Apparently went live on "that other service" about 2 hours ago. Looks like it fixes LOTS of things, so hopefully we'll get it soon:

General animation fixes and polish
Resolved issue that caused Achievement “I Feel Great!” to unlock incorrectly.
Resolved issue that caused cosmetic text to be missing from Character Creation screen.
Resolved issue that caused incorrect VFX to be used when Laser Rifle missed.
Resolved issue that caused some Cyberdecks to fail decking hiring Prerequisites.
Resolved issue that could cause some conversations to retain choices after a level Restart.
Resolved issue that could result in item loss when the player became the target of the Disarmed ability.
Resolved minor UI issues.
Minor item tweaks and rebalancing


Content Bug Fixes

Clarified the result of subduing Gaichu in the Outsider mission.
Resolved edge case issue that could prevent the Exit, Stage Left mission from being completed.
Resolved edge-case issue that caused combat to not resolve as expected in the Hard Landing mission.
Resolved edge-case issue that could cause combat to continue incorrectly in the Extraction mission.
Resolved edge-case issue that could prevent the Misdirection mission from being completed.
Resolved issue that caused certain hostiles to have incorrect behaviour in the Whistleblower mission.
Resolved issue that caused hostiles to have incorrect behaviour the Bad Qi mission.
Resolved issue that caused incorrect crew members to be available for the Extraction and City of Death missions.
Resolved issue that caused incorrect dialogue to be shown in Bad Qi mission.
Resolved issue that caused Is0bel to respond incorrectly after the City of Darkness mission.
Resolved issue that could cause Gobbet to not receive her Trust Mission reward.
Resolved issue that could cause incorrect behavior in hostile actors in Prosperity Tower.
Resolved issue that could cause Is0bel to briefly lose Mark Target Ability.
Resolved issue that could cause some events to trigger in an incorrect order in the Bad Qi mission.
Resolved issue that could cause some events to trigger in an incorrect order in the City of Darkness mission.
Resolved issue that could cause some incorrect NPCs to spawn in Heoi after a certain point in the story.
Resolved issue that could make it difficult to leave The Extraction mission.
Resolved issue that could prevent one of the outcomes of the Sinking Ship mission from being accomplished.
Resolved issue that could prevent Players from jacking into the Matrix in Bad Qi mission under specific conditions.
Resolved issue that could prevent the Prosperity Tower mission to be completed under specific save/load conditions.
Resolved issue that prevented DeckCon 2056 optional Pay Data from being sold.
Resolved issue that prevented Koschei’s laser from lighting people on fire.
Resolved issue that prevented Shangri-La optional paydata from being sold.
Resolved issue that prevented the Bad Qi mission from being completed under specific conditions.
Resolved issue with not being able to sell the SimSense chip from the City of Darkness mission.
Resolved minor grammatical errors and typos.
Resolved potential blocking issue in Prosperity Tower if events were completed in a certain order.
Other minor bug fixes

Thank you for the information. When I launched Galaxy I found that SR:HK was downloading a 2.9 GB update (!), so I came to forums looking for information. Thanks again.

I'd play it when it finishes updating, but I'm really feeling the pressure (uni and two part-time jobs). I think I'll catch up on sleep instead.

Oh what the heck! Let's go, Shadowru...*bonk*. Zzzzzzzzz...

That is probably the update to 3.0.4, not 3.0.5 (which as far as I can tell is not available yet on GOG). Hopefully if you get your rest 3.0.5 will be available by the time you return.

Depends - it's possible 3.0.5 is already available on Galaxy but not yet for "standard" users. I think that this is theoretically possible.

Then again 3.0.5 has only been out on "the other service" around 4 hours ago, so I imagine it would take a few hours more before it comes here. Unless GOG have sped up Galaxy patches (though I'd rather not have to DL another 2.9 GB when the patch will likely be < 30 MB or so - at a guess).

I've waited a bit to start this, but honestly knowing HBS track record, it'll be a few patches and maybe a Director's Cut before we get the definitive experience. But I wanted to get at least one playthrough done now, so I'll be going through the game.

For the record even Dragonfall still had quite a few bugs and glitches with the latest patch. You have to save a bunch and reload for these games.

Even Shadowrun Returns have glitches when entering Brotherhood Church with Rigger character & bot, restart level doesn't help, only the previous save from cemetery or bar locations.
Yeap, in my experience one should wait at least 6 months to get fully playable game.

However 3.0.4 is quite capable. I'm now checking 3.0.5, hopefully they removed double words in dialogues which I hate.

Sigh, was waiting for 3.0.4 to play, and was all set to do so today... but it seems 3.0.5 is such a big list of fixes, that I'll wait for that one to come here now instead. Hopefully it's only a few days... please, GOG?

