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Bungie's Frankie had a little sit down with some of the FASA team working on upcoming shooter Shadowrun.
In the short Q&A Team FASA's John Howard, Lead designer; Sage Merill, Core game design; Derek Carroll, AI / Core game design; Christopher Blohm, Training / Level design; and Bill Fulton, Matchmaking / UI design talk about Counterstrike, Halo 3 and dendrophobia.
Most interesting is the team's take on the similarities between Shadowrun, Halo and Counterstrike:
On Counterstrike
Sage - Counterstrike is an awesome team based shooter, so yeah we consider it a compliment. On the surface, Shadowrun does share some basic design elements with Counterstrike. For example, it is round based, there is no automatic respawn, and you purchase equipment/powers based on your performance. So ignoring the races, round one is kind of like a CS game. However, that is where the similarity ends. By round 4 of a Shadowrun game your avatar is like a tiny god, and when gods fight, it's nothing like Counterstrike.Derek - Counterstrike is an awesome game. Shadowrun is awesomer.
On Halo
Sage - Shadowrun combat its less about perfect aiming, and more about superior position. You choose when you enter and when you leave combat. It is a constant chess match to maneuver into situations where you have the advantage. In Halo 2, you win the fight, or you die. Halo 2 is all about your aiming skill, and it's difficult to disengage once a fight starts.Bill - Halo 2's multiplayer was very focused on 'fair competition'—visible player skill levels, had to play new opponents after every match ended, etc. Shadowrun's multiplayer is more focused on social play—you can play with the same opponents after the match is over, no visible skill (although we still matchmake according to player skill) and strong team work is required to win. And of course, we stole Halo 2's party system, 'cause it rules.
I had a lot of fun playing around with the Shadowrun beta and I hear the graphics look much better in the final product. My only complaint was that the beta had a very limited mapset, but I'm sure that won't be the case with the final game.
Shadowrun Shenanigans [Bungie]
