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Blade Runner (video game)
Encyclopedia
Blade Runner is a point-and-click
adventure
game, developed by Westwood Studios
for the PC
. Rather than re-tell the 1982 Blade Runner
film, the developers created a different story set in the same universe, serving as a side story. The game was published by Virgin Interactive Entertainment
and released in 1997.
The player assumes the role of "Blade Runner" Ray McCoy, who must hunt down a group of replicant
s—bioengineered beings—in 2019 Los Angeles
. The new story takes place at the same time as the events of the film. Several of the film's characters are also in the game, with the original actors returning to voice them. Although the film's main character, Deckard, only appears fleetingly in a non speaking role in Blade Runner, he is referred to multiple times, and his recent activities are mentioned by non-player character
s. Other parallels with the film include the in-game reproduction of several prominent locations, buildings, and scenes.
Blade Runner was advertised as "the first real time
3D adventure game", since it was the first adventure game to use real-time 3D models for the game characters, as opposed to the classic method of hand-drawn/pre-rendered characters. Though games at the time were reliant on 3D accelerators
, Westwood created their own technology, called "voxel
plus", which bypassed the need for a hardware 3D accelerator.
Notably, the player's actions affected the outcome of the game with twelve possible endings. Blade Runner received generally positive reviews, and was nominated for "Best Adventure Game" of 1997 at the PC Gamer
awards.
game, meaning that the virtual world is navigated, explored, and manipulated using the mouse; the player does this from a third-person perspective. Blade Runners main focus is the detective
work rather than puzzles, and the gameplay consists largely of searching for evidence
and questioning suspects. Clue searching is a main element of the game; the player must solve a number of compulsory puzzles and find a number of clues in order to progress in the game's storyline. Clues are found by searching crime scene
s, and come in the form of items, photographs, interviews, or unusual markings. The player can also use the ESPER system, a high-density computer with a very powerful three-dimensional resolution capacity: it enables them to enhance photos and to find further crucial information.
While combat is not a primary aspect of Blade Runner, it is needed occasionally. The only weapon available to the player is Ray's standard issue police pistol
, which may be loaded with various types of ammunition
. Collected evidence is stored in McCoy's Knowledge Integration Assistant, where it is organized for easy reference. One of its functions is performed by the Crime Scene Panel; it lists the crime scene along with known suspects and clues related to it. There are occasions when the player will carry out a Voight-Kampff test on suspected replicant
s; when the true nature of the subject is determined, the test ends automatically. The player must then decide what course of action to take based on the results; the decision influences the rest of the storyline.
The game runs in non-linear "real-time", meaning that when McCoy investigates and gathers clues, the computer controlled
AI
characters do the same, completing their own objectives. It is up to the player to decide how McCoy will react in different situations, such as interrogating or talking to characters, each reaction affecting the storyline differently.
During his investigations, McCoy discovers a black market gun runner who assists rogue replicants by providing them with weapons. Soon afterwards, he is framed for the murder of a civilian by the crooked Lieutenant Guzza, who considers him dangerous to his illicit business at the police station. Forced into hiding, McCoy explores the dark, decrepit underworld of 2019 Los Angeles, and makes contact with the replicant twins Luther and Lance, former genetic designers for the Tyrell Corporation who are working on a way to extend their own lifespans, as well as those of all other replicants. From them, McCoy receives a detailed report containing evidence of Guzza's corruption. McCoy uses this information to blackmail
his former superior and force him to set his falsified record straight. The two men meet in the city sewers for the exchange, where Guzza is wounded by replicant gunfire. At this point, the player must decide to either run away or finish the lieutenant off himself.
There are thirteen endings, with variations on three major themes, influenced by the player's actions throughout the game. The player can believe that the character, McCoy, is human, and hunt down the replicants; be persuaded that he's a replicant himself, and side with them against the other Blade Runners; or stay neutral, and flee the city.
Ray McCoy (voiced by Mark Benninghofen) is the game's protagonist
and a rookie
police officer. McCoy lives in an apartment
building with his pet dog, Maggie, for whom he shows a great deal of affection. McCoy wears a light brown lounge suit, a dark tie and a brown trenchcoat. He uses a standard issue .45
blaster as his sidearm.
Crystal Steele (voiced by Lisa Edelstein
) is one of the most effective police officers in the LAPD
Blade Runner unit. She is an excellent markswoman
and participates in undercover work. She refers to replicants as "skin-jobs" and is very much in favour of their extermination
. Her attitude towards McCoy at the opening of the game is playful, with a considerable amount of condescension
towards the rookie. She always calls McCoy "Slim". Her fate in the game is ultimately tied to the player's actions; she can either die (killed by the player or in an explosion set up by Sadik) or survive and pair up with McCoy as he gains the rank of "full Blade Runner" following the retirement of Clovis, the rogue replicants' leader, in the Moonbus.