No, the wording remains intact even in 3.0.5
Here is the one of many examples

That's a shame. I can understand that these things can slip through pretty easily where grammar is concerned, but you'd think that they could have put it through a spell-checker so that we don't get obviously wrong words like in the example above. ^^

To be honest though I'm more looking forward to the many bug-fixes, such as being able to actually sell some of the otherwise useless stuff I've picked up, or being able to actually use skills/traits/etc. in conversation properly. Having stuff not disappear after I've lent it to someone would be nice too.

Wouldn't mind some balance fixes after the main bugs are squashed:

Ideally they could also chuck some more realistic payments for runs in there, debuff some of the main characters, and fix that crappy new matrix. Although I like the new matrix graphics, the execution is kind of half-assed. I wouldn't mind being able to go turn-based at will in the matrix for one thing - especially since we can do it (sometimes) in the meat world.

I would also prefer that the "hacking" be less of a lame, repetitive joke and actually be related to the decker's skills, programs and/or deck. As it is, decking skills only come into play when you're detected (i.e. forced turn-based mode) - outside of that decking skills mean nothing, while decks have a tiny influence and non-attack programs are basically useless (except suppression). Where are the hide/mask type programs? Where's the IC spoofing?

Finally, spirits (no matter where they come from) shouldn't automatically disappear after 2 turns, nor should they be guaranteed not to break free before the 2 turns are up. As it is, shaman skills are almost as useless as decker skills now. I didn't see anything wrong with the old way (incidentally still mentioned in the help pages), apart from it being a bit overpowered possibly.

OK rant over - just needed to get some of that out of my system now that I've beaten it once. Here's hoping they patch the crap out of it and make it kick ass like they did with Dragonfall:Director's Cut. They've already got some better mechanics under the hood - they've just been under-utilised (or badly utilised) so far in the HK campaign.

Great post, having finished it recently I can't argue with anything you mentioned. I enjoyed the game immensely, but it could be so much better too. They need to concentrate on fixing the bugs and general polish before anything else, 3.05 looks like it's fixed a good portion of the really bad bugs though.

I initially liked the new decking, but yeah after the whole game you really see how they could have made it so much better too.

I also don't like the spirit control changes and they need to put more shaman enemies in the campaign, I think i used Gobbet's spirit steal twice throughout the entire game.

They need to look at mission enemy variety and AI in general too. I don't remember seeing more than one Rigger, and he didn't even use his drone. Shaman AI also was pretty brain damaged the rare time you did encounter them, some of them just ran around like idiots instead of summoning or casting anything useful.

I'm hoping by the time the mini-campaign comes out they'll have a nice balance / feature patch to go with it.

I can't agree more on matrix/spirits mechanics.

Though I don't have a problem with selling *worthless* stuff, every trader willing to buy any junk from me despite his/her specialty. However I do remember how I screwed my 1,200 nuyen rifle which I gave to Duncan after police ambush in prologue mission, he suddenly was stripped from his armor and weapon completely, so I put a rifle in his arm slot 1, and to my surprise it was later overlapped with his default Semopal rifle (armor suddenly reappeared as well) in the next mission. It was version 3.0.4, just great!
And my stuff given to runners always reappear in my stash after the mission given that it wasn't used in a mission. Worked just fine in version 3.0.4. Perhaps you need to restart level to make changes into full, I don't know.
What was your problem with conversation skills check by the way?

Matrix on the other hand is full of crap. Just out of curiosity I completed all the number sets in the first mission, did 2 f@ckups during 7-8 digits length sessions. So my original time was 40 seconds, and I got... wait for it... 46 seconds! Just wow! Now I just do a first 4-5 sequence and then hit the <next> to guess the right combination of odd symbols of *M*s and *wheelchairs* in option menu. That's just plain stupid hack approach. Because you're hacking with your eyes only.
And these moving bots in real time, bah! First time I tried to went through unnoticed, it was nearly impossible. Now I just hit the most annoying bots staning in straight line, add Suppression to lower detection level and move on though the others placed in a distance.
As for the spirits, it's complete bullcrap. What's the point to choose between 1AP and 4 AP, it's always 4AP now, because you have too little time now, and even if the spirit got away it will probably attack the enemies because they are obviously closer, and Gobbet have the ability to disengage any spirit in sight with 3 turns cooldown. Plain stupid tactics.

And I hate Gaichu missing 3 times out of 7 hit attempts with his 92% chance, how it's even possible??? Also I can't justify how I got him in my team after what he had done. I understand betrayal and everything but WTF with the bloody massacre and dismemberment. The only reason I haven't killed him is because his is a crowdfunded character with a side story. Yuck!

And lastly this game is BOOOORING as hell! I have a misssion, bam-bam, 2 screens, 2-3 mini battles and that's it. And after than I have 1 hour of long reading every person's dialog in HEOI, and everyone has something to say and it's not interesting at all. Dragonfall was better in that sense.
I'm done here

I'd say let's hope for next month.

Update 31.8.:
It seems I was wrong. The update was released today.

Yeah, I understand random is random, but with the amount of times you miss at high percentages you gotta think something is wrong or not being displayed in the best way. Like if they roll a dodge it should say Dodged, and I don't remember ever seeing that. Someone can correct me there if i'm wrong.

