February 8, 2015

Blade Runner

Westwood Studios, 1997


An excellent action-adventure game adapted from the movie with the same name but instead of playing as Deckard, the hero in the movie, you play the role of Roy McCoy, a rookie Blade Runner. A Blade Runner is a Law Enforcement agent, whose job is to track and retire Nexus-6 Replicants, which are genetically produced human clones created by Tyrell Corporation and are only allowed to live in off-world colonies. But, as time passed these Replicants' artificial intelligence have developed emotions like hate, love, envy, etc. They escaped back to earth and started living illegally among normal human beings.

The game starts in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles in the year 2019 and in a brilliant intro you watch some Replicants enter Runciter's, a pet shop, owned by a shady owner and start slaying animals. Your job is to investigate this crime, collect evidence, interview suspects, scan and enhance pictures for clues. While investigating you meet many characters, visit over hundred locations with astounding graphics. Once you track down the Replicants, you have this option to decide whether to retire them or help them by judging their behavior as all of them are not criminals.

The game graphics are brilliant with multiple camera views rendered with a very special 3D engine. Sound and voice acting is extraordinary. The puzzles in this game are reasonably hard but enjoyable and set best example of a good action-adventure game.