Shadowrun - Hong Kong is the third outing in the revival series backed by Kickstarter, and it is by far the best one. What started in Shadowrun returns and continued in Dragonfall has probably reached the apex of brilliance for a game with such a small budget.
The world of Shadowrun is that of cyberpunks and goblins. It combines the dark vision of the future from the perspective of the 1980s and adds all kinds of fantasy elements, so elves become hackers and orcs are mob enforcers. The world is rich with lore and opportunities, and Harebrained Schemes once again tell a good story using that lore. This time they have updated the old-school visuals of the isometric game and added as much design elements as the engine allowed, even having enough money to create several animated cutscenes and transitions. Honk Kong looks as beautiful and stylish as ever.
The gameplay is pretty much the same: turn-based combat, team-based exploration and rich dialogues with no voice-overs. The game is well-written, with great characters and their personal quests being cleverly connected to the main plot or simply being awesome. This time around your skills and specialization, selected using the game's rich and neat character creation and development system, now affect your playthrough even more, providing opportunities for diplomacy, brute force approach and haggling. It's a very personal adventure, and the gameplay complements the story greatly.
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