I don't want to spend more than €20 - at a stretch €25. At the moment my picks are these:

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey - 4.39 (As I'd played the first part and have been gifted the last.)
Shelter - €1.39
Shadowrun Returns - €2.69
Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut - €2.69
Shadowrun Hong Kong - Extended Edition - €6.19

Which, with a bit of store credit, means I am at a total of €16.45.

Pondering options. Wouldn't mind something actionishy, if story / atmosphere is ok. No longer that fond of simple shoot anything in sight games. Considered Stalker games - but all three of them push me above what I'd want to spend.

Alternative something in the vain of FTL / Roguelikes / randomised replayability.

Had Prison Architect on the watchlist, too. And Defender's Quest (played the browser demo way back when).

Hrm. Ideas?

Remove Shelter, add Dex (€6.59), and you've got yourself a nice Cyberpunk bundle for € 22.55, adventure, RPG, turn-based tactics and something actionishy on top. ;)

Or get Tower of Guns (€3.39), which admittedly is a simple shoot everything in sight game, but it has randomized replayability as well! Or Shadow Warrior 2013 (€2.99), in which you can also cut through everything in sight! Or Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath (€3.59), a quite different shooter which also allows you to lay traps etc.

How about Beyond Good and Evil. I played it on the gamecube and consider it to be one of the best games. It has an interesting story, great characters and music, and is fun to play.

I recommend Geneforge: it's my personal favorite of the Spiderweb games. It's also the only one that I have finished, so take that for what it's worth. I'm slowly working my way through both Avadon and Avernum, but their stories don't grab my interest as much. Geneforge does a great job of placing you in an interesting world and giving you freedom to make what you will of your situation.

Not to mention, if you buy the Geneforge Saga here, it includes the entire series of five games. It's older, so the interface is a bit clumsy by modern standards, but I think the graphics hold up quite well anyhow.

Like that suggestion, I think, most. Especially given that I am not quite sure about Shelter. Shelter seems a game concept I'd really really want to be good, but am not sure if it actually is :).

Shadow Warrior and Oddworld are on my wishlist ... just not sure I'd really feel like playing them atm.

I agree. Have it on disk, so only really will go for GOG backup somewhere down the line. Wish a sequel would actually have seen light of day.

Oh, and be prepared that Dreamfall is very different from The Longest Journey. I think many fans of TLJ didn't like it. I actually enjoyed it more than TLJ, but only the first half of it. Afterwards the story becomes a mess, which is something that Dreamfall Chapters is supposed to rectify.

Shadowrun Returns is not that good imho... it's very linear, most dialogue options lead to the very same outcome, the plot is only average, and there's virtually no interaction with other party members, which, by the way, are quite useless outside of combat (e.g. you want to hack something but don't have the skill yourself? too bad, because the hacker in your party won't help).
It's a shame, I absolutely loved both the settings and the atmosphere and I felt it had great potential, but ultimately as an RPG it's very mediocre.

Dragonfall is much better, both story-wise and characters-wise, and it fixes almost everything I had a problem with in SR. A very good RPG all around (even if it's still far from being the "rpg of the decade" as some reviews say), definitely recommended.

As for Hong Kong, I haven't played it, but from what I heard it's a bit less interesting than Dragonfall, so my advice is: avoid SR, get Dragonfall, and if you like it, try Hong Kong eventually. Each game is a self-contained story, so it's not like you'll miss anything from not playing SR.

While you're essentially right about the shortcomings of Shadowrun Returns and Dragonfall being the best of the three, it's also possible that Mnemon would like all three of them regardless, just as I did. In any case, it's better to play Shadowrun Returns before Dragonfall than the other way around (someone who comes to like Dragonfall and Hong Kong might get curious about Returns afterwards).

Since this thread is 14 pages long i guess someone must've mentioned Pillars of Eternity already, but I'll add another vote. Totally worth your money if you're an RPG fan.

Sure, he might like them a lot, in which case he can always buy the rest later. But he might also not like them all that much, and if he doesn't, buying the whole series is a waste of money.
Either way, I don't see the point of recommending him to start with the worst of the three.

Because that way the experience will get better and better instead of disappointing. Shadowrun Returns isn't as terrible as some make it out to be, to someone who doesn't have the highest expectations it can be quite enjoyable, but once you've played Dragonfall, it will be harder to go back to the predecessor because then you will sorely miss all the improvements. Besides, Dragonfall is worth the 10 EUR on its own, so personally I wouldn't consider it a waste of money to support the devs by also buying the other two. But YMMV. And in any case, it's recommended not just to listen to some random strangers like us, but also watch some YouTube footage in order to determine whether the games might appeal to you or not.

:) Thanks for that debate. From what I`ve read the writing in all of the Shadowrun games is credited pretty much throughout, even if the first falls short in many ways. So in that respect I'd picked all three in one go, now. For me, personally, good writing is something that`ll keep me engaged - and makes me forgive not as good game play a little. That is to say I probably wouldn't pay fullprice for a game that reviews like that, but at €2.65 it`s worth a shot.

In games where gameplay is the big thing (roguelikes / abstract games) I'd probably skip it. But then - if you have more to say on that do. Still have three days to make a decision - and money saved is money saved.

Shadowrun Returns works perfectly fine as an introduction to the series and it's universe.

Both great games , I personally would go for Underrail , be warned though , its a challenge even on easy ! Well worh a purchase at this price, I have it elsewhere but I might get it here too.
I think Trails in the Sky is great too , but its feels very casual .