Controller versus mouse & keyboard

One of the most hotly discussed aspects of Shadowrun--along with its very genre--is its cross-platform multiplayer, which will pit controller-wielding Xbox 360 users connecting through Xbox Live up against mouse & keyboard-equipped (or controller-equipped, if they so desire) Windows Vista users connecting through the upcoming Live Anywhere service. When creating or joining online games, there is no way to tell whether other gamers are playing on PC or Xbox 360, meaning you won't constantly be kicked by opposing platform partisans.

With such a setup, gameplay balance between platforms is of course of crucial importance. Shadowrun played with an Xbox 360 controller uses essentially the same aiming system used in Bungie's Halo games, with the same programmers handling the task on both franchises. Contrary to frequent casual internet remarks, Halo (and by extension Shadowrun) does not feature "auto-aim," per se; rather, its reticle has slight traction applied as it passes over a target, causing it to slow very slightly and make precise movements more manageable. Hitboxes are also slightly exaggerated.

FASA maintains that the system allows for an equal playing field, and indeed during both of my extensive play sessions I failed to perceive any particular imbalance. Gitelman recounted a recent event during which staffers from Official Xbox Magazine went up in Shadowrun against staffers from PC Gamer, with each side using its magazine's respective platform. Editors from both publications grudgingly admitted that the system works. To ensure the game is tweaked as best as possible, FASA enlisted among its testers equal numbers of Counter-Strike league players and Halo 2 league players.

Despite putting a great deal of effort into creating a balanced game, FASA seems intent on keeping Shadowrun from becoming unduly competitive. Money, used to buy tech, magic, and weapons, is awarded based on damage caused, not numbers of kills. "There's no kill stealing. We hate that stuff," said Gitelman. "We learned that back with MechAssault 1." Unusually for an Xbox Live game, though performance statistics are kept from round to round within a given game, there is no persistent stat tracking and no leaderboards ranking the world's best Shadowrun players. FASA hopes that this will discourage some of the exploitative techniques that frequently accompany Live games in which players strive to continually improve their ranking.

Live Anywhere

Shadowrun is a Live Anywhere launch title for Windows Vista, meaning it will help inaugurate Microsoft's first major step in taking the seamless Xbox Live experience to PC. Though the machines on which I played Shadowrun this week were not hooked up to the internet, I was still able to bring up the Live Anywhere menu and get a sense of its basic functionality. It is styled much like the Guide menu on Xbox 360, and features a gamer profile similar to those seen on Xbox 360 or Xbox.com. The profile lists the gamer's screen name, number of games owned (presumably referring to Live-enabled games), total Gamerscore, and number of Achievements earned. It seems likely that Microsoft will encourage Games for Windows developers to take a similar approach with Live integration to that required on the part of Xbox 360 developers.

There are various menu options, including Messages, Friends, Players, Private Chat, and Personal Settings. Only the last of these was accessible without internet connectivity, though the first four are fairly self-explanatory. Personal Settings allows the player to adjust settings for in-game voice chat.

Turn the page for details on training mode and closing thoughts.

Training

Though Shadowrun is essentially a multiplayer-only game, there is some single-player content by way of eight chapters of training missions. Each chapter is themed around particular spells, tech items, or races, progressing from the most basic and essential abilities and working up to those requiring the most finesse. The first chapter deals with the glider, teleport, and enhanced vision, which are essentially the workhorse abilities of mobility and awareness in Shadowrun. The latter three chapters deal with the three non-human classes--dwarves, trolls, and elves--each of which has its own unique racial abilities.

Each training mission has the player completing a number of tasks illustrating how to use a particular ability or character. At the end of each chapter there is a bot battle designed to allow the player to effectively use the techniques taught in that chapter. Bookending the chapters will be contextual fiction presentations. Though there is no narrative progression in this game, progressing through the training missions will give the player a more concrete sense of the Shadowrun world and the events that led to the game. One reason for some of the breaks between this Shadowrun and previous incarnations is that the shooter is set some twenty five years before the events of prior Shadowrun products. Upon being told by an event attendee that this means the setting is not true Shadowrun, Gitelman returned, "If this isn't a Shadowrun setting 25 years before, then Knights of the Old Republic isn't a Star Wars game 5000 years before."

Still fun

Despite its various controversial aspects among certain groups of gamers, based on my experience with the game so far, Shadowrun remains a creative and well crafted multiplayer shooter. Abilities such as teleportation, which at first seem to make gameplay overly haphazard, are actually very well integrated and quickly become a crucial part of movement. Other more minor skills have their own less obvious uses, and it is likely that a frequent topic of internet forums will be how to combine them in new ways to strategic effect. For example, one developer pointed out two combinations involving the gust skill, which is fairly unassuming when used on its own. A player might cast a group of strangle crystals, which damage players who come in contact with them, then gust an opponent directly into the patch. Skilled players can also practice throwing a grenade and gusting it, greatly increasing its potential distance.

Shadowrun's cross-platform multiplayer may prove to be a great boon in the modern gaming era, which has seen many formerly PC-heavy gamers migrate to consoles--most commonly to the Xbox platform in the case of PC gamers. Gaming communities such as that of this site may benefit from the ability to keep from being splintered with multiple versions of the game.

All in all, my outlook on Shadowrun remains essentially unchanged from that of last September. The game's appropriateness to its source material is an open debate, and one I am ill-equipped to address, but as its own game it is refreshingly inventive and seemingly quite well executed.

FASA Studio expects to ship Shadowrun for Windows Vista and Xbox 360 in the first half of 2007.