The game will feature two major parts – the action map, where you (and your friends) do missions from stealthily infiltrating a secret Renraku research facility to punching the lights out of a major Aztechnology outpost with guns blazing. Hacking, magic and gunfights are all part of that and will be done simultaneously (so nobody needs to go for pizza while your hacker battles Black ICE for two hours).

The second part will be the legwork and mission preparation. This will happen on a city overview map, where you can try and use your contacts, skills or resources to gain info on the mission goal, acquire blueprints, bribe guards or prepare the right soft or spell for your endeavor. This will be closer to rolling the dice on an action and getting a short narrated outcome. Each of those actions will cost action points (and if you want to get better odds you may want to spend more action points on a specific objective).

So if you don’t have the time for an extended session, you may just want to spend a couple of AP to prepare and make sure you get the most out of your mission when you actually want to tackle it.

Shadowrun Online is coming to Steam Early Access on March 31.

"We are very excited (and a little frightened) to finally show this first glimpse of the game to the world," said Wagner. "We don’t want to pile on features unless we have nailed the core gameplay elements, so we created this small and polished section for our players to enjoy."

The initial release of Shadowrun Online through Early Access will provide players with a PvP map, two characters, four missions, and basic skills. This limited, combat-focused approach will provide valuable feedback from Kickstarter backers and the Steam community and help guide development.

Moving forward, incremental updates (approximately monthly) will allow Cliffhanger Productions to respond to community requests and to provide players with new content and features, including character creation, skill progression, and new missions.

"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us and we have invested everything (and then some) into development. Although we originally planned to begin our release schedule last year, it became apparent that our original code-base was too restricting, and we weren't willing to make compromises due to code limitations. Our backers and the Shadowrun community have been incredibly supportive, and more than anything we want to live up to their expectations."

Shadowrun Online: Lockdown will be cross-platform when it releases, allowing people to play on PC, Mac, and mobile devices.