What isn’t so great about … Shadowrun?

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.

To maintain a loyal fan base I believe online games need to encourage the community to create elements of the game, and help the gamers feel they are involved in the success of the game. If Shadowrun had simply taken a leaf about Halo’s Multiplayer book and allowed users to establish their own “game rules” (a list of simple options that allow users to decide how certain features work in a game i.e Time Limit? Only Race X allowed? etc) – it would have allowed the community to discover interesting variants of the standard two game types.

Shadowrun was sent to die …

Microsoft didn’t believe in Shadowrun. For whatever reason – most likely poor management at FASA – there was no faith or support for this product by the publisher. It recieved none of the support that other Microsoft games have recently (Forza 2 for example). No demo appeared on Xbox Live a few weeks before release. The release date coincided with the Halo 3 Beta – a game with infinetly better community support, and considerable interest amongst the 360′s fanbase. At some point Microsoft clearly decided to clearly cut their loss and “dump” the game on the market at full price and hope they might see some money back from the project.

One issue that is consistent through out all the reviews I have seen of Shadowrun is that the reviewer felt that the game was not worth the price that Microsoft were asking for it ($60 in the US). The general feeling that a fun game with only 5 maps (there are 4 other maps which are just smaller versions of the same maps) and 2 game types was not equal to a game that has a 10-15 hour solo campaign in addition to a multiplayer component. If Shadowrun had included just some of the features found in Halo 2 such as ranking, and online stat tracking I think the value for money issue would have been less important, however with Microsoft releasing Shadowrun during the Halo 3 Beta, the lack of features was painfully evident.

Poorly chosen Achievements

Shadowrun suffers from what I call “Attrition” Achievements – achievements that are solely based on how much you are willing to grind through a game rather than as recognition of player skill. The majority of the achievements are “Kill 100 of Race X” or “Get a 100 kills with Weapon Y” – which goes against the game’s “try different combinations” philosophy. These types of goals cause players to become a nuisance in games because their decision making process is focused around the achievement and not the quality of the game – instead of picking up a healing power, players will limit themselves to certain damage powers because they want that 100 kills achievement. A far better way to set up such achievements would be focus them around group efforts – “You have been part of teams that have killed 100 Race X”. The gameplay of Shadowrun encourages experimentation, and the achievements really should have too – rather than separating out achievements for Gust and Strangle, why not combine them – Take my Breath Away (Kill someone by gusting them in to Strangle) this encourages player to take either power or both and reinforces the use of both mechanics. Achievements are great rewards and teaching tools – they really should be used as both.

In spite of this there a number of Shadowrun’s achievements that are very well designed – a personal favorite is Shadowrun Fever (a “viral” achievement that is won by “teabagging” the corpse of someone with the achievement) is very amusing in how it is won and how the information spread through word of mouth.

5 maps? 2 game types?

When this question was brought up during the Major Nelson interview with FASA boss Mitch Gitelman – Gitelman’s (pathetic) response was “How many game types are there in Football?” The answer is “an almost an infinite amount depending on the number of players, and the location”. However in Shadowrun it’s 2 (3 if you include the One side always defends CTF variation they have). As I mentioned earlier setting up some simple rules that players could use to define their own game types (a task that would take a good designer/scripter a matter of minutes to implement in almost any game) would have helped immeasurably. We know Microsoft’s attitude to Shadowrun is to desperately try and get what little money they can back from what they consider a bad investment so any future maps we will see will be “premimum” DLC. It’s unlikely that we will see a significant changes to the gameplay mechanics (each map controls the game type it can support), and the tight balancing of the game is unlikely to be disrupted by new powers or tech. Without new content, almost all communities eventually get bored and move on.

Corpse clearing

I have only one issue with the gameplay mechanics of Shadowrun – Corpse clearing. Over the weeks while I have grown used to the round structure of Shadowrun, I have never been a fan of sitting outside waiting to play – but I appreciate that it adds tension to the game. However corpse clearing seems to me a bizarrely punitive mechanic. When a player dies, there is a power that can return them to life – however that player is now tied to their resurrecter – and should the resurrecter die, then the player will not be able to be revived again. In addition to this, when a player dies their body can be cleared by an enemy by shooting the corpse to prevent resurrection. With the importance place on protecting your resurrector (and the clever use of essence “reservation”) – corpse clearing seems an unnecessary punishment.

This is the wrong product for Cross-platform support – and maybe more importantly this is the wrong game for Shadowrun!

The decision to make Shadowrun cross-platform between the 360 and Windows Vista was a huge mistake for a game that does not have modding tools. The sole reason to involve PC gamers in a console game is to give them the power to create user content – if not via maps, or mods – then via logos or skin changes or other simple customizations that PC owners can create and prepare much easier than console owners.

