Blade Runner

Moby ID: 341
Windows Specs
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The game is based on the movie bearing the same title (which, in turn, is based on Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?). In the grim world of the future, cities lie in darkness, and nature gave its way to artificial, bio-mechanical production of all creatures - including human beings. Those artificial humans are called replicants, and are treated as servants unworthy of being "true" humans. The police officer Ray McCoy is a "Blade Runner", whose special job is hunt down replicant rebels. During his investigations, McCoy also gets to see their side, and his vision of the world and society begins to change.

Blade Runner is an adventure game with an emphasis on detective work rather than on puzzles. There are very few "real" puzzles in the game, and the gameplay mainly consists of questioning suspects, gathering evidence, etc. There are also some action sequences, and throughout the game the protagonist has the ability to use his gun. The player's decisions can (and will) influence the outcome of the story, bringing the game to one of the six possible endings.

Spellings

  • 銀翼殺手 - Traditional Chinese spelling
  • 银翼杀手 - Simplified Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

232 People (231 developers, 1 thanks) · View all

Cast
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 86% (based on 39 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 172 ratings with 12 reviews)

Fantastic graphic adventure

The Good
Despite the fact that this game didn't quite live up to my expectations/the hype. I found this game to be very involving. The voxel technology used may look dated today but when this was released it was pretty nice looking. The best part about this game is how many different ways you could play the game which would lead to completely different endings. I played through this game several times and have seen 3 or four of the endings, but I had read there are more. The cutscenes are absolutely beautiful. Great game, wish more games would come out just like this with updated graphics and as an engrossing storyline.

The Bad
At times you were pixel hinting with your mouse cursor. At times, at least my first time playing through, I got lost and wasn't quite sure where to go and was roaming around with no direction. Pacing could have been a bit better.

The Bottom Line
A great adventure game based on the Blade Runner universe.

Windows · by gilgamex (120) · 2002

Westwood dreams of electric sheep

The Good
Once upon a time, when Westwood was a serious developer and didn't just go around pimping it's C&C franchise all over the place, them crazy folks decided to do a game out of the seminal sci-fi movie of the 80's: Blade Runner... disaster insues! I thought, after all the idea sounds good on paper, but it's a tricky deal to do a successful game out of a movie, let alone do one about one based on one of the biggest visual masterpieces in motion picture history which also happens to be a textbook example of "what happens when you don't give a damn about screenwriting" that while adding to the movie's charisma by injecting it with even more mysticism and ambiguity, had the downside of making it's plot as cryptic as hell.

Anyway, the resulting quality of Blade Runner's videogame adaptation came thus as a surprise to me, and proved that Westwood still had some life in it. First of all it doesn't make the mistake of trying to adapt the movie per se, but instead takes the basic material and runs with it, creating a brand new story with new characters that runs parallel to the movie's plot. Yes, you are a Blade Runner that looks exactly like Harrison Ford, but you are not him and in fact you are investigating a completely different case that starts from a Replicant assault at a pet store and evolves from that point on.

Following the many wild interpretations of the movie's story, Westwood gave players the excellent choice to allow you to swing into any direction as far as the plot is concerned, and depending on how you play the game you can end up running from the law as a replicant exile yourself, or doing your work as a human Blade Runner and closing the case like a good boy, with dozens of variations inbetween all related to a series of random events, as well as the attitude and disposition you take when questioning the many npcs in the gameworld and finally with the different solutions you find to the problems at hand (do you waste time questioning a bum about where did an escapee replicant go, or do you just lunge at the nearby alley hoping you don't lose him?, etc.).

The gameplay might make the game look like a classic adventure game, but it makes the right choice of leaving puzzles aside to some extent, and instead focus on the detectivesque investigative procedures and the like were just observing a certain event, or using the ESPER and the Voigt-Kampff test checks the right flags to move the game in a certain direction. Not only does this match the mood and tone of the game, but also has the effect of making you feel as if it's you the one who's driving the action instead of being a collection of plot sequences related only by "use hammer on nail"-like exercises.

The production values for the game are dead on. A must really, as Blade Runner the movie was all about creating a visual and aureal "vibe" that could only be done with quality visuals and the unique Vangelis soundtrack. The game uses a collection of pre-rendered backgrounds and even looping fmv's to illustrate the gameworld (which brings to your monitor all those haunting neon reflections, murky streets and foggy landscapes) with voxel characters placed on top. The soundtrack and sfx are excellent, basing the entire work around Vangelis and complementing the gameworld perfectly.

The Bad
The absence of puzzles plays against the game from a difficulty standpoint, and ends up making it a tad too short and a tad too easy. Aside from that I can only point out at certain cheesy elements that seem slightly out of place like the Crystal Steele (god! Who came up with that name??) character who is your stereotypical "badass babe with a gun" character and which always sets the game out of it's tracks mood-wise whenever she appears on a scene. At least the inclusion of stuff right out of the novel makes up for those moments...

