Just a regular RPG.

But with guns, cyber tech, and ogres. It’s Shadowrun. 

Let me get this out of the way: Shadowrun is a hit or miss game. For me, it was a miss. However, I have to admit that Shadowrun is a game I fully endorse anyone playing. It’s more of an adventure game than an RPG, more point-and-click isometric shooter than turn based menu JRPG, and somehow more linear than any Final Fantasy. 

In Shadowrun, you play as Jake Armitage. Probably. You start by kicking yourself out of a morgue after having your brain fried. The “doctors” run away, believing you’re a zombie, so they’re not very helpful in helping you find out who you are. But, rather than settle down and figure out where you live, you swear revenge and plan to finish whatever you were doing before getting fried. After tracing your steps and meeting some old friends, you learn you were attacked by someone named Drake and were supposed to deliver a program to the Aneki Corporation. 

This requires a lot from Jake. Many investigations lie before him, which requires learning an ever growing list of keywords and finding an assortment of random people across much of 2050 Seattle. This feels like a needle in a haystack situation, as Seattle is full of people, many of whom are useless or fill a niche role. Can asking this person one of my thirty keywords help me? Usually not. In fact, even the correct combination feels like it doesn’t help much. The complete picture is beneficial, but the complete picture feels too hidden without a guide. 

When he’s not being a private eye, Jake’s shooting… via a SNES controller. It’s as clunky as you’d think. Press "A" to bring up a crosshair, and then guide the crosshair to your target. All while being shot at yourself. You will always be down with this system. Enemies see you first, shoot you first, and then keep firing as you aim at them. And they can move! You cannot. More often than not, you're outnumbered, too, so this isn’t an exciting way to play a game. And you are constantly under fire. Just walking around the streets of Seattle will have gunmen leaping out of bushes or firing out of small peepholes. There is no rest. Not only is it clunky, but it’s repetitive and boring. No gun feels different, and the gameplay never changes. You do get magic later on, but most of those are utility or defensive. The only offensive magic is either worse than your gun or only useful against one target. 

The last interesting mechanic involves hacking into the internet, called the matrix in game. And when you hack, you warp yourself into the net. This takes you to an ugly grid where Jake evades invisible enemies while opening grey boxes. It is, like the shooting, repetitive and boring. And it never grows mechanically. It starts boring, gets used too frequently at the end to pad, and ends up feeling like a chore. At least you get a rush of adrenaline when you kill a man in Seattle. 

The presentation of Shadowrun is along the same lines. There’s not much variety in the game, either visually or sonically. It’s all streets, dirty buildings, basic bedrooms, and those awful matrix scenes. It feels like there are only six enemy sprites, as well. There are only fifteen songs on the soundtrack, and four of them are menu songs or story tracks. There are plenty of portraits of people you talk to and a number of unique NPC sprites, but that only goes so far. The mercenary shadowruners don’t add anything to the game, so who cares? The direction fits well, which adds to the one thing Shadowrun does well. 

Nothing feels like Shadowrun on the Super Nintendo. For better or for worse, it is a unique game in a field of copies. It looks gritty and grimy, sounds gross, and even plays like it hurts to experience. And for that, I believe Shadowrun is worth playing. It takes some time to figure out where to go, so put your adventure game eyes on. Nothing about this is a traditional RPG, especially since it’s western, one of the few on the system. If you need something different, here it is. It’ll reset your palette and make you yearn for something. Will it be more Shadowrun or swords and sorcery JRPGs? That’s up to you. But it's just such an interesting experience that, while it didn't vibe with me, I think it needs to be played. Not before, nor since has any game felt so unique without being a total crap pile, at least. 

Ultimately, I found Shadowrun to be a 28 out of 50 game. I just want more, which the Harebrained Scheme games do. I want to play Shadowrun Returns so bad all of a sudden…