Shadowrun

"Incredible! Plenty of value despite lack of single-player campaign"

This is one of the deepest and most engaging Xbox Live games ever! My new obsession for many, many months to come. And this coming from a Rainbow Six junkie...

Shadowrun has lots of fast-paced intense first-person shooter action with some third-person views as well. Very deep and balanced selection of character upgrades to keep things interesting (e.g., teleport, wired reflexes, summon minion, etc.). Like a very complex game of rock-scissors-paper where each upgrade is powerful and useful (depending on the situation) but always has some drawback. There are also stealth gameplay elements as well. Overall, lots of different ways to play.

It's not an RPG, but you do develop your character over the course of a game (which is several rounds and can take up to half an hour or so). Everybody starts anew at the beginning of each new game, right down to selecting a race (human, dwarf, troll, or elf).

This is a competitive FPS that rewards team-based play and communication. There is lots of strategy and many different tactics that can be used. Depending on how you outfit/upgrade your character, there is lots of gameplay variety. Stealth, run-and-gun, defense, close-quarters or long distance, etc.

Graphically, the game is downright beautiful. Some reviewers have said differently, but I don't know what they are looking at... The environments are detailed with plenty of effects and excellent draw distances. As seems to be the new standard (GoW, R6V, Oblivion, etc.), the framerate is locked at 30 FPS. Obviously, 60 FPS would be better but 30 is adequate and gameplay is always smooth.

The mulitplayer net-code seems very robust with no noticible lag in any of the games I've played so far. It can be hard to find a public match as they seem to fill up quickly. But you can always create/join a "private" match for your friends or recent players. And there is a party system that lets a group of players stick together as they play through various public matches.

There is no single-player campaign/story mode, but there is a great 6-chapter tutorial that covers lots of ground and almost has a story, even if it's just "welcome to boot camp, grunt". There is also support for bots for hours and
hours of offline fun. Number of bots (up to 15), bot skill level and character class are all configurable. Want to play a game with all elves vs all trolls? You can set that up at will. I don't see the lack of a story mode a problem, even for offline play, but for some this is apparently a deal-breaker.

There are "only" 9 maps and 3 gameplay modes (2 per map) but the maps are large and true works of art, both graphically and design-wise. Even if no new maps or modes are ever made available, the 9 maps (with 4 "small" variations for a total of 13) should keep people busy indefinitely. And with DLC a possibility for the future, who knows?

I do have a few bones to pick. For example, there are not very many gameplay options that are host-configurable, even in private matches (e.g., can't limit weapon selection, change round duration, etc.). Also, you can't browse a list of public games to join -- matchmaking only.

Some folk are concerned about the purity of Shadowrun lore and the fact that this is not an RPG. As a player of the Super Nintendo version (but not the pen-and-paper game), I see this new installment as true to the spirit of Shadowrun. The backstory is well done and the voice work and other content elements top-notch. You won't be hacking any computers in this game, but that is in keeping with the "security forces" themes. Think of this game as "Shadowrun security force tactics FPS". You play as a grunt who never even gets to see a mainframe -- but you'll be having so much fun you won't even care.

In closing, this is a great game -- one of the best I've played. If you like Rainbow Six, Counterstrike, or even Gears of War or Halo, pick this one up. But give it a bit of time as the learning curve can be a bit steep! But that's just a result of the games incredible depth and balance.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/06/07