Before I start on this post – please read the first part – What’s so great about … Shadowrun? first. Shadowrun is a fun and compelling multiplayer game, however there are certain parts of Shadowrun that fail to live up to expectations. The history of Shadowrun is tumultuous (as is every game that came out FASA apparently) – the game was rumored in production (often linked to Bungie) for a long time before it was unveiled at the last E3 in 2006. To the disappointment of fans of the Pen and Paper RPG and the 16bit interpretations, FASA decided to go with a fantasy infused Counter-Strike clone – so press reaction was muted, and the games treatment by Microsoft was less than maybe it deserved. In the end, the game did a very good job of creating a multiplayer game that focused on interdependent team play – with great Halo-esq controls and some new mechanics that will be quickly be stolen by other games. However there were a number of areas where the game failed to even match their “peers” in the Multiplayer market. As a Multiplayer focused Game Designer, here are my thoughts on where Shadowrun went wrong …
Multiplayer games need communities
If your game focuses solely around multiplayer, then you are going to have build in some community tools to your product. From simple group “tracking” tools to encourage “clans”, to more advanced stat tracking and player recognition system … and finally to the new “holy grail” of online development – user created content (maps, skins, logos etc.). Shadorun is mostly an anonymous affair – games are set-up “randomly” via Live so the cast of characters you meet changes every time you change servers (which is arguably a good thing), however since there is no sense of player recognition (besides achievements) it is very hard for player to initially judge whether they are outclassed by the opposing team, or how good their own teams mates are. Lack of fundamental “standards” in Shadowrun such as player customization, player rank or stat tracking (which is clearly taking place but is not accessible to the player) are in part what hurts Shadowrun’s reputation and caused the game to review poorly, and thus not get “discovered” by the gaming masses. The game even lacks “match” awards (Best with Handguns, Most useless, Team Killer etc.) – something that has been around since GoldenEye – or an MVP award for the player that made the biggest difference – simple player recognition that has no effect of the game or it’s players but at least will give it’s interpretation of who the best and the worst players were in a game.
