The Fire Emblem series is a group of fantasy tactical RPGs with 13 games, 2 of which are remakes. It is set in a Western medieval-type world with a strong emphasis on magic and mythical creatures, such as manaketes (dragons), griffons, and shape-shifters. The titular Fire Emblem is always an important object in the game, although it changes form between games (in one group of games, it was a shield that could summon the power of a divine dragon, in another it was a medallion that imprisoned a goddess of chaos).
Fire Emblem: Awakening is set on the continents of Ylisse and Valm, which, by shape and other hints, are inferred to be Akaneia and Valentia from previous games. The story focuses on Chrom, the prince of the country (not continent) of Ylisse and his tactician, a player created character that will be referred to as the Avatar for this post. During the story, the characters go through wars with the neighboring country Plegia and the Valmese empire, and have continued conflicts with bandits and an army of the undead, with a larger evil plot that connects these events and, of course, threatens to end mankind.
The series has many different gameplay mechanics, so this post will only compare the completely or mostly new ones. Like the previous game, Awakening has two separate modes, classic and casual with the difference being whether or not permadeath (a mechanic in which your soldiers that die in battle stay dead afterward) is turned on, in previous games you could only play with permadeath even though some enemy generals had a tendency to survive their first battle with you for plot purposes. Awakening introduces the Pair Up system, which allows two of your units to pair up and act as a single unit on the battlefield so that they can support each other, both by attacking the enemy and blocking the enemy's attacks and by providing the active one stat boosts. Manaketes and laguz (now "taguel", but still humanoids that can shape shift into giant animals) are reintroduced with manaketes still using dragonstones to change forms, but taguel use beaststones now instead of transforming after a certain number of turns. Aside from that and the removal of light magic, the gameplay mechanics haven't changed.
Like all other Fire Emblem games, each character is separate (instead of being part of a group or team) and has their own personality and backstory that can be learned through their interactions with other characters. The game also has support conversations like in most of it's predecessors, and those conversations can be obtained and seen after two units spend enough time adjacent or paired up (having these conversations provides backstory and higher stat increases when adjacent), and there's even a marriage system after a boy and girl achieve an S rank support (having certain characters be married is necessary to obtain other specific characters).
Awakening is a very good game, but it can feel like a simplification if compared to games like Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. Turning off permadeath is a good option to have, but doing so causes victories to seem less rewarding, while keeping it on could cause you to have difficulty later because you lost characters (specifically, there is a level early in the game which you can only bring 6 characters into, all the enemies are comparatively strong or at least decent, and the enemy leader should capable of quickly killing all but one of your characters at that point). The Pair Up system also replaced the Rescue system, in which a character could pick up another although the suffer a speed penalty, and the character who is picking the other up is the one who fights, while in Pair Up, the character who goes to the other to Pair Up is the one that doesn't fight, making it harder to protect someone using Pair Up. I also find the taguels using beaststones to be pointless, and think that the original laguz system was better, as the stat boosts that came with transforming more than made up for the time it took, and there were items to speed up the process. Also, many of the characters in Awakening seem shallow and easily fit into stereotypes (this mage is very intelligent and scholarly, this fighter is an unintelligent brut, etc.), and the backstory that is gained from their support conversations does very little to fix how simple their character appears to be. The story is also disappointing, as the "only you can prevent the end of the world" idea has been so badly overdone across almost all types of fiction and storytelling that it's almost funny. Overall, Awakening is a good game, but the other Fire Emblems are much better both in gameplay and story.
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Kid Icarus: Uprising
The original Kid Icarus was a two-dimmensional action platformer game for the NES released in 1987. In it, Palutena, the goddess of light, was imprisoned in a sky temple by Medusa, the goddess of darkness, after losing a war with her. However, an angel named Pit escaped his imprisonment in the Underworld by Medusa's army and began fighting Medusa's Underworld Army using a bow and arrow sent by Palutena. During the game, Pit retrieves the Three Sacred Treasures, which were stolen by Medusa during the war, and once Pit has all of them, he goes into the sky temple, defeats Medusa, and frees Palutena. A sequel to that game, Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, was released for the Game Boy in 1991. In it, Pit is tasked with undergoing special training by Palutena, again battling three guardians, this time so that he can use the Three Sacred Treasures against the demon Orcos. He defeats Orcos, and the game ends with him flying into the sky, but, as with the legend the series is named after, he flies too close to the sun, his wings burn up, and he falls.
