Shadowrun Returns
Worth it · RPG · 2013
Steam Deck PlayableThe verdict
BUY IT.
Worth it at $14.99.
- Length
- 11.6h
- Value
- $1.29/hr
- Reviews
- 88% positive
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Minimum on the Steam store: 2 GB of memory, DirectX compatible 3D graphics card with at least 256MB of addressable memory, 2 GB of storage. Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.
The unique cyberpunk-meets-fantasy world of Shadowrun has gained a huge cult following since its creation nearly 25 years ago. Now, creator Jordan Weisman returns to the world of Shadowrun, modernizing this classic game setting as a single player, turn-based tactical RPG.
What drives the score
How to read this
Every input gets a grade, S to D, read from the buyer's side. The score is multiplicative, so an input only counts as raising when it sits near the top of its own scale. Anything with real room left is holding the score back, because that room is the gap to 100. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. The exact weights stay secret.
The value story
It has never been cheaper than $1.49. That was December 2014. 103 discounts in the 13 years on record. They run about 75 percent off, roughly 5 weeks apart. Today it is at full price. The last sale was about 13 weeks ago, and on this game's rhythm the next one tends to arrive within 5 weeks.
Value puts it in the top 4 percent of the games it competes with. It is pricier than 78 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 91 percent. Among the games that feel like it, Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut ($14.99, scores 80) beats it on value, while it beats Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Extended Edition ($19.99, scores 69).
The press gave it 76; the people who bought it give it 88 percent. A 12-point gap in the buyer's favour.
None of the 570 Steam-purchase reviews sampled here come from buyers who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written March 2020 to August 2026. Inside the two-hour refund window, 69 percent of the 435 reviews written there were positive, against 88 percent overall, and those are 5 percent of everything written about it.
Players
31 players at peak in the last day.
The chart appears once this game has been counted more than once.Player counts via SteamSpy.
What players say
I am a person of simple words. 1. Cyberpunk - check 2. Turn Based RPG- check 3. Finally beat this game in 2026 - check APPROVED
Many people complain that the game is too short, but not everything must be a 40+ hour open world crafting system survivor adventure to be "good". The story in the game's campaign is tight and paced well. Best of all, you get access to a workshop and user-made campaigns, many of which are excellent!
It's just fun. Atmosphere is perfect decayed steampunk, and the addition of the fantasy aspect just adds to it. It's old and it shows, but the art is excellent, and there's a lot of content available.
Player reviews from Steam: the most helpful all-time, plus the newest that clear the same quality bar, with the hours each player had put in when they wrote it. The mix of Recommended and Not recommended follows the game's Steam ratio. Rotates daily. Opinions are theirs.
No data upstream: achievement curve (Steam global achievements).
Cite this score
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Shadowrun Returns scores 70/100 on the BANG Score (worth it). The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/234650/shadowrun-returnsThe BANG Score is one number for value, 0 to 100: price against how it reviews and how long it was built to be. It answers the money question and stops there; whether the game is for you is still your call.
Reviews set the ceiling and price moves you inside it, so a cheap game that reviews badly cannot climb. Ratings from few reviewers are shrunk toward the middle, so 100 percent from nine people does not outrank 96 percent from ninety thousand. Length comes from HowLongToBeat where it can be matched, measured against a per-genre floor so a five-hour narrative game is judged against other narrative games rather than against a sixty-hour RPG. Where no verified length exists the score says so and carries a dock, because the biggest input is then a guess. The full method, including where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Aug 1, price as of Sep 24.
A number here look wrong? Tell me what it got wrong and I will look at the inputs behind it.