Shadowrun Returns' Berlin campaign delayed into next year, transformed into full expansion

Shadowrun Returns was all set to re-return this October for the Berlin DLC pack , but plans have changed. As revealed on the game's Kickstarter page , the add-on has been delayed until next year so that Berlin can be fleshed out, embiggened and otherwise expanded to "create an experience closer to the size of Dead Man's Switch" (the original campaign). The team are also "investigating" the possibility of making changes to Shadowrun's maligned save system, which denies manual saving in favour of infrequent autosaves.

Speaking about that save system, Harebrained Schemes stated that "We are aware that there are a number of people who would like the ability to save in the middle of scenes. However, we also know that adding this feature would involve major changes to the core infrastructure of the game. It's still too early to say whether this is going to be possible, but we wanted to let you know that we're actively investigating it and will let you know more in the coming weeks." Which doesn't sound all that hopeful.

On the topic of Berlin (not the city), HBS said that "after listening to your forum discussions and feedback, it became clear that you would like to see something bigger (and so would we). So, we've decided to spend more time on Berlin to create an experience closer to the size of Dead Man's Switch. A story of that scope will take longer, so we're targeting January for its release".

We can expect "a more flexible main story arc" in the revamped Berlin (again, not the actual city), along with "more depth to the NPC runner characters", plus new outfits, weapons, enemies and so on. Of course, the new material will also be made available for use in the game's editor, providing you have the Berlin content installed.

Ta, Gamespot .

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.