Blade Runner Review
Blade Runner Developer: Westwood Studios
Publisher: Westwood Studios
Release Date: Winter ’97
Article by: Hadi Ghandour
OK: admit it. Deep inside of you, you always wanted to be Harrison Ford in the movie, Blade Runner. You always did feel the urge to enter the world of Blade Runner, right? Thought so. Dream is reality everyone!
The game Blade Runner, made by Westwood Studios, let me put it so frankly, is one of the best games you can ever get your hands on. Although it does have a few problems which can be overlooked. And yes, it is as entertaining as a Sierra game! Any fan of the movie will automatically fall in love with the game.
The game starts off by investigating an animal murder that occurred, and at your time, animals are rare. And then, still investigating through one case, you find another. That makes the game very fun, having more than one case at a time to work on. For example, you could be both working on an animal murder case, then suddenly hear about a factory bombing!
The game is a point n’ click adventure, and doesn’t have much of the “use stick with glue and paste on wall”, which sort of lets down the complete interactivity part. This, however, isn’t such a major problem, because the new point n’ click interface is sort of refreshing (in a way)!
A stand out factor of the game is that it is real time. Yes, you can get multiple endings, and yes, people can be either replicants or humans. This gives the game an advantage for replay value. You can see people walking in the background, showing “life” really existing! This game is in real time, no matter what you hear!
Let me start by raving about the graphics. Blade Runner has THE best graphics I have literally ever seen for any game. The rain, the fog, the lighting, the smoke, and the cutscenes are truly remarkable. The rain seems as if it’s really rain, the smog is astonishingly realistic and beautiful, and the lighting effects make you feel you are actually in the game. The characters are all motion captured, showing a maximum amount of realism. Best of all, all runs smoothly for such quality if you have a P100, and you don’t need a 3D accelerator!
I do have a little complaint about some of the graphics though. Even though the backgrounds are dazzling, and the effect of light, rain, etc.. are all fantastic, the characters in the gameplay seem a bit pixelated, especially if they are close to the screen. Although they aren’t that great, they can be overlooked due to the wonderful background.
The sound in Blade Runner is simply superb. One of my favorite tunes ever is in that game; the tune that comes up when you go to your balcony! The voice acting in the game is excellent. Ray McCoy’s voice (you, in the game) is simply amazing, and suits the game perfectly. Many professional voices exist, even Sean Young’s, the actress in the movie! A cool feature I noticed is that you can hear people in the background speaking Arabic! Listen closely in the beginning! Although this is a strict adventure game, it does have some action elements in it, which believe it or not, make the game even more interesting! You get to pull out your gun, and shoot down replicants, and OOPS, humans! What makes the action elements so unique and fun is because it is directly integrated to the plot and adventure. And, Ray McCoy looks so cool when he pulls out his gun!
A very entertaining aspect of the game was actually getting to use the machines that Harrison Ford used in the movie, that is, the Esper and KIA. The Esper is a photo analyzer where you examine photos in depth and retrieve clues out of it, and KIA is a sort of computer where you store all your clues, and deduce information out of them. These elements are really amusing, and make you feel as if you are Harrison Ford doing all that detective work.
One thing I didn’t like much in the game was that all the clues you gather and all the objets you pick up go directly into your KIA, and you can’t manipulate and manually use them. Instead of personally using the objects you get, they are automatically used whenever needed, which both makes the game easier and a tinge less fun.
Blade Runner is a high standard, fun, innovative, and extremely atmospheric game that spins you right into LA 2019. This game will surely attract any adventure game fan, and most definitely any Blade Runner fan. This game has got it all. I highly recommend this game, even though it does have a few flaws that restrict me from giving it 100%, but after all, nothing is perfect!
A –
