The Magic and Mayhem of Shadowrun

We look at FASA's cross-platform, RPG-turned-shooter.

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When Bill Gates personally announces your game at a press conference the entire gaming world is tuned into, you're going to have a hell of a lot to live up to. That's exactly the position the Shadowrun team found itself in at E3 2006, when an early build was demoed as part of the Live Anywhere initiative.

Unfortunately, the reaction they got wasn't entirely expected. The complaints were many - why were the graphics so disappointing, how would they balance things between PC and console users, why were they turning a beloved cyberpunk RPG into a first-person shooter?

It's nearly a year since Microsoft first showed Shadowrun and the game is now in an advanced beta stage, on track for a launch this summer. Things have changed considerably since it first materialized. We sat in on a demo run with several members of the game's development team to see how it's coming along.

Shadowrun is set several decades before the famous pen-and-paper RPG. It is a dystopian future where magic has been rediscovered and blended with technology, and a group called the Lineage struggles to protect a magical ziggurat from the RNA Corporation's exploitation. Combat locales vary wildly, ranging from clean, exquisitely decorated corporate buildings to the dirty, grimy slums of Brazil's imagined future.

To make full use of the magical element of the game's setting, FASA developed a new abilities system that allows players to use magic (think teleporting or summoning), technology (super-speed, X-ray vision), or a mixture of the two. Equipping more magic skills leaves less space for tech enhancements and vice versa, so you must decide carefully how you want to better your character. Enhancements are equipped before a round begins; you start with a very limited amount of money to purchase skills, earning more as you play and receiving bonuses for exceptional performance.

Adding to this system are the game's four character types, which add variety and strategy to the game. FASA has put a lot of work into balancing them. Elves are extremely fast and have great magical abilities, but are rather fragile and can't handle heavy weaponry very well. Their polar opposite are the trolls - big, ugly freaks who develop a hard skin as a defense mechanism after getting hit and are able to carry heavy weapons with ease but are slow and limited in their magic strength. Dwarves are thick-headed (literally, they're immune to headshots) and have the unique ability to drain magic from their surroundings and other players. They're also slow to recover and rather cumbersome. Us humans are the mealy, "well-balanced" type.

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