I've avoided reading through the adventure because I'd like to play through it, but I'm curious as to what's both players and GM's opinions of the adventure. Aside from mechanical issues, is the adventure fun?

Can be, but there are some gaps that need GM filling, and the lack of maps is a problem.

It's not the best adventure I've read or played through, but it's far from the worst.

aramis is right in that the GM needs to do some work to make this viable. Plus, it's written more with the intent of being the launching point for a campaign, as the first third of the adventure is pretty much "here's a Rebel base, let's do a big ol' meet & greet of the NPCs". Also, later portions are pretty much set-up that if the party gets one bad roll, they're forced into combat, and more than likely they're probably going to get butchered if the PCs aren't all twinked for combat.

Most canned "official" adventures I'm not a fan of, and Shell Game was no exception. It was full of railroad and the ending was confusing and very deus ex machine.