Shadowrun was launched the same day as Forza 2 – a game with seemingly limitless customization options and great online support. In Forza 2, player can create amazingly detailed custom decals, tune and tweak many different types of cars and sell them for in-game currency via The Auction House – a server side system that has web support. Arguably it should have been Forza that was the cross-platform title, with it clear focus on customization, “in game economy” and tools to support the community (player stats, the Auction House serving as a portal to forums and other forms of communication about the game).

The “Games for Windows” Live initiative is a great idea – Xbox Live is easily one of the best “online portals” I have seen – stands head and shoulders above iTunes in terms of ease of use. Microsoft have made it effortless for 360 owners to gain access to demos, Live Arcade games and premium content, while also allow people to matchmake and play online with ease. Bringing this system over to Windows makes great sense, however for it to even get a foot in door it really needs to have a “killer app” that brings gamers back to their PCs – a Halo 3 or Starcraft 2.

Cross-platform gaming is a great idea – however you really need to make the service stand on it’s own two feet and not rely on the 360 audience to want to use their PC to play games. Microsoft are clearly begining to relax their attitude towards user created content on Live – as can be seen by Forza’s wholehearted embrace of both the Decal system and the Auction House system – they really should have have had the same attitude toward Shadowrun.

Earlier I mentioned the Shadowrun was “sent to die” by Microsoft due to poor management at FASA – decisions such as cross-platform gaming are an indication of the mishandling this project must have gone through. FASA have three IPs – Mechwarrior, Crimson Skies and Shadowrun – all based on pen and paper RPGs or board games – while Mechwarrior was “expertly” translated in to a computer game by Activision during the 1990s, FASA managed to lose a loyal audience by ignoring Mechwarriors roots and making it a Third Person shooter when it arrived on XBOX, similar the original Crimson Skies was an excellent Arcade Shooter – with very faint echoes of the classic X-Wing and TieFighter series. The XBOX sequel took forever to develop (and went throught many iterations) and failed to match the quality of the original Zipper Interactive-developed PC title (though it was a fun game it wasn’t as good as the original).

Now this is FASA Interactive’s third attempt to create a console game out of one of it’s franchise – and while the game they made was a compelling and enjoyable multiplayer focused title – why did they use it to “relaunch” the Shadowrun franchise? Would this idea have worked in the MechAssualt universe (an already console”ized” universe that had arguable survived the transition to the XBOX)? Would this be better suited to an original IP – maybe one with ties to Shadowrun? In many interviews, FASA Interactive talked about the huge canon that is attached to Shadowrun after years of P’n'P development, and that thought it was better to go back to basic and start the story from the beginning – hence the reinvention of Shadowrun as FPS team game, I wonder where FASA Interactive thought this would go? Even if Shadowrun is a huge success on the 360 and Vista – what do you do next? A similar sequel (and again I ask why is this attached to the Shadowrun franchise)? A similar FPS team game but with more character building (you’ll kill part of what makes SR great – the ability to quickly change up abilities to counter other player’s decisions)? A RPG with shooter elements (will it attract the crowd you won over with SR then)? A kart racer (which pretty much equals the 90 degree changes of course that FASA has made with this franchise)? Seriously, where do you take Shadowrun from here?

Forgive me heading a little off-topic, but as I wrote the paragraph above I stumbled upon this story about John Lassiter “killing” Disney’s highly-profitable straight-to-video sequels to Disney Classics. This made me happy – I believe IP should not be exploited and milked for for every last penny, I think it should be treated with respect and either be “left in amber” to always be a classic, or if it must be revisited – it is treated with the utmost respect and any additional material made developed with an eye to continuing to maintain the integrity of the franchise. If FASA Interactive treated it’s franchises with the same respect that Lassiter clearly wants Disney to treat it’s classic franchises , there would be automatic good will between fans of the P’n'P RPG, or the Genesis and SNES games – instead of the vitriol that greeted Shadowrun’s unveiling and subsequent mauling at the hands of the “gaming” public, and Microsoft’s poor perception of the likely success of the product. There is no question that Shadowrun is a beautifully designed game – a labor of love by the development team – that love needed to be extended beyond this single iteration of the franchise to the franchise itself, and to those who would support and care for the franchise after the game ships … it’s audience.

Woo! That is way longer than I thought it would be. I just wanted to add a small note at the end to say that along with everything I have written above and in my product analysis, I really like Shadowrun – in face I own both the 360 and Vista versions. It will be in my Top 5 of 2007, I spent tens of hours playing online, I have noticed it has influenced a little of the design of Project S (the current game my company is developing) – and I hope John Howard and his team get a chance to make a sequel or another game together. I hope the rumors that FASA Interactive are being disbanded are – as Mitch Gitelman claims – false, and I hope there is a sequel to the current Shadowrun – nothing would please me more. I do worry when listen to Gitelman’s interview with Major Nelson, and subsequent tantrums about Shadowrun’s reviews means that he feels Shadowrun is perfect, and purely a victim of Microsoft’s attempts to make some money back of this clearly expensive project. One last thing – play Shadowrun, download the demo from Live, or just risk the $60 – let me know what you think via the comments section.

New topic next post I promise.

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