Shadowrun offers the player an open style of gameplay, where one controls the main character, Joshua, in a top-down third person perspective during both exploration and combat.

Karma, roughly equivalent to experience, is earned for successfully completing a run, killing enough enemies, or advancing the game's plot.

To earn money and Karma, the player must participate in shadowruns, illegal jobs provided by pseudo-anonymous contractors who are, within the legal boundaries of their work, referred to simply as Mr. Johnsons.

Depending on the Johnson, they will randomly offer different types of jobs such as raiding gang hangouts, search & retrieval, extractions, courier missions, ghoul hunting, or Matrix runs.

If the player completes the mission successfully and the shadowrunner was signed on for one job, they return to their location and can be hired back cheaper than before.

On the other hand, Lone Star, the ubiquitous private security force contracted by the government to provide police services, can not be contacted directly.

In tone with the Shadowrun pen-and-paper universe, certain characters can also explore the Matrix, a global computer network that can be accessed through cyberterminals.

The cyberdeck carried by Joshua can be used by any shadowrunner and, like real computers, has a variety of statistics, such as memory, storage, and loading speed.

Networks are made up of a series of nodes: geometric shapes representing different facets of the system, such as the CPU or data stores.

These are designed to forcibly dump the persona from the system by various means, sometimes resulting in the decker taking physical damage in the real world, to the point of being incapacitated.

Shadowrun's story takes place in these areas, both the wilderness of the Salish-Shidhe and the pollution of Seattle, controlled by mega corporations.

In the wilderness of the newly reclaimed Amerindian lands of the Salish-Shidhe, a small team of shadowrunners is brutally ambushed by unknown forces.

He arrives at Sea-Tac Airport and traces back Michael's last credstick transaction to "Stoker's Coffin Motel", in the Redmond Barrens.

Joshua travels there to inquire about his brother, only to be told by the owner that Michael never paid his bill and in fact has some belongings being held.

He strikes a deal with Joshua, and by beginning to do small shadowruns for a small-time Mr. Johnson, called Gunderson, he gains enough money to pay his brother's bills.

In Michael's belongings, he finds three "holopix": one of a young woman, Tabatha Shale; of an Amerindian, David Owlfeather, and of Seattle General Hospital Dr. Heaversheen.

Because of the sandbox style of gameplay and the non-linear story, the entire mystery is not revealed until the three main branches are totally completed.

GamePro criticized the game's "small and muddled" graphics, "tinny" sounds, tedious and awkward control system, and repetitive gameplay.