Shadowrun (SNES, 1993)
Graphics-6 Sound-7.5 Control-6 Challenge-7 Story-6.5
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-8.5 Fun-6.5 Originality-7
Overall Score-6.5
+
Interesting intro (wake up in a mourge with memory loss)
Decent dialogue system - pick up keywords/topics which you can then ask anyone about
Doesn't hold your hand (at all)
Hire shadowrunners (mercenaries)
Pretty well made dystopian atmosphere (Blade Runner and fantasy inspired)
Cyberspace/the matrix (minesweeper/ms röj-like mini-game where you find info and money, also used for disabling security functions or opening doors)
Fairly open ended structure with an investigation style story progression
Some cool spells (invisibility, summon animal spirits)
Killed shadowrunners are teleported to where you hired them and keep their equipment (but you need to rehire them and they act as if you never met before)
Decent character customization (cyberware upgrades, weapons/armor, character attributes and magic which are manually allocated at a save point)
Duel arena (make extra money), somewhat comical tone
+/-
Money is scarce
Enemies in rooms respawn randomly (you can make enemies disappear from a room or area by re-entering it)
Very hostile beginning area
Unlimited weapon ammo
Some barely useful spells/weapons (grenades, uzi, powerball (damage is too random)
Fully concealable jacket (unless you want to take on the Drake building prematurely))
Can't teleport out of dungeons
Cyberware not explained in-game when examining them in the shop
The crowbar only works on one door (the ship)
Shadowrunners don't level up (makes more fragile runners less useful some ways into the game)
Only one save point per area
Most Shadowrunners aren't worth the price
Awkward way of selling equipment and accessing runners' status screens
Silly ending (game replays the boss fights and some key scenes while breaking the fourth wall and making some jokes via the NPCs and enemies' dialogue, the dog spirit insults you by calling you "whelp")
-
No map
Lots of slow travel between new and old areas
Clunky controls for examining and interacting (Resident Evil-like gun combat - fights turn into a war of attrition/button mashing (no moving while shooting (even though enemies can) or taking cover), point and click-like system without mouse support, can't see Kitsune's MP while picking a spell to cast and there's an annoying delay between picking cast spell and picking which spell to cast during which the enemies can attack you), time limit on text messages, large black border around the screen, hard to communicate properly with NPCs (they don't answer your question most of the time, limited topics (a better design choice would've been to remove useless topics from each conversation to speed things up)
Can't fight using your fists or the scalpel (could've been tactically interesting in some situations such as against the gun sentries)
Lack of alternate solutions (killing the girl to take her tickets to the cage, many scientists in Drake's building are only there as cannon fodder and can't be talked to, only exception is the Drake fight where you can use the Jester Spirit)
Oddities (use sunglasses as a disguise from the morticians (lol!), civilians don't react to fights in the street)
Can't check weapon stats in-game
Hidden time limit on runners ("I think I've earned the money now, bye!") - can be increased through the Skill Software cyberware
Archaic menu systems (going through dialogue options is a chore as well as using items from menu or casting spells via Kitsune)
The cortex bomb (hits you suddenly with a beeping noise and a time limit until death at around 20 mins - need to find a specific doctor you don't know the whereabouts of and who is in a pretty tough area at this point of the game)
Sometimes hard to figure out what to do next (vague directions from Dog Spirit (fetch quest, what to do after killing the shaman), how to find out about the strobes)
Most enemy attacks are unavoidable
Some trial & error (some cheap enemy placements (Drake's building, group of invincible Orcs on the ship), the matrix)
Can't manually tell the chopper pilot where to go on top of Drake's building (you need to finish a specific quest for the location to pop up in dialogue - even though that keyword is already known to you via datafile) - same with the boat taxi, need to remember where you got the "ice" keyword from)
Can't check a Shadowrunner's name (in a simple manner) or stats before hiring
Sometimes glitchy auto-targeting feature (rats)
Hitting select (to check party stats during combat) resets your crosshair position to above your avatar
Some duplicate NPCs (who say nothing useful) and re-used portraits
Somewhat uneven difficulty (sewer, Drake's building lowest level)
Sometimes buggy AI (rats in the beginning of the sewers, runners in the Darkblade mansion, ghouls in the catacombs)
Fairly easy to miss the mermaid scales
Same death scream for all regular enemies
Not much of a difference in sound and appearance between the guns your avatar can use
Plot oddities (Armitage is not saved as a new keyword after phoning Drake (did you get to know your last name before that? - no reaction from the protagonist)
After video phoning Drake the enemy doesn't send reinforcements to your location or change their plans in any way)
Notes:
- Bulletproof Vest not purchaseable
- Broken Bottle does nothing
- Mobile Phone item was removed from the game
- A bug lets you infinitely collect money from one quest up until you enter the Volcano
- Another bug lets you easily kill the Gold Naga over and over
- Phonebook received?