Anyway, on the technical side of things, I do agree that the voice acting could have been more polished and while I don't exactly hate the character graphics and their voxels as some people do, I do question the graphical need to use them in some situations, I mean, yes the game is loaded with cool fmv expository sequences, but there are some moments that could have benefited from this treatment and are played out simply in your static gamescreen. I mean, wouldn't some firefights be a tad more dramatic with some well directed fmvs? or how about the shocking moment were a replicant is caught in flames and falls through a window to her death down below?? Isn't THAT something worthy of making it into an fmv instead of simply watching it develop from a mile away in your standard 3rd person perspective view??

...And were the hell is Pris??? Why is it that some of the coolest characters of the movie appear only doing cameos or not at all????

The Bottom Line
Excellent adaptation of one of the most fantastic visual feasts of the silver screen that not only is a great game on it's own, filled with replayability, interesting concepts and good gameplay; but it also catches the vibe and feel of the movie (and quite a particular movie which just so happens to be ALL about vibe and feel) and delivers it to your monitor in perfect condition.

Besides, isn't this like almost the last non-C&C game to come out of Westwood? That's got to count for something

Windows · by Zovni (10504) · 2004

A Good Game, but could have been SO much better...

The Good
Blade Runner the game is, at first glance, a wonder to behold. Particularly, if you're a fan of the 1982 movie starring Harrison Ford. Here is a game that plunks you into the steamy, gloomy world of Los Angeles 2019.

Visually speaking the game nails the look of the movie perfectly. The graphic artists were able to emulate the dark urban landscape created by Syd Mead and Ridley Scott in the original movie with aplomb.

The story isn't half-bad either, and somehow it is able to tip-toe around the continuity of the original movie without mussing it up. That's quite a feat!

To a lesser degree the replayability the game offers is a nice feature but unfortunately this is partly based on your own actions, as some of the alternative sequences and endings are dependent on random variables set at the start of a new game.

The Bad
I must agree with another reviewer on this site that remarks that the game lacks a "logical progression" to obstacles and challenges. When chasing a suspect down an alleyway that ends at a closed door, the game just expects you to just leave it at that. It isn't until you return to your character's apartment that the suspect finds you... HUH?!?

I would go one step further and say that all the other problems of logic this game has stem from one source. Perhaps the game designers wanted to keep their game interface simple, or perhaps they didn't want to bother with a level of interaction more complex. The interface is extremely dumbed-down. Talking to characters is a simple matter of point-and-click. You don't really choose the topic, your character "decides" for you. The options screen gives you the ability to alter your character's "mood" that can affect the outcome of your conversations, but the outcomes aren't very apparent and again don't really give you control over what your character really should be saying.

Same goes for collecting evidence. It's a simple point and click affair, as well as hit and miss. Sometimes you'll pick up a key piece of evidence that will unlock additional dialogue with a character. Other times you'll pick up evidence that SHOULD be relevant, but the characters are oblivious. An excellent example of this would be the various photos that one scans into the ESPER machine. One of the photos clearly shows a suspect that your character needs to meet, but try as you might you cannot get an acknowledgment of this from anyone.

Things like this will have you running around the game's Los Angeles landscape for hours in frustration because you honestly don't know what to do. There's no excuse for this either since at this point in history, adventure games had matured considerably.

As I've stated the game's visuals for its various locations and scene transitions are dead on when it comes to the movies. However, I wish Westwood would have future-proofed the graphics a little more. Characters are generated using something akin to Voxel technology, but while this might have been state-of-the-art in 1997, today they are an eyesore.

Audio is excellent with Vangelis' soundtrack reproduced faithfully here by Frank Klepacki. However voice work is spotty, even by the supposed A+ Hollywood Talent. Sean Young makes a brief "cameo" here as her character Rachael, and her reading sounds stiff and wooden as if she's merely reading the words off the script rather than acting. This was a huge disappointment.

The Bottom Line
As a veteran of adventure games I can say that Blade Runner is decent, if a bit short. Once you know your way through the plot you could probably beat it in less than three or four hours. First time around might take you five to ten hours.

If you're a fan of the source material, it's likely you can look past the games inherent problems. It has lots of great Blade Runner moments that will have fans smiling knowing full well the developers are giving them a wink and a nod.

For those who aren't familiar with the movie, you might have a tougher time appreciating this, and for good reason, since there are other games out there that are longer, more complex, and better designed.

Overall, Blade Runner is not a bad game by far. I can't help but wonder what kind of game it could have been if done properly, with a more complex interface, and a more fleshed out story line. Perhaps Blade Runner was just too ahead of its time for its own good, and could have benefited from today's technology.

I guess we'll never know...

