(SNES) Shadowrun (1993) - Ch. 2 - The Caryards & The Arena
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Shadowrun (SNES)
Shadowrun (SNES)
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USA Box art for Shadowrun SNES
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Back of the USA Box of Shadowrun SNES
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Japanese Box Art for Shadowrun SNES
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Back of box for Japanese Shadowrun SNES
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European Shadowrun SNES Box art
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Back of the European Shadowrun SNES Box
Shadowrun is a cyberpunk action role playing game for the Super NES adapted from the pen and paper RPG Shadowrun by FASA. The game was developed by Australian company Beam Software (now Melbourne House) and released on November 1, 1993 by Data East.
Contents[show]
OverviewEdit
The player takes on the role of Jake Armitage, a courier who is shot and nearly killed in the streets of Seattle in the year 2050 by a hit squad. He wakes up in a morgue with significant amnesia as to what he was doing that resulted in his near-death—in fact, he was thought to be literally brain-burnt, which he himself felt as if he was when awakened.
GameplayEdit
As an action RPG video game, Shadowrun combines both the statistical factor in the tabletop game with real-time gameplay. For example, the player controls Jake, moves him around using the controller, and when attacked, must use guns or magic commands to respond. Some battles within the game require sharp reflexes. This is further complicated by the fact that the Seattle in the game is a rather tough city - practically every screen contains at least one hidden assassin who, from random locations, opens fire on Jake; the player must immediately find the source of the attack and respond or risk getting killed.
At the same time, Jake builds up "karma" from killing enemies - on a steady basis from killing regular enemies, and in large chunks from beating bosses. This karma can then be allocated by the player into different attributes, skills, and magical powers. Physical attributes include basic factors as how many hit points Jake has. Jake also has the ability to learn new skills, such as "negotiation" and "leadership," which allows him to haggle prices and to retain the loyalty of henchmen.
As the title of the game implies, Jake is described as a "shadowrunner," a mercenary character common within the Shadowrun RPG. Moreover, in the game, Jake is able to hire other shadowrunners as henchmen. It is possible for the player to win the game without hiring a single shadowrunner.
In interacting with non-player characters, Shadowrun uses an unusual system. Whenever Jake hears a new and unusual term, this word is highlighted, then added to a sort of database of terms he can use. From that point on, when speaking with NPCs, Jake is able to ask them about this new word; only in this manner can a player progress with the game.
The game also includes an unusual way of entering into cyberspace. After a certain point in the game, Jake, using a cyberdeck, is able to hack into computers to retrieve information, as well as gain more money, which in the game is nuyen (noo-yen). During such scenes, the gameplay becomes two-dimensional while an icon of Jake moves through cyberspace, fights intrusion programs, and retrieves data. As in the original RPG (and cyberpunk literature in general), if the player dies in cyberspace, he dies in real life as well.
StorylineEdit
Beginning in the morgue the brain-burnt Jake must first get his bearings and find out what put him there and who is helping him or not. Immediately bumping into a witness who saw him before, the player is given the option to follow him, where Jake will obtain a weapon and some body armor. It is possible to obtain a lot of items from the first area, although some are decidedly more difficult than others.
Eventually arriving at the Caryards, Jake will meet several others as well as be able to fight in the arena for money where there is a series of boss-type one-on-one battles. It is possible at this point, although difficult, to use the gun picked up from the prior punk witness to actually fight and kill all comers up to a certain level; after that, the gun has no effect because body armor negates the low damage. In order to leave the Caryards, one must either pay the "King" or kill him in battle. It is also a good idea for the player to learn the Negotiation skill as this saves a great deal of money for use in weapons and the like.
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Retro Will Games presently has 1,392 views for Shadowrun across 7 videos, with approximately 7 hours of Shadowrun video on his channel. This makes up 1.32% of the content that Retro Will Games has uploaded to YouTube.