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Shadowrun PC review   Page 1 of 3
Posted on Friday, June 22, 2007 by | Comments 13 Comments


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Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Developer: FASA Studio
System: PC
System requirements: 3.2 GHz CPU; 1GB RAM; 7GB hard drive space; Windows Vista; ATI X800 or NVIDIA 6800 display adapter with 256 MB RAM
Genre: Online 3D shooter
Release date: Available now
Review by: Michael Smith

Picture from Shadowrun PC review

The day PC gamers around the world have been waiting for has finally arrived. With FASA Studio and Microsoft Game Studio’s release of Shadowrun, the mouse-and-keyboard crowd finally has the chance to put the smackdown on their console brethren. And despite a few hiccups here and there, the developers deliver a surprisingly accessible gaming experience for veterans and noobs alike.

Although Shadowrun, based on a 1989 pen-and-paper role-playing game, is multiplayer-only, it does have a rudimentary backstory. Thousands of years ago, magic was a significant part of life on Earth. But its indiscriminate use brought the human race to the edge of extinction, and eventually magic disappeared from the world.

Then, in the early 21st century, a mysterious buried structure is found in the city of Santos, Brazil. International conglomerate RNA Global sends a research team to investigate, but they meddle in powers they don’t understand, resulting in a devastating release of magical energy that destroys half of the city, causes spontaneous mutations in some citizens and makes the artifact unreachable.

Some time later, RNA returns to Santos with a mandate to clean up and rebuild the city, but their real mission is to gain control of the artifact and the power it represents. They face stiff resistance from the Lineage, a group made up of the descendants of the survivors of the millennia-old cataclysm that originally buried the building. Determined to see to it that magic is made available to all, the Lineage fights a constant battle with RNA for control of Santos.

Picture from Shadowrun PC review

Shadowrun consists of nine detailed and visually striking maps, ranging from the marble hallways and lobby of an office building to a massive, multi-level outdoor venue featuring a structure reminiscent of an Aztec pyramid. Each map accommodates up to 16 players at a time (eight per team), with three of the maps sporting smaller versions for up to eight players (4 vs. 4). Two of the game’s three gameplay modes are available for each map, offering a good variety of action.

At the beginning of each round, players have cash that they can use to purchase weapons, tech items and magic spells. Of these items, three can be installed into each character for use in the round to come, and players earn more funds based on the success of themselves and their team. Each match lasts until one of the teams wins six, four-minute rounds, with victory conditions depending on the game mode played.

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This Comments RSS Feed 13 Comments:

chriskovo | June 23rd, 2007 at 11:58 AM Permalink to this Comment

Why don’t you say the compleate truth and tell them how MS restricts this game only to Vista users and how you can only search for multiplay thru their damn live system that you have to pay MORE MONEY for to connect to console users? Write a real review instead of fluffing MS.

draez | June 24th, 2007 at 8:44 AM Permalink to this Comment

You don’t have to pay MORE money if you already have a 360 live account, so what you are saying is only true for those people. Seriously, after the last few desolate years in PC gaming, I would expect most people interested in this game would have a 360 and a Live account.

As for the Vista bitching you seem to be doing, Vista is much more different in form and function than XP. Those who do not see this either don’t have Vista or don’t understand what it is to program for it. In short, Vista incorporates .Net as part of its core operating system, something XP can never do without a complete rewrite (which is Vista). This is key as .Net is much faster to write for than traditional C++. As it’s part of the OS now and not slapped on like XP, there’s much improvement in terms of executable speed. Remember, they’re trying to reinvigorate gaming on the PC. Not to mention they simplified the hardware requirements by assigning your PC a number. This way, you can clearly see if your PC is up to spec to run something. This might not be a big deal for you or me, but for the uninformed dad looking to buy his kid a PC game, it’s a Godsend.

You can argue the point that Vista is not yet as streamlined as its XP counterpart, and you would be correct; however, I seem to recall XP being a buggy mess before SP1. Let’s wait until SP1 comes out before comparing XP to it.

And before you ask: no, I don’t work for AVault; yes, I own Vista; yes, Vista is slightly slower at gaming than XP, but every OS goes through some growing pains (given what MS is doing under the hood, it’s a pretty impressive OS); and anything that brings PC gaming back is a good thing.

