Alpha Footage For Shadowrun Returns

You look to be making a great game Harebrained Schemes, and imma let you finish, but Beam Software made one of the greatest games of all time, of all time!

Back in 1993 Beam Software made a gem, one that still stands as my favourite game of all time. So unsurprisingly I was pretty happy with the news of Shadowrun Returns making its way to PC.

It’s said that it is slated for an early May/June 2013 release, but being that what you see is alpha footage, it may still be a ways off.

For those not familiar, Shadowrun was released on the SNES in 1993, it used an isometric view, as does the new incarnation. Although the new game has turn based combat, the SNES counterpart was done in a more action oriented way, requiring some quick reactions over any situation. The SNES version was set loosely around the first novel “Never Deal With A Dragon” written by Shadowrun co-creator Robert N. Charrette.

The PC version however does not retread old ground.

As Shadowrun Returns begins, a woman named Jessica Watts approaches you for help. Her brother Sam, your old friend, has been murdered. You’re the only one she can trust and she begs you to come to Seattle to figure out what happened.  You meet Mitch Macklusky, a Lone Star detective who is immediately antagonistic.  From there you find out that there’s been a series of murders; these people have all been found with organs cut out. You begin solving Sam’s murder, but as you dig into that, more and more unravels, and the mystery expands from the lowest echelons of society, like the biker gangs, all the way up to the dynastic control of one of the largest megacorporations.

In the above video the developers explain that the PC version will have map editor support, allowing players to create their own missions and worlds. This is something that is too often overlooked in PC games these days, generally because the larger publishers prefer to squeeze us for map packs.

Both games are based on the tabletop game by FASA first appearing in 1989 and still to this day remaining very popular. If you played the SNES version or are just interested in the tabletop game, this is something you may want to keep your eye on.