Okay, right off the bat I have to say that Shadowrun was a pleasant surprise. I was not really familiar with it, and whatever ads I did see for the game looked so silly that I forgot about it quickly. For those of you, (including me) who always complain that there are no unique first person shooters out there, Shadowrun is definitely a step in the right direction. At a time when big name games take all the glory, Fasa and Microsoft studios have snuck a game under the radar, which may turn out to be a sleeper hit for 2007.

gameplay

Shadowrun is a multiplayer only first person shooter, which is part RPG and part Counter-strike. It’s actually based on an old pen and paper role playing game, and also made an appearance as a SNES and Geneses cartridge back in the day. The setting is very cheesy, taking place in the year 2031, where the power of magic has returned to our world after mysteriously disappearing over 5,000 years ago. Now elves, dwarfs and trolls have also returned, each with their own special magical ability. The battle is fought between two teams, the Lineage and the RNA Corp, both consisting of a variety of races that include humans, dwarfs, trolls, and elves working on the same team, with only the color of their uniform separating the good guys from the bad.

Most gamers, like myself, usually skip the tutorial feature of a game and prefer just to dive right into real gameplay to figure it out, but with Shadowrun, I highly recommend you take the time to go through the tutorial, because not only is it actually fun, but learning the tools of the trade correctly is the only way you’re going to survive in this game. The two categories you have access to are magic and tech. Tech includes such features as a glider that allows you to hover above a battlefield to target your enemy, Wired Reflexes that enables you to move three times faster than normal, the Smart-Link, which attaches to your weapon and allows you to fire into a crowd killing only the enemy without harming any teammates, and Enhanced Vision which literally allows you to see through walls.

On the magic side, features include the Tree of Life, a seed that instantly grows into a health-regenerating tree that heals anyone (good or bad) who stands near it, Resurrection allows you to revive a fallen teammate and vice versa, there’s also a gust trick that can blow an enemy off his feet and several feet away Jedi knight style. Then there’s Strangle, a power that temporarily surrounds a zone with deadly crystals that can completely wipe out the health of anyone who comes in contact with it. One of the best magic tricks in the bag is Teleport, which when combined with the enhanced vision tech will let you see right through a wall or ceiling structure to surprise an enemy and eliminate him.

There are nine maps with three playable game modes, Raid and Extraction (which are all capture the flag games with their own unique rules), and Attrition, which is basically a team deathmatch. At the start of a round you choose the player you want, human, troll, elf or dwarf, each with their own special feature for fighting, then you buy tech and magic power-ups, but you are only allowed access up to three features at a time, otherwise you have to quickly assign new ones during the fight.

Anyone who has played Counter-strike or Unreal Tournament will be able to jump right in after they learn how to use each magic and tech feature effectively. The basic rules are simple, just protect your artifact from the other team by any means necessary, and if it gets captured, hunt and take down the enemy so it can be returned. Winning rounds puts money in your bank, and you then use this cash to get better upgrades for your player.

Knowing which tech or magic trick to use and quickly being able to activate it before your enemy uses theirs is the key to winning games. For instance a troll can sustain a lot more firepower than a human, elf, or dwarf, so something like the gust feature will only tickle him. Quickly accessing the Smart-Link and Wired Reflexes can take him down swiftly, or if you want to get real fancy use the glider to hover above him and bring him down with a series of headshots. There are so many different ways to take down your enemy, which is the true charm of the game.

If you, or an enemy trooper, are shot down during a fight, a fellow teammate can resurrect you if they get to you in time. But if you get to your fallen enemy before they can be revived and continuously blast their body away, you will remove them from the game completely and they’ll never be revived. Obviously the same fate can happen to you if a teammate can’t find you in time. This is why it’s always important to have access to or know where the closest Tree of Life can be found, because when you are surrounded by the enemy and taken constant hits, your health will deplete like water spilling out of a cracked glass.

Shadowrun does not offer a single player mode, but you can play offline against AI controlled bots to learn all the maps, as well as tighten your magic and tech skills. The bots are pretty aggressive and do make the game challenging, but at times they can be pretty predictable, making it easy to win matches. But this game was designed to be an online only multiplayer blast-fest where you can play along with up to 16 other living beings. This is one of the first games released by Microsoft to utilize cross-platforming between Xbox Live and Vista PC users playing the same game, but there’s no way to see who’s playing on what format. There are some issues here; because it takes a long time to get a game going, and once it starts I did have some lag problems. Maybe this is because this game is a guinea pig for cross platforming and the bugs haven’t been ironed out yet. Hopefully Microsoft is working on a patch to iron out the kinks, because this game is a lot of fun when things are running smoothly.

graphics

The game takes on a cartoon-like feel with a lot of bright colors, but the maps are solid offering a different range of both wide-open and close spaces for various types of fighting. The graphics are in no way mind blowing, but everything feels right during gameplay. And realistically, there’s so much action going on that if you stop for a moment to check out your environment…you’re dead.

sound

It’s just your standard gunfire and explosions, with an occasional supernatural magic sound for certain tricks, such as when the Tree of Life grows right before your eyes. But honestly, once you get online there is so much yelling and outrageous chatter coming from the other players that you probably won’t hear the sound effects anyway.

replay value

There’s really nothing to do offline, but practice tricks and figure out the maps, because Shadowrun doesn’t offer a solo campaign mode. All the action is online, which as long as there are players available, this game will keep going for a long time. Just look at Counter-strike, after all these years people are still playing it. Hopefully there will be new maps, weapons and tricks offered in the future to keep the interest flowing.

bottom line

Shadowrun is a lot of fun, and if you’re a fan of this type of gameplay, you’re really in for a treat. It’s a fresh spin in the online FPS multiplayer arena, which is definitely welcomed, because most games offering multiplayer just use the same formula repeatedly. Yeah, there are problems, such as instances where it took up to four minutes to get an online match going, and the limited number of maps. Also, this game should have been a budget title, because you’re really only getting a multiplayer game for the price of a full game. Shadowrun is definitely worth a look. You may really like what you see.

Review by: Johnny McNair
Posted: 06/13/2007

Gameplay:	8.5
Graphics:	7.5
Sound:	7.0
Replay Value:	8.0
Bottom Line:	7.5