Shadowrun

June 7,2007 - Shadowrun began as a pen-and-paper RPG that soon evolved into a series of books and a couple videogames on the SNES and Sega consoles. What it has never been, until now, is a first-person shooter. Shadowrun lacks any type of campaign mode and instead opts for Counter-Strike-esque multiplayer where Xbox 360 and PC users are joined together during games. Despite the lack of a story and shallow matchmaking, FASA Studios’ Shadowrun has a legitimately intricate combat system that should be recognized for its innovation.

The background setting of Shadowrun is in the not too distant future where magic has returned to the world and caused spontaneous mutations in the population, turning humans into dwarves, elves, and trolls. The RNA Corporation, seeking to monopolize on magic, is attempting to recover a magical artifact in Los Santos, Brazil. The local residents, many of whom have mutated into meta-humans, are resisting this corporate takeover by banding together in a group called the Lineage. That’s all the story that you’re given to add some cohesion and meaning behind the gameplay.

Where the story does come into play, albeit loosely, is the six training programs the game runs you through to get started. During the course of the training you’ll be lightly roleplaying as a new guard for the RNA Corporation. A disembodied voice takes you through weaponry, magics, tech, and the different races in between commercials promoting RNA Corp. Most of the buttons follow typical Halo rules: A to jump, X to reload, Y to switch weapons, right trigger to shoot, left stick click to crouch, and right stick click to zoom. Both bumper buttons as well as the left trigger are multi-purpose button slots where magic and tech is assigned. Interestingly enough, there is no melee combat outside of using the katana or attempting to fire an empty weapon.

Like Counter-Strike, players will be given an amount of money at the beginning of each round in order to buy weapons, magic, or tech. The amount of money received depends on their race (humans start with more money), and how well they performed in previous rounds with kills, deaths, friendly fire, and artifact carries. Players start with a pistol but can carry a shotgun, sub-machine gun, rifle, sniper, minigun, katana, or rocket launcher; although only two weapons can be held at any time. Large weapons like the rocket launcher and minigun will slow one’s movement depending on their race’s strength. Trolls, for example, can carry any weapon without a penalty dealt to their already lumbering speed. If you die in a round, you lose any weapons you had on you. Conversely if you don’t die you can pick up enemy weapons and carry them over to the next round. Each weapon feels like it should, and like in real-life one’s aim deteriorates with rapid-firing. One small qualm with the targeting reticule is its indication of friend or foe. When you aim at a friend, the reticule is supposed to change to a thick blue, while an enemy will cause it to turn a thick red. Sometimes it bizarrely refuses to change immediately or doesn't at all at long ranges. In the heat of a battle, we found ourselves blowing holes in our own teammates or running from them when low on health just because our targeting reticule didn’t indicate them as either side. Sure, one is supposed to be able to recognize the enemy by the color outfit they are wearing, but in dark places this is almost impossible to tell and the lack of radar only compounds the issue.

Magic and Tech work in tandem and use up what is called Essence, a sort of gas tank for powers. By using or sometimes even equipping these, Essence is used and needs time to regenerate. With spells like Resurrect or tech like Enhanced Vision some essence is permanently unavailable until the resurrected dies or the tech is unequipped. These two things are what change the face of battle from simple running and gunning to a careful balancing and strategy act. While many battles will indeed come down to intense firefights, some of the best ones will not. With a versatile spell like teleport, your enemy getting the jump on you doesn’t mean he wins. You can leap up and Teleport to the next floor to escape or take a risk and teleport behind him to land a killing blow. Alternately, you can activate a spell like Smoke to make yourself temporarily immune to all physical attacks. Another way to handle the encounter is to buy Wired Reflexes and equip a katana, which will enable one to block a hail of bullets Jedi-style.Tech and Magic can also be used in tandem. For example, equipping the iconic Glider along with Teleport will allow you to jump incredibly high, then teleport even higher for a greater reach. An anti-magic generator can drain the Essence from those pesky Elves and disallow them to regenerate or teleport away, and then a quick Summon to call upon minion from hell will finish him off. Although only Elves can regenerate health, a Tree of Life allows Dwarves to refuel their slow-filling Essence meters, or let a Troll take more damage than you’d ever imagine possible. Finally, a Resurrect spell allows downed companions to be brought back to life with full health to get another kill or two before he or his resurrecter dies. The face of battle has indeed changed, and is now deeper than all the Halos, Unreal Tournaments, Counter-Strikes, and Battlefield 2142s out there.

While the one-on-one combat in Shadowrun is quite deep, the rest of the gameplay is strikingly shallow. In all 12 maps, there are only three modes available: Attrition, where the objective is to eliminate the other team; Extraction, where the objective is for both teams to attempt to recover The Artifact; and Raid, where the objective is for The Lineage to capture The Artifact while RNA Corp defends it. In a private match, players can only customize the map, which game type, and the number of players/bots playing. No other customization is available, either from health handicaps, money handicaps, changes in speed, time, kills, essence—everything is set in stone. One of the reasons there is very little game customization is probably because every map lacks context sensitive items like vehicles, gun emplacements, destructible environments, elevators, etc. Due to the buy-your-weapons gameplay model and the fact that people who die stay dead for the entirety of a round, much of this omission is acceptable. But what if teams as a whole could buy items like a turret to defend the artifact or an ATV for grabbing it? Games could have much more possibilities and potential for excitement.

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