|
On display at E3 was First-Person Shooter
ShadowRun for Microsoft’s Xbox360, and was last seen on the SNES
and Mega-Drive about 12 years ago! The title is slightly different
this time around, and could be quite promising, but in this genre if
a game wants to stand-out it’s going to need something special.
In this build the Multi-Player Mode
alone was playable; a battle against three other human-controlled
players - the main area the developers wanted to show-off as it
wasn’t one-on-one Deathmatch, mainly due to its team-based fighting
in a Capture-The-Flag Mode. There’s nothing special in that plenty
of First-Person Shooter games have a Capture-The-Flag Mode and
ShadowRun’s wasn’t really that impressive, so hopefully the rest
of the game has something more to it.
There were some nice ideas being used
in the game, however, exactly how useful or quirky they may be
remains to be seen. For instance if you or a team member dies,
there’s no instant Re-Spawn - another team member has to find where
the deceased lie and help to revive their team-mate, installing a
real sense of team work.
Before starting the game there are
options to purchase weapons and magic to aid and give an advantage
if enough money has been accumulated - much like the feature added
to
Perfect Dark Zero’s Multi-Player in a CounterStrike-inspired
ego-trip - from the basics like Guns and Swords to various magical
abilities. Whilst most of the game is played in First-Person, when
selecting a close-combat weapon like a Sword, the camera shifts to a
Third-Person view to enable the character to run around and slash
enemies, but leaves you open to attack by gunfire. Other abilities
and items that can be used for a strategical advantage include
Teleporting a short-distance in front to catch or evade enemies, a
Glider attached to the back of everyone which not only helps jumping
higher, but also jumping greater distances - but this will also slow
them down making for easier targets to shoot.
ShadowRun isn’t ready for
release yet and looks it, still looking rough-around-the-edges and
not yet showing-off the Xbox360’s true abilities, with its release
scheduled for next year then hopefully ShadowRun will be much
more impressive. |
