I've been eagerly awaiting Target:UCAS since early March, when I got word from Mike at FASA that they would be using one of my nicknames as a decker comment in the book. The rest of the book didn't disappoint me either.

Target:UCAS is set up like a standard Shadowrun book, an online post on Shadowland, with users interjecting comments where appropriate. It starts with the State of the Union address, with has been available on FASA's Page for awhile now. Then it moves to The Scott Commission, the group investigating Dunkelzhans death.

The first location profiled is Boston, and in my opinion, its rather bland. The catacombs, a giant underground maze of rooms and passagesways, was the only thing that really grabbed my interest here.

Detroit was much better, especially with the background information on Ares and Damien Knight. Actually, there's more Ares and Mr. Knight than there is Detroit, but its still an interesting read, and can certainly be worked into an existing campaign.

Chicago, under seige from the bugs, does it deserve more space in FASA products? Well when something as big as whats going on there happens, it certainly does! If you're currently playing a campaign set in Chicago, don't read this book, it will spoil your fun. As a matter of fact, I consider this to be a Gamemaster only book, no peeking for the players.

The book's layout is well done, the cover art excellent. The interior art is a lot more subtle and darker than previous FASA products, and looks good to me. There's also little bugs crawling across the Chicago section, a nice touch. The entire book is heavy on the text, and very heavy on 'shadowtext'. My main gripe is a lack of maps, two half page maps, one for Detroit, one for Boston. I feel more attention could have been given to them, with at least a couple maps for each city.

A solid book, some of it earth shaking, some of it rather mundane, but good overall. There will probably be a more detailed review in The Shadowrun Supplemental next issue, with a few more spoilers and details. Its not a must have book, but if your campaign has anything to do with Chicago, or you're looking for a new location to run in, pick this one up!

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)