Shadowrun: Half a Game?

That Shadowrun is coming out for Windows Vista and Xbox 360 on May 29th is soooo last week's news is not lost upon me. Yet I soooo wanted to talk about what the world's first cross-platform FPS means for gaming.

It's not that Vista owners and 360 players will be able to compete with each other for the first time ever has me a'twitter. I'm actually more interested in exploring what constitutes a full, complete game in this age of arcade revivals, episodic content and expansion packs.

Specifically, Shadowrun is a strictly multiplayer game and will retail for full price - $60 to $100 depending on where you live. Why does this not bother me very much? Does it bother you? Is this an acceptable proposition in the years to come for our beloved hobby?

I attempt to answer my own questions after the jump.

So, Shadowrun is only going to support online multiplayer over Windows/Xbox Live. Are FASA and Microsoft Game Studios out of their freakin' minds?

Surprisingly, no, they are not.

After detractors tired of pre-hating the game for not staying true to the brand's roots as a pen-and-paper RPG by being a CRPG, the game attracted additional flak for not having a single-player mode. Xboxers without a net cable plugged in and a Gold subscription would be left out in the cold. They could perhaps enjoy the meager scraps of a few single-player training scenarios, if even that . The cynical-minded of us could speculate this is just a clever way for MS to shepherd more Silver players into becoming paying subscribers to Live or even as a foreboding sign of things to come in the industry. Let's face it: our games are getting prettier, but the content is shrinking and companies are taking less risks in a world where 30 million dollars, a staff of 100 and 3 years of development time can still result in a bomb that sells less than 100,000 copies. Developers are narrowing their focus, finding a niche and focusing their efforts on a few key areas of the game experience.

But does this grim reality of the games industry really matter to you and me? There we are, standing in the console aisle of our favourite retailer and we're considering shelling out full price for a game that has the content equivalent of the icing on the cake we used to have atop the single-player main course. It wasn't so long ago when multiplayer modes were almost like a luxury. Most gamers were still chugging about with their 56k modems. Net code was primitive at best and if you got a deathmatch game running smoothly, that was a reward enough.

It wasn't until the late '90s when a trio of PC first-person shooters set the precedent for multiplayer-exclusive gaming. Tribes (1998), by Dynamix, not only eschewed single-player options, it introduced jetpacks and operable vehicles for the first time in the genre. Both Unreal Tournament (1999) and Quake 3 (1999), by Epic and Id Software respectively, featured respectable single-player matches versus intelligent AI bots, but the real deal was testing your reflexes against human opponents in the online arena. Today all three of these games are hailed as modern classics and -- certainly in the case of Quake 3 -- are still being played by a hardcore community of gamers.

Whether Shadowrun joins the lofty ranks of these classic shooters still remains to be seen. I was very apathetic to this title when it was initially announced. Personally, I'll take a long, involving single-player campaign over addictive mutliplayer any day of the week. Call it the gradual numbing of media exposure or just the passing of time, but I've been slowly warming up to the possibility the game might actually be top quality... perhaps even as good as my beloved Unreal Tournament.

In addition, All the VIP bloggers and gaming press that got their hands on the Shadowrun beta have nothing but great things to say about it, so that is a very encouraging sign indeed. Ah, but the doubts persist. Only 3 modes of online play? Less than 10 maps on launch? My mind ponders how long it should take to develop a shooter like this. FASA devs keep harping on how they have fine-tuned the play balance to a razor's edge. The map count may be small, but each one offers layer upon layer of strategic depth and replayability.

Come May 29th, we will all get a chance to decide if this truly is a great game for the ages or merely half a game that costs a full chunk of change.