Here is my game review for Shadowrun: Hong Kong (2015) and Shadowrun Returns (2013).
This review contains no spoilers. I'm mainly discussing major gameplay things you'll be able see within ten minutes of playing.
Background
Would you trust someone who doesn't drink coffee to give you reviews of the local cafés? Probably not. Let me tell you a bit about myself and my gaming history.
I am a Casual
I don't play games competitively whatsoever. I briefly tried to climb in LoL, but I sucked and remained in Bronze where I originally placed, lol. I am a casual. So here I am, reviewing a game series I played through on normal mode. Me, a normie.
I take a long time to play through games
Typically, when I go through some game, I play like 3-7 times per a week in around 1-2 hour sessions. That being said, it takes a while for me to finish playing through any game.
Races, Classes, Etiquettes
One interesting aspect of the Shadowrun games is the way characters are built. Building interesting characters is one the main reasons people would play an RPG to begin with.
Races
There are "vanilla" humans and then there are "metahumans": trolls, orcs, dwarves, elves. Using different (fictional) races like this allows the game creators to introduce low-key "race realism" into this game. Some races are more/less charismatic than others, other races are physically stronger/weaker. These discussions needn't be hateful of course; rather the player must ask themselves, how do I navigate this diversity that I never asked for?
So, as with other fictional universes, you can safely explore the notion of "race" in Shadowrun.
Classes
As an undergraduate, I typically received the same sort of reaction when I said I was majoring in Philosophy (and Chinese, but not "Chinese Philosophy" mind you). Namely, people asked "wtf are you gonna do with that?" A valid question, ha!
Shadowrun is similar—except you choose a general class for your character, and typically build up attributes/abilities (by spending karma points) that match your character's affinities. As in real life, your resources are limited, so if you try to spread your development too thin (like yours truly), you may quickly end up the "jack of all trades, but the master of none". However, as you hyper focus, there are also diminishing marginal returns, with each increasing of an existing ability/attribute you have being more expensive.
Thus to build a strong character (in terms of game mechanics), you have to strike a balance between spcializing (and unlocking very powerful abilities) and building yourself a broad palette of options.
Etiquettes
In Shadowrun, you choose an "etiquette", like Corporate, Security, Gang... Basically this is social know-how for some type of community.
I found this pretty relevant to real life; you may, for example, be a straight-A student, but a total idiot on the streets. Likewise, you may be excellent at writing cover letters for LinkedIn, but you may suck at creating cheery conversation buzz with friends.
Other things
When building a character, you can optionally get cyber-body upgrades like plastic coating for your skin and such. Each upgrade consumes "essence" of your body; you cannot completely replace yourself with robo-parts! For you nerds that like "deep thoughts", check out some thought experiments in "Philosophy of Mind". You can sip wine with your pinky up while doing so.
The cyberpunk aesthetic
The main reason I can see for playing Shadowrun is to enjoy immersive role playing. For tactical strategy greatness, fast-paced action, studying Japanese, or whatever you might wanna do, there are probably better options. But for running around sprawling urban concrete jungles causing mischief, these games are pretty fun. Would recommend and play again!