Blade Runner

I missed this when it released long ago. While I (oddly) recall it being discussed on the news on TV, I wouldn't see Blade Runner the movie until years later. I also didn't recall that Curse of Monkey Island was released on the same day -- which I DID buy at the time. Long story short: I had been waiting to play this game one day, and now that I got the opportunity & finished it, I can say it's one I really wish I had played long before now. The technology and trouble Westwood went through to make a stellar game holds up amazingly well. I can only think of a few games that have as diverse and varied endings as Blade Runner -- King's Quest 6 and Quest for Glory 2 the only two that are coming to mind. The randomization of replicants & their own 'agendas', however, is pretty much unique -- especially for the time period. While I love the look of Sierra and LucasArts games, seeing these pre-rendered 3D backgrounds -- completely fitting to the movie's world -- is astonishing. Aside from compression artifacts, they hold up far better than other beloved games that used 3D pre-rendered assets, even that were done far later (ie: Final Fantasy 7, etc). That this game is getting a 'remake' now as well, is amazing. That being said...I think it's well worth playing the original. I'll likely at some point buy the remake as well, as the variety of endings and randomization makes it worth playing again. There are a few spots where the frustrations of Adventure Games to show up. In the last act that hit me far more, but since this is the internet era, don't let that frustrate you -- look up a hint if you need, and just enjoy the atmosphere and story. Do yourself a favor and snag this. Some games don't hold up well over time -- but this one does.

Blade Runner is a point-and-click adventure set in the same world of the movie by the same name. The events it follows are happening at the same time as the ones from the movie, and you'll get to see many familiar faces, as well as new sides to the city. Since I think this game isn't for everyone, let me preface this review with what I believe are the 2 biggest flaws of the game: 1) The game probably isn't worth playing if you haven't watched the movie. The game doesn't do as much of a good job at delivering its context and world-building, and quite a few characters feel unimportant, unless you know the movie. There are also several screens that re-capture the atmosphere of the movie, which would be lost on you without having watched it. Some events are referenced that would make little sense as well. 2) A review said this was a "walking sim". In truth, the game feels more like a visual novel than an adventure, at times. How much you reveal through pixel-hunting for clues only seems to affect how many details about the story you learn, but your detective work doesn't open or close too many doors for you. If there are bad ends for missing details, I certainly didn't find any. The game is brilliant in many ways, however. It captures the mood of the movie, and the interactive parts are very interesting thanks to their presentation: zoom+enhancing pictures is great, testing people to see if they are replicants is intense (although it feels a little too random, with an opaque UI), and the way the gun is cleverly used as a secret option in certain dialogues, or to force open certain locks as well as allow you to express your morals by sparing or not characters is great. The music is also very nice (when it's there), and some of the characters manage to be captivating (not all of them, admittedly). The game isn't perfect, but it certainly has a strong personality, and it's truly enjoyable. Some randomness also help keeping things interesting for multiple playthroughs.

Blade Runner is one gem of a point and click adventure game. It has so much ambition in its design and mechanics that are at work in the background that affect each character's AI and the course of the story, so that random factors as well as the player's actions (or inactions) and choices will determine the course of the story and the ending you'll get. There's love and soul in the core design of this game. There are even complex mechanics that come into play only once or twice just for the player to get a different result in a NPC's attitude if they select a different approach for behaving towards them. Soundtrack is excellent and fitting for the Blade Runner verse, so close to the Vangelis' original. Visuals are also quite dynamic and life-like, you can rarely tell if at all that there's a video loop going on for the scenery. Pro tip: The shooting range is way slower in the Easy mode. Also to get points, shoot enemies only after they have rotated to reveal if they're holding a weapon. Try not to get shot, not to allow enemies to flee, and of course not to shoot any innocents. There's no specific high score because some targets are randomized or "special" in some way but the highest score in a range run could be higher than 80, or even higher than 90.

Blade Runner jest grą piękną. I nie chodzi tu jedynie o świetną fabułę, czy oddanie klimatu filmu i uwypuklenie niektórych motywów z książki. Ta gra pokazuje, czym mogły być przygodówki, szczególnie te bardzej "filmowe". Zamiast wykrzykników, że dany NPC zapamięta naszą akcję - po prostu wchodzenie na inną ścieżkę fabularną w zależności od naszych decyzji i działań, albo ich braku. QTE co prawda jakieś tam jest, ale proste i komunikatywne. No i losowe wydarzenia, śledztwo w czasie rzeczywistym czy fakt, iż pięć postaci może być replikantami albo nie a i na samym teście możemy oszukiwać tworzy z każdego podejści do gry prawdziwie unikalną opowieść. Więcej takich produkcji proszę, bo na razie na myśl przychodzi mi jedynie Pathologic, choć to zupełnie inna para kaloszy.

High replayability and beautiful atmosphere. A must-have for any Blade Runner fan. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Still, there are 3 big issues I had with the game: 1) it's in real-time. As far as I can tell, this has no purpose than to make NPCs temporarily absent from rooms for seemingly no reason at all and with no consequence. It serves as an unnecessary inconvenience, forcing you to exit and re-enter until the NPC arbitrarily appears again for no reason. I wasted plenty of time running into "dead ends" only for me to return to the same spot later and find out that someone just wasn't there and reappeared later. And with a map this large, searching other avenues can waste a lot of time. 2) It doesn't really explain how to use the Voight Kampff machine at all. Sure, I understood what it does, but completing these sections was a question of picking choices at random. Doesn't explain the calibration or anything, and I had to look it up. 3) Knowing how to pick the proper dialogue choices was extremely limiting with only 1 word provided to describe each choice. Sometimes my character would go off on a tangent unrelated to the choice I picked. Characters can close off entirely if you pick the wrong choice. Picking dialogue options was often just crossing your fingers and hoping your character didn't say the wrong thing, or that the NPC would still be receptive to dialogue. Minor gripes: - No subtitles - There's a .....questionable ending with an underage character. But I'd like to assume that, with its ambiguity, it's implying the least repulsive behavior possible. - There's an Act where you're running into danger at random. The action is clunky and unnecessary, and sometimes nonsensical. However, most of the shooting done at other parts of this game works great. - There's a room where the character can't run? Not sure if this is just a bug with porting the game or what, but it was just a minor annoyance to slowly walk through this room each time I encountered it.