Editing Shadowrun (section)

===Video Games===
Seven video games exist for Shadowrun, six of which are available in America, and five of which are good.

'''1993:''' The first came out for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and shamelessly rips off chunks of William S. Gibson's "Neuromancer" (right down to the name of the protagonist, Jake Armitage) as the player wakes up in a chop shop and deals with the fallout of a run gone horribly wrong, gains the favor of the Dog spirit, and ultimately, solos a motherfucking Great Dragon.  (A little one, but still.)  While enjoyable for [[Fags_of_4chan|casualfags]], more serious fans of the franchise may be grumpy with Shadowrun SNES for playing loose with magic, cyberware, and the fact that having a bunch of the latter is supposed to do serious shit to your expertise in the former. And the gameplay is clearly having a hard time adapting something originally intended for a mouse and keyboard to a controller.

Jake's still popular though, appearing in a number of actual adventure modules and the recent ''Shadowrun Returns'' title's "Deadman's Switch" campaign.

'''1994:''' The second was released for the Sega Genesis, and is widely held as a worthy use of the license. In this particular game, protagonist Joshua must piece together the puzzle behind his brother Michael's death on a run into Native American-held territory, making a name for himself in the Shadowrunning biz along the way. Fans cite the expanded tactical opportunities (read: being able to move around and dodge bullets in doing so) and immersive Matrix depiction (real-time combat against unique IC types and messing with a variety of system nodes) as this game's greatest advantages over its SNES counterpart.

'''1996:''' The third game is the Japanese-only one, made for the Sega CD and set in Japan rather than Seattle. It plays more like a text adventure (i.e. Sega CD smash hit ''Snatcher'') and its rare action sequences suffer for it.

'''2007:''' The fourth video game adaptation of Shadowrun came in 2007 for XBox 360 and Microsoft Vista. While being designed for Vista should be fail in itself, Microsoft went to great lengths to fuck with the storyline in order to make a dime-a-dozen FPS out of the license - so much that the [http://shadowrun.wikia.com/index.php/Main_Page Sixth World Wiki] claims it "may be more accurately described as a game loosely based on Shadowrun." Since Catalyst holds a decent bit of clout with the Sixth World Wiki and other parts of Dumpshock, it can safely be assumed that Microsoft's treatment of the Shadowrun franchise has been officially disavowed...

'''2012:''' ...Which is good, because in April 2012, Hairbrained Schemes LLC (operated by [[Jordan Weissman]] of [[BattleTech]] fame) in conjunction with Smith & Tinker procured the rights to Shadowrun and made a new 2050's based game available on several platforms. Under the "Shadowrun Returns" project title, these guys raised a $1.5 million [[Kickstarter]] payout to make [[Old School Roleplaying|"an old-school Shadowrun"]] vidyagame happen, and it was released in 2013. They also threw things at the Executive Producer from the 2007 game as he held up a cardboard sign that said "SORRY!" Features mechanics obviously ripped from XCOM: Enemy Unknown, some of the best cyberpunk genre writing in the market...and unfortunately plenty of railroading which was necessary for the linear plot. Despite this, the fact it was released for Steam alongside the newly established "Steam Workshop" system which allows players to upload their own created content as instantly installed mods for players to peruse gave the game a massive amount of replayability as older campaigns and homebrew stories were adapted into the game by fans (as well as shit like dating sims).

The story for the game begins as your character, down on their luck, receives a message from an old member of their crew. Postmortem. He tells you that he had a device installed which will send this message upon his death, and the moment you solve his murder you will receive a megafuck payout of Nuyen from his rainy day fund. You return to Seattle and make the Seamstresses Union your hangout as you get drawn into an elaborate story leading from solving the mystery of the "Emerald City Ripper" through breaking the number one rule of Shadowrunning; never cut a deal with a dragon (number two of course being never deal with that asshole Harlequin, which you also break) as the largest megacorps in the world pool their resources into giving you the tools necessary to prevent Seattle from becoming Chicago 2 (meaning, giant nest full of a combination of fucked up near-immortal insects and even worse, insect spirits). The player character is the primary protagonist, although you befriend several fellow 'runners including: a romantically involved pair named Coyote and Paco, a Native American Shaman named Shannon Half-Sky, Dodger the Elven Decker from the very first short story in the Shadowrun universe from the first edition, and Jake Armitage from the SNES game.

