Customer Reviews

Shadowrun

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I was a little weary of purchasing this game due to the lack of good reviews on this page. However, I noticed a lot of these reviews are simply aimed at the fact the game is Vista-only. (despite being titled Games for Windows.) Since I currently run Vista, I don't really care that XP users can't run the game. Quite frankly, it bothered me that so many negative reviews weren't about the game, but simply that MSFT decided to make it Vista.

Getting past this, I installed the game on my system and it runs beautifully. My computer is heavy on the performance side, so I'm not sure how well it runs on older systems. (I assume most Vista-installed machines have decent specifications.) I also own an Xbox360, so it's great to easily load up my Xbox Live account and play with all my friends. The game matching takes a minute or two, but there are always games available, even late at night.

The gameplay is enjoyable. Note: There is no campaign or anything like that. The only single player aspect of this game is the training. You can pick up how to play the game fairly quickly, but it will take some time to really master the skills and use them competitively.

It's got a CS feel to it (since you buy your equipment/magic at the start of every game) but the magic adds an interesting level of strategy to the game. Since people can fairly easily be resurrected in the game, mowing down an enemy and moving on isn't always the best strategy.

Overall, this game is an enjoyable FPS. As I said earlier, the learning curve is slight to play but large to really get good. I recommend this game to anyone who doesn't have any gripes about it being Vista only.

Shadowrun is a game that seems to have a lot of potential. In the end, though, it isn't fully exploited. The game mixes fantasy games and sci-fi shooters in a marriage that should be any nerds dream, and it does so very well. When you go online the game is solid. The problem is that there are only 3 game modes. So, after completing the tutorials and playing a few matches online, you'll be wondering where the rest of the game is. Sadly that is a question the will forever remain unanswered.

There are a couple things to note about Shadowrun. First, it is Windows Vista only and does require a decent system (2GBs RAM and Ge Force 7600+ graphics card). It is enhanced for dual core system so if you have one it, its a plus. Also, since this is a Games for Windows LIVE title, the online requires a Windows LIVE account (hotmail account) to play online. You can play against other PC players with a silver account, but to most games are from Xbox 360 players and you'll need a Gold account which is $50 a year if you don't already have one (it does come with a month free). Of course the game can be played locally over LAN, if you're opposed to online for whatever reason.

Shadowrun is set in a fictional future where, in addition to technological discoveries, magic is uncovered for the first time in 5000 years. The discovery of magic lead opposing forces into war and also created different races of meta-humans. As the player, you're fighting for the forces of RNA or Lineage for control of magical artifacts simply called "artifacts" (creative, right?). Anyway, the story doesn't matter at all and serves only as an excuse for you to be shooting at other players online.

When you join a match you'll be placed on a team. At the beginning of each round you'll have a chance to buy your choice of weapons or skills. For anyone who has played Counter Strike, that should be pretty familiar. Then you'll set off to destroy the opposing team. Should you be killed you will not respawn, but you can rejoin the fight if one of your team members revives you. Once the game gets going there will be people flying and teleporting around, as well as shooting and healing, killing and reviving. It is a lot to wrap your mind around and that is the real strength of Shadowrun.

In the game there are four races, human, elf, dwarf, and troll. Each race has its own advantages and they are all balanced very well. In addition to the races there are Tech and Magic... oh and of course guns too. Magic skills allow you to heal team mates, or teleport, or even summon minions and more. Tech abilities allow you to use a glider, or have radar like vision, or improve your speed, or aim better. As for weapons there is your standard fair of pistol, machine gun, rifle, shotgun, sniper rifle, mini-gun, rockets, and (maybe not so standard) katana. When you start messing around with Race/Skill/Weapon combos then you start to understand Shadowrun's complexity, and its uniqueness. From my experience it is easy to make a combination you like, but difficult to master all the different aspects of what your enemy may be doing at any given time.

