'Shadowrun'
Console or PC?
Both platforms have devotees to debate their merits each time a promising game is released exclusively for one but not the other.
FASA Studio finally brings the two camps together in "Shadowrun" (PC, Xbox360; $49.99; Rated Mature), a first-person shooter that, for the first time, allows up to 16 gamers using either platform to team up and compete on an online playing field.
Heavy on magic as well as mayhem, "Shadowrun" is a near-total online competition that requires PC players to use Windows Vista and all players to have access to Xbox Live Gold or Games for Windows subscription services. Be forewarned: you'll only be able to play the training tutorial sections and you'll miss out on most of the game content without joining one of those online networks.
"Shadowrun" is set in the year 2021 in a Brazilian city, where swift run-and-gun action transpires in teeming favela slums and packed urban streets under the outstretched arms of the mountaintop statue of Christ the Redeemer. Do be sure to complete the aforementioned tutorials to get the hang of employing nifty new skills that quickly will be as useful as more conventional weapons.
When you're ready to engage in online play, sign in to your service and enter a public match. Initially, the service randomly assigns you to a group, but in short order will match you with folks whose skills and statistics are similar to yours. Players communicate by voice chat over headsets.
Your first choice will be to align with one of four groups -- humans, speedy elves, snarling trolls or unpredictable dwarves. Each brings their own abilities and characteristics into battles to determine who wins the right to control the world's magic.
You'll also get opportunities to acquire weapons, ingenious technology items and clever spells that provide much of the pleasure to be mined from "Shadowrun."
We particularly relished the thrill of zipping over and around city skyscrapers after attaining a set of trim glider wings and developing a flair for teleporting. Magic spells allow you to stymie enemies by reviving dead comrades and assuming the characteristics of an elusive wisp of smoke or a powerful gust of wind. Be sure, though, to gauge the amount of "essence," or ability to cast spells, that drains away each time you employ one of your tech items.
Countless possible combinations of magic and tech choices create fresh, constantly evolving game play. Trolls may lumber along like unyielding tanks in one match, then flip and dodge like lithe sword-wielding ninjas in the next.
Much of "Shadowrun" involves capture-the-flag-style quests to locate and retrieve artifacts stashed around the city. Environments are generally attractive and adequately detailed, but we would have appreciated more variety in the appearance of characters.
We also would have welcomed shorter waiting times to be admitted to new matches. Our biggest gripe: the surprising number of trash talkers -- vile even by the freewheeling standards of online gaming -- and perverse team killers who derive weird satisfaction from lobbing a grenade or otherwise wiping out compadres to seek glory in battle alone.
More than once, we found ourselves bleeding to death after being stabbed in the back by some katana sword-flailing Benedict Arnold who was supposed to be on our side, for crying out loud. We don't get what ails those folks, but here's to hoping they take the hint and give up on spoiling an otherwise satisfying game.
First Published: June 7, 2007, 1:00 a.m.