Gaff (voiced by Javier Grajed; credited as Victor Gardell) is a character originally presented in the film. He is a competent and older veteran
cop who appears at various intervals to give advice to McCoy, who he seems to see as young and thus unpredictable.
Lieutenant Edison Guzza (voiced by Jeff Garlin
) is the boorish, overweight superior to McCoy and in overall command of the Blade Runner unit following Bryant's sick leave
. Guzza is rather unkempt and asocial, remaining in Bryant's office for most of the game's duration. It is revealed later in the game that Guzza is corrupt, and has been assisting Clovis and the other replicants to prevent them from revealing evidence of his illegal activities.
Clovis (voiced by Mark Rolston
) is the leader of the renegade
replicants on Earth. Clovis is a man of mystery—on one hand, he appears as a peaceful, highly educated man, eloquent
and elegant, on the other he is sometimes a ruthless killer, capable of inhuman acts of aggression.
Lucy Devlin (voiced by Pauley Perrette
) is a 14-year-old girl who worked at the pet store that was attacked by the replicants. Though suspected as a replicant herself, she is seen by Ray as a key witness to the crime.
was ambitious for the technology at the time. In contrast to other games at that time, the game engine (which included backgrounds that were pre-rendered
and models calculated in 3D), did not require or use hardware 3D graphics accelerators. Game designers, David Leary and James Walls, achieved this through a self-developed technology based on voxel
s (pixels with width, height and depth). They went with the idea and expanded it, calling it "Voxels Plus".
Instead of just having one voxel, dozens of rotating voxels were used in the shape and depth of the actual polygon model data, making it true real-time 3D without requiring 3D hardware. In layman's terms, it was piecing together flat "picture panels", rotating and positioning them in 3D-space thereby giving the illusion of a 3D object.
However, the technology had shortcomings. A powerful processor
was required since the engine relied on the processor doing all the work of creating the 3D models. Since processor power at that time was limited, the 3D models looked quite rough in-game due to the low amount of voxels used to display them; had the number of voxels been raised to increase the detail the game would have become too slow to play. With the level of detail Westwood settled on, the game ran at a minimum of 15 FPS on slow systems.
The film's original soundtrack
could not be secured for the game so Westwood brought in Frank Klepacki to recreate the feel of the film. He re-recorded the Blade Runner soundtrack as well as creating original tracks in the style of the film. Original cast members from the film returning for Cameo appearance
voice overs include Sean Young
as Rachael, Brion James
as Leon, James Hong
as Chew, Joe Turkel
as Eldon Tyrell, and William Sanderson
as J.F. Sebastian.
The developers did not simply re-tell the film scene by scene, but created a completely different story set in the Blade Runner universe. The game's script writers, David Yorkin and David Leary, produced a story that takes place at the same time as the film using familiar characters. Also included in the game are landmarks from the film, such as the dominating Tyrell Corporation pyramid
structures, the Bradbury Building
, and the L.A.P.D.'s cylindrical skyscraper.
When the game begins, Deckard has already been sent off on his own assignment
, and the player will hear references of his activities, though they never meet, so as to remain consistent with the film's plot. When visiting the Tyrell building, Rachael mentions that she has already spoken to another Blade Runner and Tyrell himself tells McCoy that "as I explained to Mr. Deckard earlier, I've given the Nexus 6 a past." One of Izo's pictures, taken at Animoid Row, shows Deckard in the background. While searching the Yukon hotel McCoy discovers Holden's badge and Guzza questions how Deckard missed it and goes onto to say "Deckard, he feels too much, ya' know? He's too far along that curve."
setting of Blade Runner is simply one of the best", and "an outstandingly enjoyable adventure simulation." Game Revolution's Marke Cooke stated that the game "is one of the best adventure games out there", and gave it an A− score. Chris Pickering, in his Adventure Gamers
' review, praised the game for its "glorious aesthetics
, intriguing storyline, and well implemented controls." giving the game 4.5 stars (out of five).
RPGFan gave the game an overall rating of 93%, praising the game for "the best pre-rendered backgrounds..." with "rain, spotlights
, Spinners or blimps advertising off-world vacations. The crisp images never fail to dazzle." The review went on to criticise the graphics, saying they can become a "tad blurry
and pixilated..." close up, yet it was pointed out that "this doesn't detract too much from these otherwise stunning visuals." In his review for PC Zone
Paul Presley gave the game a score of 8.8 (out of ten) and stated that "the story is strong and intelligent enough to compensate for the problems I have with the technical side of the game..." and "while I'd argue that the challenge could have been a lot higher, it's by no means an easy game and the urge to keep playing is there. The multiple ending factor also helps." The game achieved a 3.5/5 rating at Quandary, where Rosemary Young pointed out that "though some aspects of Blade Runner aren't all that sophisticated, it is worth considering for fans of 'hard-edged' crime/science fiction."
