Awakened Worlds has aspects that should please Shadowrun 3rd Ed players, but also some serious issues. Clearly a lot of effort has been made to implement the SR3 rule set, usually in a faithful manner. Cyberware, Bioware, Ranged and Melee combat, Decking, Rigging, Spellcasting, Summoning and most Foci are functional. Thrown and Projectile Weapons are not, nor are Weapon Foci. But what is implemented is generally done very well. Automated Johnsons send players on shadowruns, which relieves a lot of the grinding of many muds.

There are a few very significant deviations from the SR3 rules that drastically change the player's experience, and they are not always obvious. Physads lack Improved Ability, which is the backbone of many if not most SR3 physads. Trolls over 2.5m tall (most trolls and variants) are hampered by a new mechanic called Slouch, which isn't advertised, and the only notification for which looks like flavor text. Slouch essentially makes trolls useless in melee indoors. A fight is described on their forum where a troll PC, indoors, with basically maxed out weapon skills, is beaten soundly in melee combat by a PC opponent with no skill whatsoever who is using a gun as a club.

This brings us to the last aspect of the mud's disadvantages. Height isn't changeable after a character is out of Newbie status, and most newbies, having so much to take in, don't realize the Slouch issue until it's too late to change it. The staff is unresponsive to years (7 and counting) of complaints from generation after generation of players who encounter the rule, saying, 'It's been addressed a million times.' This instance is an accurate picture of the staff on Awakened Worlds. They combine a 'my mud, my rules' rigidity with an intolerance for ignorance of their custom mechanic. They treat new player questions with sarcasm and condescension. They insult, on public channels, players who ask such questions.

The mud can be very enjoyable for a player who doesn't mind spending weeks exploring and learning the rules, with the understanding that at the end of it they will probably have to remake the character after they understand the materially different implementation of SR3 rules the mud uses, and accepting that the staff is generally rude.