Shadowrun is the game I want to love, but it always pushes me away. Mechanics wise yeah there is that, but I can use a alternate rules set from some other game.
Its actually more the world and the theming that just doesn't stick with me.
The core conciet of playing mildly ethical looser mercenaries as they blow folks away that are just barely less ethical then themselves, and are implicitely disposable assets for unstoppable megacorporations that will use you and throw you away. It never sat well with me. Also the ecophelia and the native american worship leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and the themes of magical discrimination get really tiresome.
I liked the videogames, but they almost unilatirally broke all the rules of the setting every time (You play ethical mostly heroic people financed by taking jobs but mostly independant working to avert catastrophy and succeeding in the face of megacorporate odds).
And then I played Huntdown (link to trailer because I couldn't get a text link working:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QepvIm_-NHQ)
And I played a milly ethical mercanary blowing away folks only barely less ethical then me, and am a disposable asset for a mega corporation that gets swept aside in the end.....And I LOVED IT! Its my favorite game of 2020, and I loved not just its mechanics, but worldbuilding and style.
This has been maddening. As I try to figure out what makes me not like Shadowrun and like Huntdown. My only sorta clue is I feel Huntdown takes itself less seriously, and in that becomes more....believable?
I would like to run a Shadowrun-esque game someday, but if I can't figure out what I like and dislike, I can never get it to work.