Screenshots released from the game are beautiful and show the amount of work the designers and the artists have gone to in order to make a good game. Players will have fully rendered 3-D environments to combat each other.
The original Shadowrun game rose to an overnight cult following in 1989. FASA Corporation published the game from that period to 2001 when they closed their doors and sold the rights to WizKids, another company created by FASA’s owners/product designers Jordan Weisman.
The RPG was set in 2050 and the major conceits were that the world had changed from nations and being politically-driven to megacorporations and being profit-driven. Magic and magical creatures and races had also returned to the world. The players usually rolled up characters who became “shadowrunners.” They were called that because they ran between the shadows of the megacorps and off the grid. They were usually hired by “Mr. Johnsons” to steal data, corrupt computer systems, and kidnap employees.
Shadowrun the PC Vista and Xbox 360 game is set in Brazil in 2021 and is a prequel to the events that changed the world. In the RPG game, the VITAS plagues (Virally Induced Toxic Allergy Syndrome) and the Computer Crash of 2029 set those events in motion. The new game is going to backfill some of the history of the RPG and sharpen the definitions of the races involved in the Shadowrun world.
Article comments
1 - mattness
Greetings from Poland, Mr odom :)
In your article you didn't mentioned, that you wrote novels placed in Shadowrun universe.
As an author familiar with RPG could you tell us, what you think about FASA Interactive idea to create Shadowrun First Person Shooter game, not computer RPG?
PS. pen and paper is still live and running (now 4th Edition): Timeline is set in 2070ies.
Regards
MATT
2 - Mel
I didn't mention it here because doing so seemed self-aggrandizing. I did mention it on my personal blogspot, though. I gotta pick the game up today. My kids and I are looking forward to it. The fact that I wrote books in that universe makes it even sweeter. I'll have a review up by this weekend.
3 - Ken Edwards
Really great write up Mel. Thanks.
4 - blings
I am looking forward to your review, as I have been unable to find one thus far. i am on the fence about this game and can't wait to read some user input.