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Free-to-play Shadowrun Online announced

by Justin McElroy on Oct 13th 2011 9:55AM

It's been five years since The Sixth World made its poorly conceived, if occasionally successful, debut on 360 and PC as the competitive, Counter Strike-inspired Shadowrun. In 2012, it appears a return visit to the world of cyber-elves and techno-dwarfs is in order, as Cliffhanger Productions brings the beta of Shadowrun Online to browsers.

As you can see in the early screen above, Cliffhanger has ditched the first-person perspective for something a bit more tactical for its free-to-play project. You and teams of friends will take on the mega corporations in action that one of the game's producers described as "more in the tradition of Baldur's Gate crossed with Jagged Alliance." (It's worth noting that Cliffhanger is also developing Jagged Alliance Online.)

If your curiosity has been piqued, there's a load of additional info in an online Q&A.

[Thanks, William.]

Source: Cliffhanger Productions

Tags: cliffhanger-productions, free-to-play, mac, pc, shadowrun-online

Reader Comments (28)

As someone who plays a regular Shadowrun game with some friends every second Sunday, and is going to play this Sunday....

I hope they are serious when they say it is going to be more akin to BG or Jagged Alliance, and I hope they snagged the rights to use the official rule set. A Shadowrun game where you do runs for/against corps with persistent characters would be absolutely phenominal.

@Huey2k2

I used to play ShadowRun all the time. By far my favorite PnP game, actually excited to see how this turns out.

I should really start up another group to play the PnP game, just don't feel like GMing (would actually like to play for once)

@Huey2k2 I would play shadowrun with you if you lived in Vancouver :P

I liked Jagged Alliance.

I would rather have a proper shadowrun game instead we get a second helping of this oh well maybe someday it'll happen

@Stuwie what's not proper about it? It's Shadowrun and it's a game being assisted by the pen and paper Shadowrun makers.

@Stuwie

Baldur's Gate mixed with Jagged Alliance sounds pretty close to proper for me. And I've been playing the Shadowrun PnP game for years.

"Counter Strike-inspired Shadowrun. " what? I never played the 2007 one because it looked like crap but I always assumed it was based off the roleplaying game. I loved the one that they had on Sega back in the day...

@Kougeru

Well, it took in the future, it had mega-corporations...yeah, that's about all the similarities between Shadowrun the RPG and Shadowrun the FPS.

@JohnFordColey

took place*

We could really use a edit button around here.

Could be cool...let's hope so as Shadowrun is a great universe.

I meant like story mode not a cs clone based on shadowrun

Shadowrun 360 was awesome. Haters gonna hate.

@MEMgrizzlies7
Yep. Shadowrun for the Xbox was amazing. Strategies to grab that flag and planting mystical health regen trees are so awesome.

@MEMgrizzlies7 - I was about to ask if I was the only one who liked that game... It's still one of my favourite shooters on the 360.

I think for the most part it was a situation of people condemning it before playing it because it wasn't what they expected from a game called 'Shadowrun'.

Sad because it was a lot of fun.

@MEMgrizzlies7
I didn't hate it, but it was only mildly entertaining in a field of so many superior FPS games.

@MEMgrizzlies7 I liked the idea behind the game and the mechanics were kind of neat, but it really needed an sp campaign.

@MEMgrizzlies7

The gameplay may have been fine but it was an awful value. A multiplayer only game with "9 maps, 7 weapons, 7 spells, 6 techs, 3 game modes." It clearly should have been released as a budget game, $30 at most.

Compare that $60 with the same spent on at the time Halo 3, or today Gears of War 3. It's not even in the same ballpark.

Fan of the SNES game. That was the only Shadowrun that mattered to me when I was a kid. Never knew it was a table top/pencil and paper game till later. So this is interesting to me, but it's def a PC game which means I'll miss out =/ though free to play sounds good.

The original Shadow Run game on the NES was off the heazy. It's a shame they dropped the ball with this series.

My vision of what Shadowrun should look like is basically Deus Ex: Human Revolution with the D&D elements added in. And the sad thing is, people would say that a game that looked/played like that ripped off Deus Ex.

And yes, the SNES Shadowrun was an awesome game. I was just playing it the other day. Personally, I think that it's in the top 3 all-time greatest soundtracks on the system, along with Final Fantasy IV and Super Castlevania IV.

@Fawst

Yes! I so wish they could remake the classic SNES one, or develop an HD sequel...

I've been a big SNES or GTFO type of Shadowrun fan, but this has my interest. I hope the single player is robust and enjoyable, as I can't say I'm a fan of team-based stuff.

I'll definately be giving this one a serious run.

@Fire Walk With Me I don't need to run to see what you did there.

It's a damned shame the shooter Shadowrun didn't take off. It was a VERY well designed experience, despite shitting all over the source material. It was fun and deep and it deserved more than the haters gave it.

@Edge of Blade Agreed so much. It wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't such a slim package, but the core game was brilliant fun.

Breaking News

Shadowrun Online

Free-to-play Shadowrun Online announced

Reader Comments (28)

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 10:02AM Huey2k2 said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 11:49AM Sh1fty said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 1:00PM Cavall said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 10:14AM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 10:15AM Stuwie said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 10:33AM blessrok said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 10:38AM Colin said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 10:15AM Kougeru said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 10:22AM JohnFordColey said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 10:22AM JohnFordColey said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 10:29AM sammo21 said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 1:41PM Stuwie said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 10:34AM MEMgrizzlies7 said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 10:52AM GamingColt said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 10:54AM Mcmax3000 said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 10:56AM Duke said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 11:09AM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 11:20AM Jenks said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 10:35AM blessrok said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 10:55AM aaronharmon said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 11:00AM Fawst said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 11:02AM Fawst said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 12:20PM Design by Adrian said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 12:27PM Oobgarm said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 12:30PM Fire Walk With Me said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 1:12PM archipelagos said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 1:57PM Edge of Blade said

Posted: Oct 13th 2011 7:38PM Oddgirl said

Shadowrun Online Info

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