The upcoming Xbox 360TM and Games for Windows shooter ShadowrunTM has long been shrouded in mystery, its secrets only hinted at with a few press releases, screenshots, and trailers. With both the beta in full swing and the retail release just around the corner in May, we can finally shed some much needed light on this great first-person shooter (FPS).

Guns aren't your only weapons.

Fantasy Meets FPS
Shadowrun has been a much loved pen-and-paper role-playing-game for well over a decade now. Its fusion of fantasy and science fiction provides a wildly unique setting, rich with conflict and drama. Trolls, dwarves, elves, and humans live side by side, struggling to survive in a world after the Awakening, the apocalyptic event that gave way to new races, a rebirth of magical power, and domination by massive corporations and paranoid governments.

Developer FASA has taken this much-loved world and wondered aloud how a fast-paced, strategic shooter would fare when paired with the magic, the cybernetic implants (cyberware), and unique races of Shadowrun.

Developer FASA has committed itself to game balance,
spending countless hours of testing and development
to ensure that neither platform will hold an advantage
over the other.

The answer is incredibly well, as Shadowrun boasts perhaps the fastest pacing of any strategic shooter ever produced for Xbox 360.

Magic and Technology
Before each round of play, cash is rewarded based on your performance. Use the cash to purchase new weapons, magical abilities and technology upgrades. These abilities are what drastically separate Shadowrun from its competitors. For example:

• Wired Reflexes: Purchasing and activating this ability allows you to move and react faster than your opponents. Once installed, the ability is constant, but if you "activate" it mid-battle, you gain an additional burst of speed at the expense of your health.
• Tree of Life: These magically summoned trees regenerate the health of any ally standing within reach, and are ideal for holding tactically important areas.
• Strangle: These crystalline spikes take over entire hallways and doorways, and can be used to slow down anyone unfortunate enough to step onto them.
• Glider: Patrolling players can swoop up to the highest peaks of a level, and glide slowly down onto their enemies from above.
• Teleport: This multifunctional ability teleports you instantly fifteen feet in any desired direction, including through gates, walls, floors, and ceilings.
• Smartlink: This cybernetic implant offers exceptionally refined targeting, even helping you lock onto targets. It also locks your trigger when aiming at an ally, dramatically reducing death by friendly fire.
• Gust: This blast of telekinetic power pushes enemies from ledges and roofs and away from objectives, and also causes damage to an opponent in Smoke form.

Defend your territory.

A Matter of Essence
Both cyberware and magic take a toll on your character's essence rating. Each race boasts an essence meter, with installed cyberware permanently taking up chunks of essence, and magic draining your essence with each use. This mechanic requires strategy as you must balance not only which abilities you purchase, but how you use them during the course of a match.

Racial Abilities
The purchase of various spells and cyberware already differentiate your character, but the race you choose has an equally dramatic effect on how you play the game. For example:

• Elves move faster than other characters and can regenerate their health over time.
• Trolls lumber along at a slow pace, but use their essence to harden their skin against bullets.
• Shorter dwarves offer a smaller target profile for enemies, and can drain essence from both allies and opponents.
• Humans represent the ****c all-around character with a respectable essence rating and decent speed.

The Advent of Cross-Platform Gaming
Shadowrun represents a momentous shift as it introduces cross-platform gaming. For the first time a first-person shooter is bridging the gap between PC and Xbox 360, allowing gamers on both platforms to connect with and compete against one another.

Bleed your enemies from behind.

For those worried about the mouse-and-keyboard PC setup wreaking havoc on the dual-analog Xbox 360 control, you can rest easy. Developer FASA has committed itself to game balance, spending countless hours of testing and development to ensure that neither platform will hold an advantage over the other.

Shadowrun for Xbox 360 and Games for Windows provides a lightning quick next-gen shooter, and one that requires well-conceived strategy and teamwork as much as twitch reflexes to succeed. Welcome to the next big wave on Xbox LIVE®!