Just one more run... one more run...

Narratively speaking, Shadowrun: Hong Kong is a direct attack on my grievances toward Dragonfall, and it's a critical hit.

The main story is more personal and grounded, even when it's revealing grand fantastical portents; story events are impactful because they're related by, and reflected in, believable NPC dialog. Compared to the Kreuzbasar's ambient but mostly-inconsequential conversations -- the "flavor" text in Heoi is much more filling.

Party-member backstories, too, feel more significant and fascinating than those in the last campaign. Everyone has tons of dialog to read, and everyone's got at least one mission with fairly-personal stakes. Not all the character arcs are great: Duncan doesn't develop much, and Is0bel's story leaves some loose ends. But Racter... man, that guy is memorable.

The scripted events of each mission are as engaging as ever, and alternate route options (especially using Charisma instead of a gun) have continued to improve. I will however confess that I often played with a guide next to me, to make sure I chose the "right" option for interesting gameplay results; unfortunately, Shadowrun has a long way to go before its "bad" choices feel as satisfying as Geralt's.

There is also a somewhat dramatic balance issue in Hong Kong's open-ended missions: while the difficulty of a mission scales with your progress, the rewards don't, and it's definitely not obvious when a mission might give you no money. I had to retry a lot of difficult fights (even on Easy mode!) early in Act 2 because I hadn't earned enough money to upgrade my main character's equipment.

That aside, Hong Kong's combat gameplay is still good enough to be generally satisfying. Despite that scaling hurdle, and despite the inconceivable number of times I missed an 80%-to-hit shot, combat is just as fun (or at least tolerable) as before.

That being said -- while Hong Kong's real-world combat is familiar, its virtual-world Decking has been significantly remodeled. And much as I admire that The Matrix is now more lively, and includes some brand-new puzzle mechanics... in practice, the overabundance of "Watcher" enemies turns virtual-world traversal into an annoying stealth game, and the hacking minigame becomes repetitive almost immediately. Bit of a swing and a miss.

But even though I occasionally lamented having to access The Matrix - just as I occasionally lamented having to fight an obnoxious number of bad dudes - I did it, eagerly, to uncover more of Hong Kong's and my party's fascinating lore.

I do still miss the tightly-paced drama (and, honestly, the impossible-to-screw-up combat) of Dead Man's Switch; even so, I'd count Hong Kong's blend of narrative focus and non-linear progression as Shadowrun's strongest campaign yet.

Better than: Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut, Shadowrun Returns (for the most part)
Not as good as: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Where's my next sci-fi fantasy fix?: hmm... how're those Cyberpunk 2077 patches coming?

Progress: Finished the campaign on Easy, including the Shadows of Hong Kong epilogue.