Comment in Swedish:
Ett spretigt spel, med nästan lika många dåliga som bra idéer. Stridssystemet exempelvis, känns som det är skapat för de som tyckte Ikari Warriors var lite för avancerat, och med en fot i peka och klicka-nostalgi blir det lika elegant som en amalgamfyllning. Ganska snart får man förlita sig på healing och osynlighetsmagi (som bägge är OP för övrigt), samt dålig fiende-AI. Å andra sidan är detta mer fokuserat än MD-versionen, och bjuder på en åtminstone delvis engagerande deckarhistoria med en hårding i trenchcoat som tappat minnet i huvudrollen. Det senare var ju inte ett uttjatat tema än i spelsammanhang.
Spelet börjar rätt mörkt och ogästvänligt, lite som första Fallout, men väger snart upp detta med saker som påhittad gatuslang och ett segment där du testar och lyckas förklä dig med ett par solbrillor. SNES-charm.
Störmomenten är många fler, drog mig inte för att använda guide ett par gånger då ledtrådarna var vaga och utmaningen mest bestod i att lägga märke till omärkvärdiga saker. Men med 20 år på nacken kan jag förlåta det och fortsätta njuta av den trots allt ganska välgjorda cyberpunkinramningen, samt att låta mina legoknektar/shadowrunners dö på onödiga sätt.
Level Design-6.5 Frustration-8.5 Fun-6.5 Originality-7
Overall Score-6.5
+
Interesting intro (wake up in a mourge with memory loss)
Decent dialogue system - pick up keywords/topics which you can then ask anyone about
Doesn't hold your hand (at all)
Hire shadowrunners (mercenaries)
Pretty well made dystopian atmosphere (Blade Runner and fantasy inspired)
Cyberspace/the matrix (minesweeper/ms röj-like mini-game where you find info and money, also used for disabling security functions or opening doors)
Fairly open ended structure with an investigation style story progression
Some cool spells (invisibility, summon animal spirits)
Killed shadowrunners are teleported to where you hired them and keep their equipment (but you need to rehire them and they act as if you never met before)
Decent character customization (cyberware upgrades, weapons/armor, character attributes and magic which are manually allocated at a save point)
Duel arena (make extra money), somewhat comical tone
+/-
Money is scarce
Enemies in rooms respawn randomly (you can make enemies disappear from a room or area by re-entering it)
Very hostile beginning area
Unlimited weapon ammo
Some barely useful spells/weapons (grenades, uzi, powerball (damage is too random)
Fully concealable jacket (unless you want to take on the Drake building prematurely))
Can't teleport out of dungeons
Cyberware not explained in-game when examining them in the shop
The crowbar only works on one door (the ship)
Shadowrunners don't level up (makes more fragile runners less useful some ways into the game)
Only one save point per area
Most Shadowrunners aren't worth the price
Awkward way of selling equipment and accessing runners' status screens
Silly ending (game replays the boss fights and some key scenes while breaking the fourth wall and making some jokes via the NPCs and enemies' dialogue, the dog spirit insults you by calling you "whelp")
-
No map
Lots of slow travel between new and old areas
Clunky controls for examining and interacting (Resident Evil-like gun combat - fights turn into a war of attrition/button mashing (no moving while shooting (even though enemies can) or taking cover), point and click-like system without mouse support, can't see Kitsune's MP while picking a spell to cast and there's an annoying delay between picking cast spell and picking which spell to cast during which the enemies can attack you), time limit on text messages, large black border around the screen, hard to communicate properly with NPCs (they don't answer your question most of the time, limited topics (a better design choice would've been to remove useless topics from each conversation to speed things up)
Can't fight using your fists or the scalpel (could've been tactically interesting in some situations such as against the gun sentries)
