Shadowrun.... The Thinking Person's FPS

[Uniquely]

Any multiplayer FPS fan who hasn't played this game, really owes it to themselves to at least give it a try. It's a very balanced shooter, where team play, communication and strategy are made necessary by the dynamics of the game. This is NOT the game for people who think they are Halo gods, because if you play THIS game selfishly.... you will die.. and in Shadowrun.... there are no namby pamby respawns.

Character Customization
One thing that makes Shadowrun so different from many other shooters is the ability you have to customize your character. There are four different races and several different types of magical abilities and technologies you can use. The way you decide to combine these things provides an almost infinte number of ways to play the game. You can create a character that is really suited to your personal style of play.


The Races

There are four races in Shadowrun, and each have their own strengths and weaknesses.

The Troll is the "tank" He is a big burly character, that can take a lot of damage but moves very slowly. He can be a lead the charge type player, or even a hang back and snipe type guy. A troll can "harden" his skin which makes him harder to kill, but he must have Essence to do so.

The Human is a good all around character. He has the second most health and is the second fastest player in the game. He starts with the most cash (used to buy weapons, magics and techs throughout the game) and he gets to use technologies without blocking off any of his Essence meter.

The Elf is the speedster of the game. He can move very fast, but is very fragile and can not take much damage. He's a hit and run type guy. He is also the only race whose health automatically regenerates, all other races require the "Tree of Life" magic to heal. He's not very strong, so using a heavy weapon with the elf is a baaaad idea.

The Dwarf is my personal favorite. He's a little slow, but he has the second most strength in the game, which means he can weild the heavy weapons very well for a small guy. He also has the most Essence in the game, which makes him a great team healer. His Essence meter refills much more slowly than the other characters in the game, but he has the built in ability to drain Essence from other players in the game; which leaves Essenceless opponents especially vulnerable. This makes the dwarf an excellent troll killer if he can get close enough to the troll and drain his Essence to prevent him from hardening.

The Magics

Each magic uses up some of your Essence meter (which does regenerate on it's own) so your Essence has to be managed when using magic.

Ressurection is the most important magic in the game. There are no respawns, so if you die, you have to depend upon a team mate to rez you. You can only be ressurected once (unless your team is far behind in the game.) When an enemy kills you, he also has the ability to destroy your body in every game type except Attrition, so hopefully when you die their wil be a team mate with rez nearby. If you have been ressurected, and your rezzer is killed, you begin to "bleed out" and must find a Tree of Life to stand near until you can be rezzed again.

Tree of Life is used to heal damaged players. Once a tree is planted any player, enemies and friends alike, can heal by standing near it. Players can find themselves "bleeding out" if they have been sliced in the back with a katana, or if they have been ressurected and then their rezzer got killed. The only way for a player that is "bleeding out" to stay alive is to stand near a tree.

Teleport is exactly what it sounds like. It allows you to transports several feet forward and through walls, floors and ceiling. This provides for six planes of movement on the map and requires learning the maps very well to use effectively.

Gust is a magic which is basically a big gust of wind. It can be used to gust players, like a katana elf, away from you. It can be used to gust your grenades towards enemies. It is especiall effective when you can gust your grenade and the enemy you are throwing it at into a corner. It's also a lot of fun to just gust your enemy off the map.

Smoke allows a player to go into smoke mode.... while he is smoked, he can take no damage and his Essence bar drains continuously until he unsmokes. When a player unsmokes, he is especially vulnerable to damge for a few seconds so it is unwise to go into smoke unless you are pretty sure you can escape. Gust is the only thing that can damage a player in smoke and if he is already hurt, a single gust can kill them.

Technologies

Wired Reflexes allows a character to move more quickly at all times, and when it is activated, allows for sudden bursts of speed. The sudden bursts do drain your health meter so must be used wisely, but is a great magic for players who like to get up close and personal with the katana or shotgun.

Anti-magic generators are like a land mine that will drain all the Essence of any player that walks through it.

Glider is a pair of wings that allow you to glide through the sky. It allows you to reach high places and is a lot of fun to use.

EV allows you to see where the enemy players are on the map. An enemy with smoke mapped to his controls can not be seen with EV until you are very close.

Smartlink is like a target lock, and will not allow damge to teammates through friendly fire when activated. It is commonly referred to as newblink and very few players actually use it as it is generally frowned upon and even your own teammates may give you grief over it.

Weapons

The pistol, SMG, rifle, sniper rifle, min-gun (chain gun) katana, and rocket launcher. The weapons in this game are the most balance of any shooter I have every played. You rarely get outgunned if you have a less powerful weapon, so long as you are the more accurate shooter and smarter player.

Money

Each player starts the game with $2000, except the human who gets $2250. This game has some of the most accurate scoring of any game around because it's not based just upon how many kills you have, but upon how much you help your team. Doing damage to opponents, healing your team mates with a tree you have planted, and rezzing team mates will all earn you money that you can use to buy weapons, magics and techs to add to your characters "build" at the beginning of each round. Once you buy a magic or tech, it is yours to keep throughout the game. If you are dead at the end of a round, your weapons are lost and have to be rebought.

The Karma System

This is awesome, and as far as I know is totally unique to Shadowrun. In Shadowrun, the first team to win six rounds, wins the match. When a team finds itself two or more rounds behind, that team gets Karma. When it has Karma, it takes longer for the enemy team to destroy their bodies, giving it's team mates more time to get to them and rez them. The more a team is behind, the more karma it has, and the longer it takes for enemies to destroy the body. If a team gets four or more rounds behind, it even becomes possible for a person to die and be ressurected twice during a single round instead of only once. It's basically a handicapping system, so that if you manage to beat a team 6-0, you've REALLY dominated them. Karma only comes into play when a team is behind. If they managed to catch up, they lose their Karma.

Gameplay

This game was designed from the ground up with competition in mind. In the beginning of the game when money is tight, you really have to communicate about what you are buying to make sure that you have at least a couple of rezzers and tree planters. Since you are so dependent upon your team members to keep you alive, the team that communicates and cooperates more effectively will almost always be the victor. Everything in this game has a counterbalance, like using gust against smoke for example. Anyone who thinks he is a first class FPS player and therefore will be able to just pick this game up and start "pwning newbs" will have a rude awakening. Even an experienced FPS player has to put some time in to learn how all of the races, magics and techs work with and against each other. It's a truly intricate and complicated game which, even with all this typing, I have barely scratched the surface of it.


Shadowrun is on the XBox 360, or is playable on PC via Games for Windows. If you play from the PC, a silver XBL account is all that is required, so you can play multiplayer for free, directly against 360 players. The Shadowrun community is smallish but very loyal to the game. For the most part it is made up of mature individuals who just appreciate the game for the awesome and hugely overlooked game that it is.