In Kid Icarus: Uprising, almost everything except the story is different. instead of a 2D side scroller, it's a 3D third-person shooter and platformer. The game's levels switch between air battles, in which Pit's course is already set, the player controls shooting and dodging enemy attacks, and ground battles, in which the player controls Pit and can explore the level while fighting enemies. Pit being able to fly in air battles after the ending of Of Myths and Monsters is explained by Palutena, she is able to resuscitate his wings for five minutes at a time, but his wings will burn up again if he exceeds that. Also, instead of using only bows, Pit can switch between different types of bows, claws, blades, clubs, orbitars, staffs, arms, palms, and cannons between levels, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Pit can also use different vehicles in ground battles if they are there, including an armored mech and a motorcycle-like "vehicle of the gods". The levels are similar to the original game, however, as all of them end in a boss fight, and some have multiple bosses throughout them.
It's difficult to review the story of this game without spoiling parts of it, however, it is generally nonlinear. There are definite story arcs in the game, which can be identified by which army Pit is fighting, however, some of the story arcs can seem random. The game begins with Palutena telling Pit that Medusa has returned and wants revenge against her, Pit, Skyworld, and humanity in general. Pit then spends fights against Medusa, her lieutenants, and the Underworld Army. The majority of the game is spent fighting the Underworld Army, with different arcs separating these confrontations.
Overall, Kid Icarus: Uprising is a very good game. Although it is a sequel, it's hard to compare with it's predecessors, as it's a very different type of game, the story is more complex, and it was released over 20 years after the previous game. It's only significant problem is how random and unconnected some of it's arcs are (in one case, there is no mention of the main enemy of the arc before the arc begins, and in another the main villain is mentioned beforehand, but it isn't identified as anything important and is forgotten until halfway through it's arc), although the good characters and other aspects that were done well make this easy to overlook.
In Kid Icarus: Uprising, almost everything except the story is different. instead of a 2D side scroller, it's a 3D third-person shooter and platformer. The game's levels switch between air battles, in which Pit's course is already set, the player controls shooting and dodging enemy attacks, and ground battles, in which the player controls Pit and can explore the level while fighting enemies. Pit being able to fly in air battles after the ending of Of Myths and Monsters is explained by Palutena, she is able to resuscitate his wings for five minutes at a time, but his wings will burn up again if he exceeds that. Also, instead of using only bows, Pit can switch between different types of bows, claws, blades, clubs, orbitars, staffs, arms, palms, and cannons between levels, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Pit can also use different vehicles in ground battles if they are there, including an armored mech and a motorcycle-like "vehicle of the gods". The levels are similar to the original game, however, as all of them end in a boss fight, and some have multiple bosses throughout them.
It's difficult to review the story of this game without spoiling parts of it, however, it is generally nonlinear. There are definite story arcs in the game, which can be identified by which army Pit is fighting, however, some of the story arcs can seem random. The game begins with Palutena telling Pit that Medusa has returned and wants revenge against her, Pit, Skyworld, and humanity in general. Pit then spends fights against Medusa, her lieutenants, and the Underworld Army. The majority of the game is spent fighting the Underworld Army, with different arcs separating these confrontations.
Overall, Kid Icarus: Uprising is a very good game. Although it is a sequel, it's hard to compare with it's predecessors, as it's a very different type of game, the story is more complex, and it was released over 20 years after the previous game. It's only significant problem is how random and unconnected some of it's arcs are (in one case, there is no mention of the main enemy of the arc before the arc begins, and in another the main villain is mentioned beforehand, but it isn't identified as anything important and is forgotten until halfway through it's arc), although the good characters and other aspects that were done well make this easy to overlook.
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Infamous: Second Son and First Light
The Infamous series consists of 3 games (Infamous, Infamous 2, and Infamous: Second Son) and 2 DLCs (Infamous: Festival of Blood, and Infamous: First Light). The Infamous games are open world action-adventure and platforming, and the series currently has 3 main protagonists: Cole Macgrath (Infamous, Infamous 2, and Infamous: Festival of Blood), Delsin Rowe (Infamous: Second Son), and Fetch Walker (Infamous: First Light). The series is known for it's Karma system, which rewards players with positive or negative karma points (positive points are for doing good things, such as healing civilians and sparing enemies, while negative points are for doing evil things, like killing civilians and enemies), and there are some parts of the story in which you have to choose between two options (such as saving your friend or a group of doctors) and your choice affects your karma. You karma points affect how you upgrade your abilities, how civilians who see you react, and some parts of the story.
