In Shadowrun Duels, players use 6’ action figures rather than traditional 25-30mm metal or plastic miniatures to simulate firefights and gang combats in the world of the popular Fasa RPG. While I am not a huge fan of Shadowrun (Preferring Cyberpunk for it’s non Magical view of the dark future) I had always thought since mage knight that the game was best suited to small unit tactics (such as small gangs or fire-teams) so I was very curious to see how an urban combat game ala cyberpunk or Shadowrun would play under this kind of system. While I am happy to report the game works quite well, it is also the most radical departure Wizkids has taken in their company’s short history.
Firstly of course is the packaging, unlike most of the collectable games, Shadowrun guarantees a “no surprises” approach to the buying of its gaming format. Each figure comes in an attractive blister pack, which is clearly marked and shows you almost everything you are getting in the packages. Which consists of one action figure (I chose the Street Deacon and Kyushi for the two I am reviewing) a collection of weapons and accessories, dice, ruler mini rulebook and the combat stand with your character’s stats and combat wheels. As for the figures themselves they are without a doubt the most attractive figures Wizkidz has ever put out. I may not care for all the specific styles but I cannot argue that the sculpts are not highly professional and gorgeous to boot. Everything from the paint job to the details (such as the material pattern on the deacon) is on par with most Hasbro/Macfarlane action-figures I have seen in the last few years. And the articulation is decent to boot. They are also well painted, on the deacon for example his shades, the lenses were painted in a glossy black to give them a glass effect, while the frames are a flat black giving great contrast and feel to the figure. While granted it is easier to mold a 6” figure than a 1” figure I still think that anyone wishing to complain about Wizkids’s sculpts should really look at these beauties.
The equipment is equally well done but each piece has a small icon, and a number (the icon refers to the dice type and color, the item provides, while the number refers to it’s point value) this means that each weapon (and it’s respective die) can be interchanged between characters, which means that you are not limited by what comes in the box. Which brings us to the heart of the gaming part the combat base. The base it self is physically big (about 1’ tall and 5” diameter) however it houses your characters equipment, dice, rulers and rulebook. What’s more the bottom part is removed during game and becomes all of your main charts as well as dice storage. Unlike most clix games Shadow run employs 3 separate wheels representing both the character’s stats and hit locations. And while there are no colored bar on the numbers as in most clix games the color of the dice and their size matter in making most determinations for example white dice are for movement and initiative, and dodge, yellow, dodge and hand to hand, blue short range attacks, green long range attacks, red magic and black, tech effects. Each turn the player chooses 6 of his available dice to use in his turn. And picking the right dice on the right turn is a good part of the strategy. The stats are similar to mage knight, attack defense and movement (no damage) however they are on separate wheels and as you are hit the defender places damage as he pleases (unless the attacker can pull of a called shot) making the game a lot of decisions and strategies vs. simple rolling proficiencies. The game works on a turn based format with each player getting one move and 2 attacks (say good bye fatigue system and glass stones of MK and Heroclix!!) and players may add the colored dice to any task from attack, to move to doge (assuming they are the appropriate color) however once you use a die it cannot be used again until next turn. So if you attack with a shot gun (blue d8) once you cannot use that attack again unless you have a second blue d8 in your “hand” of six dice per turn. Also some dice have a special “ace marking on the one allowing for critical hits. Which are carried out depending on the color of die scoring the ace. In fact with the usefulness of swapping out equipment I doubt it will be too long before they sell weapons packs with corresponding dice to further customize each figure. (Such as police weapons, black market cyberwear, etc…) On that level Shadowrun duels appeals to me as both a toy line and a gaming system.
This game however does have it’s downsides, first is it’s bulky, which is to be expected. It takes a big table or floor to run out big battles obviously. While this may not be a big problem (pardon the pun) it does make this game less desirable for games in cramped quarters. Secondly the game’s desire to fit everything in the base has made them decide to shrink the rulebook down to an itty bity 18-page booklet reminiscent of those microscopic manuals from the early days of Magic the gathering. Honestly they probably should post an expanded rulebook on like to make clearer some of the more confusing rules.
Despite a few faults and a strange format Shadowun: Duels is probably the most exciting concept in gaming since Mage Knight rebellion. It’s as easy as heroclix, with cool figures that are based more on customizing to your tastes than luck of the draw and as with all of their games there is no tedious paperwork to slow the game down. Grab your grimoire and pack your gat it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!
