So, there’s been a reasonable amount of controversy over this game. I picked it up this weekend for a couple trades, and am really happy with it, despite the fact that I completely suck at it. In Q&A form:

1.) How’s it use the license? Honestly, I can’t say. I know this is going to be blasphemy, but I never played the pen & paper RPG. In terms of how does it take a setting with various metahumans and squish them into a world infused with magic and technology in a Brazilian slum, I’d say “surprisingly well.”

Thing is, it’s not a game where the story’s the key – what they’ve done, as far as I can tell, is they’ve taken all the trappings of the Shadowrun environment, and used those to provide a setting and a series of widgets that are consistent(ish) with the Shadowrun universe. What that’s allowed is surprisingly deep, flexible gameplay in a novel setting.

2.) But the character designs are terrible! That’s not a question, but yes, I agree. The trolls are hideous, the dwarfs look incredibly goofy, and the elves look sorta dumb. That’s fine. They’re very easy to distinguish at a distance, and though I wish there was some form of customization to differentiate me from someone else, knowing exactly what kind of character you’re fighting in this game is incredibly important, and the visuals remain in service to that goal, which is good.

3.) $60? Yeah, it’s a bit much. This is the current crux of the developer’s argument in a recent podcast on OXM, and while I agree that hour-wise, I’ll get a lot out of this game (more, perhaps, that in comparable single-player only games), the problem with Shadowrun is that its existance as a game depends almost entirely on the community. While I can play Halo’s campaign any time, I have to essentially work to find a community of like-minded gamers to actually have a good time with the game.

Still, the game itself is excellent, and it’s a shame that it’s priced higher than most people are willing to tolerate. It’s also a shame that the review scores are getting lowered because of the perception of value.

4.) Should I pick it up? If you’re looking for something you’d traditionally get for $60, provides a compelling and interesting single player experience, contains some measure of narrative, and blah blah blah, then no, you shouldn’t. If you’re willing to realize that $60 will get you a very interesting well-balanced shooter that’s different than most games out there, you’re not too concerned with the Shadowrun license being used to its fullest, and you have a community of like-minded gamers to play with, then yeah, it’s absolutely worth the dough.