Dwarves are little and hardy, though they don't regenerate essence very well on their own. Trolls are big and tough, but they're also very slow and don't have as much essence, which is the meter that drains when you cast spells. Elves move faster and can't take as much damage as the other races, but they regenerate health. Humans are better at using tech upgrades. You'll make another meaningful choice by choosing your race. There's a pretty good collection of abilities to play around with, but the catch is that you can have only three of them equipped at any given time. Or perhaps you'll buy gust, which blows players around and, not so coincidentally, makes for a powerful counter against players using smoke. Or you might get smoke, which lets you transform into a smoke form that can't be damaged by conventional weapons. Spells like tree of life and resurrect let you heal and revive other players. These skills set the game a bit apart from the average team-based shooter as it lets you specialize. So in addition to buying a submachine gun, you might pick up some aim enhancement in the form of the SmartLink tech upgrade, and the ability to teleport through walls, floors, and ceilings. At the front of each round, you're given a safe period where you can access a buy menu and purchase weapons, tech upgrades, and magic spells. Shadowrun is a round-based multiplayer first-person shooter that works a lot like Counter-Strike. But that's about as much story as you're going to get here, as the rest of the game is all about buying skills and controlling artifacts. Up to 16 players can get into one eight-on-eight game, pitting the rebellious Lineage forces against the new-world-order-like RNA Global, who are apparently fighting each other in an attempt to control magic, which has recently returned to an already-high-tech world. By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot'sДЄside from six brief-but-necessary training sequences and the ability to play against bots of questionable intelligence, Shadowrun is played online.

Shadowrun 2007 magic icon