Blade Runner

This is the version on Blade Runner to buy. Thank you GOG for allowing customers to buy the ScummVM version and not the other version. Since I cannot leave a review on the "Definitive" version, i'll do it here. The rest of the review is not a reflection on this version but more of the "Definitive" version. Received the "Definitive" version from a friend of mine. Don't worry, it was a purchase on a different platform. NightDive Studios, what happened? You put out great remasters and ports of old games . I gave it a chance since your name was on this remaster. Seriously, what happened? I've never played a remaster that left such a bad taste in my mouth. I got to act two where Ezo is bugged. Since that is the case, I refuse to restart the game just to get passed a part of the game, to progress. The shooting range, holy crap. I would say a quarter of the bad guys, I can't shoot. Bugged. I see some models disappear off the screen when moving into another area. I've seen car animations do wonky things. The mismatched FPS really bothers me and it should have been left to what the original release had. Just a bad choice to have the background animations at 60FPS while leaving the character models at the original FPS. Menus are garbage. All in all, I will say this. Even if Nightdive studios managed to fix everything in the "definitive" version, I still would not give them money. Partly due to the drama of the release back in July.

If you're interested in Blade Runner, this is the version you want, not the "Enhanced" Edition. The Enhanced Edition is trash. How can one "enhance" a game to be worse than the original that came out over 2 decades ago?? It's really puzzling. The enhanced edition smooths out video artifacts, removing subtle details such as McCoy's beard, the game doesn't register shots about 60-70% of the time, and the videos constantly freeze. In the Enhanced Edition, it seems like they may have just used a de-noise filter on the video, which makes it less pixelated, but denoising will also remove subtle detail that made the game what it was/what it was intended to be. In my opinion, the original Blade Runner looks better even with all the pixelation, and that it actually makes it look more realistic, because reality has imperfections, and it makes it seem a bit more gritty. In this edition, the video also loads instantly, and things simply work as intended; the Enhanced Edition looks and runs like the work was outsourced to some cheap Indian/Chinese studio in order to save money and wasn't beta-tested. I bought the enhanced edition, but only because it included and was somehow cheaper the original version (go figure). The only way I recommend buying the Enhanced Edition to anyone is because it's cheaper and includes this version - I guess it was so bad they had to create some type of incentive in order to be able to sell it.

I'm sure there are lots of people who find this aspect of the game enjoyable, but it's driving me crazy that every time I've checked a walkthrough to try to figure out where I went wrong -- since I keep running into brick walls where I can't seem to advance anything -- I find out I've missed like 90% of the story. Way too much information is completely missable through no fault of the player. There is extreme pixel hunting required at crime scenes or else key clues can be completely missed. The VK test, which seems to be a key story element in determining whether characters are human or not, as best I can tell is completely random and can easily be irrevocably failed with no chance to try again. Picture scanning, you have no idea how many key items you are supposed to find in each picture, and they all seem to have random things that turn out to be major clues you could only find by zooming in over and over and over again on every square millimetere of the frame. There's one bit early on where in order to catch a suspect you have to click spastically at one particular moment. There is ZERO feedback or guidance telling you this is required or even possible, but if you don't do it, a whole storyline of the game is lost when he escapes. It's maddening. I suppose the story seems interesting enough that I'll play it through, but I give up trying to figure out on my own what the game expects me to do. I'm just going to have to use a walkthrough and go step by step, scene by scene doing exactly what it tells me to do so I don't miss 90% of the story.

Most of the video games based on films that came out during the 1990s were disappointing (with a few exceptions). Blade Runner is an example of how you do it right. This is a cinematic adventure with excellent atmosphere that captures the spirit of Ridley Scott's masterpiece perfectly. The writing and art design are top notch, and the aged graphics don't distract. The soundtrack uses music from the motion picture and helps to immerse you into the setting. Also, this adventure is easy to jump into as it does not force the player to solve abstract puzzles. Instead, it requires you to use keen observational skills and careful decision making to get the ending you want. Give it a try!

Blade Runner is the sole reason I became a PC owner in 1998. As a hardcore fan of the movie I immediately purchased the game when it released in 1997. Unfortunately at the time I didn't even own a PC, I was just such a die hard fan that I had to have the game as soon as possible. It took a year for me to scratch the money together to get a PC and since then I have had Blade Runner installed on every system I ever owned. Eventually PC technology outpaced the game and it would no longer run on newer systems, at least not without experiencing a litany of problems. So I was thrilled to see a long overdue return for Blade Runner on GOG. It's my first GOG purchase and I couldn't be happier to see it back, ironically in the year 2019. For old and new Blade Runner fans alike, this is a must own with many members of the movie cast reprising their roles for the game, and I wish all the new players luck in finding the Rick Deckard easter egg.