14 DAY TRIAL // Shadowrun Returns might be a modern re-imagining of the classic game, but the team working on the action role-playing experience at Harebrained Schemes has no plans to introduce extensive training sequences and explain each new concept to players.
Jordan Weisman, the leader of the team working on the video game, tells VG247 that, “Call it respect for the audience or call it old-school gamer mentality but we’re honestly not hand-holding people through a bunch of training on the mechanics. Once upon a time, there was fun in exploring and experimenting. We hope to give players enough info to get them rolling and understanding the basics.”
The team will initially focus on offering information about the plot to gamers rather than on teaching them how to survive in the unique Shadowrun world.
Gamers will have to apply trial-and-error techniques to learn the best way to approach each situation and challenge.
The game takes place in Seattle in the year 2054 and players are initially hired by a woman to find out the identity of her brother’s killer.
The plot quickly thickens and comes to include corporations, merchants who specialize in body parts, corrupt law enforcement and apparently an ancient evil.
Weisman says that his team has initially even considered designing the video game closer to the boardgame, with whispered messages from the Dungeon Masters and visible dice rolls.
He adds, “Ultimately, we decided that it would be interesting but not necessarily compelling or immersive. However, when we release our editor, player-GMs can try this type of experiment out for themselves. Who knows, they may hit on the right way to do it.”
At the moment, Shadowrun Returns is set to arrive on the PC at the end of June and it might be ported to other platforms at a later date.