Shadowrun

If you want more: Unbelievably dark future dystopia, guns ‘n’ cyberware, tabletop-inspired gaming
Notable differences: Short and breezy, writing and worldbuilding fun instead of tryhard, actually good music
Availability:
Shadowrun (1993): SNES
Shadowrun (1994): Genesis
Shadowrun (1996): Sega CD

You wake up on a slab in a morgue, unaware of your identity, the life-threatening situation you’re in, or that you’re about to play one of the secret best RPGs on 16-bit. Beam Software’s Shadowrun for SNES was a true sleeper, a wonderfully atmospheric dive into the wilds of a cyberpunk Seattle whose secret excellence was largely conveyed through player word of mouth.

An isometric, cursor-driven adventure set in a grimy future full of demihumans, cyberware, and magic, there was really nothing else like it. (Shadowrun felt especially fresh if, like me, you had no knowledge of the FASA tabletop game and novels it sprang from.) While the gameplay’s breezy and enjoyable, the vibes in particular are sublime, with a stellar soundtrack and every character spouting perfectly terse, trashy futurespeak.

Wait, did I call the SNES game “grimy”? No, the real grime is in BlueSky Software’s 1994 Genesis Shadowrun, which cranks up the dystopian feel and takes a more systems-driven approach to its RPGing. While not as immediately charming as Beam’s storyful SNES game, you’ll quickly fall into a pleasant groove of taking on contracts, stealing corp data, and gunning down hostile chummers. The game’s greatest innovation comes in its extremely in-depth netrunning sequences, which evince real danger compared to the SNES game’s cursory, glorified minesweeper segments.

There is also a 1996 Sega CD adventure by Compile (the Zanac and Puyo Puyo people!) but that hasn’t been translated from Japanese yet.

If something newer is more your jam, Harebrained Schemes put out a decently received trilogy of isometric PC RPGs starting in 2013, though read up on the unfixed bugs first. There’s also a 2007 Xbox 360 / Windows competitive FPS that is best ignored. — Alexandra Hall