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| | Difficulty: 3 | | Learning Curve: 4 | Published by:  a770106 | | Date: 2007-07-19 |
| | Gameplay |    | 9
| | Graphics | | 7
| | Sound | | 6
| | Value | | 9
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I have been reading the various reviews on Shadowrun and have found them lacking. By reading the reviews it becomes apparent that the reviewers spent little to no time playing the game to give an accurate review. I have spent hours playing this game (way too many) and feel that a fair review needs to be written. So, here I go.
 Graphics - 7.5
Where it is true that the graphics are not as good as Gears Of War, they are good enough to be next-gen, but not by much. The character models are done very well, but it would have been nice to have the ability to customize the way each of your individual characters looked. The textures of the maps are done well and there are some very good lighting effects. I think that I would have liked to see the explosions have better animations or when you become smoke, be able to see your weapon in your hand. There are no ladder animations, meaning that when you climb a ladder all it looks like your doing is running up the ladder. It sound like it the developers were being lazy here, but it actually works because when your being chased you can fire back or cast your magic to assist, rather than being stuck in an animation and dying. They do well when casting magic, for instance, when teleporting there is a nice fire like trail that follows you and there is a corresponding "burn" mark when you appear through a wall. Yes some of the textures are used a few times, but with how frantic the gameplay becomes, you have little time to notice the map textures. Your too busy trying to stay alive.
Sound - 7.0
Now if you have played any FPS in the past you know what to expect with the weapon sounds. A shotgun sounds like a shotgun and a pistol like a pistol. They haven't attempted to reinvent the wheel here. They haven't done anything new with these. However, with the sounds do shine when casting your magic. When teleporting, casting smoke or rezzing, the magic sounds pretty cool and it works very well in game.
Gameplay-8.9
Now here is where the game truly shines. Unlike many FPS's this game requires teamwork and communication. There is nothing worse than being on a team where everyone is attempting to play hero-style, thinking that they are able to pull of feats of heroism like you can on RB6 or Ghost Recon. Coordinating your attacks, defenses or movements are crucial for success. Yes, knowledge of the map helps, but still a good communicating team that works together will fair much better than the team that knows the maps but wants to be an individual. Okay, enough of that rant. The ability to use magic, tech and weapons together is something new and refreshing. No longer is it just a matter of who has the better gun. You can now teleport out or become smoke to retreat from a fire fight. Also every action can be countered. If someone is using smoke, no longer will bullets or grenades hurt that person, however gust will cause them massive damage and will cause them to unsmoke and when you unsmoke there is a 2 second delay where that person can move but cannot use magic, tech or weapons. So they are pretty much screwed there. You can combine the use of magic with the weapons and tech as well. You can use gust (think force push) with the grenades to throw them long distances or use rez (to resurrect fallen teammates) with smoke to prevent weapon damage while rezzing. The game shipped with 9 total maps to play on. It would have been nice to have more maps, but I will say that each game that I have played always plays out differently. Yes there are areas that tends to see more action than others, but no game is the same. There are plans for new maps to be disseminated through downloaded content, but I would have liked to see more maps to start with from an online only game. Online only-that means that there is no single player story mode. You can play a bot match by yourself, but that really cuts down on the fun factor. There is cross platform play feature as well, meaning that you are able to play the game against people on Windows Vista as well as Xbox 360, so finally that dispute between which system is better for FPS's can finally be settled. I have only played on the 360 but so far I haven't seen any advantage from one system to another.
Achievements - 8.5
The achievements in this game are the type that will take some time to achieve. Take a look at the achievements to see what I mean. To achieve these achievements requires you to have a minimum of 4 people on each team, bots don't count and some require 6v6. The achievements can be made through either public or private matches however the above mentioned requirements are needed.
Overall - 7.9
Does this game have it flaws, yes. But it's fun factor highly overshadows its downfalls. This game has it's roots in a pen and paper game, but advocate for the PnP game are upset that it doesn't follow their style more closely. Personally, I don't care. I read somewhere that if Halo had been published with the name of Dungeons and Dragons, it would have made no difference to me because fun is fun no matter what. I would have to agree with that statement. This game is fun on so many levels because of the ability to customize you character to suit your gameplay style, are you a person that likes to be in the firefight, trading rounds with the enemy? Be a troll with a minigun. Are you a person that likes to take care of your team? Ensuring that everyone is alive and kicking? A dwarf casting rez and with tree of life can save the team. Personally I choose the latter. The game does have a learning curve that requires you to spend some time playing it to understand. Bot matches are one way to learn the game, but the bots are predictable in their gameplay and always seem to know that you are targeting them, even through a sniper scope across the map. But it will give you a stronger grasp on the basics. The reviewers that have been reviewing this game clearly didn't spend anytime playing this game to give an accurate review. Very underrated in my opinion
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