(This paragraph is a plot summary of the Infamous games. You have been warned)
In the beginning of the first game, Cole Macgrath, a bike courier, is delivering a package containing the Ray Sphere, a device created by an organization known as the First Sons and capable of draining neuro-electric energy from surrounding people (killing them) and channeling it into a person with the Conduit gene (named after Conduits, the people who undergo this), unlocking their powers (which revolve around a specific object or element, such as ice, smoke, neon, electricity, and concrete). When he reaches his destination, Cole is told by phone to open the package, and when he does, the Ray Sphere is set off, creating an explosion that wipes out several city blocks and turns people into Conduits, including Cole, who gains electrical powers. After he has found the Ray Sphere, defeated the main villain, Kessler, and either saved or conquered the city, (in the beginning of Infamous 2) a Conduit known as the Beast (who was prophesied by Kessler) appears in the city, destroying things and turning people into Conduits with his powers. Cole fights him, but is unable to stop him from destroying the city, although Cole and his two allies escape by boat. They then go to New Marais where Cole, Zeke (his friend from Infamous), and two Conduits named Lucy Kuo and Nix battle the Militia, led by the Conduit and former First Sons (who were essentially destroyed in the first game) member Joseph Bertrand III, and the Beast himself. In the canon ending (the good ending, the evil one is considered non-canon) Cole uses a device called the Ray Field Inhibitor (RFI) to kill himself and all other Conduits, including the Beast (in the evil ending, Cole fights alongside the Beast, and kills Zeke and Nix amongst others, and eventually the Beast gives Cole his powers, turning Cole into the Beast, while the original simply dies). Infamous: Festival of Blood is a non-canon DLC for Infamous 2, and in it Cole is turned into a vampire by a vampire queen known as Bloody Mary, and has one night to kill her before the change becomes permeant. Five years after the end of Infamous 2 is Infamous: First Light, a prequel DLC for Infamous: Second Son that has Fetch Walker (one of the characters from Second Son, she has Neon powers) as the main character, and details her backstory and her capture by the DUP (Department of Unified Protection, a government group that was created to capture and contain Conduits, labeled "Bio-Terrorists"). Infamous: Second Son takes place in Seattle 7 years after Infamous 2, and has Delsin Rowe as the main character. In it, Delsin (who's Conduit power is the ability to absorb part of the powers of others, and they keep their power) witnesses the crash of a truck being used to transport Conduits, then helps one of the Conduits get out of the crash (two other Conduits, Fetch and a boy with Video powers named Eugene, escape), absorbing his powers in the process. Then, the Conduit, Hank, is attacked by Delsin's brother Reggie, the sheriff, and a chase occurs between Delsin and Reggie and Hank. This chase ends when the DUP, led by Brooke Augustine (a Conduit with Concrete powers and the leader of the DUP) arrives and apprehends Hank, before Augustine interrogates Delsin and almost everyone else it the village (wounds that are slowly killing them) regardless of whether or not you chose to confess (the game's first Karmic choice). The DUP then sets up it's base in Seattle and Delsin and Reggie go there to fight the DUP, find the other two Conduits, and take Augustine's powers so that Delsin can heal the other people from the village.
The first problem with Second Son and First Light is the premise of the story. While the games' stories are both very good, all of the Conduits and everyone with the Conduit gene on the entire planet were killed by the RFI to protect the rest of humanity at the end of Infamous 2. All of the Conduits in Second Son and First Light couldn't be there, they're dead, and no explanation was even attempted to explain how there are still Conduits, especially Second Son's main villain Auguastine, whose backstory puts her in Empire City after the Beast's rampage in the beginning of Infamous 2, so the RFI would definitely have killed her. Another problem with Second Son (but not First Light) is that although the story is good in concept, it's presentation is very linear. The first part of the game is spent learning Delsin's first power and beginning the fight against the DUP, then one of the escaped Conduits is commiting crimes. You hunt for them, find them, fight them, gain their power, learn their power with their help, help them solve one of the problems from their backstory (using either good or evil methods), and hit repeat. After that has happened twice, you have a small break, a fake finale, another small break, and the real finale.Once you complete the story, you can go back to the overworld to complete the very short seeming DUP side missions that cause you to feel like you are speed running through the post-game. Aside from the story problems, the gameplay also suffers from the developers trying to do too much. Although Delsin has four different powers by the end of the game, none of them feel fully developed or equal to Cole's electricity and Fetch's neon. Although the story would have been drastically different, if Delsin only had one power (smoke, for example), the developers would have probably given it most of the time they gave Delsin's four powers, and it would have felt more complete (for smoke, maybe an upgrade for smoke bombs could have sent a large cloud of smoke through a fence or vent, blinding everyone on the other side).
