GOTD – Shadowrun (Gen)
Shadowrun – Action / RPG (GEN)
Blue Sky / FASA
Shadowrun is a classic tabletop RPG system – in a dark, apocalyptic-esque future, complete with all the different races that are a hallmark of fantasy, mercenaries called “Shadowrunners” try to eke out a living. It’s a dark, gritty, yet somehow opportunity-filled world where individuals have the potential to take on the mighty megacorporations. The two games that have come out in the setting (this one and the SNES one) are no exception, although this is the more open-ended of the two games.
The game starts off with your character creation. Pretty much all you do is pick a class – decker, street samurai, or shaman – and you’re set free to do what you want, although you’re pointed in more or less the right direction to continue the plot.
What sets this game apart from other action-RPG games is the open-endedness of it – as well as the ability to pick your partners, upgrade your attributes using a point-based system, and explore what you can of Seattle, you can (and will, if you know what’s good for you) go on “runs” – in this game, randomly generated missions – to get the money to continue. Although the generation system could use more work (and most of the beginning runs are quite boring), there actually is a pretty large variety of work. Later in the game, when you have enough money to survive the harsher random-encounter type events, the game gets especially good. In addition, you get to modify your own stats using a point-based system. This non-linearity makes Shadowrun more like a PC RPG along the lines of Fallout.
While you’re having fun exploring Seattle, you can pick up the main story thread at any time. By the time you think of beating the game, you might be too powerful for it to be a challenge.
Between the variety of gameplay missions and the well-written, twisting plot, this is an excellent example of what a console RPG can be – but what most console RPGs still do not even try.
Give it a try. I doubt you’ll be disappointed.
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