Lack of alternate solutions (killing the girl to take her tickets to the cage, many scientists in Drake's building are only there as cannon fodder and can't be talked to, only exception is the Drake fight where you can use the Jester Spirit)
Oddities (use sunglasses as a disguise from the morticians (lol!), civilians don't react to fights in the street)
Can't check weapon stats in-game
Hidden time limit on runners ("I think I've earned the money now, bye!") - can be increased through the Skill Software cyberware
Archaic menu systems (going through dialogue options is a chore as well as using items from menu or casting spells via Kitsune)
The cortex bomb (hits you suddenly with a beeping noise and a time limit until death at around 20 mins - need to find a specific doctor you don't know the whereabouts of and who is in a pretty tough area at this point of the game)
Sometimes hard to figure out what to do next (vague directions from Dog Spirit (fetch quest, what to do after killing the shaman), how to find out about the strobes)
Most enemy attacks are unavoidable
Some trial & error (some cheap enemy placements (Drake's building, group of invincible Orcs on the ship), the matrix)
Can't manually tell the chopper pilot where to go on top of Drake's building (you need to finish a specific quest for the location to pop up in dialogue - even though that keyword is already known to you via datafile) - same with the boat taxi, need to remember where you got the "ice" keyword from)
Can't check a Shadowrunner's name (in a simple manner) or stats before hiring
Sometimes glitchy auto-targeting feature (rats)
Hitting select (to check party stats during combat) resets your crosshair position to above your avatar
Some duplicate NPCs (who say nothing useful) and re-used portraits
Somewhat uneven difficulty (sewer, Drake's building lowest level)
Sometimes buggy AI (rats in the beginning of the sewers, runners in the Darkblade mansion, ghouls in the catacombs)
Fairly easy to miss the mermaid scales
Same death scream for all regular enemies
Not much of a difference in sound and appearance between the guns your avatar can use
Plot oddities (Armitage is not saved as a new keyword after phoning Drake (did you get to know your last name before that? - no reaction from the protagonist)
After video phoning Drake the enemy doesn't send reinforcements to your location or change their plans in any way)
Notes:
- Bulletproof Vest not purchaseable
- Broken Bottle does nothing
- Mobile Phone item was removed from the game
- A bug lets you infinitely collect money from one quest up until you enter the Volcano
- Another bug lets you easily kill the Gold Naga over and over
- Phonebook received?
Comment in Swedish:
Ett spretigt spel, med nästan lika många dåliga som bra idéer. Stridssystemet exempelvis, känns som det är skapat för de som tyckte Ikari Warriors var lite för avancerat, och med en fot i peka och klicka-nostalgi blir det lika elegant som en amalgamfyllning. Ganska snart får man förlita sig på healing och osynlighetsmagi (som bägge är OP för övrigt), samt dålig fiende-AI. Å andra sidan är detta mer fokuserat än MD-versionen, och bjuder på en åtminstone delvis engagerande deckarhistoria med en hårding i trenchcoat som tappat minnet i huvudrollen. Det senare var ju inte ett uttjatat tema än i spelsammanhang.
Spelet börjar rätt mörkt och ogästvänligt, lite som första Fallout, men väger snart upp detta med saker som påhittad gatuslang och ett segment där du testar och lyckas förklä dig med ett par solbrillor. SNES-charm.
Störmomenten är många fler, drog mig inte för att använda guide ett par gånger då ledtrådarna var vaga och utmaningen mest bestod i att lägga märke till omärkvärdiga saker. Men med 20 år på nacken kan jag förlåta det och fortsätta njuta av den trots allt ganska välgjorda cyberpunkinramningen, samt att låta mina legoknektar/shadowrunners dö på onödiga sätt.