Shadowrun is a mixture of class-based gameplay and a round-based weapon-purchasing system. At the start of each game, players choose from one of four races (humans, elves, dwarves and trolls), each of whom exhibit their own racial characteristics. The differences vary from simple stats, such as health and mana levels – used for spell casting – to character model sizes and unique, species-specific abilities. So, for example, humans are able to take technology upgrades without the accompanying detrimental impact on spell casting, while elves can regenerate their health. Trolls can spawn defensive armour when shot, and dwarves, who have the highest mana total, regain it at such a slow rate that once it is spent they must resort to leeching the reserves of nearby friends and enemies.
Accompanying these racial traits are the upgrade and weapon-purchasing options. Throughout the various rounds players accrue currency that can then be spent on spells, technology upgrades and weapons. Spells and technology upgrades remain for the entirety of the match, but weapons (the normal array of shotguns, machine guns and so on) can be lost if the player is killed. It’s here where Shadowrun reveals its truly staggering level of depth and finely tuned balance. The spells available to players let them resurrect fallen team-mates, teleport through walls and ceilings, cast glowing trees that give out health, create vast barriers of mana-stealing spikes, turn invisible to avoid enemy damage, physically throw friends and allies around and summon huge monsters under your control. Technology upgrades, on the other hand, allow the player to see through walls, fly through the air, attach an aiming upgrade, or dramatically increase their speed. At any one time the player can have three of these mapped to the left trigger and shoulder bumpers, with any remaining quickly accessible from a circular menu.
There’s little doubt that the game allows the player to perform some amazing feats, such as teleporting through walls and floors, which is so utterly seamless and glitch-free it’s a joy to enact. And using abilities in combination can produce some surprising results; what is most impressive, however, is how each feature has been so superbly balanced against its fellows. The number of possible player configurations is huge and it's a real testament to the game that there aren't any set-ups which dominate. Because the game isn't hampered by players picking from the same small handful of über-combinations, each game always manages to throw something new and interesting at you. Even after 20 or 30 hours you'll still be tweaking and adapting your style, trying out new, interesting set-ups just to see what happens. It's this degree of variety that gives Shadowrun legs. While it may have a limited set of 9 levels (with 3 smaller variants also included), the replayability comes from the way teams of players consistently surprise and innovate using the mechanics they've been given, as opposed to the same experiences just played out in different settings.
The spells and tech-abilities all have little interactions with each other and carefully thought out balancing twists have been thrown into the mix. Take the Enhanced Vision tech-ability, for example, which allows players to see enemies through walls and ceilings. It lasts for a few seconds and the player's HUD is updated with enemy heat signatures – there's no cost to use it but it takes a short while to recharge. Now, when activated this can provide a real tactical advantage, but is offset against the fact that all the enemies it highlights will get a notification that they've been scanned, providing forewarning of an impending attack. Additionally, those who have the Smoke spell equipped will not be shown and with proper teamwork and load-outs these players can then provide a stinging counter-attack against the vision user. It's this kind of detailed game construction, of which this is just a single example, that makes Shadowrun such an incredibly satisfying title to play, with gamers having to carefully plan each action they take, balancing both their own and their opponents' capabilities.
This isn't to say that Shadowrun is a game you can only enjoy with a dedicated team of regulars. Sure, there's not much here for people without Live accounts, but it's one of those shooters, much like Team Fortress 2, where the simple act of playing around with what the developers have given you is entertaining enough in its own right. Even when lumbered with a collection of uncooperative team-mates, it's still possible to win thanks to a number of ability configurations suitable to a lone-wolf style of play. The developers have also implemented a fantastic little UI addition, with the player able to hit up on the D-pad and immediately report the locations of any enemies in sight. This really helps to keep the team's voice channel free of random chatter and can be utilised alongside abilities such as the Enhanced Vision, mentioned earlier.
The developers have thankfully bucked the growing trend of throwing an ever increasing number of game modes into multiplayer releases, instead focusing on just the two. As with the exclusion of any significant single-player component this has allowed them to test, hone and refine what is present to an incredibly high standard, in addition to preventing any fragmentation of the player base. This is exhibited by the two small but significant differences between the modes that give each its own flavour (besides the obvious dissimilarities in objectives). In Attrition it isn’t possible to destroy dead bodies by shooting them, which would prevent resurrection, instead requiring players to beat the body with the flag. Securing the flag in Attrition also provides the player with the locations of every enemy in the map, while revealing themselves at the same time. Subtle variations like these make for experiences that, while not too divergent from each other, ensure that players don’t get stuck playing modes they don’t really enjoy. This all means that, even years after its release, there’s still a significant number of games going at all times, an impressive feat not too many Xbox Live games can lay claim too.
There’s such a vast level of attention paid to every element of the game’s design, and the way it plays, that to overlook it purely on the basis of its somewhat, albeit quite charmingly minimalist-styled, lack of visual polish is nothing short of criminal. Underneath the hood is a well-honed, constantly surprising beast and one that isn’t purely for FPS fans, thanks to a generous degree of auto-aim that places much of the emphasis on tactics and intelligent usage of the tools at your disposal. For those who aren‘t afraid of a little experimentation, Shadowrun is an endlessly replayable game, while it might look short on content the development time was spent where it really counts: on the player experience. It’s the sandbox equivalent of the round-based shooter and at the end of the day, how many games let you chase down other humans as a giant, katana-wielding troll, while they flee in terror?