What do you get when you combine a cyberpunk future, the city of Seattle, hackers that deck themselves into the Matrix, orcs and elves with their legendary might and magical abilities, a gritty film noir like story, and throw it in a blender along with a attitude that screams, "I'M LIKE, TOTALLY FROM THE 90S!!!" ?

The game begins with a "Archetype" selection... You still play the same guy named Joshua, but he can either be a Samurai with a pistol and "Hand Razors" (They look like cybernetic fingernails), a Decker with some hardware jacking out of your head and into a Cyberdeck (A keyboard the character lugs around to hack into public Matrix terminals), or a Gator Shaman that portrait looks like something straight out of Street Fighter (Magic fire hands included)...

"SHADOOOOOOOOO-KEN!" -Gator Shaman

Next we learn the background story: It's the 2050s and a team of Shadowrunners (Street mercs that take odd jobs to get rich and prove how badass they are, or they die trying...) are ambushed and killed in the forests outside Seattle. The corrupt Lone Star authorites aren't really looking into the matter and explained it in the news as "Death by superior firepower." But one of the dead was your brother and you spend your last nuyen (Shadowrun money) to go to Seattle and run the shadows and avenge your brother's death. Along the way, you'll work for some scumbags, encounter some situations that have unforseen right choices, raid some corporate buildings to rescue people or steal company secrets...

"Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to walk next door and pick up my "package" from this other guy... This message will self-destruct in 5 seconds. Good luck finding your brother's killer, Joshua."
-Mr. Johnson

The missions get a little stale after awhile, you spend a while in this one area of town called the Redmond Barrens, trying to work up enough nuyen to buy back your brother's things from this hotel owner... After that though you can go all over Seattle, even to a Native American village located in the woods outside of the city! The Shadowruns you are sent on once again, get repetitve: Pick up package, deliver here. Find guy, escort him there. Hack computer, don't die. Raid building, set off alarms, search safes on every floor for a package, get pissed off when alarms won't let you leave building/floors. Luckily you can hire some other Shadowrunners to help you out, if you can afford them anyway (Kinda hard early in the game when your character has crappy stats)...

"I have 8 bullets, no backup, and I'm being paid only 300 nuyen to assault the Lone Star base?! How fragging desperate am I?!?!?"
-Joshua

Another annoyance I have is there are times you walk down the street and a screen appears that says, "This guy took your picture then tuned and disappeared in the crowd" and "The crowd watches as Lone Star walks up to question you"... THERE ARE NO CROWDS IN THIS GAME!!! There's occasionally 1 or 2 people on the streets and less in the bars/nightclubs... Only when enemies are attacking you or the player assaults a gang clubhouse is there a group of more than 2 people! Ugh...

BUT... I have to say this game is very addicting. Love the story, the action, I just have to keep playing despite the minor flaws! If it had character creation like the Elder Scrolls series, that would've just blew my mind apart. As it is, it's one of my favorite Genesis games and definitely my favorite RPG for the classic system. I give this game 5 out of 5 successful runs on the streets.