Stayed up late last night and finished
Shadowrun Returns. I had received some bad intel telling me the game was only 7-8 hours long, so I assumed I was just about finished, but I ended up playing for 4.5 hours last night (to bring playtime to a little over 11 total hours) and finished it off.
I've been a fan of the Shadowrun universe and lore since playing first edition tabletop back in the early 90s. For those who aren't aware, Shadowrun is a mix of Gibsonian cyperpunk stylings in a world where Magic, spirits, and dragons have returned to the world. I always enjoyed the mix of the two opposing styles, but never liked the tabletop game mechanically.
Thankfully, this game takes a lot of the superficial qualities of the tabletop game and marries them with an underlying system that is a lot of fun in videogame form. The game plays more-or-less like XCOM: EU when you're in "fight" mode, which is switched to seamlessly when any sort of battle begins, and happens within the same world you occupy when out of combat.
There are tons of combat options available depending on your character's (and teammates') skills, and there were routinely options I could see sitting there but couldn't access due to not having the required traits. I'm not itching to replay the game any time soon, but going with a different build and exploring some of these other options would allow a second playthrough to be a significant departure from the first.
In the end, the game is short for an RPG, but I'm of the opinion that I'd prefer a game that ends with me wanting more than one that wears out its welcome with ridiculous amounts of padding.
Overall Score - 4/5
Bought in 2014: 0
Finished in 2014: 2
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney 5: Dual Destinies: Turnabout Reclaimed - 9 hours - 4/5
Shadowrun Returns - 11 hours - 4/5
Backlog Blitz 2014 Score: +2