So, the game is totally based around team play and, as I previously mentioned, there is an astounding 3 different modes to play and that might even be brought down to two. Each map is set up as either a Extraction Map or a Raid Map, and Extraction Maps you can't play Raid on and vise-versa. Extraction has both teams fighting to bring the artifact back to their base, while in Raid only Lineage tries to capture the flag while RNA tries to protect it. In either of these game modes if one team eliminates all players on the other team, they win the round regardless of the artifact. The third game type, availible on all maps, is called Attrition, where the objective is to kill the other team. In Attrition the artifact stays on the map, but only serves as a kind of power-up that either team can use. While all of these game modes are fun they're not very diverse and I really feel the game could use more modes to choose from.

Graphically the game does pretty well, but there are a few issues. Each team has a different look for the different races, but other that that there is no difference between characters. You can't change your clothes or looks in the slightest way, there isn't even a choice to change gender (everyone is male). The developers also failed to put in a ladder climbing animation for some unknown reason. Still, everything looks good even on the lowest settings. Everything holds up graphically even with 16 players quickly moving around and using magic and skills.

Sound is pretty simple in the game. I don't know that there is much to say on it. It isn't bad or distracting, but its not something you'll be looking for the soundtrack for. One thing the game does that I appreciate, is that it gives you auditory warnings as to where enemies are and where your team mates are fighting. Some people might find that annoying, but it isn't overdone, so I'm glad they included it. As far as sound effects go everything sounds like it should.

In the end, Shadowrun is a fun, but limited game. Everything it does works well, but you might get sick of what is really just two different types of matches. This PC version can actually be picked up fairly cheap now. I got mine for $10 with a free month of Gold. If you're the kind of person who enjoys playing games like Counter Strike endlessly and want to try something different you need this game. For everyone else, you wont be hurting yourself if you decide to skip this one.

They should have just put out a FPS with magic. This is nothing like the Shadowrun game, I am very disappointed in this. The options are limited you don't really gain any weapons, spells or even cybernetic enhancements that you can keep, you have to keep purchasing them at the beginning of every match with very little time to decide what you want as it rushes you in to a capture the flag match. There is no real team feel to this game even you healing tree can heal the enemy or your team there is nothing that really stands out. I find it very lacking as even a FPS it fails to grab my attention and hold it. Lucky for me it wasn't very expensive.

I primarily purchased this game for the computer because I was able to pick up a copy for $5 for my Xbox 360. Shadowrun is one of the few titles available that is made for Cross-Platform gaming. I bought this copy so that I could play it against my girlfriend on her laptop. It's a lot of fun networking the laptop and the Xbox 360 together to play this game.

I know that there was some concern about the online features still working since the publisher has stopped supporting the product. I can confirm that it does still work online (as of 02/11/2011) and that it is fully compatible with Windows 7 (although it only lists Vista on the packaging). It runs smoothly and is still fun to play 4 years after it was released. For the price, I would recommend it for anyone that is looking to add a distraction to their day.

Most underated game ever. Top 10 best games I have ever played, it is the most fun if you have your own "clan". Takes skill unlike Cod4+Cod5. Good game for Windows Vista.

This game is very fun when you get down to it, the gameplay depite what others have said is quite innovative, and if your playing on vista all the XBOX360 players love you. i run an Average system for vista 3GB of ram 2.0Duo core 256mb video card, and it runs great, only laggs when the game picks a bad server which is 1 in 20 games at most. this does get a bit boring after about 50hours. but its great fun until your tried every combo of magic, races, weapons and tech. The guy who said he had a robust system, he must of had some drivers out of date, because this game runs great. Im guessing 64bit has some graphics driver problems but thats nvidias fault not this very fun game.

At first glance, I was very excited to finally see a FPS made after an RPG that really deserves one. This game was very slow paced as a pen and paper Role Playing Game. For example, if you fired you're minigun at a crowd of corporate thugs; you then had to roll 100 dice just to see if it did anything. It totally took the vindication out of "G.E. Vindicator Minigun". So I got this game, loaded it up and got ready to hook up with my trusty fixer, make some contacts, and geek some corporate thugs to make some nuyen and karma! To my horror, it wasn't "Shadowrun" at all.

The good: The artwork rocks; maps, characters, gear, weapons and spells all represent their RPG counterparts pretty well and look and behave almost exactly as I once imagined I like the minigun's behavior, even though it lacks a belt feed system. The game play and net code are also very refined and solid, with everything reacting how you would expect.

