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"Shadowrun (Xbox 360)"

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This thread has been linked to the game 'Shadowrun'.
Fri 15/06/07 at 13:30
Regular
"Picking a winner!"
Posts: 8,502
When it comes to online gaming the first person shooter always seems to be king. Shadowrun takes the usual first person shooter rules and spices them up a bit – throwing in an array of magical abilities and tech items that make for some entertaining online gaming.
Shadowrun is a purely online shooter, so if you don't have a gold xbox live account or don't like gaming online then you may as well stop reading now. You can play offline against bots but this is poor when compared to the online mode.

After playing through the quick tutorials (which are a must to get the most out of this game) you can jump straight into matches. There are four main character types for you to choose from - Humans, Trolls, elfs and dwarfs - all with their own stats and special abilities. Once you've picked your character type it's time to get started.

Graphics wise the game is nothing special. It looks good but it is far of the standard of games like Rainbow Six Vegas and Gears of War. Although the special abilities like teleporting and casting magic do look pretty impressive. The maps are quite varied and on multiple levels so whether you like running around with the katana blade and slicing enemies or sniping from a high vantage point there seems to be something for everyone.

Shadowrun seems a bit like counterstrike at first. At the start of each round a buy menu allows you to purchase weapons, magic and tech to use. Weapons are lost when you die but the magic and tech items you buy stay for the entire game. There are the usual weapons you'd expect from most first person shooters - rifles, sub machine guns, shotguns, rocket launchers etc.

Teamwork is key to wining rounds, and you'll notice that you'll have to use different magic to combat the enemies tactics throughout the game. Whether your defending or attacking an area you'll want to use the best magic and tactics to prevent the enemy from winning. Throughout the game you'll notice that tactics will change quite a lot as the enemy counter your tactics and hit you where you are weak.
Magic abilities include things like being able to teleport short distances through objects, revive killed team mates and summon a beast to kill nearby enemies. Tech items include enhanced vision, gliders and smartlink which improves your accuracy and zoom on weapons.

Being able to revive killed team mates and heal yourself with the tree of life mean some rounds last ages and you find yourself killing the same people over and over. This leads to many enjoyable moments and picking the right magic is almost as important as picking the right weapons - if not more so.

Shadowrun is also the first game to allow gamers On the Xbox 360 to play against gamers on the PC. How well this will work still remains to be seen - as long as they stop the PC gamers from being able to cheat as much as they can in other games then it should be a useful feature that is likely to appear in many games to come.

It sounds good but sadly not everything in the game is good. Firstly finding a game can't be quite a long process unless you are invited straight into a game. The game also automatically assigns teams based on the players skill rankings – good in principal but when you want to play with a few mates this becomes almost impossible.
Also from the few games I've played in full I've already noticed people glitching to get the upper hand - hiding in usually unreachable places. Enough to make you give up and play something else.

If you have friends that have this game then there is a lot of fun that can be had from the game, and when teams are balanced it requires a good team effort to win which makes each match play differently each time. I've had a good few laughs online and plenty of enjoyable games when the room has been filled with friends.
All the games I've joined to play on my own have been disappointing though. After eventually getting into the game the enjoyment was pretty poor and I got bored very quickly of watching people try the same thing over and over or abuse the comms.

If you were hoping to pick this up on the off chance that you'd get a lot out of this then I'd advise you to either rent it first to be sure or wait for the price to drop. In idea the game could have been pretty great but a few minor issues make it just another run of the mill first person shooter – something we already have plenty off.
It will provide some online entertainment for a while but the game just fails to live up to it's potential.
There have been no replies to this thread yet.
Fri 15/06/07 at 13:30
Regular
"Picking a winner!"
Posts: 8,502
When it comes to online gaming the first person shooter always seems to be king. Shadowrun takes the usual first person shooter rules and spices them up a bit – throwing in an array of magical abilities and tech items that make for some entertaining online gaming.
Shadowrun is a purely online shooter, so if you don't have a gold xbox live account or don't like gaming online then you may as well stop reading now. You can play offline against bots but this is poor when compared to the online mode.

After playing through the quick tutorials (which are a must to get the most out of this game) you can jump straight into matches. There are four main character types for you to choose from - Humans, Trolls, elfs and dwarfs - all with their own stats and special abilities. Once you've picked your character type it's time to get started.

Graphics wise the game is nothing special. It looks good but it is far of the standard of games like Rainbow Six Vegas and Gears of War. Although the special abilities like teleporting and casting magic do look pretty impressive. The maps are quite varied and on multiple levels so whether you like running around with the katana blade and slicing enemies or sniping from a high vantage point there seems to be something for everyone.

Shadowrun seems a bit like counterstrike at first. At the start of each round a buy menu allows you to purchase weapons, magic and tech to use. Weapons are lost when you die but the magic and tech items you buy stay for the entire game. There are the usual weapons you'd expect from most first person shooters - rifles, sub machine guns, shotguns, rocket launchers etc.

Teamwork is key to wining rounds, and you'll notice that you'll have to use different magic to combat the enemies tactics throughout the game. Whether your defending or attacking an area you'll want to use the best magic and tactics to prevent the enemy from winning. Throughout the game you'll notice that tactics will change quite a lot as the enemy counter your tactics and hit you where you are weak.
Magic abilities include things like being able to teleport short distances through objects, revive killed team mates and summon a beast to kill nearby enemies. Tech items include enhanced vision, gliders and smartlink which improves your accuracy and zoom on weapons.

Being able to revive killed team mates and heal yourself with the tree of life mean some rounds last ages and you find yourself killing the same people over and over. This leads to many enjoyable moments and picking the right magic is almost as important as picking the right weapons - if not more so.

Shadowrun is also the first game to allow gamers On the Xbox 360 to play against gamers on the PC. How well this will work still remains to be seen - as long as they stop the PC gamers from being able to cheat as much as they can in other games then it should be a useful feature that is likely to appear in many games to come.

It sounds good but sadly not everything in the game is good. Firstly finding a game can't be quite a long process unless you are invited straight into a game. The game also automatically assigns teams based on the players skill rankings – good in principal but when you want to play with a few mates this becomes almost impossible.
Also from the few games I've played in full I've already noticed people glitching to get the upper hand - hiding in usually unreachable places. Enough to make you give up and play something else.

If you have friends that have this game then there is a lot of fun that can be had from the game, and when teams are balanced it requires a good team effort to win which makes each match play differently each time. I've had a good few laughs online and plenty of enjoyable games when the room has been filled with friends.
All the games I've joined to play on my own have been disappointing though. After eventually getting into the game the enjoyment was pretty poor and I got bored very quickly of watching people try the same thing over and over or abuse the comms.

If you were hoping to pick this up on the off chance that you'd get a lot out of this then I'd advise you to either rent it first to be sure or wait for the price to drop. In idea the game could have been pretty great but a few minor issues make it just another run of the mill first person shooter – something we already have plenty off.
It will provide some online entertainment for a while but the game just fails to live up to it's potential.

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