Sabre Runner | June 24th, 2007 at 11:51 PM Permalink to this Comment

And how about stating the fact that is probably bothering anyone out there who knows the true origins of the Shadowrun franchise? The fact that Micro$oft took one of the best, widest, most fantastic role playing games on the market and shrunk it down to a mere Quake 3/Unreal Tournament knockoff. Not only that, they managed to terminate, to cease and decease, the project that wanted to bring the true Sixth World of Shadowrun to life on the computer and made us lose our hope for, maybe once, a good CRPG – Shadowrun Online.
All this shows is that Micro$oft doesn’t need the Mozilla Project or Apple to copy good material and dilute it.

chriskovo | June 25th, 2007 at 5:48 PM Permalink to this Comment

so im suposed to pay for a serivce that i have gotten for free for the last 10 years just about? Not to mention that fact that if the gaming companies sign up for this live crap they CANNOT by contract offer any of these free services that i have expected in every game i now recive. As for vista i have played with it and it is a boondoggle in a work enviroment and at home that force users to cancel or allow any thing you do witht the freaking os. Que in that stupid windows defender crap that you cannot uninstall and they can have their crappy os, which by the way they are begging people to buy since sales have really not been that good. As for .net the framework was added to XP think its up to version 3 now. And you forgotten to mention the unbeliveable specs you need to run the damn thing and get thouse numbers up that you talked about. I have run a machine with 2 gigs of ram in it and vista was still slower then xp. And for winXP you didnt have 1/2 your programs refuse to install or work with the OS. Which is a big consideration in a business enviroment. As for PC gaming dieing, all majior gaming innovations will contine on the PC platform since it is much more adapable.

draez | June 25th, 2007 at 8:52 PM Permalink to this Comment

I wouldn’t pretend to know the Shadowrun franchise, just Vista.

Sabre Runner | June 25th, 2007 at 10:22 PM Permalink to this Comment

Here’s a good chance to get to know it. Pick up your 4th Edition books today. :)

Ophidian | June 29th, 2007 at 10:25 PM Permalink to this Comment

Alright. I saw Shadowrun when I was at E3 2006. The game looked and ran beautifully. I had one of the developers giving me a rundown of the game. As an FPS, its a great game that gives true diversity to FPS play. The FPS aspects added give a range of options and play that none other offer. Those whom play Counter Strike and Unreal and try to compare either played the game for less than 15 minutes or simply didn’t play it at all. As an FPS and RPG enthusiast I understand the difficulty in implementing a truely FPS-RPG and making it worth smoothly. I understand this as a developer myself.

FASA’s choice to make the game an FPS with certain semi RPG aspects was neither right or wrong. It was what was done. Deal with it.

To the review:

RPG Gamers: You won’t find the RPG aspects that you loved playing ShadowRun back in the day with pencil and paper in your grandmothers basement.

FPS Gamers: You will be delighted to find that the FPS genere has been revamped with a whole arsenal of tactics. Its no longer just point and shoot. Its teleport through a wall and ninja your opponent or fit a bunch of tech gagets and go in like a war machine in true FPS glory.

Ophidian

Ophidian | June 29th, 2007 at 10:27 PM Permalink to this Comment

As an update: Vista is not required. There has been posts on the internet which I will not provide that show you how to play ShadowRun in all of its PC glory on WinXp.

draez | July 2nd, 2007 at 9:20 PM Permalink to this Comment

Ophidian,
can’t really play the game online with that patch, now can you? as posted before, tell the whole truth instead of just a portion that suits you.

pjf | July 10th, 2007 at 2:44 PM Permalink to this Comment

you can play XP shadowrun online with hamachi, works a treat although you will have to find other players doing the same. the vista version just had an OS check it wasnt written sec for vista, shadowrun is a great game.

Lamb Cannon | July 26th, 2007 at 6:32 PM Permalink to this Comment

just been reading through this little tussle going on here, i just got my new pc sorted and built myself a new beast, naturally got a copy of vista and my new system runs it pretty sweet. the thing that bothers me is i was looking at buying shadowrun but saw someone mention that you need to pay for some sub to play with ppl using the xbox 360′s, one of the reasons i was going to get shadowrun was that a few of my mates play it on the 360 and thought it’d be cool to blow some ppl away with them but not sure if i can be bothered with yet another sub after my internet bill and various mmo subs… is it a concrete requirement that you need to pay a sub inorder to play with and against the xbo 360 players?

really need to know before i go buy this game.

Wicked | August 9th, 2007 at 8:50 AM Permalink to this Comment

I agree with Lamb Cannons, why would those of us buy this game if it requires you to pay a subscription fee every month which is used predominently for Xbox 360 games. And you are only going to use the subscritpion to the Xbox live network for this game alone, and no others, because you dont have an Xbox 360 to take advantage of it.

However, I must admit the game does look great, but it is predominently a multiplayer game, so you wouldnt want to buy it without paying for the subscription as well. Therefore if you do end up purchasing this game, consequently, you will end up continuosly paying for it for the rest of the year; along with the rest of the subscriptions you may have to other games. – Its just not worth it!

omegabob | October 8th, 2009 at 2:12 PM Permalink to this Comment

I agree with chriskovo!!! Stop being a M$ stooge!!!!

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