I can't argue with the boring part either, although I loved reading all the dialog and found it interesting, a good portion of the battles in HK are too easy and short compared to Dragonfall.

There must be some hidden variables, that's the only explanation. Duncan's Mercy Kill ability, the one that boosts his hit chance to 99% when targeting enemies with very low HP, actually missed three times in the course of one long run with multiple combat encounters. Not to mention that the nominal to-hit chance with short-range weapons is in the ballpark of only 60% when enemies are only a few steps away, while enemies routinely hit my characters from across the entire screen.

Sometimes I met a requirement but it was still grayed out or not working. Most noticeably this occurred as a decker in certain missions with some of the new decks introduced with HK, but I think I supposedly failed a charisma check or two when I exceeded the value.

Sometimes it worked in reverse - I never chose the Shadowrunner trait during that run but there was at least one instance, maybe two, where I actually PASSED a check for that trait.

At first I didn't know WTF was going on with the matrix. Then I tried to dodge the rail watchers - then I figured out you can either:
1) Kill the one that spots you, and then real-time resumes
OR
2) If you don't need to hack anything in this area, just ignore it and use your movement points to run to an exit. Once you enter the new area you'll be back in real-time mode.

EXCEPT of course certain areas, which are inexplicably ALREADY HOSTILE with melee and/or long-range IC already gunning for you. Not sure what's up with that. They would have been better off having multiple alert levels - e.g. orange alert (adds ranged/melee white IC), then red alert (adds black IC + even more white IC, possibly deckers join in depending on level).

Plus of course using suppression every now and then (which for some reason I couldn't even FIND to BUY prior to 3.0.4 - dunno if it was my imagination but I swear I couldn't buy it - and I was a decker so didn't use Isobel initially, but used here later because she actually had the suppression program.

Also, at first I diligently (and tediously) solved all eight of the stupid simon says things, until I finally realised that they're only there to increase your time. Which is stupid, because that's what the deck bonus (+1 blocker IC time) should be for and/or possibly certain programs should increase this time - not my own Simon-playing!

Also, that "guessing" thing for the second phase of the hacking could have been done better too - but at least it's not completely tedious. Still doesn't take decker skills into account though.

Oh should probably add
3) If you are well below the alert and/or don't care about the alert, just focus on shooting the blocker IC. That way you can just punch through it without having to worry about the stupid Simon game. If you're already on red alert, just killing everything tends to be pretty easy, provided you have at least one area effect weapon and possibly a shield and/or a deck with high evasion.

OK I thought it was just me - but I too just powered through the missions without thinking too hard because it wasn't that interesting. While there were some interesting/amusing moments/characters, there was... well I never thought I'd say this since I play these games for the narrative/plot, but... well it was getting to the point where I wanted to tell people to STFU already!

While in general I like how every time you visit someone they have something new to say - sometimes they felt like they just kept going on and on. I know they're optional, but since at least one or two of them give you karma points when you reach a certain point, I felt like I had to exhaust them. Plus there's no middle ground - you either run off or you get 20 pages of text.

What's bizarre though is that while some stories never seem to end, most seem to "pause" at a certain point. I noticed I still had 4-5 missions to go, and everyone's stories seemed to be exhausted.

And yes even though I did get killed in combat once or twice, for the most part the combat wasn't really thrilling. At all. I never ONCE managed to use Gobbett's steal spirit ability because by the time I got it, I didn't notice a single spirit raised against me. Except the ones in the Bad Qi mission, and they're not "bound" so they don't count apparently.

And it confused the crap out of me when shrine spirits all of a sudden would just disappear after two rounds. Since it happens with such little notice, I actually thought enemies were just killing them each time...! Doesn't help that the spirits from the fetishes still (kind of) work as usual - although I'm pretty sure they too disappear after 2 rounds as well, despite the fact you can choose their AP and lose control of them before that... Could be my imagination though.

Anyway - extra long ramble over.

TL;DR:

- combat mechanics have potential to be better than DF:DC; unfortunately they're now unbalanced and/or broken.
- matrix - ditto. Looks nice though, gotta say.
- Liked the new cyberware - not sure we needed yet another stat to spend karma on just to use some of it though, would have thought the essence cost would be enough.
- Plot in DF:DC was far superior - more engaging, more interesting characters, way more memorable missions (much more variety in terms of objectives, more paydata, potential moral choices/repercussions felt less contrived, much more interesting combat setup and/or ways to avoid combat)
- The mission text was at least decent most of the time;
- the text for HEOI on the other hand (especially the non-runners like the KaFais) just kept going on and on.
- Yes I see the irony in complaining about long rambly text by writing a long rambly text, but I think this is the first time in a long time (or possibly ever?) that I've ever gotten bored reading text in an adventure/RPG. There's nothing wrong with lots of content - just make it interesting and not some three family members bitching about each other like I'm some kind of therapist. They're not even paying me!