Shadowrun vs. Shadowrun 67
eToyChest's regular 'I roll 20s' column today looks at the different faces of Shadowrun in the world of Videogames. Before the most recent, ill-conceived, 360 title there were several other attempts to bring the rich cyberpunk-meets-Tolkien world to gamers with controllers. Some met with more success than others. From the article: "In the Genesis Shadowrun, you played an actual Shadowrunner, the sort of guy a corporation would pay to do their dirty work, and then deny the existence of after the fact should things manage to find a fan and hit it. Moreover, you were given the ability to create a character designed after whichever abilities and archetypes you found to be most savory, and as a result, a huge array of hybrid character styles were available, creating a game with a good deal more replay value than most Sega Genesis action RPGs."
Sounds familiar (Score:5, Insightful)
Hmmm, take a product that somebody else produced. Modify it slightly, slap your name tag on it, and sell. Sounds familiar.
Shadowrun vs. The Matrix (Score:2, Insightful)
Now why would I want a Shadowrun game that will, in essence, replicate that feeling I had after watching the Matrix movie trailer? It will probably look like Shadowrun in that it will be futuristic and dark, and have similar ideas or themes. But it still won't be Shadowrun, dammit!
The good ol' days (Score:2, Insightful)
The SNES version was okay, but the Genesis version was always my favorite in that it allowed more customization. Both games allowed you to hire other runners, and I'm not quite sure which one had more to select from, but Genesis gave you the options of either hiring them for a single run or hiring them as permanent companions. In relation, Genesis used a more complete stat set than SNES so that only increased the control you had in developing your characters.
Matrix combat in Genesis was more challenging than SNES, but more rewarding as well. Of course, almost nothing else gave more satisifaction than masking pass a strong IC. I would have liked to see the ability to choose your race, though, since that would bring out many more options.
The stories in both games were okay, though not as complex as some of the Shadowrun novels from the same era.
Re:SNES Version (Score:3, Insightful)
Gleh.
Karma will get them (Score:3, Insightful)
Now, I will bad mouth this game every single chance that I get. I hope that they choke on the costs and release the brand to someone who can give us a good game that actually hase something to do with Shadowrun.
Re:Karma will get them (Score:5, Insightful)
Same here. Been GMing the game since the first edition came out.
Initially when I heard that there was going to be a 360 Shadowrun game coming out I had figured it was an RPG and fully intended to purchase one of the consoles solely to play this game.
Then I find out it's to be a first person shooter...and then I hear that they are ripping out the entire history and starting from scratch in a rather warped way...then I see the movie promo for the game and see that it's a deathmatch game with pointy eared avatars, some magic (rocket launchers by any other name...), and what looks to be a rez spell...What the heck? I also seem to recall reading something about magic being a finite resource controlled by possession of a handful of artifacts which seem to be the "prizes/flags" you fight for in the game?!?
Honestly, Microsoft, why did you bother getting the license if you are going to completely gut the entire game world? All you do is annoy those of us who love it...and for people who don't know it, well why would they care about the Shadowrun name being on the game in the first place?