Shadowrun (Genesis)

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Description

The year is 2058. Following an event known as the Awakening, magic has returned into the world. Native American shamans and elves reclaimed a vast area known as Salish-Shidhe, located around the free city of Seattle. A small team of shadowrunners - mercenaries working for powerful corporations - is brutally attacked in the wilderness. The massacre is captured in video and broadcast in the news. One of the slain shadowrunners, Michael, had a brother named Joshua. Arriving in Seattle, Joshua begins to investigate his brother's death. He must find out who killed Michael, and what was the nature of the shadowrun job he was carrying out.

Shadowrun is an action-oriented role-playing game based on the pen-and-paper RPG by FASA. It is entirely different from the SNES adaptation of the same license. In the beginning of the game, the player selects a character class for Joshua, choosing between a samurai, a decker, or a gator shaman, who specialize in combat, cyberworld, and magic, respectively. The game is fairly open-ended; the player navigates Joshua through predominantly urban overhead areas, talking to characters and gathering information.

The player can hire characters to join the party; however, only one character can be directly controlled by the player. Combat is action-based; characters can use melee weapons, firearms (with expendable ammunition), or cast magic. "Karma", an equivalent of experience points, is awarded for killing enemies and completing quests. Karma points can be allocated by the player manually to increase the character's parameters.

Certain characters can also enter the Matrix, a virtual network accessed through cyberterminals. Matrix navigation is done from over-the-shoulder third-person view. The player can upgrade and customize Joshua's cyberdeck, allowing him to hack through encrypted systems more easily and store data obtained from the Matrix. Nodes and ICs will try to protect the data, attacking the virtual representation of the character and trying to force him to log out of the system.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Part of the Following Groups

• Console Generation Exclusive: Sega Genesis
• Fantasy Creatures: Dwarves
• Fantasy Creatures: Elves
• Fantasy Creatures: Orcs
• Fantasy Creatures: Trolls
• Shadowrun licensees
• Theme: Hacking / Pseudohacking

User Reviews

Fantasy, science fiction and good gameplay.	Timo Takalo (58)
Take all the great stuff from a RPG game and put it in one Genesis cartridge..you get this.	Mango Man (5)

Critic Reviews

RPGFan	Jan 21, 2001	93 out of 100	93
Just Games Retro	Sep 20, 2013		90
Mean Machines	Jun, 1994	83 out of 100	83
Video Games	Jun, 1994	81 out of 100	81
Mega Play Magazine	Jul, 1994	80 out of 100	80
Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM)	Jun, 1994	40 out of 50	80
GamePro (US)	Jul, 1994	4 out of 5	80
All Game Guide	2007		70
Sega-16.com	Aug 10, 2006	7 out of 10	70
Game Players	Jun, 1994	62 out of 100	62

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Trivia

Easter egg

The event date given in the opening cinematic (January 31) is the birthdate of the game's producer/designer Tony Van.

References

On "Extraction" missions, in which you must help a person escape from a company they no longer wish to work for, sometimes the name of the person you must extract is Alan Turing. (This is true for the Genesis version of the game only.) Alan Turing was a legendary real-world pioneer in the field of computer science around the time of World War II. In more recent times, he was notably fictionalized in Neal Stephenson's novel Cryptonomicon.

Schattenlauf

Some of the bars in the game have a German rave style music track with a voice sample that says "schattenlauf." This loosely translated from German is "Shadowrun."

SNES version

Sega sub-licenced the Shadowrun IP from Data East. Due to a number of factors, the Genesis version was completely different from Data East's SNES version and contrary to the popular belief is not a sequel.

Information also contributed by Adam Luoranen