Shadowrun

"If you don't have Xbox Live, this game isn't even an option."

When I first saw Shadowrun, I was very intrigued to play it. It appeared to me as a First Person Shooter that was set in a kind-of modern day world where humans, elves, dwarves, and even grotesque trolls were our world's police and/or terrorists. I mean anytime a dwarf is packing a machine gun I'm sold. So I figured the game would have an interesting story. But alas, imagine my surprise when I popped the game in my Xbox 360 and discovered something shocking. It has NO single player campaign. Zuh?

I mean in this day and age of next-gen titles where games cost oh so much money, I expect to have a little substance to them. I expect a game I can spend at least 5 or 6 hours on to fill the empty void in my life. But Shadowrun I regret to say, wasted 2 of my hours until I innevitably returned it to the video store. And the reason I did that was because I don't have Xbox live. I don't spend the money to keep an account and yes perhaps I suffer because of it. But guess what people, not everyone goes online with their 360. Odd as it may seem, it is the truth. So if they were to rent Shadowrun expecting a first person shooter adventure/ series of levels that they could enjoy, they would be terribly disappointed. But I'll get back to this unfortunate situation later and tell you about the game.

Here we have a first person shooter that focuses mostly on the multiplayer aspects of being in team deathmatches and taking down the opposing team. Two sides, one a police force called the RNA, the other a terrorist group known as The Lineage. Each side has no advantages over the other, as they both have the same armaments and race of characters. This is very different from your typical FPS in that not only are the characters unique, but they can cast magic spells and use some innovative gadgets to help them win the fight. You'll take control of humans, elves, dwarves and trolls, and they each have different stats. Like for example, the trolls have a tougher defense and go down much slower....but they also travel around at the same speed too.

The game gives you the standard fare of weaponry as mostly every other FPS game. You get pistols, you get machine guns, you get the rocket launchers and the sniper rifles too. But what makes this game unique are all the different spells that the characters can cast. You can summon monsters from out of nowhere to assist you in battle. You can turn yourself into a puff of smoke and evade bullets. And my personal favourite spell of them all? You can actually teleport yourself 8 meters ahead of where you're running, meaning you can not only pass through walls, but you can even go up through the ceiling or down to the lower floor! Despite what my score and end result of this review is, that is the coolest thing I've ever seen in a FPS. These magical spells add some unique strategy and unexpected twists and turns and makes for a darn good time.

Like the ever popular Counter-Strike (which is like this game in many ways) you also need to pay money for all of these guns and magic spells. In between every round of the game, before the match starts you get time to go into the menu and buy the weaponry and whatnot that you want for battle. You won't be buying the rocket launcher right off the bat, you need to earn the money by killing opponents and by staying alive long enough to see victory. I don't hate the money system and it works quite well. You don't ever have to unlock any maps, or character skins, or anything of the sort. Literally when you first play the game you have nothing to earn and everything's there for you to take advantage of. So it's a great pick up and play......assuming you play with other people anyhoo.

I like the gameplay. I love the magic system and being able to teleport through walls. I also enjoy the fact that you can even buy your characters a glider to prevent any unneccessary leaps of death. But the fact is I don't play online. So imagine my surprise when I see all the options for Single player gamers to have. They can complete the 6 tutorial levels that explain how to play the game, and each is worth 10 achievement points so, yay! Easy 60! And then....they can play matches against AI bots at whatever level they want. And that is it. There isn't a single player campaign. What's worse is that they can't unlock other Xbox achievements unless they play online, so playing against bots has no reward. All of the levels are unlocked. There is no story to enjoy. And once you've played every map like I did, there is no reason you would ever wanna pick it up again. "Why write this review if you didn't experience the online game Clement?", some might ask. I'm an everyday person speaking for those that do not have an online connection. And I'm speaking on behalf of those people. And my message? Unless you're online, this game is a complete waste of time.

Yes the gameplay is fun, and I very much enjoyed teleporting around the levels to defeat the various dwarfs and trolls that got in my way. Blowing away fairy tale creatures is fun! But you can only do it so many times, and if the game isn't giving you an incentive to play it some more, then it's worthless in my opinion. I spent the first half hour on the tutorials....and then an hour and a half doing nothing but fighting bots. As soon as I realized I wasn't getting any more achievements I popped the game out of my 360 and went back to Gears of War. I would think that with Next-gen games we'd have more content and stuff to do. The game starts off with this interesting little video showcasing the battle between the characters, and I'm shocked because this game could've made for an interesting single player campaign. Why not give it a story!?

Visually the game isn't really all that amazing either. I thought the original Halo looked better than this game. It has a cartoony look to everything and the dwarves look more adorable than they do extreme. The backgrounds and everything just don't seem to have that great of detail either. I mean the maps are well designed, but they all look pretty bland and generic. And one thing that really bugged me about the display was that you can assign your spells and tech stuff to the top corner frames on the screen. But in an odd choice they decided to make the very top left, be the Left Bumper, and the one below it, the Left Trigger. Now the Left Trigger is higher than the bumper, so the corresponding screen displays, should be like that too. I found myself throwing grenades when I didn't want to, because of my habit of assuming that the top left action is the top left button. So for a Shadowrun 2, fix that little problem. And sound wise.....nothing stuck with me. The characters don't say anything but screams. The female narrator of the matches has nothing interesting to say. And the music was pretty weak so I just played with my Hard Drive's music.

And that's Shadowrun in a nutshell. I gave the game a chance. Many would say that reviewers are supposed to beat the game before they review it. Well, what do you do if the game is already beaten? Or if you are limited to experiencing only the single player game like a select few of us are? I'm sorry folks, I couldn't tell you how fun online is. All I can say is that the game was fun in single player, and I love the unique direction this game took the genre. Too bad it wasn't pulled off correctly.

IN THE END...
My score reflects the lack of Single Player. If you don't have Xbox live (which isn't free), then you won't be experiencing the true greatness this game has to offer. But from what I played, it was a very neat and unique FPS that did some innovative things. And teleporting around is freaking awesome. If you play online, try it out. If not, don't even waste money on this.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 09/25/07

Game Release: Shadowrun (US, 05/29/07)