- Title: Shadowrun
- Platform:Xbox 360
- Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
- Developer: FASA Studio
- ESRB Rating: “M” For Mature
- Genre: First-Person-Shooter
- Pros: Solid gameplay; fun Xbox Live play
- Cons: No story mode; $60 for multiplayer-only is too much; only loosely based on original Shadowrun license
Story
The Shadowrun story tells of a future world where humans have learned how to use their long dormant magical powers. These abilities, combined with advancing technology, cause a new arms race where factions fight to control the magic. That is the quick and dirty version and actually, Shadowrun has a large and interesting storyline and universe. It is just too bad there isn’t any sort of story mode in the game.
Features and Modes
There isn’t a story mode, but you can play in bot matches, so despite what your local forum troll has been spewing for the last couple of months, there are single-player modes. And, really, the bot matches play just like player matches so it isn’t all that big of a deal. You can set up matches on whatever map or game type (variations of CTF and assault) you want among other options. There are also some really good training missions that teach you how to use Shadowrun’s more advanced features.
Online play is the definitely the focus here, though, and it performs very well. You can play against PC as well as Xbox 360 opponents, which is cool. The game also is well balanced between controller vs. keyboard/mouse, so don't worry about PC players having an advantage.
Gameplay
Another important aspect of the game comes from the different races you can play as. Humans are better with tech. Elves regain health. Trolls take a lot of damage, but can’t use magic well. And dwarves can absorb magic from other players. All of these races also have their own advantages or disadvantages in terms of size and speed, so balancing your character choice with how you want to play is a vital part of the experience.
Graphics and Sound
Graphically, Shadowrun is a nice looking game. If you played the beta or saw any screenshots from it, rest assured that the final game is quite a bit nicer looking. The environments are fairly simple, but look good, and effects for spells and explosions are also well done. Where it doesn’t look quite as good is that while the characters are detailed and nice looking, they all look the same for each race. All trolls look the alike, for example. Also, the animation is by no means smooth, and players sort of glide around.The sound is pretty underwhelming, but it gets the job done. Generic gunfire and combat sounds are the name of the game here. One interesting feature is that when you are playing with bots, they have a fairly decent number of voice clips so they can actually do a good job of communicating with you and letting you know where the battle is and when things are clear. You can also use these same clips in player matches if you don’t want to use normal voice chat.
Bottom Line
Unfortunately, Shadowrun does have a few things working against it. First, the poor use of the Shadowrun license is going to turn some people away no matter how good the game is. Of course, if you are like me and never cared about the license until this game, that won’t be a problem. Another issue comes from the $60 price tag. There are single-player modes, but there isn’t a story mode and instead everything is based around AI-bot multiplayer. The main focus, though, is on Xbox Live play, and it is hard to justify paying full price for only half of the gameplay modes that other titles offer. It is a good game, certainly, and you will get your money’s worth if you really get sucked into the online play, but that initial investment is hard to swallow.
In the end, I can only really suggest either playing the demo or renting Shadowrun and making a purchase decision from there. It is a good game, but the value is questionable.