First Light, however, feels like a full Infamous game, although it is short (being a DLC). Though the story switches between Fetch's time in Curdan Cay and her time in Seattle 2 years earlier, it's easy to follow, and the events aren't anywhere near as linear. It also has a post-story battle arena in Curdan Cay, and open world in past Seattle (which you can go back to even after finishing the story), two separate sequences reminiscent of the original Infamous in which you are riding on top of a truck and shooting at people chasing you, and new sniping sequences that, while potentially irritating, are fun. Fetch's Neon powers are shown to be much greater than what she was seen using in Second Son, and what Delsin got from her. She is capable of blasting people into the air and potentially over an edge with a shockwave-like attack, firing groups of neon missiles, her main shots can be upgraded so that enemies whose weak points are hit can be temporarily mind controlled (turning them into allies) before they are automatically restrained, and can create a "neon singularity" that acts like a pink black hole before exploding. She also uses her super-speed when melee attacking, all of which makes her powers seem complete, like Cole's were.
The Infamous series has an excellent reputation, but in Second Son, I believe that the developers tried to do too much with Delsin's powers, making them feel incomplete by comparison to Cole. In First Light they only did Fetch, who only has power over Neon, and her powers in it felt much more complete. Both games had very good stories, but how those stories can even exist after the RFI was activated was unexplained, although that can be fixed in the next game. Overall, Second Son is a very good game, but it's difficult to compare with the other Infamous games, including it's own DLC.
(This paragraph is a plot summary of the Infamous games. You have been warned)
In the beginning of the first game, Cole Macgrath, a bike courier, is delivering a package containing the Ray Sphere, a device created by an organization known as the First Sons and capable of draining neuro-electric energy from surrounding people (killing them) and channeling it into a person with the Conduit gene (named after Conduits, the people who undergo this), unlocking their powers (which revolve around a specific object or element, such as ice, smoke, neon, electricity, and concrete). When he reaches his destination, Cole is told by phone to open the package, and when he does, the Ray Sphere is set off, creating an explosion that wipes out several city blocks and turns people into Conduits, including Cole, who gains electrical powers. After he has found the Ray Sphere, defeated the main villain, Kessler, and either saved or conquered the city, (in the beginning of Infamous 2) a Conduit known as the Beast (who was prophesied by Kessler) appears in the city, destroying things and turning people into Conduits with his powers. Cole fights him, but is unable to stop him from destroying the city, although Cole and his two allies escape by boat. They then go to New Marais where Cole, Zeke (his friend from Infamous), and two Conduits named Lucy Kuo and Nix battle the Militia, led by the Conduit and former First Sons (who were essentially destroyed in the first game) member Joseph Bertrand III, and the Beast himself. In the canon ending (the good ending, the evil one is considered non-canon) Cole uses a device called the Ray Field Inhibitor (RFI) to kill himself and all other Conduits, including the Beast (in the evil ending, Cole fights alongside the Beast, and kills Zeke and Nix amongst others, and eventually the Beast gives Cole his powers, turning Cole into the Beast, while the original simply dies). Infamous: Festival of Blood is a non-canon DLC for Infamous 2, and in it Cole is turned into a vampire by a vampire queen known as Bloody Mary, and has one night to kill her before the change becomes permeant. Five years after the end of Infamous 2 is Infamous: First Light, a prequel DLC for Infamous: Second Son that has Fetch Walker (one of the characters from Second Son, she has Neon powers) as the main character, and details her backstory and her capture by the DUP (Department of Unified Protection, a government group that was created to capture and contain Conduits, labeled "Bio-Terrorists"). Infamous: Second Son takes place in Seattle 7 years after Infamous 2, and has Delsin Rowe as the main character. In it, Delsin (who's Conduit power is the ability to absorb part of the powers of others, and they keep their power) witnesses the crash of a truck being used to transport Conduits, then helps one of the Conduits get out of the crash (two other Conduits, Fetch and a boy with Video powers named Eugene, escape), absorbing his powers in the process. Then, the Conduit, Hank, is attacked by Delsin's brother Reggie, the sheriff, and a chase occurs between Delsin and Reggie and Hank. This chase ends when the DUP, led by Brooke Augustine (a Conduit with Concrete powers and the leader of the DUP) arrives and apprehends Hank, before Augustine interrogates Delsin and almost everyone else it the village (wounds that are slowly killing them) regardless of whether or not you chose to confess (the game's first Karmic choice). The DUP then sets up it's base in Seattle and Delsin and Reggie go there to fight the DUP, find the other two Conduits, and take Augustine's powers so that Delsin can heal the other people from the village.
