[8/28/04] Shadowrun (Genesis)

[OverlordMondo]

Title: Shadowrun

Genre: Action/Adventure/RPG

Platform: Genesis

Emulators: I used Gens.

 

 

The Time: January 31, 2058

The Place: Seattle, UCAS

 

Under the cover of darkness, a team of shadowrunners moves through the Salish-Sidhe wilderness.

 

 

Without warning, they are ambushed by unkown forces. The massacre is over quickly, but is captured on tri-vid by one of the slain member's cyber eyes.

 

The tri-vid was recovered and made national news. Michael, your brother, was the last to die.

 

 

Spending your last Nuyen to go to Seattle, you vow to avenge your brother's death. Landing at Sea-Tac airport, you flag a cab to bring you to Michael's last credstick transaction.

 

Stoker's Coffin Motel, located in the Redmond Barrens.

 

You ask if you can see Michael's belongings that were left here. But it turn's out your bro never paid for his stay. Things like that happen when you're ambushed and killed. It's a hefty price of 250 Nuyen. Naturally, having spent all your money coming here, you're broke. He suggests running up to the Jump House and accepting some shadowruns from the Johnson there. (A Mr. Johnson is a Shadowrun contracter, he sets you up with runs so you get paid. The title is for anonymity) This one'll set you up with some easy runs for some quick cash.

 

The run's he'll give you are mainly escort and courier missions. But sometimes he'll give you a ghoul hunt assignment, where you travel to the local ghoul house and bust up some zombies. Later on, from other Johnsons, you'll get paid for hacking into various sources, sneaking into one of the Megacorps and coming out with someone who wants out of the biz or some plans for their next big product, among other things.

 

After you cough up the money you'll be handed a small plastic box containing Mike's belongings. First off is a letter...

 

M--I don't trust our Johnson, and neither should you! His story just doesn't wash and you know it. I'm out on this one and I hope you are too. I'll wait for you at the Tarislar City Inn in Puyallup Barrens.

 

You'll also find a wristband that calls a Medic if you die, who then ships you off to the local hospital and takes some of your money. Your first cyberdeck. Two photos. And, ironically, 500 Nuyen.

 

And then you're free to explore. This game is based off of the pen and paper RPG Shadowrun, and is much more closely tied to it than it's previous incarnation on the SNES.

 

The first notable difference between this game and the last is character generation...

 

 

Okay, so it's not what we could've hoped. It's still better than "Jack of all Trades" from the previous game. You now get to choose from...

A Street Samurai - Cybered up and ready to shoot crap

A Decker - Master of Cyberspace

A Gator Shaman - A magician who draws his magic from the Animal Totem Gator

Also, development is much more advanced this time around. You can choose to install any cyberware you want, at a loss of essence. Essence is all but useless unless magic is invloved, at which point it becomes integral.

 

Decking has also recieved a major improvment. Instead of walking around a grid, easily destorying any ice (a term for ICs, or intrusion countermeasures), you have actual combat with them, blasting them with lightning or healing as you see fit. You move around a much more complicated grid, true to the original game. You also have the option of attempting to hack in the old fashioned way, by using disguise programs. You're cyberdeck now comes with several choices of programs to use (thought it starts with only 4). It also now has actual stats, such as memory and power.

 

 

Your magic now comes in several levels, you have the choice of the amount of force to apply, your stance, etc. Using powerful magic causes drain, which is basically stun damage.

 

You now have two health bars, your stun bar, and your damage bar. Blunt weapons, magical drain, and some special guns cause stun damage. Blades, bullets, and magic will most often cause physical damage. Feedback from getting attacked in cyberspace will also cause damage, which type depends on the severity of the attack.

 

Combat is much smoother. You move around normally, cycle through targets with one button, and shoot with another. Meaning you're not a sitting duck when trying to shoot anymore.

 

The amount of freedom you get is excellent as well. You get to choose exactly when you want to go somewhere and do something, when you want to search for your brother, and when you want to wander around looking for unarmed citizens to shoot.

 

The graphics have been improved, but still nothing great. Still a fair amount of palette swapping. Sometimes they don't even bother to do that.

 

The sound is still excellent, though the midi synthesizing doesn't do it justice.

 

Overall, this game is much more true to the original, and makes me proud to be a shadowrunner.

 

Gameplay: 9/10

Grahpics: 8/10

Sound: 9/10

Control: 9/10

 

Overall: 9 A

 

I give this game a chummer.

 

[Gryph]

This is the superior version, I love it. Shadowrun rules.

[Wizard]

Somehow I prefer the SNES version.

[deemeph]

One of the best games ever, only flaw was the sort of weak end of game and ending. But one of the most original titles to ever come out and considering when it was released still nothing has been released quite like it.

[Darken]

Nice Review......

[Spiffy]

a nice 7/10 game for me.