Shadowrun: Dragonfall Director's Cut - 6/20 hours

"Dragonfall" is overall a better story than "Dead Man's Switch," but it has one slight plot hole that is kind of bugging me. So, you track down the man who set you up on the disastrous opening mission, and you discover that he's been investigating a dragon, and purposefully sent you into its lair in the hopes of getting some vital information from your death. You find him dead of the same mysterious super-IC that killed Monika, and far from this being poetic justice, you realize the dragon will track down and kill anyone who knows its secret.

Given this dire situation, your only possible plan is to find the scientist who designed the weapon that brought down Feuerschwinge the first time, in hopes that he can repeat this performance. But the scientist has fallen off the grid, so in order to find him you have to secure the services of the legendary hacker and information dealer, Alice, who wants 50,000 nuyen for the task.

So far, it makes sense, but here's the plot hole - in order to get the 50,000 nuyen, you have to risk your life going on dangerous shadowruns. Problem: you're afraid of being killed. Solution: invite people to shoot guns at you.

I guess it's not technically a contradiction, because it's possible that being on a dragon's shit list is certain death, whereas living the desperate life of a criminal-for-hire is only likely death, but it still feels weird to me. On the other hand, whatever. I bought a game called "shadowrun" so I obviously want to run the shadows. Anything that gives me even the flimsiest pretext is fine by me.

I like doing these mini missions. They don't have any grand, overarching plot (as far as I can tell), but they do make me feel like I'm part of the Shadowrun universe. Breaking into a Humanis operation and busting the place up is exactly the sort of thing I've always wanted to do.

Honestly, I don't particularly want to advance the story. I'm interested in the conspiracy surrounding this dead (?) dragon, but it's the central paradox of open world games. The more you enjoy yourself, the more you have to avoid the game's central activities.

I'm curious to see exactly how much game there is here. I get the feeling that there are few enough missions that doing them all will not make the main quest absurd, but I'm really hoping I'm wrong.