The first problem with Second Son and First Light is the premise of the story. While the games' stories are both very good, all of the Conduits and everyone with the Conduit gene on the entire planet were killed by the RFI to protect the rest of humanity at the end of Infamous 2. All of the Conduits in Second Son and First Light couldn't be there, they're dead, and no explanation was even attempted to explain how there are still Conduits, especially Second Son's main villain Auguastine, whose backstory puts her in Empire City after the Beast's rampage in the beginning of Infamous 2, so the RFI would definitely have killed her. Another problem with Second Son (but not First Light) is that although the story is good in concept, it's presentation is very linear. The first part of the game is spent learning Delsin's first power and beginning the fight against the DUP, then one of the escaped Conduits is commiting crimes. You hunt for them, find them, fight them, gain their power, learn their power with their help, help them solve one of the problems from their backstory (using either good or evil methods), and hit repeat. After that has happened twice, you have a small break, a fake finale, another small break, and the real finale.Once you complete the story, you can go back to the overworld to complete the very short seeming DUP side missions that cause you to feel like you are speed running through the post-game. Aside from the story problems, the gameplay also suffers from the developers trying to do too much. Although Delsin has four different powers by the end of the game, none of them feel fully developed or equal to Cole's electricity and Fetch's neon. Although the story would have been drastically different, if Delsin only had one power (smoke, for example), the developers would have probably given it most of the time they gave Delsin's four powers, and it would have felt more complete (for smoke, maybe an upgrade for smoke bombs could have sent a large cloud of smoke through a fence or vent, blinding everyone on the other side).
First Light, however, feels like a full Infamous game, although it is short (being a DLC). Though the story switches between Fetch's time in Curdan Cay and her time in Seattle 2 years earlier, it's easy to follow, and the events aren't anywhere near as linear. It also has a post-story battle arena in Curdan Cay, and open world in past Seattle (which you can go back to even after finishing the story), two separate sequences reminiscent of the original Infamous in which you are riding on top of a truck and shooting at people chasing you, and new sniping sequences that, while potentially irritating, are fun. Fetch's Neon powers are shown to be much greater than what she was seen using in Second Son, and what Delsin got from her. She is capable of blasting people into the air and potentially over an edge with a shockwave-like attack, firing groups of neon missiles, her main shots can be upgraded so that enemies whose weak points are hit can be temporarily mind controlled (turning them into allies) before they are automatically restrained, and can create a "neon singularity" that acts like a pink black hole before exploding. She also uses her super-speed when melee attacking, all of which makes her powers seem complete, like Cole's were.
The Infamous series has an excellent reputation, but in Second Son, I believe that the developers tried to do too much with Delsin's powers, making them feel incomplete by comparison to Cole. In First Light they only did Fetch, who only has power over Neon, and her powers in it felt much more complete. Both games had very good stories, but how those stories can even exist after the RFI was activated was unexplained, although that can be fixed in the next game. Overall, Second Son is a very good game, but it's difficult to compare with the other Infamous games, including it's own DLC.
Monday, October 27, 2014
Introductory Post
This blog is meant for reviewing video games as a school project. There will be a new post every week for a few weeks, and I don't know whether or not I will continue it afterward.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Shadowrun: Dragonfall-Director's Cut
Shadowrun is a role playing game from the late 1980s to the 1990s set in a fictional alternate universe. It communes cyberpunk and fantasy themes in a near future in which magic and magical creatures have returned to the world and coexist with advanced technology. It was originally a tabletop game, although there was a SNES video game was released for it in 1993. Normally in a Shadowrun game, you are a shadowrunner, a criminal mercenary that is usually paid by corporations or governments to steal from other corporations or governments. In 2013, a video game was created by Harebrained Schemes called Shadowrun Returns, which introduced the Shadowrun concept as a current turn-based strategy game. It was set in Seattle in 2054 and had it's own story involving the player character hunting a serial killer. It also included the tool that the developers used to make the game, allowing players to make their own content and stories. Shadowrun: Dragonfall is an add-on for Shadowrun Returns with it's own story, set in Berlin, and both stories were complex, involved important characters from the Shadowrun fiction, and had multiple endings depending on player choices.
The Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut was released on September 18th, 2014 as a separate game from Shadowrun Returns and the original Shadowrun: Dragonfall. The original Dragonfall improved on the ideas from Shadowrun Returns by giving you a permanent team that you could choose from for missions in addition to hiring others, adding new weapons, items, spells, and cyberware to fit with the new setting, although most of them have the same basic function as their Returns equivalent. Dragonfall also had it's own story and every character has their own backstory that you could learn by talking to them repeatedly. The Director's Cut improves many of the above, especially the story. In the Director's Cut, there are 2 new endings, both of which are very different from the preexisting ones, and 3 of your team members now have their own missions that can be played after they're talked to enough, and a fourth new mission gives the player a deeper understanding of one of the organizations in the game, along with what high-class society is like in the Shadowrun world. The weapons, spells, and items from the original Dragonfall remain mostly the same, but the fifth new mission unlocks new cyberware. However, one of the best new features is the new team system, which allows you to choose one of two upgrades for each team member at certain points in the game (for example: the first choice for Eiger, your weapons specialist, has you choose between a sniper rifle ability and a shotgun ability). Each team member also gains a new ability or piece of equipment after you complete their mission, and the fourth team member (who doesn't have a mission) still gets a new ability in a normal story mission. You can also loan team members equipment if they have the inventory space for it and meet the prerequisites. Finally, the game developers redid the AI and armor and cover systems, making those systems much more important than they were before, and making the AI much more intelligent. This makes the Director's Cut much more tactically challenging, as gunfights can drag out for a while if both sides are well equipped and have good cover, and the AI punishes the player for making stupid decisions such as having their entire group standing in around a doorway, allowing the enemies to throw multiple grenades in their turn and hit the entire group with them.
Overall, the Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut greatly enhances the Shadowrun games, improving the original's story and gameplay, along with providing a greater tactical challenge. It's largest problem is that the main story does end, and although you can bring your character into other players' content, you can't do the same for your team members, and the team customization was one of the greatest improvements and made me want the ability to continue using that team. However, the game was still excellent and the story was probably one of the best I've heard in a video game.
The Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut was released on September 18th, 2014 as a separate game from Shadowrun Returns and the original Shadowrun: Dragonfall. The original Dragonfall improved on the ideas from Shadowrun Returns by giving you a permanent team that you could choose from for missions in addition to hiring others, adding new weapons, items, spells, and cyberware to fit with the new setting, although most of them have the same basic function as their Returns equivalent. Dragonfall also had it's own story and every character has their own backstory that you could learn by talking to them repeatedly. The Director's Cut improves many of the above, especially the story. In the Director's Cut, there are 2 new endings, both of which are very different from the preexisting ones, and 3 of your team members now have their own missions that can be played after they're talked to enough, and a fourth new mission gives the player a deeper understanding of one of the organizations in the game, along with what high-class society is like in the Shadowrun world. The weapons, spells, and items from the original Dragonfall remain mostly the same, but the fifth new mission unlocks new cyberware. However, one of the best new features is the new team system, which allows you to choose one of two upgrades for each team member at certain points in the game (for example: the first choice for Eiger, your weapons specialist, has you choose between a sniper rifle ability and a shotgun ability). Each team member also gains a new ability or piece of equipment after you complete their mission, and the fourth team member (who doesn't have a mission) still gets a new ability in a normal story mission. You can also loan team members equipment if they have the inventory space for it and meet the prerequisites. Finally, the game developers redid the AI and armor and cover systems, making those systems much more important than they were before, and making the AI much more intelligent. This makes the Director's Cut much more tactically challenging, as gunfights can drag out for a while if both sides are well equipped and have good cover, and the AI punishes the player for making stupid decisions such as having their entire group standing in around a doorway, allowing the enemies to throw multiple grenades in their turn and hit the entire group with them.
Overall, the Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut greatly enhances the Shadowrun games, improving the original's story and gameplay, along with providing a greater tactical challenge. It's largest problem is that the main story does end, and although you can bring your character into other players' content, you can't do the same for your team members, and the team customization was one of the greatest improvements and made me want the ability to continue using that team. However, the game was still excellent and the story was probably one of the best I've heard in a video game.
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