Shadowrun: from RPG to FPS in 60 Seconds

Actually the 60 seconds thing is bunk; I just needed a somewhat catchy title. Team Xbox has posted the first in a series of articles focusing on the player-races for the upcoming shooter, Shadowrun.

Titled The Races of Shadowrun, (not the "Babes of" unfortunately), this first article is all about the Elves. The elves, you guessed it, are small and quick and have superior magical powers. Sigh.

Ok, I'll admit that I have not given Shadowrun a fair shake so far. Like a lot of people out there, I'm hung up on the history of that franchise. It started off as a pen-and-paper roleplaying game in the '80s and was ported to game consoles through out the '90s. I am a huge fan of the Super NES RPG that came out in the early '90s. That game stood out in a sea of cutesy Final Fantasy-esque RPGs that were the norm. It was gritty, mature and had a twisted sense of humour to boot.

When FASA announced that the new Shadowrun game would be a multiplayer-only first-person shooter, there was a collective "Whaaaaat??" from anyone who had even a passing knowledge of the franchise. To say it was a missed opportunity would be a massive understatement. It's like if Lucasarts announced a new game in the Star Wars franchise and it was going to be a Bejeweled-style puzzle game, with iconic characters' faces instead of coloured gems. Exaggerated? Maybe.

Having said all of that... the game as it stands is looking more promising as development moves along. Extra attention is being heaped on it thanks to it being the first cross-platform-play title, allowing Windows Vista users and Xbox 360 players to duke it out on the same servers. The FASA developers swear up and down that they have refined the controls so that PC players will not have a distinct advantage with their mouse-keyboard setups. It remains to be seen whether they can deliver on that promise, as well as the promise of a well-balanced multiplayer shooter that has the legs to last longer than your typical frag fest.