Blade Runner (1997 video game)
Blade Runner is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Interactive for Microsoft Windows, released in November 1997.Set in 2019 Los Angeles, the game tells the story of Ray McCoy, an elite detective charged with hunting down a group of dangerous replicants (bioengineered androids designed to look and act like humans).For many years, it remained trapped in legal and intellectual property entanglement, preventing a re-release on digital storefronts, until it finally arrived on GOG.com in December 2019.[3] Nightdive Studios and Alcon Entertainment released an Enhanced Edition of the game on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on June 23, 2022.[5] Blade Runner's main focus is detective work rather than puzzles or combat, and the majority of gameplay consists of searching for evidence, questioning suspects and analyzing clues.[7][better source needed] Clues are found by searching crime scenes, and come in the form of items, photographs, interviews, or unusual markings.[13] Aside from choosing how to react to Voight-Kampff results, the player must also decide how McCoy conducts himself in other areas of the game, such as whether to interrogate an NPC or simply talk to them and how aggressive to be in his questioning.[15] All clues, conversation histories, and documents are stored in McCoy's "Knowledge Integration Assistant" (KIA), where they are automatically organized for easy access.As part of a special police squad – Blade Runners – you have orders to shoot to kill, upon detection, any trespassing replicant.As McCoy's investigation progresses, he is framed for the murder of a civilian by the corrupt Lieutenant Guzza, who has been assisting the replicants in an effort to prevent them from revealing his activities.From that point forward, the development team had one overriding mandate; every scene in the game would be generated from scratch in 3D; no footage from the film would be used.Westwood never intended for Rick Deckard to be a major character in the game, but they did attempt to contact Harrison Ford with the intention of asking him to make a cameo appearance.[23] One major contributor to the film who did work with the developers, however, was Syd Mead, whose concept art formed the basis for Blade Runner's aesthetic.[23] Inspired by this, Castle issued a similar directive to his design team; nothing in the game was to be created from scratch, everything had to come from either the film or Mead's art.[18] The writers decided the plot of the game would begin shortly after the opening of the film, with Deckard having already been assigned to track down Roy Batty and the other replicants.Which of the other thirteen characters is a replicant is randomized every time the player plays the game, and their behavior is different each playthrough based upon whether or not they are human.[26] Designers David Leary and James Walls achieved this through a self-developed technology using voxels (pixels with width, height and depth).[18] The downside to this was that, since processor power at that time was limited, the in-game 3D models tended to look very pixelated, especially up-close and when motionless, due to the low amount of voxels used to display them.[27] Next Generation rated it four stars out of five, and stated that "the game's shortcomings seem irrelevant as the journey that Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford began 15 years ago is brought to an entirely new end at the player's command.They also complimented the cinematics, dialogue, and "riveting plot and slick style", though they criticized the character models for their "overwrought body language" and said that those who are not fans of Blade Runner would find it solid but unexciting.[6] Science Fiction Weekly's Peter Suciu awarded it an A+, writing the "computer-generated setting of Blade Runner is simply one of the best to arrive on computer desktops," and calling the game "an outstandingly enjoyable adventure simulation."[28] RPGFan gave the game an overall rating of 93%, praising its pre-rendered backgrounds, with "rain, spotlights, Spinners or blimps advertising off-world vacations."[30] In a 2006 review for Adventure Gamers, Chris Pickering scored the game 4.5 out of 5, praising it for its "glorious aesthetics, intriguing storyline, and well implemented controls.Fans of the film will undoubtedly overlook the game's flaws and enjoy living the life of the Blade Runner, even if it only lasts a few hours."[10] In a 2007 article for Computer and Video Games, "Blade Runner: A Classic Revisited", Duncan Harris argued "critics may have been divided over the means by which you got there: a logical trail of clues, many of which were less the result of detective work than blind luck and idle exploration [...] but you couldn't deny that here, for once, was a movie tie-in which put the movie first, dismissing thoughts of its own genre and letting the subject dictate the design.[35] Blade Runner's sales ultimately surpassed one million units by 2006;[32] Castle claimed that it outsold The Curse of Monkey Island three to one.[23] In 2009, the Blade Runner Partnership offered Gearbox Software the rights to the franchise, but production costs were estimated at $35 million and the project was scrapped.Even if the code was found, to restore almost a terabyte of assets, whether for new pre-rendered backdrops or full real-time 3D, would cost tens of millions of dollars, making a re-release as unlikely as a sequel.As it is technically complex with voxel graphics for the in-game actors, video backgrounds, and randomised paths, it took the ultimately successful project with combined efforts eight years to completion.It was originally planned to release in 2020 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, but was delayed to an unspecified date due to technical issues.
Developer(s)Westwood StudiosNightdive StudiosPublisher(s)Virgin InteractiveProducer(s)Designer(s)Jim WallsProgrammer(s)Louis CastleArtist(s)Writer(s)Composer(s)Frank KlepackiBlade RunnerEnginePlatform(s)Microsoft WindowsNintendo SwitchPlayStation 4Xbox OneGenre(s)Point-and-click adventureSingle-playerpoint-and-click adventure gameRidley ScottsidequelLos AngelesreplicantsandroidsRick Deckardfilm's soundtrackreal-timerenderingpolygon3D acceleratorssoftwareInteractive Achievement AwardPC Adventure Game of the YearPC GamerAlcon Entertainmentthird-person perspectivepointerpuzzlesgameplaycrime scenesammunitionVoight-Kampffinterrogatesuspectsplayer characterLisa Edelsteinundercover workJeff GarlinMark RolstonPauley PerretteSigny ColemanGerald OkamuraWarren BurtonTimothy DangVincent Schiavellicameo appearancesSean YoungBrion JamesJames HongJoe TurkelWilliam SandersonextinctblackmailsWilliam BlakeThe Tygerkills the animalssexually harassed14 y.o.The Marriage of Heaven and HellA Poison TreeTo TirzahBud YorkinJerry PerenchioTandem ProductionsElectronic ArtsSierraActivisioncopyrightThe Ladd CompanyRun Run Shawancillary rightsbond guarantorscutsceneHarrison Fordcameo appearanceSyd Meadconcept artLawrence G. PaullDavid Snydershoot 'em upRoy BattyBradbury Buildingwalkthroughquality assurancesimulation gamesSimCityemulates16-bitZ-bufferPCI buspolygonsgame enginepre-renderedhardware 3D acceleratorsvoxelspixelsthree-dimensional rotationsrendering engineframe ratesshadersvertextexel mappingpixelatedmotion-captured actorskeyframingmegabytesVangelisGameRankingsAdventure GamersGameRevolution