暗影狂奔:
Shadowrun
归来
Returns

Harebrained Schemes, 2013
Windows, OS X, Linux 和 Android

Harebrained Schemes, 2013
Windows, OS X, Linux and Android

1989 年,在《赛博朋克》(Cyberpunk,并非《赛博朋克 2020》)发布一年后《暗影狂奔》进入了桌游 RPG 的市场,并为这一题材提供了截然不同的视角:除了地狱般的肮脏未来科技和公司的规则以外,还在“我们”的世界观中加入了魔法,将兽人、法师和龙这类东西跟网络接入仓(cyberdecks)和街头武士放在了一起。

1993 年和 1994 年,两部游戏分别在两部家用主机 SNES 和 SEGA Genesis 上推出。二者有着天壤之别,后者是一部开放世界 RPG,并且其中还包含了 Roguelike 元素。而在 SNES 上发售的那一作是一款更加线性并且以剧情为导向的动作类 RPG。

从此以后,该主题电子游戏就一直在北美停滞不前,直到 2007 年,微软在 Windows Vista 和 Xbox 360 上发布了一个无聊透顶的第一人称(也能切换到第三人称)死亡竞赛游戏。真是谢天谢地,基本上很多人都把这玩意儿忘得差不多了。对于当时的主机游戏粉丝来说,这基本上就相当于给这个游戏系列宣告死刑了。

后来这一系列转战 Kickstarter,Harebrained Schemes 发起了一次众筹,想要籍此制作《暗影狂奔:归来(Shadowrun Returns)》。该作是单人等轴视角的 RPG,登录 PC 端以及平板电脑端,游戏由《暗影狂奔》的创始人 Jordan Weisman 设计开发。众筹目标为 40 万美元,但是最后的众筹结果却超过了 180 万美元。

In 1989, Shadowrun entered the tabletop RPG market, one year after Cyberpunk (not yet 2020). Shadowrun brought with it a different angle on the genre: in addition to the grimy futuristic hellscape of tech and corporate rule, it also wove in the return of magic to “our” world, placing orcs, mages, and dragons alongside cyberdecks and street samurai.

Two video games hit home consoles in 1993 and 1994, for the SNES and SEGA Genesis respectively. The two were vastly different; the latter was an open-world action RPG with roguelike elements. The SNES game was a more linear, plot-oriented Action RPG.

After this, the video game licence languished in North America until 2007, when Microsoft released a lacklustre first/third-person deathmatch game for Windows Vista and the Xbox 360 which has thankfully mostly fallen from memory. At the time, it seemed like the death knell for this part of the franchise for fans of the earlier console games.

Enter Kickstarter. In 2012, Harebrained Schemes put up a campaign proposing Shadowrun Returns, a single-player isometric turn-based RPG for PCs and tablets, designed by the original creator of Shadowrun, Jordan Weisman. They asked for $400,000. What they got was over $1.8 million.

《暗影狂奔》是 90 年代流行的桌面 RPG,有着数百本相关资料书,还有自己的杂志,两部电子游戏,集换式卡牌,以及 40 多部小说,其最新版规则书于 2013 年发布,乃是其第五版规则。

Shadowrun was a popular tabletop RPG during the 90s, with hundreds of source books, its own magazines, two console games, trading cards and over 40 novels. Its latest version was released in 2019, called Sixth Edition.

有五个种族(人类(human),精灵(elf),矮人(dwarf),兽人(orc)和巨魔(troll))以及六个模板可供选择。但是你也可以创造自己的将游戏内各种技能和点数混搭的独特角色。

There are five races (human, elf, dwarf, orc and troll) and six archetypes to pick from, but you can also create your own, mixing the game’s various skills and stats.

该游戏于 2013 年 7 月推出,并且附带了一部配套的战役,其名为“死人开关”(Dead Man’s Switch)。其总体质量不尽如人意,而且与微软的授权协议也出现了数字版权管理问题(后来被解决了),甚至无法手动存档。但这还不是最致命的;整个战役都是严重以战斗为导向的,关卡也做的又臭又长,整个回合制系统就好像完全是从新《幽浮(XCOM)》照搬过来的,而且几乎在每回合都有一次随机数据发生器的随机判定。

这部战役激化矛盾的方法非常尴尬,主要是因为某个邪教充当了不死虫(bug sprits)的幌子,而它们正威胁着要摧毁西雅图。当叙事聚焦于个人层面的时候,这个故事还是很不错的,但是战斗数量太多了,并且游戏里那些上帝一样的 NPC 们就像直接从桌游里拿出来的。这部作品承诺跟 SNS 那部联动一下,这个诺言通过让 SNS 平台的主角作为 NPC 于本作回归而实现,虽然角色塑造非常平庸。而在游戏的最后阶段,你还不得不用那准头差,伤害小的武器去干掉不断复活的不死虫。

如果这就是《暗影狂奔:归来》的全部的话,那么虽然本作大体上差强人意,但绝非是一个让系列老粉丝满意的作品。然而,作为在 Kickstarter 的众筹目标,该作将会以众筹支持者选择的城市为背景推出第二套战役,而最后的投票决定该故事将发生在弗拉克斯邦(Flux State)治下的柏林[1]

作为一个拓展项目,《暗影狂奔:龙陨(Dragonfall)》带来了非常大的冲击,这个战役表现了远超《死人开关》的水平,个人角色依然是由玩家生成的空白版,但是在对话中你有更多的选择来定义你的角色。此外,本作还加入了队伍系统,而不是由雇佣来的暗影跑者(shadowrunners)强行填满的队伍。游戏流程也从完全线性变成了有许多支线任务的网状结构。

The game dropped in July 2013 with the promised campaign, called Dead Man's Switch. It was... fine. Not perfect; the licensing agreement with Microsoft caused a to-do about the DRM (later resolved), and the game had no ability to save manually. This wasn't terrible, but the campaign was heavily combat-oriented, with long levels, and the turn-based battle system was heavily reminiscent of the new XCOM, with RNG lurking around every turn.

The campaign escalated stakes awkwardly, featuring a cult that was secretly a front for bug spirits that threatened to destroy Seattle. When the storytelling was personal, it was decent, but it strayed too often into combat and cameos from godlike NPCs from the tabletop game. Promised ties to the console games proved to mostly be the return of the main character from the SNES game as an NPC, and otherwise the cast was lacklustre. But the game played OK up until the final level, where you were forced to use inaccurate, low-damage weapons in order to defeat the otherwise endlessly respawning bug spirits.

If that had been everything Shadowrun Returns had to offer, it would have been a decent, but not exceptional game for long-time fans. However, as a stretch goal in the Kickstarter campaign, they promised an entire second campaign, set in a city of backers' choice. Polling settled on the Flux State of Berlin.

Dragonfall hit as an expansion in 2014, and blew expectations set by Dead Man's Switch out of the water. The PC was still a player-generated blank slate, but you were given more leeway in dialogue options to define your character. Also, you were given a team, rather than a rotating mass of hired shadowrunners that filled out your party during fights. The flow of the game changed from being wholly linear to hub-based, with a slate of missions you could choose from.

__________

1 译者注:在该游戏的设定中柏林成为了独立城市,并成立了所谓的“弗拉克斯邦”。

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这本书历时四年,由 119 名志愿者共同完成。

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