Shadowrun's impressive gameplay depth makes other FPSes begin to seem a little shallow in the multiplayer department.
There's a little backstory to the game, as the wild premise requires a bit of explanation, but once it serves its purpose of setting the scene, it quietly goes away, and the game is no worse off for it. After about 5 millenia, magic returns to the world, giving birth to physical mutations that produce a number of different races: Humans, Elves, Dwarfs, Trolls, and Orks, though Orks are not present in the game through a backstory element. When this magic returns, two groups step up to claim it. The RNA Corporation seeks to seize the magic and control it, purportedly to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. The Lineage, however, seeks to keep the magic so that it's free to everyone. The game essentially plays out skirmishes for control of a powerful artifact that will aid either side in its ultimate goals.
One of the first differences in this game is the presence of races, Each race has its own abilities which help you. Humans, still being the common denominator, tend to have more money, and are more attuned to technology, allowing them to use it with no ill-effects to their essence. Elves are faster than other classes, and have regenerating abilities at the cost of physical durability and raw strength. Dwarves have a large pool of essence, but don't regenerate it very quickly. To compensate, if they near anything that contains essence, they will drain it for themselves. They also have a thick skull, literally, that prevents bullets from causing critical damage. And then, there are trolls. The big, horned, hulking masses of hurt whose skin hardens when attacked, and who can lug any equipment like a sheet of paper. They're just not very fast to begin with, causing them to fall behind in combat more often than not.
The big draw of the game is the use of technology and magic in the struggle for power in Santos, Brazil. Players can turn their bodies to smoke, create jagged crystals to dissuade attackers, teleport through solid objects in any direction, produce torrents of wind, deflect bullets with swords and run like the wind using wired reflexes, soar through the air with gliders, see through walls with enhanced eyesight, suck the magic out of anything that walks by with an anti-magic generator, heal others with a live-giving tree, and even bring friends back from the grave. As you can see from that description alone, there's a lot that can go on in a match of Shadowrun. Combine that with the unique race abilities, and watch the possibilities multiply exponentially. It's not just about the guns, like most other shooters. There's so much more depth.
The graphics of the game are a treat, too. While they're not Gears of War, they still look especially polished, with some really posh effects employed during magic. Each race has two models, depending upon which team you're on, and they look quite detailed, making them fairly easy to discern from one another, so you don't have to do too much guessing on the battlefield. You can even tell what abilities your foes have by subtle effects, like enemies trailing smoke, or projecting a targeting laser from their eyes. All and all, everything has a nice graphcial touch to it that's hard to ignore.
The biggest catch of Shadowrun, though, is the multi-player nature of the game. Most of the game's action is seen online through Xbox Live, and if you don't subscribe to Live Gold, you're going to be limited to LAN games and single player bot matches. USUALLY, that's the kiss of death for a game like this, but the catch is that the game isn't brought down by the bots. They actually elevate the experience, and they teach teamwork, too. When you're setting up a match, you have direct control over how many bots are on each team, which team you'll be on, and if you want a random sampling of different races, or if you want to set one team or the other to be all one race. The bots in-game behave quite wonderfully, calling out enemies when they see them, buying and deploying a varied spread of powers, and using those powers well, too, I might add. Normally, I don't recommend games that rely on bots for offline play, but for Shadowrun, I was enjoying my experience playing with them so much that I'll make an exception here. It never feels like the same match twice, even with AI.
The bottom line is this: Shadowrun is a wonderfully innovative game that will be thoroughly and endlessly enjoyed online, and if you don't have the privilege of playing online right now, the offline experience is surprisingly fresh and engaging, for the 1st or 51st time. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who wants a new and innovative gameplay formula.