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Shadowrun: Dragonfall
game
•7/14/2026

Shadowrun: Dragonfall

byHarebrained Schemes
SteamNintendo Switch
8.9
The Verdict
"Dragonfall is proof that a modest budget and a clear vision beat spectacle every time. Harebrained Schemes didn't have the resources to out-animate anyone, so they poured everything into the two things that actually endure: a world worth believing in and characters worth caring about. The result is the high-water mark of the modern Shadowrun games and one of the most quietly influential CRPGs of its decade — a title that helped keep the isometric RPG alive long enough for the genre's current renaissance." "The stiff combat keeps it a half-step short of flawless. But if you want a game that respects your intelligence, gives your choices consequences, and trusts you to sit with a hard decision, Dragonfall has aged into something close to essential. Play it on Steam if you want it at its best. Play it on Switch if you want it in your bag. Either way, play it."

Gallery

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Key Features

Classless Karma progression: Skills and attributes are bought with Karma points, letting you build a Decker/Mage hybrid or a pure combat Street Samurai without the game ever locking you into an archetype.
The Matrix, running in parallel: Deckers jack into cyberspace and fight digital battles that unfold simultaneously with the firefight in meatspace — a genuine dual-front tactical wrinkle.
Companion depth over roster size: A small, permanent crew — each with a personal loyalty mission and a backstory that reshapes how you read them — rather than a rotating cast of disposable hirelings.
Non-linear mission design: Objectives frequently offer talk-your-way-through, sneak-past, or shoot-everyone solutions, and your skill build determines which doors open.
Grid-based AP combat: Positioning, cover, and flanking on a turn-based, action-point system where a bad sightline gets people killed.

The Good

Exceptional, genuinely mature writing
Deeply developed companions with loyalty arcs
Flexible classless Karma progression
Parallel Matrix combat is a standout mechanic
Non-linear missions reward build diversity

The Bad

Clunky, dated combat animations
Combat AI gets outmatched by strong builds
Late-game difficulty tapers off
Text-heavy pacing won't suit everyone
Handheld reading comfort takes a hit

In-Depth Review

Bottom Line: Dragonfall is the rare tactical RPG where the writing hits as hard as the shotguns. A decade on, it remains the sharpest cyberpunk story you can play, dragged down only slightly by combat animations that never quite caught up to its ambitions.

The Writing Is the Engine

Let me be blunt about where Dragonfall's value lives. You could strip out every combat encounter and this would still be one of the best-written games of its generation. The prose is mature in the actual sense of the word — not edgy, not grimdark for its own sake, but adult. It assumes you can hold ambiguity in your head.

Your home base, the Kreuzbasar, is a neighborhood you come to feel responsible for. Your crew isn't a set of stat-blocks with quips attached. Glory, a former combat-adept nun with chrome where her face used to be, and Eiger, a disciplined ex-military sniper who distrusts you on principle, are written with the kind of restraint that makes their eventual trust land like something earned. The central antagonist's motivation is genuinely disturbing, and the game refuses to hand you a clean moral exit. Decisions carry weight because the writing has convinced you the world is real before it ever asks you to choose.

The Gameplay Loop

The rhythm is classic and satisfying: return to the Kreuzbasar hub, gear up at the local vendors, take a job from your fixer, run the mission, come home changed. Between runs you talk — a lot — and those conversations are where character builds pay off. High Charisma or specialized etiquette skills (Corporate, Street, Academic) unlock dialogue routes that can defuse a boss fight entirely.

Combat is where the game's reach slightly exceeds its grasp. The AP system is clean: each character gets action points to move and act, cover reduces incoming fire, and flanking punishes anyone caught in the open. It's XCOM-adjacent but more forgiving, and encounters are hand-designed rather than procedural, so each one reads like a puzzle with a specific solution. The Matrix layer is the standout mechanic — your Decker can vanish into cyberspace to disable cameras and turrets while bullets fly in the real world, forcing you to split attention across two battlefields on separate clocks. When it clicks, nothing else in the genre feels quite like it.

The friction: the AI is competent but not cunning, and by the back half a well-built party can steamroll fights that should feel desperate. This is a combat system in service of a story, not the other way around — and if you came for tactical depth on the level of XCOM 2, you'll notice the ceiling.

Build Freedom That Actually Matters

The classless Karma system is the connective tissue between story and mechanics. Because nothing is locked, your build becomes a lens on the world. A face-focused character experiences a different game than a cyberware-stacked samurai — different dialogue, different mission approaches, different failures. That's not a cosmetic difference. It's replay value baked into the design, and it's why people finish Dragonfall and immediately start again as someone new.

Editorial Disclaimer

The reviews and scores on this site are based on our editorial team's independent analysis and personal opinions. While we strive for objectivity, gaming experiences can be subjective. We are not compensated by developers for these scores.