Blade Runner

‘Blade Runner’ the game was designed for fans of the ‘Blade Runner’ movie directed by Ridley Scott. While you don’t need to have watched the film and its various cuts to appreciate the game, it would certainly help. For the most part, the game’s narrative structure was lifted from that of the film, even down to the way it introduced blade runners and replicants. The story was set in parallel with that of the movie, featuring many of the now iconic locations, such as Bradbury Building (J.F. Sebastian’s home), Hannibal Chew’s lab, and Tyrell Building. It’s a plus that the game expanded upon these locations, allowing you explore the world of ‘BR’ in greater detail. Because you don’t get to play as Deckard, the protagonist of the film, having some of the film’s cast voice their characters in the game helped to enhance the immersion. In fact, you’ll get to interact with a few of them as Deckard did. You can also administer the Voight-Kampff Test as a blade runner. While these parallels and similarities helped to create an authentic ‘BR’ experience, it also made the game almost too familiar. It felt like a waste that the developers didn’t stray farther from the source material. What makes ‘BR’ the game interesting was that your actions (i.e. being a true blade runner vs. a replicant sympathizer) have an impact on how the overall narrative unfolds. The game also randomizes whether or not some characters are replicants, affecting how certain scenes play out. Given that, you can potentially unlock one of several different endings each time you start a new game. ‘BR’ is a solid adventure game from the heyday of the genre. The original graphics still look great, albeit slightly pixelly on modern monitors. Voice acting was also well done, though I do take issue with the almost-too-cheery line delivery of your character. Despite a couple of shortcomings, I think it’s really worth your time to check ‘BR’ out, especially when it has been resurrected to run on modern PCs.

first played this game shortly after its release (still have the boxed copy!) and remember how much I liked the atmosphere and how it perfectly fit the movie. I also remember some aggravation on long transition scenes as you travel to office, home etc which you do often. still, I put this game on gog wishlist and immediately bought it when it was finally offered for sale. I was sure those nostalgic memories from decades ago (geesh im old) would not live up to a second playthru in modern times, getting it purely for curator reasons for my collection. I was wrong. the atmosphere is perfect, the ambient sounds, the artwork clutter and rain, the traveling and using the camera thing to zoom in pictures... all perfect. Gameplay is highly enjoyable for those who love point and click adventures with stories. Searching for clues (at times wonky with the camera thing as you have to find the exact spot for it to initiate the progression hotspot) Voice acting is pretty good tho I found the lead actor too young and chipper. There have been no hiccups with game installation, running or sound. The aggravation of long transition scenes still remain but its not so bad to affect the game. I am totally immersed in the Blade Runner world, even my husband turned to watch some cutscenes with a smile, interrupting his FPS game to do it while I played nearby. If you loved the movie then get this game. If you never saw the movie get the game, its a world of exploration and adventure.

This was my first time playing through the game, and I was very impressed by it. It holds up really well to modern excellent point and click games like Unavowed and Whispers of the Machine. It just shines of quality in the visual design, atmosphere and gameplay. The first moment I saw the movement animations I knew this would not be your average point and click adventure game. Some of the gameplay mechanics, like when you examine photographs is unique to this game, I haven't seen that elsewhere in other adventure games. My play-through took me about 10 hours. It has multiple endings. Complaints? well, I felt the ending or conclusion was a bit rushed. Often you don't really know that you've made a game-altering choice, as even a simply thing like exploration seems to set things in motion that you did not expect or anticipate. So to get the ending or outcome you aim for, you need to make some very specific choices. I also got stuck a couple of times because I did not find that one small item on the screen. Overall though, it's an easy game to recommend to anyone who enjoys point and click adventure games. The atmosphere alone easily puts in on my personal Top 10 list of Adventure games, it's a game-world I really enjoyed being immersed in, and that matters a great deal.

I'm sure there's nothing more I could add to these fine folks' reviews, but I must say to get it! There's plenty of cheese to go around, but the game never fails to pull you in. Even the sated graphics just add to the Cyberpunkiness of the whole thing. Get it!

Is it set in the Bladerunner universe? Yes. Does it have characters from the movie? Yes. Do you play as a Bladerunner, doing detective work and trying to oust replicants? Yes. And no. It is a point-and-click game, with elements of action (shooting, mainly) and puzzle solving to gather clues. Every new game you start will have some elements randomized. Some people will now be replicants, and vice versa. You can get clues in a few different ways, and have some options on how to deal with certain situations. However, after playing the game a few times, I started to notice that it's not really by my choice that the story progressed how it did. It happened that I was still thinking about what choice I was going to make, but something happened in the game that put me on the other path anyway. Also, the randomization also means that you somethimes cannot make a certain choice. When I won this game years ago in a contest from a videogame magazine, I had not seen the original Bladerunner movie and had no idea what I was getting into. My pc at the time wasn't one of the latest models, but I was able to run the game without any problems. However, I assumed that because my pc was a bit older, the game looked like it did. The backgrounds looked good, but the characters were just plain ugly: very pixelated, and lacking definition. The animation of some movements also kinda break the immersion: when McCoy is climbing a ladder for example, he's not actually gripping and stepping on the rungs, just going through "climbing the ladder" motions. It looks weird. In the end, I'm not sure what to think of this game. It has a great atmosphere and setting for the adventurous, good voice acting, and there's replayability. But it falls flat on the lack of player choice, and ugly looking character models.