Shadowrun (PC) is a hard game to dislike. That sentence, strange as it sounds, contains what will probably be a common theme among reviewers, particularly PC ones. But I'll explain more about that in a second. First, let's talk about what Shadowrun is all about.

Take a futuristic, urban cyberpunk scene, mix in some mythical races (Elves, Dwarves, and Trolls), and add high-tech weapons, along with the rediscovered power of magic, and you've defined Shadowrun's unique setting (borrowed loosely from the tabletop role-playing game of the same name). It's an intriguing backdrop to pair with a First-Person Shooter (FPS) and FASA, the game's developers, have used the source material wisely and with abandon.

In some ways, the sheer variety of character options makes Shadowrun a bit off-putting for newcomers. You'll first need to determine your character's race: (Elf, Human, Dwarf, or Troll), each of which brings specific bonuses and penalties, then you'll be faced with the selection of up to 3 specific technical aides or magical powers to enhance your latent racial characteristics. For example, Elves are quick movers, they can regenerate their ‘essence' (the energy source for magic or tech), and they heal fairly quickly once they're out of combat. You have several weapons to choose, from automatic machine-guns to down-n-dirty shotguns, they all form a cool ballistic line-up and there's even a katana for those who really like their combat up close and personal.

Once you've purchased your weapon (in between match rounds), you'll decide which high tech gizmo or magical spell should round out your combat package. These arcane abilities or futuristic enhancements are the heart and soul, along with the racial characteristics, of what makes the game so uniquely compelling compared to other, more mundane shooters. Magically oriented players can choose from an intriguing mix of spells including Smoke, which turns you mostly incorporeal for a period of time; Teleport, which works like it sounds; Tree of life, which grows a temporary, health-giving tree wherever you cast it; and Summon, which brings an ethereal baddie to fight for you, . Gear-heads will enjoy amping their aiming abilities with the Smartlink cyber connection, which tightens your controller's aim; Enhanced Vision, which gifts you with Superman's X-ray vision to see foes through walls or buildings; a Glider that supplements your jumps with a short-lived but useful flying boost; and the Anti-Magic Generator, which as you guessed, nullifies magical power in a limited range for a short time. I'll let you discover the others yourself.

So far, so good, right PC gamers? Wrong. Serious concerns abound all over the place, though they aren't quite horrible enough to entirely ruin the fun. The first issue for most PC aficionados is the Vista / Games for Windows Live requirements. Even if you overlook the fact that Microsoft has denied their largest gaming base, Windows XP users, the opportunity to play Shadowrun, there's the whole ugly issue of Games for Windows Live, a service that limits cross-platform play between Xbox 360 users and PC gamers to only users with a Gold account. This is somewhat mitigated by the inclusion of a 1-month coupon inside the game box for a Gold trial account but it's certain to rankle many in the PC gaming community who have never had to pay for this kind of thing before.

Delving into the much vaunted and most impressive feature of the game, the cross-platform play between console gamers and PC FPS specialists, you'll find that the PC version is quite significantly gimped. It turns out that all this marketing hype over determining which system is better for FPS gaming has clearly been all for nothing due to the heavy-handed way they've tweaked the balance between sides. The designers have slowed down PC movement, to some extent, but the main limitation comes in the form of a much wider and more unrealistic spread of bullets if you mouse-look too quickly (an inherent strength for mouse users) though this is somewhat compensated by a slightly sticky auto-aim that actually hinders more PC shooting fans than it helps. Admittedly your aim is improved by crouching but only a tiny bit and definitely not enough to feel ‘right' to PC gamers. The weapons themselves don't provide quite enough visual or aural cues to give you a good feel for the damage that you're dishing out, either.

It's not that the play balance between systems doesn't work, it all seems reasonably balanced at the end of each round but for players coming from a strong PC FPS background, it's going to feel wonky, even well after you've become very experienced with the game. Once you've tampered a bit with Shadowrun for the Xbox 360, you'll find yourself even more annoyed at all the game control enhancements in the console version in light of all the detractors applied to the PC version.

Furthermore, in an effort to cater to the console / Xbox Live crowd, the main game browser is seriously limiting and clunky. After timing the entire process from selecting the specific server options you'd enjoy (a whopping two choices - # of players and game type) until actually landing in a populated match, I found myself waiting upwards of 6 minutes or more. For ANY system, this is simple unacceptable. The piddling amount of server options only added to my disdain for the browser. I saw nowhere to turn off Friendly Fire (Ed note: purchasing the Smartlink tech prevents the user from firing on teammates) and spent the entirety of one of my first games being team-killed by a teammate - not a lot of fun, as you can imagine. There is a dedicated server browser for PC gamers only, but I rarely found a server on it. FASA does include the ability to play together in a consistent party across servers but it didn't seem to work very well when I tried it with some friends; half of the time the game splits your party up to balance things out and start a match anyway, so it seems like a poorly implemented feature at best.

Another serious gripe about the game is the cost itself at $49.99 for only nine maps and three game modes - two of which are capture the flag style games based around an artifact and the other is basically Team Deathmatch. As if that wasn't bad enough, the game just feels unfinished in general, particularly the player animations, which have a floaty, sliding feel to them as they move around the game world. I couldn't help but feel that this was a concession to smooth frame rates despite the bland texturing in large portions of the game. One positive in all this are the well-made maps. Though you don't get many, they've been well-tweaked to handle all the bizarre enhancements your character can use during battle and they seem particularly well-balanced in this regard.

It all comes down to fun though, once you've shut down your PC. Was the experience somewhat enjoyable? In Shadowrun's case, I'd say ‘yes, I had some fun'. Was it a polished, ‘tailored to PC gaming' sort of fun? No. This is definitely one game that you'll want to pick-up once it's on the bargain shelf and a year after Vista is much more widespread - and even then, it may still frustrate PC players as much as it tickles their fancy.

Jun 27, 2007 | 3 comments
Tony DuLac