thought process to solving having decking being done in realtime along with your run.

[Raziel]

Originally posted by Junkyard Junkie:

If there's a new Shadowrun game that is like Cyberpunk 2077 but takes place in the Shadowrun universe, would you buy a copy?

Absolutely, i always found the Shadowrun universe more interesting than the Cyber77 one

[AnonymousWizard]

Originally posted by Junkyard Junkie:

If there's a new Shadowrun game that is like Cyberpunk 2077 but takes place in the Shadowrun universe, would you buy a copy?

No, I at least partially regret buying a copy of CP2077. Comparatively it's a lot of flash and little substance, while the Shadowrun Returns trilogy is very little flash but a lot of substance.

In fact when 2077 came out and I didn't have a machine that could run it I got the suggestion to pick up Dragonfall as it was just better. That person was very wise.

The games, even Hong Kong, also do a very good job at streamlining the narrative CRPG experience. Notably defenestrating the very idea of the romance sideplot, but also keeping really tight control of the pacing without completely removing player choice. Their short length for a reasonable price also makes them incredibly accessible compared to AAA games, Dragonfall is still my first recommendation when people want to get into isometric or narrative CRPGs: it's short, has relatively basic mechanics and story, and isn't going to overload you with choices, but everything it does is executed to perfection.

I'd totally buy a Cyberpunk game in the style of Shadowrun Returns. Heck I'm planning to pick up Battletech in the hopes it has a decent SR-style campaign.

[Silhouette]

Originally posted by AnonymousWizard:

Originally posted by Junkyard Junkie:

If there's a new Shadowrun game that is like Cyberpunk 2077 but takes place in the Shadowrun universe, would you buy a copy?

No, I at least partially regret buying a copy of CP2077. Comparatively it's a lot of flash and little substance, while the Shadowrun Returns trilogy is very little flash but a lot of substance.

In fact when 2077 came out and I didn't have a machine that could run it I got the suggestion to pick up Dragonfall as it was just better. That person was very wise.

The games, even Hong Kong, also do a very good job at streamlining the narrative CRPG experience. Notably defenestrating the very idea of the romance sideplot, but also keeping really tight control of the pacing without completely removing player choice. Their short length for a reasonable price also makes them incredibly accessible compared to AAA games, Dragonfall is still my first recommendation when people want to get into isometric or narrative CRPGs: it's short, has relatively basic mechanics and story, and isn't going to overload you with choices, but everything it does is executed to perfection.

I'd totally buy a Cyberpunk game in the style of Shadowrun Returns. Heck I'm planning to pick up Battletech in the hopes it has a decent SR-style campaign.

As a long time Battletech universe fan, I found the singleplayer campaign did the universe justice and was surprisingly good. Far from perfect, and not quite up to the level of the SR games, but same quality harebrained schemes writes and for sub-AAA worth it. It also comes with a sandbox mode that I see many players spending most of their time in, especially with the good modding community thats out there for it.

[Death Approaches]

therein lies the hugest catch of all time, while I might have wanted a 3D computer version of Cyberpunk every single time we played the tabletop, how many gamers today have ever played any tabletop, much less that one, or this one? less than 1% I'd wager.

my expectations were ludicrously high, because I'm tying it to memories, of friends, of gaming sessions that were epic, of the food we had when we took a break and smoked up :-) all of it. all my expectations for the game, knowing they were hardcore fans too, wrote their own ruleset book even, I mean I was drooling like Ivan Pavlov's poor dogs at the mere mention of 2077 or any gaming news blurb for years...

what were the odds I'd get what I expect? zero to infinity against.

which is what would happen here. not that I don't love JW or Harebrained, but this Unity-level development is nothing compared to a massive UE or bespoke engine project on the scale of what I am imagining in my head, it would be a multi-million dollar investment, require 30 accomplished engine coders over 5+ years, double that in riggers and kinematics and motion capture, accomplished texture artists by the dozens, an entire department for continuity and dialogue tracking so the VO artists wouldn't have to be called back 50 times for "3 more lines!", etc. a project on the scale of Lucasarts/Skywalker Ranch is what I envision in my head, not 4 guys in a shared rental office with communal receptionist and communal coffee machine (you have to pay for).

so while I would love it regardless what it came out to be, the odds it would really make Shadowrun come alive, a world I could live in for 10k hours or more, would be the same as Cyberpunk 2077... because yes while my hours are probably in the top 1% of Cy2077 gamers (somewhere around 2k hrs) it is kind of soulless if you're not augmenting it with your own roleplaying and lots of mods.

take the "obsession" on vehicles for the action aspect, when transport was basically an afterthought in the game, it got you to mission gigs and back, but didn't really play any serious role (probably for the console kiddies, mostly) and I hated it, but those are the compromises you don't "see" having played the tabletop and wondering how you'll hook in people who haven't, since the whole point isn't to feed my need but to make money, which requires lots and lots of purchases.

we can dream, though.