Shadowrun is Going to Hong Kong

[Nefaro]

I was going to pick it up, but it seems a number of folks are talking about a "matrix mode" within the game and how it is implemented not being that great....what is that?

It never was in this series.  The new Hong Kong one supposedly has a revised version of this part, but the screenshots look about the same as the old one to me.  It's the "netrunning" part, but it's just a dulled down VR equivalent of the regular game mechanics.

The old Sega Genesis Shadowrun had better netrunning mechanics, more representative of the tabletop, where you're VR self would travel through nodes (turn-based of course) and encounter various ICE and other "programs" that you needed to defeat with the programs you had purchased in true RPG style.  It was like a randomized VR-themed dungeon run to loot corporate info (to be sold on the black market) and get out before getting brain-burned by the Black ICE protecting it, or dumped by similar security.  I recall enjoying that part very much in that old game, along with the rest.

Hell, there was a freeware game some guy made that was more fun.  Named Decker, it's mechanics came from an old version of the Tabletop RPG.  Basically plays as a Roguelike.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/decker/
http://www.roguetemple.com/reviews/decker/

The netrunning in the new one just doesn't convey the separate VR theme well.  It's just the normal game's combat with much fewer options and a glowy wireframe representation.