oooh I have Shadow Run Second edition on my Pen and Paper RPG shelf. Shadow Run has and always will be one of the best RPG settings ever. I have played both and. I own the Genesis version and rented the hell out of the SNES version. They are both very different games bound by a common settings. Both are very strong in there merits.
Genesis was far closer to the RPG than the Snes. Advancement, stats, matrix, locations everything of the play was just inline with the rpg proper. The character and advancment had the same limits. Magic was limited by essence, essence goes down with more cybernetics. Missions you got from a Mr Johnson, they are randomly generated(somewhat) so that you can play missions forever. The Matrix was about 90% spot on. I can't describe how good the Matrix engine is unless you played the original with or the Genisis version. As an RPG it was just closer.
What did the Genisis fail miserbly at. Graphics stunk big time. It was some UGLY top down game. This had a seriously bad impact in that the feel of the world. Just didn't carry over. Except for the gritty part. There were so few people walking around that the game world felt dull and dead.
The Snes version however was also different. It was More action orientated. Fighting was everywhere. The Socialization/Quest engine was pretty damnd awesome. Find key words and present them to different NPCs. It works so well. The Music was great. The graphics however were great for the game. The game played at a isometric view. The city actuall felt alive. People are almost all over the place. Nightclubs really show the difference between the two. The story was actually far more tighter than the Gensis version though. Extremly different.
The Snes draw back. The Matrix was like only 10% of the original RPG version. It sucks SO BAD in comparison that I have a hard time playing those parts. Your character breaks all the character advancment laws in regards to Magic/Cybernetics. Bad guys are like a shooting gallery. They are all over the play and show up everywhere. They all show up in the same ususal spots. Genisis they moved around. It's less an RPG and more Action with RPG elements.
Over all play both. Both in the end will really give you the Shadow Run feel. If you took both versions of the game and instead took the best of each. Shadow Run the rpg for the 16 bit era would have gone down as and Epic rpg that would have pushed western rpgs ahead many years. KoToR would not be so refreshing but just the same old game.
Anyways I have no idea why Shadow Run was turned into a shooter. One that barely sembles Shadow Run from what I hear.
Squilliam: On Vgcharts its a commonly accepted practice to twist the bounds of plausibility in order to support your argument or agenda so I think its pretty cool that this gives me the precedent to say whatever I damn well please.