Windows · by Anonymous Gamer (161) · 2005

[ View all 12 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Is it really randomized? BurningStickMan (17917) Apr 28, 2010
Which Version Do I Have? mobiusclimber (235) Jul 2, 2008

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Blade Runner appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Blade Runner legend

Here's an interesting, if unprovable, bit of legend behind Blade Runner the movie and the game. The original movie was noted for having many numerous corporate sponsors seen throughout the film. (e.g. Coca-Cola, Pan-Am, Atari, etc...) After the films release many of these corporations suffered huge financial losses, some like Pan-Am filed for bankruptcy and have since ceased to exist. This has been known as the Blade Runner Curse. The curse, it seems, did not end there. The game was produced by Westwood Studios in 1997, less than a year later they would be acquired by Electronic Arts. By March of 2003, Westwood Studios ceased to exist when Electronic Arts shut down its operations after several of its titles such as Command & Conquer: Renegade failed to meet sales expectations.

Blade Runner similarities

Blade Runner made is based upon the Blade Runner movie from 1982. The movie was based on Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. The novel story happens somewhere around '90s, since that was distant future for the author, but when the movie was about to be made, they had to increase the time-line and post it on the beginning of the 21st century, since '90s wasn't much of an unknown future for the time movie was made, back in 1982.

Most of actors that played in Blade Runner movie gave their voice talents to some characters in Westwood's Blade Runner, first 3D real-time adventure game, and some of the characters were made as same as movie characters look. Not to mention how many locations in a game looks exactly like the ones from a movie.

Globally speaking, the plot is almost exactly the same as the movie. Sure, the names are different, there are a few more locations, but that's about it.

Compression

Uncompressed Blade Runner with all the polygons, perfectly clear animations and everything at its highest level was over 400 gigabytes which took Westwood's mastership to compress all this on only four compact discs (there is also a DVD version of Blade Runner), so basically, other then main characters are in much less polygons and detailed, and even on McCoy pixelation can be noticed on some locations (lift, for example).

Endings and quality assurance

There are actually 12 different endings to this game.

Some of the endings are somewhat random, at certain locations during the game, an event will take place. The outcome of the events, as well as which events happen, will help determine which ending you receive.

This game was a testing nightmare, random events and 12 endings meant a tiresome test cycle. The Westwood Studios Quality Assurance Department played through the game over 2500 times.

Installation

The maximum installation takes 1,4 GB, which was enormous for the time.

Music

Vangelis, the composer of the movie soundtrack, did not compose anything for the game. Even the short parts of his pieces in the game are not played by Vangelis himself.

Pictures

Look in the folders on the CD There should be some graphics with some weird names. Click on them. You have a few (amusing) pictures of the Westwood staff.

References

  • In the police station, look at the score board : there's Deckard (Deckard is the main character of the movie).
  • As you can see on the screenshots, there is a Command & Conquer: Red Alert game in the arcade center.
  • In the movie. Deckard visits the fish lady in Animoid row to find out if the scale is from a fish or from something else.

When you pay a visit to Izo in his pawnshop at Hawker's circle (Animoid row), he'll use the flash of his camera to blind you and escape. When you run the picture he has taken of you through an Esper, you can see Deckard in the background when he is talking to the fish lady. * The game opens with a crime scene at a pet shop owned by a man called Runciter (the shop in question is named after him). This is a nod from the developers to Phillip K. Dick, author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) (the book from where Blade Runner is based), since Runciter is also the name of one of the protagonists in another novel written by PKD called Ubik. Coincidentally, there was a game based on Ubik developed by Cryo Interactive Entertainment. * Throughout Blade Runner there are numerous references to the source material, such as the movie, and Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, however the game designers threw in one subtle reference to another movie not related to either of these. At the beginning of Chapter 4, send Roy McCoy up the tunnel with the train tracks. On the right side of the tunnel are the letters CHUD. A obvious reference to the 1984 horror movie about Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers. * The poetry Clovis leaves on McCoy's answering machine at the end of the first day is the first four lines of A Poison Tree by William Blake.

Secrets

  • For a good laugh: Click on McCoy or hit ESC to view the KIA and type POGO.
  • Start Blade Runner with the command line option SITCOM. (in command line: blade.exe SITCOM) After some sentences spoken in dialogs you will hear applause or laughter.
  • Start blade.exe with the parameter SHORTY. (from commandline: blade.exe SHORTY). All characters are shorter and speak with a pitched voice.

Speedrun

The game is beatable in 41 minutes if you skip through all the dialogue and know exactly where to go, what to do, who to talk to, and what to say.

Trilobyte

Originally Trilobyte had first thought of aquiring the rights to make a game out of Blade Runner. But they ultimately abandoned the idea for the "lack of creative control" dealing with licensed material would cause.

Voice Actors

Nearly all of the characters who appear both in the movie and the game are voiced by their original actors. These include James Hong as Dr. Chew, Brion James as Leon, Sean Young as Rachael, Joe Turkel as Eldon Tyrell and William Sanderson as J.F. Sebastian. Edward James Olmos did not reprise his role as Gaff.

Information also contributed by Goteki45, Michael Palomino, Itay Shahar, Juan Pablo Bouquet, MAT, ROFLBLAH, Shogun, Timo Takalo Yeba and Zovni

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by robotriot.

Linux, Macintosh added by Plok.

Additional contributors: emerging_lurker, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Zeppin, CaesarZX, Picard, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack.

Game added October 31, 1999. Last modified March 19, 2024.