Blade Runner

Oh boy, where do I start? I'm thrilled that the good people at GOG finally made this gem, a true masterpiece in gaming history, available for digital download. And guess what? We Blade Runner fans just celebrated November 2019, so this release couldn't be more appropriate! I remember I was quite excited when the game was announced back in December 1996, reading previews of it in the game magazines (yes, the physical ones!). I never even heard about the movie (or the book for that matter). I guess I already had a love for film noir and I always was a fan of point-and-click adventures. Though this game particularly caught my attention because the graphics were beyond what we had seen in an adventure game in 1997. I remember I regularly visited Westwood's website and looked at the videos that were available to download of the game (and caused my parents a huge phone bill... no cable or fiber internet access back then). We had a big computer store in a town nearby, and they were always the one to have the first releases of major games (like Command & Conquer). I was still in my early teens in November 1997 but I clearly remember seeing the big stack of Blade Runner boxes standing next to the cash register. A great sight. I still have the original cds and big box! What followed was a long journey of playing Blade Runner almost every day. My hard drive didn't have enough space back then so I had to choose the minimal installation, causing lots of lag and loading times. But the gameplay was amazing, and the computer AI and different endings was a huge thing. I also remember the sound design sent chills down my spine, especially playing in the dark, and I was impressed with the huge amount of dialogue. Needless to say; I watched the movie after the game and the rest was history. I've been a fan of the game and movie ever since and I even had the pleasure of working with Rutger Hauer at one time. I can't remember if I mentioned the game to him though. Thank you GOG!

I've been waiting years for this though I have the physical copy bought in '97. Thank you GOG! For bringing back a well loved classic. The game runs fine and it brings back a lot of memories.

It's one of those games I wanted to buy without wating for discounts, so it says much ;-) But seriously - the game is a must for any Blade Runner fan. It nicely complements the movie universe and the game itself is a quite good one for a point-and-click fan. Having said that - the game shows signs of aging. You can't overlook the crudely rendered "3D" characters. Hand-drawn games aged much better. But that's a minor flaw. More important flaw is that most of the Linux games you can buy on GOG really work quite ok on pretty much any Linux distro. At least on those popular ones (Fedora, Debian, Arch...). Not just on Ubuntu 18.04. This one maybe indeed does work on Ubuntu, but as people mentioned on forums, has problems with running on other distros. Good thing is that you can just run a standalone copy of ScummVM, add the game data and run it this way but for a "linux" game I'd expect something a bit better.

Suprisingly holds up really well after all this time. I went straight to the balcony for 10 minutes. A timeless classic. Thank you GOG.

Wonderfully recaptures the atmosphere and intrigue of the film. It’s one of those games where you will want to explore as much of the environment as possible; where you will be continually rewarded for doing so. Whereas the vast majority of other point & click adventure games focus on puzzle solving and item management, Blade Runner adheres to a design that is driven by character interaction and clue gathering. This made the game stand out more for me and gave the entire experience a special feel. After concluding my playthrough, I checked out a walkthrough and was stunned by the variables and the number of encounters I missed over the course of my 10 hours. The developers put a lot of heart into the creation of this game. It’s one more people should play.