I'm not going to review the contents of this decades old book.

If you don't know it, there are tons of reviews out there. Look up some, make sure this is the right edition for you (and make sure this is the right version of Mage for you too, because there's also Mage: the Awakening which is moderately similar to this game. Read up on about that too.) If you know Mage, though, you know why you are here. What my rating and my very short, cautionary review is about is the current pdf presentation of the game.

The pdf is a scan. That would be OK, if only

...the font wasn't a bit blurry, making it tiring on the eyes

...the pdf had actual bookmarks (you know, it's 2024)

...the OCRed text would actually match what's on the page (proof: select a paragraph, copy and paste it into a plain txt file, or try and have a sceen reader read it, notice chances are you won't be getting exactly what's on the page)

...there was a (form fillable) character sheet included with the download.

The game itself is awesome (imo, but see my 2nd paragraph above), but for this price, in 2024, from a company that (used to be) a big name in the gaming industry, I'd have expected much better quality, UX, and accessibility, especially for the current price. I'm a little disappointed, really. Which won't stop me from playing the game, but I bought the pdf copy for searchability and such, because it's faster than paging thru my old, old, beloved physical copy, but it was a bit of a waste of money.

So you watched A Boy and His Dog, Stalker, all of Mad Max, and some other movies like these, then played some Borderlands, Stalker, and Fallout, and so on, and now want the same in your tabletop gaming? Right now? Without having to read and memorize hundreds of pages? Look no further!

The Rad-Hack is a superb little game for all your post-apocalyptic roleplaying needs. Minimalist, versatile ruleset. Simple and great mechanics that you can learn and teach your players in about an hour. And lots of freedom for the GM. (Well, the latter can be a bit surprising to those coming from slightly more complex systems, but you'll likely get the feel of it, and will love it. I did.)

The crazy art is excellent. Not realistic at all, but it is inspiring, and sets the mood.

PS: Yes, if you ask me, it's totally worth its price, even if it's a bit higher than the other Hacks.

Besides leaning towards a more rules lite approach, Anarchy is also a dominantly narrativist version of Shadowrun.

The roles of GM and Player are somewhat mashed together. Even though there's a lead GM, players are given serious GM-like powers which can be used primarily during a player's own "narration" phase. Such a phase is kinda like a round in a traditional simulationist rpg, only rounds here are used all the time, not just during combat, and when it's your round, you become the GM (whether you want to or not) whom only the lead GM can override.

Having read the rules it doesn't seem impossible to use Anarchy for old-school gaming. It's definitely not the default mode, though, and going simulationist is not really supported at all. You'll have to cut out some core mechanics, and introduce a number of house rules to heal the wound on the system, without any significant help.

Even if you intend to use SR:A as designed, as a narrativist, rules lite (or maybe medium) game, you'll find a number of rules / details questions you'll have to answer for yourself. (Well, unless we get an updated pdf and/or an errata.) Please, see the other reviews and the Discussion section here for details – I'm not going to list them, as my primary hope was, indeed, to get a rules lite/medium simulationist version of Shadowrun. Sure, I did know SR:A has been advertised as a primarily narrativist game – yet ever since its announcement it has been implied online that you'd be able to use it for a traditional style nearly equally easily, possibly through some optional rules.

I wouldn't say I'm disappointed, because I mostly (not fully) got what I expected based on the pre-release communications. Yet I'm not happy (though the art is awesome and inspiring.) A serious errata and a possible expansion with the "missing", optional, simulationist rules (with the chance to ignore all the narrativist Cue System stuff) would definitely make me reconsider my rating.

TL;DR: Great art, great world, yet currently not really useful alternate SR for an old-school GM who's been waiting for a chance to return to traditional, simulationist SR gaming for years, without having to grapple with a narrativist system introduced here, or the rules-superheavy SR5.