Title Shadowrun Date 06.07.2007 Genre Online FPS Platform Xbox 360 Developer FASA Interactive Publisher Microsoft Games Studio

Shadowrun has been in development for a little over a year, and it has finally arrived in the early summer rush of 2007. In the past few months, Shadowrun has received a fair amount of press, but not enough to hype it into mainstream status. What little hype that was generated was due to the promise of Xbox Live gamers being able to play Windows Vista players at the same time, and FASA Studios indeed lived up to there side of the deal, but is this small gimmick enough to overshadow what is still at it's core, a mediocre game? Let's find out together.

Gameplay and Multiplayer
Shadowrun is a lot like buying a used car, you get the car of course, but a lot of the bells and whistles that you come to expect from a new car, are entirely absent. The same can be said about Shadowrun, as this game is lacking everything in just about every department. The standard idea behind Shadowrun is about as simple as they come. Play a multiplayer game. That's about the size of it, there is no story, and there is no plot, just multiplayer. However, those who do not have access to Xbox Live Gold will be somewhat pleased to know there is a “training mode” in which you can play bots, but overall, the bot A.I is lukewarm at best, and will lose your attention in a matter of a few hours. But like I said before, Shadowrun is mediocre as they come, and the same applies to the online part of the game as well.

Shadowrun is scarce in terms of content. There just simply isn't enough ‘game' to warrant a full sixty dollar purchase. My first major complaint is the lack of a decent arsenal. You have access to only 8 weapons, and none of which are anything different than what you'd come to expect, you have the regular machine gun, pistol, a sniper rifle, and the rest of the regular bunch, with NOTHING that stands out. The game does however try to stay interesting with the use of magic. Now, the magic used in this game is actually fairly decent, but all it really is, is like any power-up you'd find in games like Quake 4, just in a portable manner. The combination of spell craft and gunplay sounds great on paper, but in the end, it's no different than a game like Unreal or Quake. Shadowrun still does try to mix up the fun with multiple races of Characters. You can select from Humans, Elves, Trolls and Dwarfs. Sounds bizarre for a shooter huh? Well, that would be affirmative; these races from the RPG world don't mix well into the deathmatch gameplay we're used to seeing.

It can make things interesting at times, but overall, it just ends up looking ridiculous. How's the multiplayer as a whole you may wonder. Well, it's okay for the most part. The game has only 9 maps (although it's more than likely more will arrive for download). These 9 maps which can be played over 3 modes are very well designed and fairly diverse from one another. The game types however, are the major downfall of Shadowrun's overall multiplayer experience. You have Raid, which just a fancy way of is saying, hey this Capture the flag. And of course regular deathmatch or as SR calls it “Attrition”. Extraction is the third game mode in which players from each team must race to an area of the map and acquire an artifact and return it to a separate location. That's all you get boys and girls, 3 modes, 9 maps, 4 classes and 8 weapons. No double digits here. This game should have been a budget title, and it shows. Just like I said, Shadowrun is identical to buying a used car, and I rest my case.

Graphics and Audio
I’m going to cut to the chase. Shadowrun looks like Timesplitters on a last-gen console. The Visuals are muddy and look awful. Perhaps the developers were busy making a Single player…wait no. Maybe they were busy adding lots of great multiplayer options. Nope, wrong again. Shadowrun fails to meet today's standards by a long shot. The muddy textures and drab coloring makes Shadowrun look very dated, and is a very big turn off for those who have been playing games like Rainbow Six Vegas and Gears of War. There are some good things to be said however. The levels look alright, with some decent lighting and a fair amount of detail. The same can be said about the Character models. But even these pros cannot save this game from complete and utter failure in terms of making a game that looks like today's heavy hitters. This Xbox 360 title looks like a game that was rushed out in time to make an early summer release.

Final Word
Shadowrun offers a fairly unique experience, what with mixing all these odd elements into the game, but in the end, it's nothing more than a shallow title, that should have been released at a budget price. Spend your money else where folks.

Game Score

C-

Reviewed By: Luke