The bad; Most of the RPG's charm and diversity is missing. There are very few maps, weapons, cyber enhancements, races, and gear to choose from and this makes the game get old real quick. My favorite characters, the deckers and riggers are absent, and that means no computers or security systems to hack and vehicles and drones to drive. No paranormal animals either, not a single cockatrice, or hellhound, and you can forget dueling a dragon or feathered serpent...

Game design wise, I could write a thesis on how this game went wrong. Seriously! The concept behind this game is totally uninspired. It would have worked better as a MMRPG like World of Warcraft or a single player FPS like Metal of Honor. Instead, it has a very generic feel; like a quick and dirty Xbox adaptation of Halo, with some gimmicks thrown in for color.

The programming its self is lacking too; The AI is erratic and I've seen them teleport through doorways, since they would otherwise run into walls and get stuck in corners, which they happen to do a lot too. The controls are limited to one input device, and only 2 gamepad setups and you can't bind your own buttons and axis's.

Technically, it's been proven that this game's DX9 graphics engine works just fine on XP, so what's up with Vista being only operation system that it was released for? this is scandalous! My Saitek P990 game pad is also incompatible, and when it's plugged in; I can't play with the mouse and keyboard. It's like they programmed the game so I have to use Microsoft's Xbox controller or as an inconvenience; reach down and around the back of my case and unplug the controller so I can use mouse and keyboard. The only online choice is the Microsoft's Live service, which is too expensive for me. They could have at least given a choice to use the free Game Zone, for us less fortunate people.

The ugly: Fasa went out of business years ago, so any games made after their products aren't going to represent any of their vision or standards. This game was made simply to make Microsoft a quick buck, plus promote their pay services, Halo game platform Xbox peripherals and new OS. I'm sure the Owners of the Shadowrun license, whoever they are now, will also collect some royalties too. This product is a key example of why and how NOT to make a Shadowrun FPS game.

I used to own the 360 version of this game for almost 2 years, and I've played it extensively for those 2 years. Now that I have traded it in (dumb decision) and I eventually built a good gaming rig, I wanted to get the definitive version of Shadowrun (I mean, 1080p @ 60FPS with M/KB controls??? OH YES!). I ordered the game, got here on time, popped it in, everything installed, launched the game no problem, and got into a match. Everything ran flawlessly (RIG: 8GB DDR2 ram, GTS 250 1GB, Windows 7 64, AMD X4 955) and it's still easy to find a match considering how old this game is.

BUT THEN I REALIZED.....

I couldn't hear a thing from teammates....
I went through GFWL's menu and settings, making sure that the voice audio was going through my speakers, etc. I finally looked up as to why i couldn't hear anyone and no one could apparently hear me... Remember when Xbox Live had an update that "improved" the voice chat quality for the xbox? Well... they didn't do that update for the pc version of SR..

WHAT THAT MEANS FOR PC OWNERS:

this means that you cannot hear 360 players and they cannot hear you...which for a game that is so reliant on teamwork, is VERY frustrating. I haven't touched my pc copy for almost 5 months now because of this discovery. JUST TO CLARIFY: the game is just as fun, if not better, than the xbox version EXCEPT you cannot communicate at all with your teammates, all thanks to Microsoft for not supporting their products. I understand that they closed down the studio of the game, but for the service of GFWL, that's all on MS' part. HOWEVER: if you are playing with other PC players, you can communicate with them.

VERDICT: if you don't really want to talk to people, then go ahead and get this game. It's incredibly underrated. but if you are like me and have friends that own the xbox version of the game and wish to play with them, you won't be able to talk to them....which is incredibly weak on MS' part.

A lot of reviewers dispise games because they lack a single player campaign but i feel that if you can have a game with only single player you can also have a game for only online multiplayer. like others have said the learning curve is rough but it is a very fun game especially when you have friends that play too. unfortunately games for windows live support for this game is slowly melting and there is a glitch now that only xbox can chat with xbox and pc can chat with pc. at this price its a steal, buy it, play it, love it!

This is a great game and the combination of magic and technology realy great!!! The game is fun and can help you spend some time. The grathics are good. The only thing bad in this game is the missing campaign.
you realy should buy this game, it isn't to expensive and it wrath you money.