The game dropped in July 2013 with the promised campaign, called Dead Man's Switch. It was... fine. Not perfect; the licensing agreement with Microsoft caused a to-do about the DRM (later resolved), and the game had no ability to save manually. This wasn't terrible, but the campaign was heavily combat-oriented, with long levels, and the turn-based battle system was heavily reminiscent of the new XCOM, with RNG lurking around every turn.

The campaign escalated stakes awkwardly, featuring a cult that was secretly a front for bug spirits that threatened to destroy Seattle. When the storytelling was personal, it was decent, but it strayed too often into combat and cameos from godlike NPCs from the tabletop game. Promised ties to the console games proved to mostly be the return of the main character from the SNES game as an NPC, and otherwise the cast was lacklustre. But the game played OK up until the final level, where you were forced to use inaccurate, low-damage weapons in order to defeat the otherwise endlessly respawning bug spirits.

If that had been everything Shadowrun Returns had to offer, it would have been a decent, but not exceptional game for long-time fans. However, as a stretch goal in the Kickstarter campaign, they promised an entire second campaign, set in a city of backers' choice. Polling settled on the Flux State of Berlin.

Dragonfall hit as an expansion in 2014, and blew expectations set by Dead Man's Switch out of the water. The PC was still a player-generated blank slate, but you were given more leeway in dialogue options to define your character. Also, you were given a team, rather than a rotating mass of hired shadowrunners that filled out your party during fights. The flow of the game changed from being wholly linear to hub-based, with a slate of missions you could choose from.