Shadowrun

Now, I have played a couple D&D games but I am certainly not a paper RPG regular. So I don't actually know much about how Shadowrun the table top RPG plays out. But I have played the SNES game and I am practically chomping at the bit waiting for the new Shadowrun game to come out this month. In the meantime, lets talk about the SNES version and pretend the Xbox version never happened.

The SNES version is a very difficult point and click adventure game. It has you controlling Jake Armitage as he tries find out who tried to kill him. Along the way you will unlock your hidden magic talents, gain the ability to hack computers with your mind, fight a giant clown mask and make friends with a half-fox women. 

The cyber punk future setting is mixed with a small element of mysticism. The idea is that in the future magic has made a return with the appearance of magical races (elves, orcs, etc.) but most people have instead taken to advanced technology that allows direct mind control of machines. Oh, and mega corps are evil and run the planet. Now the magic element could have simply been an excuse to have magic spells AND guns, but the game (and the table version) actually make it a paradigm of the world: the struggle between nature and technology and how a balance between the two needs to be found. 

As for the gameplay, its more fluid than you would think but still fairly clunky. You move around in isometric environments with the D-pad and that feels fine. But when you want to interact with things, you have to first pull up the hand icon, scroll it over the target then select an option from the menu. The selection aren't cluttered, but its still slow. Combat is similarly clunking with a targeting reticle that forces Jake to hold still while you shoot; Contra this is not. Its not awful or anything, its still fun to wander around and talk to people. 

STOP HIDING!!!

If I had a problem with the game, it would be the conversation system. As you progress you pick up keywords which you can query people with to see if it means anything to them. I actually like this element if it is done well, since it really gives the feeling that you are investigating things. But its not done well here. You get too many keywords as the game progresses and not asking the right person the right question brings the game to a grinding halt. I got stuck at one point where I had to call this guy on the phone and ask him a question. But the thing is that this guy exists in the world to talk directly to, but he won't give the right answer if you ask him in person. It has to be over the phone. All games that employ this element should have the game track which conversation elements are no longer important and delete them from the list. 

All in all, it was a fun experience. I won't lie and say I didn't use guides, but the game was really hard and not always in the good way. But it did an excellent job of sucking me into the story and getting me interested in the Shadowrun universe. I simply cannot STAND the wait for the new game. 

Next time, I am going to talk about Skyrim and player choice.