Shadowrun Chronicles: Boston Lockdown Review – PC

If I and my Google searches are correct, this is the fourth attempt (not counting sequels and spin offs) at creating a Shadowrun series. Formerly called Shadowrun: Online, Shadowrun Chronicles: Boston Lockdown attempts to blend XCOM style tactical play with the iconic quasi-scifi-fantasy role-playing game and isn’t an unfortunate homage to an incident last year.

The title immediately throws the player in to the character creation screen. Presented with all of the conventional options that you might expect in a game like this, you need to set the outline for your character. You need to select their gender, background, choose a hair style, give them a name etc. I do have to admit I was a bit surprised to see that you could have facial hair as a woman, so naturally I gave my character a handlebars moustache. I gave her the only fitting name I could think of, Joan De Orc.

The game pits the player within the intricate cyberpunk fantasy that is the Shadowrun Universe. Chronicles quickly shoves the player amidst a whole cast of metahumans and provides a suite of the weird and wonderful. Shadowrun is known for a number of things. Some people will think of the series of top down c-rpgs which have come out over the last few years. Others will think of the cross-play first person shooter which came out in 2007. Or if you’re a true nerd you might think of the 1993 adventure shooter series. If you have played any of these three series I would wager that you had heard of the fiendishly complex roleplaying game; where it takes, on average, 3 hours to generate a character. This is not to do the game a disfavour, it’s considered a classic – and is the source of much tabletop cheese.

The story is rather unsurprising given the name. Set in Boston post-awakening, fantasy creatures have returned to the world. I have to admit I did not find it as enchanting as Shadowrun: Dragonfall, which came out last year. The narrative is serviceable and is better than most games – but I feel compelled to compare it to a game under the same moniker. In my opinion the public areas lack the charm of the Kreuzbazaar, which had you constantly exploring the same hub zone for easter-egg-style content. Compare that to Boston Lockdown, the player can reasonably quickly talk to the quest giver and then leave for a zone, getting the best equipment (apart from cyberware) is pretty simple. I guess I’ve been spoiled by probably one of the best hub zones in an rpg to date.

The game follows a very similar set of mechanics to the two recent CRPGs by Hairbrained Schemes (Shadowrun: Returns and Shadowrun: Dragonfall) being that it is a top down turn based tactical strategy game. The game focuses on using cover to outmanoeuvre your opponents as well as protecting your characters from harm. There is a big emphasis in using team work, as in almost every mission your character will have company, which is this game’s greatest strength. As I said earlier Boston Lockdown used to be known as Shadowrun Online (it appears the name change happened when the developer and publisher began making their marketing push for release). The game’s big selling point over it’s competitors is the introduction, almost from the get go, of an optional multiplayer system. This allows players to join their friends, or people from the internet, and play through mission content together. It is easier playing solo with up to four characters and moving them around various fights, but it does have to be said that there is a certain charm in surrendering some of that control over to other players. Especially if things pay off and you work brilliantly as a team.

The game allows characters to grow organically, so that the player can cater progression toward the demands of the game or those that they are playing with.

Shadowrun: Boston Lockdown is a worthy addition to the series, providing a more multiplayer slant to its immediate competition. The tactical play presents players with a reasonable challenge, positioning your characters is absolutely key. And its approach to character creation is open and doesn’t feel overly hand holdey, I didn’t feel overly pushed to fulfil a role per se. However, the writing in the game is not as strong as it has been in other Shadowrun games and the lacklustre hub area felt like a little bit of a let down when I think back to the Kreuzbazaar and Shadowrun Dargonfall. Coupled with the lack of dialogue choices, the narrative felt like more of a placeholder.

Full disclosure I wrote this most of this review during the beta period before the game was released and I did log on today to finish up the review and there were some issues with latency. As this is an online game it is to be expected, but it does interrupt the overall flow of the game – however I expect that it should not be an issue in a day or two. I was also given this as a review copy of the game, so try to read widely – some people will have different opinions to me (I know, shocking).

Pros

Genuinely challenging tactical play, doesn’t pull punches.

Strong model for spending character experience (or karma as its called).

Playing through missions with other players can be genuinely fun.

Cons

Lacklustre hub area.

Lack of dialogue choices with characters, makes you feel a bit railroaded.

Latency issues after game went live.

Overall – 7/10