I kicked 2023 off with Shadowrun Returns on Steam, and with the year coming to a close I thought it'd be interesting to pay a visit to its SNES uncle. And this game really started off strong, with a more effective narrative hook than Returns; before you even select "New Game" you watch as your character is gunned down by a hit squad and left for dead, only for a mysterious shapeshifter to cast a spell on you before leaving. You wake up in the morgue with a splitting headache and amnesia and have to piece together what you were doing before. And while this may sound a tad derivative, the Cyberpunk-Noir atmosphere and the way the game slowly opens up in a nonlinear way really make the difference - the vibes really do a lot of the heavy lifting here!

Mechanically there are plenty of interesting ideas as well (mostly adapted from the tabletop ruleset): the ability to spend karma (experience points) to raise specific stats, spending money to hire mercenaries to fight on your side, and later on finding a character who will teach you various magic spells in exchange for various random trinkets you've (hopefully) been collecting. The execution is mixed - it's not hard to raise your stats to the point that you can go without hired help, and few of the spells are particularly useful - but the effort is appreciated.

Where the game falters is in its UI. It uses a point-and-click interface which, on the SNES controller, is unsurprisingly clunky. Using different buttons for shooting, casting, investigating, and picking up is unnecessary - why not just a dedicated 'action' button? And if all this merely added up to clunky menu-hopping I might still be inclined to give it some goodwill, but the point-and-click system also extends to the (real-time) combat! It makes aiming an absolute pain, and reduces 99% of combat to standing in one spot and DPS-racing the enemies - moving around strategically in between shots simply isn't a usable approach because your enemies aren't constrained by the point-and-click system and can aim instantaneously.

Add in some extremely obtuse requirements for progression and some very suspect balancing (the most dangerous enemies are rats!) and you have a game that becomes quite a chore to play at points. Still, if you're willing to use a guide, this is a relatively streamlined sub-10-hour experience that's worth trying out if you're into this genre!

Also one of the characters looks like Robin Williams with elf ears.

Shadowrun: Cyberpunks with Orcs
What an awesome premise!
I had the RPG handbook, had run some sessions with friends and even read a Shadowrun novel before finding this game cheap in Blockbusters one day.

So yeah, not an unbiased review.

The game opened slowly, with a totally obtuse puzzle involving opening a broken fence for a talking dog (who was actually your spirit animal) and I think I bounced off it a couple of times before I actually solved that and then marched through the rest of the game.

That was all in the course of a few sick days off school, stuck at home, still waiting for the N64 to launch.

Silverchair's "Freakshow" had just released so the song "Cemetery" is forever interminably linked with mental imagines of this game.

Basically, it is a relatively typical isometric RPG, but on a SNES - so totally alien to me at the time - and the UI was well designed enough that the controller never felt like a hindrance.

The game is text heavy story-wise with lots of cool looking people to talk the rad 2053 lingo to - probably if you didn't know the source material you would need a dictionary to work out what the drek these netrunners were up to (in 1993 at least) but aside from the initial dog/fence nonsense I don't recall being stuck anywhere or on any particularly heinous sections.

Because of the genius of the setting, you get to fight Syndicates, Cyberpunk Gangs and fucking Vampires, which is not something you can say bout most games...

The action mostly consisted of you moving the pointer over an enemy and pressing B to shoot them, but the numbers went up as you got better guns and more powerful friends.

Things change when you go into the Matrix though - this was the hacking minigame that, despite looking super simplistic, was a/pretty deep version of minesweeper vibe and b/ opened up various new things as you grew more awesome (or bought more powerful IC software stuff).

Overall though, the whole style is that of an uncompromisingly beautiful cybernoir, that still holds up today (annoying pixel-sized puzzles and all) in the 16 bit sphere of my memory.

Your mileage may vary however, especially if you prefer your RPGs to feature luscious green rolling hills and a beautiful princess to rescue.

Unique style for the SNES. Good use of setting, though some odd choices for certain enemy types. Good art and music, though main theme gets repetitive. Magic outside of heal and invisibility fairly useless and you only have a few combat options other than those. Matrix has a very dull design. Point and click interface can be awkward and unintuitive and not helped by being on the SNES. Asking most questions leads to nonsensical repeated response. A lot of grinding and backtracking. Hiring other shadowrunners to support you will lead to them leaving you after a certain amount of fights based on your charisma skills which can be awkward in a sudden fight and lead to more backtracking to go rehire them (would be nice if they asked for more money before automatically leaving).

Interesting for the time but it makes it difficult to have too much fun with. Genesis Shadowrun definitely has the edge in many ways.

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1340518245191696385

This game is clunky, cumbersome and completely unbeatable without a guide or walkthrough.

But it also has a unique presentation, a captivating style and an eerie "future noir" flair that was far ahead of its time.

Especially for video games.

If you can get over the awkward and archaic feel of the game, especially regarding its progession and controls, then you just may discover something special.