33. Shadowrun

(SNES, Beam Software, 1993)
It's 1993, I'm still at school and I'm broke, I visit Another World, a local shop that sells pre-owned games, I can only afford to trade in one game and a small amount of money I have. This will be my last game in a while, I better make it a good one, one I'm aware of, in a genre I adore and part of a franchise I'm a fan of.

Sod it, I'm gonna get this RPG I know nothing about and have no previous reference to.

It could of been a tragedy, but the gods of gaming were smiling down on me that day.
Shadowrun is an isometric RPG set in a dystopian cyberpunk future where firearms, technology and magic have combined to create a dangerous and hostile exsistence beneath the corporate skyscrapers that litter the skylines of Seattle. Based on a classic pen and paper RPG, Shadowrun tells the story of Jake Armitage. Gunned down in the streets, Jake awakens on the mortician's slab. Jake is alive, but why? and who wanted him dead in the first place?

These questions and many more await players lucky enough to play through this marvellous but difficult game which combines action-adventure with deep RPG storytelling and inventory management. Jake makes his way through a dirty, grimy underworld where many want him dead and every building is a potential ambush. Fortunatly, Jake is able to arm and protect himself and even hire protection to follow him through the mean streets and subways of Seattle. As the story unfolds, corrupt politics, evil corporations and the art of cyber-jacking will all come into play before Armitage finally faces the truth about himself and his destiny.

Shadowrun is a dark game, with sleazy characters populating an unloving environment. The graphics of the humble SNES convey the locations incredibly well and the game is backed with fantastic, atmospheric music (One of my favourite SNES soundtracks) A keyword based dialogue system allows Jake to learn words that will open doors for him once dropped into conversation with other characters. Usually these doors will lead to certain doom, as Jake can't tie his laces without somebody taking a pot shot at him.
I very much made the right choice that day many years ago, as Shadowrun not only kept me playing long after I could afford another game, but it was good enough to secure a place as one of my favourite games of all time. Further attempts to revisit the franchise have been made and have assuredly failed, but I'm convinced it's only a matter a time. One day the right formula and the right studio will get together and Shadowrun will return with a game worthy of its SNES predecessor.

Hang with the drekheads, but don't go unarmed. Life in Shadowrun is absolute murder.