Blade Runner is now on GOG! Blade Runner 1997 abandonware PC game review. Blade Runner is a 1997 adventure game from Westwood Studios. You’re playing as rookie Blade Runner Ray McCoy. McCoy’s job is now to hunt down a gang of rogue Nexus-6 replicants.

Blade Runner 1997 isn't your usual movie tie-in game. Westwood Studios pitched an original PC game story, set in the same Blade Runner universe, happening at the same time and in the same city as the original film. Perhaps a smidge derivative, but Blade Runner’s story is dark and still unusual for a PC adventure game from 1997.

The game design in Blade Runner is also atypical for a 1997 PC adventure game. Nearly all of the gameplay is driven by dialogue. Blade Runner replaces the traditional PC adventure game inventory with a database of evidence, which then generates dialogue options. By putting the onus on sleuthing about for evidence and performing detective work, Blade Runner feels way more like a procedural cop drama, which is just a perfect use of the Blade Runner IP.

Depending on whether you arrest, kill or let your targets go, the way you speak to NPCs, the clues you find (or miss), all stack up and lead to one of 13 different endings. But wait, there’s more. At the beginning of every game, the code randomly decides which characters are human and which ones are replicants. You’re successful no matter which route you take though, the game never paints you into a corner like some of the more egregious PC adventure games.

Blade Runner 1997’s graphical style is great. Easily among the best of this PC game era. For 1997, Westwood made the correct choice and stuck with prerendered 2D artwork, with voxel-based 3D characters. I’m so glad Westwood chose this style, because we both praised this PC game for nailing the Blade Runner neo-noir atmosphere, something a basic 3D game just wouldn’t have been able to achieve. Plenty of 1997 era 3D PC games look awful now.

Blade Runner's voice cast is fantastic, as I’d expect from this era. Westwood did a great job of assembling new and original cast members such as James Hong, Brion James and William Sanderson as JF Sebastian. They even convinced Joe Turkel and Sean Young to briefly appear as Dr Tyrell and Rachael.

Blade Runner 1997 is a really enjoyable adventure PC game. The random generation of the cast and items means the story plays out differently every time, even before we get to player agency. The idea that we will all get a slightly different experience is an exciting one and is ambitious for 1997. High points are the excellent attention to worldbuilding and the richness of those branching paths through the game.

The Blade Runner PC game is likely to never be available on Steam or GOG. The source code and assets to Blade Runner were lost in 2003. Despite EA owning the rights, the odds of a sequel or an HD remake are remote. To play this you’ll need to track down a physical copy of the game.

*High concept: Better than Riven, worse than Broken Sword II.*

#bladerunner #adventuregames #abandonware

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"Sleep" and "Sun" by HOME and Midwest Collective are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
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"Blade Runner Blues" by Frank Klepacki, Westwood Studios 1997.

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