The original Shadowrun Returns was a decent game, but it had many constraints laid upon it that made it somewhat unimpressive. The linear and surprisingly modest chapter-based storyline was more reminiscent of a latter-day Final Fantasy than the classic CRPG revival that was promised, and since every party member was an anonymous hireling there was a feeling of impersonality to the whole affair.
Dragonfall seeks to rectify these issues by taking the bones of what the previous game had while switching up the formula significantly. The character builder remains robust and able to produce a great variety of builds, with an additional emphasis on using your selected skills to your benefit in non-combat situations. The turn-based combat system is still a facsimile of Firaxis' X-Com reboot. While it can sometimes feel a bit simple, the huge variety in skills and actions compliments this simplicity.
Everything else is different. The structure has been swapped to a mission-based one in which you take jobs, slowly raising money to uncover and eventually confront a conspiracy that threatens the anarchist-state Berlin neighborhood you've taken upon yourself to protect. While hirelings are still available, you now find yourself in charge of a team of diverse white people with problems. It's not hard to draw parallels with the Mass Effect series, especially as each member of your team begins to take on very familiar roles. There's the ex-military prickly pear who questions your judgement, the boozy best pal, the ice queen with a dark past, the sarcastic nerd with an ego, and the pet dog. Cliches aside, these characters are all impeccably well-realized and the writing is strong enough to make the exhaustion of their dialogue a joy. The 'loyalty missions' (for lack of a better term) with these teammates are particular highlights and each one is very useful for their designated role in the team.
The aforementioned Berlin neighborhood serves as a mission hub. This is significant, since the original Shadowrun Returns rarely had you visit any location more than once. There's unfortunately little to do in this hub besides shop, but it is visually interesting and filled with a number of recurring NPCs that add some life to the proceedings. While I certainly wish there was more to do in this hub, serving as its protector and mediator does a good job of adding the personal stakes that were so crucially missing from the first Shadowrun Returns campaign.
These changes are all great, and while I have no doubt in my mind that the developers did everything they could, I can't help but feel that they were let down by having to bolt a massive formula shift onto the very restrictive blueprints laid by the original release. This is most evident in the interface, which is ludicrously prohibitive. Outside of combat ONLY the player's character can be ordered to interact with objects or pick up items. If your character picks up a grenade that they are terrible at throwing grenades, there is no way to move that grenade from the player's inventory into that of a teammate who is great at throwing grenades. Access to teammates is so diminished that there is a whole separate and much simpler system for their growth and inventory in which you pick between one of two perks at every level-up. The party cannot be controlled individually outside of combat, and combat can only be initiated by enemies. This means that my team of badass cyberpunk street samurai had no ability to ambush non-hostiles, and were instead forced to dumbly wander into the middle of rooms and let the guards take their first pot shots before taking cover.
These faults all feel like the result of the engine and tools being pushed to their absolute design limits, which is a good excuse but doesn't absolve the game of its problems. That said, I had a great time playing the game and I would recommend it as a massive improvement over its predecessor.