The original release of Shadowrun: Dragonfall was essentially a much improved version of the very good but occasionally clunky Shadowrun Returns, so I was pretty interested in what the Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director’s Cut would add when developer Harebrained Schemes announced it a while back.
An improvement of an improvement - how does that work then? Well, Harebrained has a new blog page over on the Shadowrun Kickstarter which explains exactly what they’ve been up to.
Phew, there’s a lot here to cover. Visual improvements will give your sniper rifle shots and fireball spells more impact in combat, with bloody death animations and ista-gibs, while a totally reworked interface removes some of the cumbersome ability management that plagued the first two games and makes it easier to work out who’s in cover, who’s flanked and who needs a fire elemental thrown at them.
There’s a new Crew Advancement system that lets you have some more control over your buddies. The companions in Dragonfall are universally great, so it’s nice to be able to finally tweak them a little to your tastes. There’s also a bunch of new areas to explore, four new companion missions to tackle and most importantly, some new haircuts for your main character - including a sublimely awful ‘Flock of Seagulls’ affair. Nice.
Shadow: Dragonfall - Director’s cut is out this week, September 18 to be exact. If you haven’t played the game yet… do so. It’s lovely. If you have, you get this new, upgraded version for free if you own the original. So play it again, maybe.