'''2014:''' The game was followed by DLC called Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall, later released as it's own game titled Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall Director's Cut. Dragonfall centers around a group of 'runners in the Flux State of Berlin and the greater Allied German States. Being the unofficial leaders of their own Kiez, the Kreusbazar, the player inherits leadership of the crew from the former leader Decker of the team and their old friend, Monika Schäfer. Players are given far more control over the story than the last game with the bulk of the Runs being able to be taken at any time, a large number of sideplots, and a large cast of characters whose stories the player has control over through your interactions. The player has a constant crew with their own stories: the older Dragonslayer Shaman/Mage and former Punk Rocker who participated on the side of the metahumans in the worst of the race riots, the Night of Rage, named Dietrich; Glory, the medic/Street Samurai who, after her VERY fucked up childhood, found herself in a Branch Davidian style cult to a Toxic Totem of the Adversary Spirit and replaced most of her organic parts with mechanical ones to rid herself of her Essence and free herself as much as possible from his grasp; Eiger, the Troll ex-special forces Street Samurai sniper who was sent on a secret and illegal operation which was fucked up by an inexperienced member of her crew causing her to be blacklisted and forced into the shadows resulting in a control freak with no patience for inexperience or arrogance; the optional member of the crew Blitz who is a former ganger Decker that deals with his past contacts. Your Fixer is Paul Amsel, an older gentleman who runs all of the non-Run related business for the crew. Plus your half-Hellhound Dante. The plot involves the return of the Dragon Feuerschwinge and her small army, with some subplots involving everything from some of the shittier sides to political groups and the megacorps through the next big Matrix threat, an AI on an unprecedented scale who may or may not be a major player in the 2070's cyber scene as it takes on the personas of Deckers it fries with one of its victim's handles still posting on internet forums almost twenty years after his death. Shadowrun Returns is referenced as a news report mentions the Emerald City Ripper early on his rampage, allowing players looking to play the same character to make Dragonfall the prequel to Returns. The actual gameplay mechanics were improved, with far more tilesets added and the Adept play experience made viable, in addition to being able to save anytime rather than only at the end of a scene. Players who purchased the Director's Cut were able to play the Returns game with the improvements.

'''2016:''' The third game, also standalone, called Shadowrun Returns: Hong Kong just had a similarly extremely successful Kickstarter raising $1.2 million, and was released that August. The game featured a revamped experience for Mages and Shamans, as well as a completely redone Matrix sequence. SR:HK continued with the gray morality, dingy world of the past two games with further emphasis on reputation as players deal with various groups including criminal Triads, the everpresent megacorps, and the police, not quite all of them being hostile. The PC has a background in a gang in the Seattle barrens with their adoptive brother Duncan Wu until they were taken in by a man named Raymond Black, and they lived in relative peace until the PC goes on a shadowrun that goes bad and spends a few years in a black site. The plot kicks off shortly after the PC gets out and their adoptive father Raymond Black calls and pensively asks for help in Hong Kong. When the player character arrives, they meet a security team (Duncan being one of the pair) and a team of shadowrunners, but Raymond is pointedly missing. Then group comes under ambush, and the survivors fight their way out a SWAT hit squad through a sniper shooting gallery, have to work favors for a Triad boss to cover their tracks, and then find that Raymond was killed or abducted. And then you get to the second mission. Their journey takes them to the Triad stronghold-cum-settlement Heoi, which serves as your home base and a series of colorful residents, to put it mildly. Their journey keeps coming back to the Kowloon Walled City and the seriously bad vibes coming out of it. A slum that makes Redmond look like paradise to put it very lightly

The new crew consists of: Gobbet, the Ork Rat Shaman who's known for her iron stomach, being unhygienic, and yet strangely gregarious and attractive; Duncan Wu the Ork ex-security Street Samurai and the other part of PC's and Raymond's adoptive family; Is0bel, the antisocial and traumatized Dwarf Decker of Somalian refugee descent; and then there's your handler, "Kindly" Cheng (but really, call her "auntie"), the chainsmoking Triad middle manager whose both a hard drinker and a hard ass, but she's happy if you do a good job. There's also the optional party members: Racter, the creepy Russian rigger who rents out your basement, a clinical psychopath, mad scientist, and transhumanist, also quite friendly once you get to know him; and Gaichu, the disciplined and thoughtful Ghoul and former member of Renraku's (in)famous Red Samurai security who refused to commit Seppuku after contracting the Ghoul virus. The game also comes with its own short story to act as a prologue to the game, and had a post-campaign bonus campaign DLC where you are sent on the trail of the dirty cop who put the bounty on your heads at the beginning of the first mission.

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The two released Harebrained Schemes Shadowrun Returns games were met with the massive approval of both the Shadowrun community and the general video game enthusiast community, an impressive feat. Hong Kong was kinda skub, but mostly averages out to "popular."