Introduction
You are Jake Armitage, a shadowrunner. You were unceremoniously executed in the streets, but somehow you woke up in the morgue (albeit with a massive migraine). Somebody wants you dead, and you have to find out who -- and why.
Controls
Outside the Matrix
- A: Draw weapon/fire
- B: Examine/manipulate objects, talk
- L: Examine object
- R: Pick up object
- Select: Show stats
- Start: Game menu
Both manipulating objects and firing weapons depend on positioning the cursor. You might wonder how you can take evasive action in combat when you cannot move and control a cursor at the same time. Well, you can't. You generally just stand in place and fire your weapon, taking whatever damage comes your way. This is not a tactical game.
Inside the Matrix
- A: Initiate combat (destroy IC or nodes)
- B: Pick up data/alter program
Walkthrough
The morgue
You can examine your chamber to find a hidden piece of paper. Open the right freezer and take the slap patch within. You can either use it when you're near death, or hang onto it to use later (you'll need it to obtain the Magic Fetish, but you can buy a patch later in the game). Also notice near the bottom end of the room a scalpel on a tray. It is not easy to spot so use the hand cursor to locate it. Exit your room and the two men will be surprised to see you alive -- surprised enough that they run into the next room, fearing you to be a zombie. Walk out of the building and somebody will be surprised to see you alive... he saw the hitmen shoot you dead. He runs away for fear of being seen with you. Follow him into a dark alley. He will meet a bad end, but quickly go over to his body (past the enemy orc) and pick up and equip his weapon. Quickly kill the orc. The orc will drop leather armor; be sure to pick this up and equip it in addition to the nuyen. Go to the northwest and you will be greeted by a dog, but he won't be much help to you right now.
Your apartment
This will be one of the most tedious parts of the game. Even with your weapon and armor, you are very weak. You must go to your apartment because it will be your home base, and there are enemies in a neighboring room which you can repeatedly pick off to build up. Go to the town square, then go to the southeast. Head up northeast from there and you'll come across a big red building. Enter it, then take the nearest door. You'll find an incapacitated or, perhaps more likely, dead body. Examine him and pick up his key: this is actually the key to your apartment. Take the note as well if you like. Exit the building (the other room just has enemies), go to the northeast and then hook around the corner to the northwest. Keep going and you'll arrive at your apartment building. Enter it, find apartment six, and use the key on the door. Listen to the message on the video phone on the wall, open the filing cabinet and take the ¥20, and pick up and use your sunglasses. (You look like a dork with 'em on, don't you?) You must also read the ripped note by the computer to get Sassie's phone number, although you can't use the information now until you have the credstick. Rest on the bed and save the game.
Now, enter the door just to the right of yours. Inside you'll likely find some enemies. Gun 'em down, take their nuyen, and repeat until you have 3 karma or are dangerously low on health. Go back to your bed and use your karma to boost your Body attribute or Firearms skill. Keep doing this until you have Body and Firearms at about 5 or 6; don't worry about boosting anything else as you don't need it right now. Once you have these attributes boosted, you should be safe until you reach the next major leveling-up area, the Caryards.
Miscellaneous
Fun stuff
- Most of the time you cannot shoot unarmed civilians. However, it still is possible sometimes. If they don't go down in one shot, you probably can't kill them. If you continue to shoot at people who you can't kill, you will get a warning. If you ignore the warning and keep doing it, you will lose one karma point, unless you have no karma, then you just get the warning again.
- At Ed's Patch & Fix, after Ed activates the cortex bomb, you can shoot him. This is one of the rare exceptions to the rule that you cannot kill people who mean you no harm.
- You can kill any scientist in the Drake Volcano whether they can hurt you or not.
- You can try to kill the helicopter pilot at Drake Volcano (but not at the top of Drake Tower) and he'll take damage, but he seems to have infinite HP. It wouldn't be a good idea anyway because then the only way to get out would be to defeat Drake.
Bugs
- It may sometimes be possible to kill an enemy with one hit if you shoot them before the battle music starts. Normally it won't happen, but it's possible.
- One time furrykef was stranded on the Bremerton ship without the crowbar, even though he had picked up the item. This is apparently the result of the game automatically getting rid of some items you don't need at certain points in the game. It is not certain what triggered this, but it was probably either going to the Drake Towers or Aneki building too early. If this happens, you must reset the game. If the crowbar is still gone, you're screwed and have to start the game over from the beginning. Ouch!
Trivia
- The name "Armitage" is a reference to Neuromancer, which features a character with this name. The Genesis Shadowrun also has a reference to Neuromancer, in the form of a character going by the name Nero Manser. Neuromancer is a book by William Gibson, and was the first cyberpunk novel.