Shadowrun

Well, this was a game I was getting very excited about, the closer it got to its release date. As soon as I got the game I did the training. The training itself is pretty useful seeing as how the game is a very complicated. The game adds a unique twist to the FPS genre. It combines magic and technology into the game. The games spells and tech abilities as well as weapons have to be earned. It has a money system much like Counter Strikes. If you do good in a round that means you get more money which equals more abilities. If you do poorly that means you won't get as much money to buy abilities and weapons. The game has 4 character races that you can play as. There is Human, Elf, Troll, and Dwarf. Each race has unique abilities. Such as the Humans start with more money from the start than any other race and don't suffer any tech penalties. Elf's have the lowest amount of health but their health regains over a small period of time after not being shot, they are also the fastest character. The Troll has the most health and is also the slowest, he has an ability that over a short period of him getting shot his skin hardens and turns into armour basically, this provides protection but also slows him down. The dwarf is an anti magic character. He has the most Pips for magic (1 circle on the bottom left hand side of the screen is a pip) but they recharge at a painfully slow rate. He can however steal essence to speed up the process from other magical stuff such as a spell called strangle (which puts a bunch of crystals on the ground to slow people down). He can also steal essence from other players as well. The game is built on 3 game types, Raid, Extraction, and Attrition. Raid is a game type that is like 1 flag CTF. The Lineage are trying to get an artifact to the extraction point. While the RNA are trying to prevent them from doing so by eliminating all the Lineage forces. Extraction is basically the same as raid but both teams are trying to escape with the artifact (kind of like neutral flag). Attrition is a team death match sort of game type. It is just kill the other team. The artifact is present in this game type but serves no real purpose besides if you hold it you can see where the members of the other team are. There are only 9 maps in the game. The maps that are there though are designed very well in terms of balance and game play. With a multi-player only game though you would have expected a little more than nine. The spells and tech in the game vary quite a bit. There is a spell that lets you teleport through walls, and another one that lets you summon a minion. There are tech abilities that let you see where everyone is on the map within 60 meters, There is another one that lets you glide across the level. The tech and magic range anywhere from $1500-$3000. There are 9 weapons in the game. You start with the pistol. It is a very good gun to get familiar with. It is quite accurate but has a low ammo clip. The other weapons vary from a katana to a rocket launcher. Each with their own different price tag. The game's graphics aren't the greatest considering its on a next gen console. There are some places where it seems like they completely ignored working on it. Such as when you climb up a ladder. Your player just stands still and floats up. The game could have used a little more polish to present itself well, but none of the problems with the game interfere with the game play. The cross platform aspect of the game is done pretty well. For the most part you wouldn't be able to tell if you were playing with a Vista player till after the game and you get an achievement. I noticed that during some games that if you get in a room with a Vista player and their PC isn't up to specifications, the game will lag a lot. The game is a lot of fun to play but unless you have a bunch of friends to play it with, it will get pretty stale soon enough. The price for the game ($60.00) is a little pricey to justify all the things you get with the game. There will be updates for the game which will improve game play. As for download content, there has been no word of yet. I hope that there is download contend, otherwise this game would probably lose a lot of the players currently playing the game. Overall the game is quite fun and a must have game. It might be wise to buy it in a little while so you can justify the price tag of $60 for a multi-player only game. If you want to try the game out. Just head on over to the marketplace on xbox live and download the demo. There probably won't be a price drop in this game for a couple of months, so if you feel like you need this game and can't wait. Try the demo first.