Blade Runner - Enhanced Edition

I bought both the original and the "Enhanced" version, having never played either before. After an hour(ish) of playing it, I uninstalled it, installed the ScuumVM version (GOG's version of the original game) and the difference was staggering! Much of the below carries over into the rest of the game, NOT just the first hour: PROS 1. Subtitles 2. It runs CONS 1. The game uses custom black bars on either side to force widescreen compatibility, as the original is standard 4:3 ratio. This is only an issue because those "custom black bars" made it more difficult to traverse through the game. In the GOG version (like all other 4:3 ratio games played on a widescreen monitor) the black bars are not actually part of the game, you can't drag your curser accross them, they represent the ends of the playable area. So how do these "custom black bars" negatively impact the game? Those "custom black bars" ARE actually part of the playable area, and you CAN drag your cursor across them. This means when you attempt to travel to a different room you have these giant bars on the sides that you MUST drag your cursor across in order to do so. It's very awkard, and makes it all too easy for you to screw up, or travel to the wrong rooms, at no fault of your own. 2. All the custom menus are simply gross. 3. They SOMEHOW made the graphics noticeably worse. They're buggy, blurry, and choppy. Any nuances found in the original game's graphics were completely lost in this version. This includes the cutscenes. How they managed to make graphics from 1997 actually worse is almost impressive. 4. Conversations were near-completely broken, often jump cutting to different parts of the same conversation(s). 5. Cutscenes would abruptly end before completion. 6. Shooting was COMPLETELY broken, often working only half the time, if at all. Ultimately, what GOG lists as the original version was actually fun, and I beat it after uninstalling the hot garbage that is the "Enhanced Edition."

*NOTE: This review was disappeared earlier, possibly due to some website mishap. Hopefully this will fare better! ;) * Blade Runner is rightfully considered a classic, within hours it dropped from being one of the highest rated games here to one of the lowest rated ones. What happened? - The ScummVM people spent a DECADE (!) reverse engineering BR to make it run on modern systems. In Dec 2019 they struck a deal with gog and released their version of BR. Everybody is happy. - Mere WEEKS after the gog release, Nightdive announce an "Enhanced Edition" of BR for Steam (undermining gog sales) and consoles. ND were trying to get ScummVM for their remaster, but ScummVM's license requires their work to be open source, which console makers disallow. Deal fell through. ND continues to cobble together their own version, using their in-house one-size-fits-all engine KEX. - Several months later, ND releases a taste of things to come: The intro video, lazily upscaled to 4K with nauseating 60FPS interpolation and noise filters that smudge all the detail. - In Oct 2021, an article appears: "Gee, what's taking them so long?". Turns out: SURPRISE! Slapping a game based on obscure tech from way back when, with all of the original files and documentation long lost, into KEX isn't such a cakewalk after all! ND bit off more than they can chew. The future of the project looks uncertain. - Less than a year later: ND releases their "Enhanced Edition". It's exactly the sort of hackjob you'd expect given the project's history. Steam rating sat at 27 percent, even the press deride this "remaster". - Seeing those precious chinyen slip right through their fingers, ND decide to flat-out STEAL the ScummVM version and bundle it with their version. They're now leeching off (and taking money for!) the 10+ years of hard work the ScummVM people invested into creating a PROPER remaster. IMHO, ND should pull this disgraceful "Enhanced Edition" and publically apologize to everyone involved.

Avoid the Enhanced Edition at all costs Do not buy this game, even though it includes the original version. Night Dive deserve nothing for this unmitigated disaster. If GOG will not list the original version, then get it somewhere else, because only giving you the option to give money to a company that ruined the game in order to get a copy of the unsullied version is unacceptable. Blade Runner via SCUMMVM is a great experience. This "Enhanced Edition" is awful. A blurry, artless mess with newly introduced bugs, a complete loss of atmosphere, and a loss in functionality. - The backgrounds are a blurry up-sampled eyesore - Tthe rain has been removed - The sound cuts out in various places - Point and click controls dont work correctly - Kia has been redesigned into a generic screen of gross and dross with no artistry or consideration for the art dierection of the game. - Interactive characters look pasted into the scenes because they're not rendered in the same manner as the backgrounds due to the appalling up-resing/ "AI upscaling" This is an uglier, less playable version of the game. Avoid at all costs. Until the original version is made available again do not buy Blade Runner from GOG. Somehow Night Dive have managed to release a version of a game that looks and plays worse than it did 25 years ago.

Please Let Us Buy Only The Scumm Release GoG. The Team Behind the original Scumm release deserve our money, not NightDive. What makes this version worse? The controls are worse. The graphics are worse. It looks like someone put a filter on everything but funnily enough small details that could easily be seen in the older original version have more clarity to them unlike this one. The game has clearly been gimped control wise to make it work on consoles. The reason for this? This is an appalling cash grab from Nightdive who just wanted to put the game on consoles. I have the steam version but quickly refunded it and headed here hoping I could get the scumm version that used to be on here. But I won't buy it if that means I'm supporting Nightdive who has clearly gotten too big off the backs off older and far more talented developers by re-releasing their classics. That last part is harsh but I know they know that this wasn't fit for release but they've gotten so big from just re-releasing other people's games they clearly don't care. Nightdive just seems like a parasitical company at this point when they release something like this. At least with the big companies, they do actually make rehashes and remakes look technically better.

After GOG removed my review because it was apparently not constructive enough, I will do my best to be very constructive. Blade Runner - Enhanced Edition is currently riddled with bugs and blurry backgrounds (which lose detail) as well as interpolated cutscenes which - for all intends and purposes - look worse than the "ScummVM version" which GOG sold for nearly 2 years before stealthily replacing it with this piece of... software. My constructive suggestion is to stick to the ScummVM version that you can still access when buying this - which sends (part of) your money to NightDive. And if we think about that constructively, then that money should be going to the ScummVM devs, considering their work was so much better.