Shadowrun offers new gameplay features to make it a great online shooter, but does not offer enough to make it worth $60
Shadowrun is a typical FPS in some ways, but adds new features that make it stand out from the crowd. The player is allowed to purchase their weapons that are typical to an FPS such as a sub machine gun, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, rifle, and even a mini gun or a katana. The additions that make the game stand out are being able to purchase magic as well as these weapons. These spells allow the player to do certain things within the game. If you purchase teleport, then you can move through walls, the floor, and even jump up through the ceiling to find a vantage point on a roof. Another spell is strangle, which is fun to use. The player will throw an object that will cause spikes to appear and can injure or even kill nearby enemies and also can be used as a defensive tactic to stop an enemy from going a certain way. Other spells include reserect that will revive a fallen ally, tree of life that will create a tree that will heal any players near it, smoke which will make the player turn almost invisible, making them unable to attack but also unable to be injured, gust can be used to push enemies away from you or even off of a high height and cause them to die. These spells do not come free, they will drain essence. Essence is like the players mana for each spell.
As well as being able to purchase magic, players can buy tech. Tech is similar to the spells, but they take up slots needed to use them. Tech includes a glider that will allow the player to avoid falling from high heights and can let them jump and get to a new area, wired reflexes that will make the player fast for a short period of time at the expense of draining a small amount of health, an ability to find enemies on the map, and a screen that will allow the player to lock onto enemies and avoid friendly fire.
Each player must select their race before each game, these are classified as humans, elves, dwarves, and trolls. Each of these has their own unique abilties and attributes. For example an human will be balanced and not better or worse than another race and are allowed $500 to purchase weapons or magic. An elf will move faster than the other races and can regenerate health, but they cannot take as much damage as other races. Dwarves have the most essence and can drain essence from other players, but they cannot regain essence as fast as a human or elf can. The troll is a walking tank, they can take large amounts of damage and will move the same speed with all weapons. Trolls however do not have alot of essence and will use it to take large amounts of damage.
The game offers only three gameplay modes that are all pretty much similar. There is always an artifact, which is pretty much a flag. In some rounds both teams or one team must capture the artifact and return it to an extraction point to win. One mode, Attrition, is like deathmatch. Each team can grab the artifact to show where the enemies are located, but it is not needed to win the match (but will allow the team who is holding it to win, if the time expires). The maps are very detailed and different from most maps in online shooters. There is one map that has four different levels that are seperated by clouds. There are only nine maps offered so far though, but stay fresh. Shadowrun is also the first online game to offer Xbox 360 players and Windows Vista players to play online together. Some people may think that the PC players have an advantage, but they really don't. I have played it a few different games with PC users and they did not do any better or worse than the players on the 360.
Overall Shadowrun is a great online multiplayer game experience that adds fresh and innovative features to the FPS genre. There is not however any single player at all and this may cause some people to be turned away from the game, but the game offers everything it needs online.