Shooting, Magic, and Fun
FASA Studio took a different direction with the title Shadowrun this time. As opposed to being an RPG, Shadowrun was transformed into a First-Person Shooter. Really, it is nothing like the original Shadowrun. It contains races that include: Elf, Troll, Dwarf, and Human. Each of which have their own different pros and cons, along with a number of Magic Abilities and Tech Objects.
Shadowrun has no single player campaign to play through, which for many would be a huge fallback. In this case, I felt the overly-fun overly-exciting multiplayer experience compensated for that. You play as one of two teams: RNA or Lineage. The game contains three different gameplay modes: Raid, Extraction, and Attrition. In Raid, the Lineage team has a flag to capture, and the RNA team defends that flag. In Extraction mode, there is a central flag in which both RNA and Lineage may capture and score at the respective base. Finally, Attrition is your typical run-of-the-mill deathmatch. The games can be played up to 16 players, 8 on each team, and the first to 6 rounds wins the game. At the beginning of each round, you are given a certain amount of money to spend on magic, tech, or weapons. The more points you rack up during a round, the more money you will have to spend the next round. The combination of all of these factors provides for a vast variety of game play for a fun and enjoyable experience. My favorite part about the game is the fact that you can be so many different combinations of races with different magic and tech.
However, Shadowrun is not perfect. Some may say the graphics were terrible, but I would describe them as "simple." I do not think FASA meant for you to be able to see every freckle on somebody's face. Nonetheless the graphics were a small downfall in the game. The only other downfall, in my opinion, would be the party system. It was generally unreliable and the first game your party joins would always split you up on separate teams. Not to mention random boots or "connection lost" error messages which would result in your party needing to join another game and be split up the first game again.
I would highly recommend Shadowrun to any player who has Xbox live and generally plays online multiplayer games. This fun and enjoyable for long periods of time, but sometimes frustrating at the same time.
-Justin M