In the Gamespot
review, Ron Dulin gave the game a 6.0 score (out of ten) and stated that the game was "an interesting mood piece, built upon some very detailed graphic work and an interesting premise—but somewhere along the production line, someone forgot to include a game." Duncan Harris emphasised, in his Computer and Video Games
article 'Blade Runner: A classic revisited,' that "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. With its insular thinking, it's something the games industry all too rarely sees." The game was nominated for "Best Adventure Game" of 1997 in the PC Gamer
awards in 1998, but lost out to The Curse of Monkey Island
. The game did however win "Best Adventure Game" of 1998 by the Interactive Achievement Awards.
Point-and-click
Point-and-click is the action of a computer user moving a cursor to a certain location on a screen and then pressing a mouse button, usually the left button , or other pointing device...
adventure
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
game, developed by Westwood Studios
Westwood Studios
Westwood Studios was a computer and video game developer, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was founded by Brett Sperry and Louis Castle in as Westwood Associates, and renamed to Westwood Studios when it merged with Virgin Interactive in...
for the PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
. Rather than re-tell the 1982 Blade Runner
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
film, the developers created a different story set in the same universe, serving as a side story. The game was published by Virgin Interactive Entertainment
Virgin Interactive
Virgin Interactive was a British video game publisher. It was formed as Virgin Games Ltd. in 1981. The company became much larger after purchasing the budget label, Mastertronic in 1987. It was part of the Virgin Group...
and released in 1997.
The player assumes the role of "Blade Runner" Ray McCoy, who must hunt down a group of replicant
Replicant
A replicant is a bioengineered or biorobotic being created in the film Blade Runner . The Nexus series—genetically designed by the Tyrell Corporation—are virtually identical to an adult human, but have superior strength, agility, and variable intelligence depending on the model...
s—bioengineered beings—in 2019 Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. The new story takes place at the same time as the events of the film. Several of the film's characters are also in the game, with the original actors returning to voice them. Although the film's main character, Deckard, only appears fleetingly in a non speaking role in Blade Runner, he is referred to multiple times, and his recent activities are mentioned by non-player character
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
s. Other parallels with the film include the in-game reproduction of several prominent locations, buildings, and scenes.
Blade Runner was advertised as "the first real time
Real-time computing
In computer science, real-time computing , or reactive computing, is the study of hardware and software systems that are subject to a "real-time constraint"— e.g. operational deadlines from event to system response. Real-time programs must guarantee response within strict time constraints...
3D adventure game", since it was the first adventure game to use real-time 3D models for the game characters, as opposed to the classic method of hand-drawn/pre-rendered characters. Though games at the time were reliant on 3D accelerators
Graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
, Westwood created their own technology, called "voxel
Voxel
A voxel is a volume element, representing a value on a regular grid in three dimensional space. This is analogous to a pixel, which represents 2D image data in a bitmap...
plus", which bypassed the need for a hardware 3D accelerator.
Notably, the player's actions affected the outcome of the game with twelve possible endings. Blade Runner received generally positive reviews, and was nominated for "Best Adventure Game" of 1997 at the PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
awards.
Gameplay
Blade Runner is a point-and-clickPoint-and-click
Point-and-click is the action of a computer user moving a cursor to a certain location on a screen and then pressing a mouse button, usually the left button , or other pointing device...
game, meaning that the virtual world is navigated, explored, and manipulated using the mouse; the player does this from a third-person perspective. Blade Runners main focus is the detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
work rather than puzzles, and the gameplay consists largely of searching for evidence
Evidence
Evidence in its broadest sense includes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion. Giving or procuring evidence is the process of using those things that are either presumed to be true, or were themselves proven via evidence, to demonstrate an assertion's truth...
and questioning suspects. Clue searching is a main element of the game; the player must solve a number of compulsory puzzles and find a number of clues in order to progress in the game's storyline. Clues are found by searching crime scene
Crime scene
A crime scene is a location where an illegal act took place, and comprises the area from which most of the physical evidence is retrieved by trained law enforcement personnel, crime scene investigators or in rare circumstances, forensic scientists....
s, and come in the form of items, photographs, interviews, or unusual markings. The player can also use the ESPER system, a high-density computer with a very powerful three-dimensional resolution capacity: it enables them to enhance photos and to find further crucial information.
While combat is not a primary aspect of Blade Runner, it is needed occasionally. The only weapon available to the player is Ray's standard issue police pistol
Pistol
When distinguished as a subset of handguns, a pistol is a handgun with a chamber that is integral with the barrel, as opposed to a revolver, wherein the chamber is separate from the barrel as a revolving cylinder. Typically, pistols have an effective range of about 100 feet.-History:The pistol...
, which may be loaded with various types of ammunition
Ammunition
Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...
. Collected evidence is stored in McCoy's Knowledge Integration Assistant, where it is organized for easy reference. One of its functions is performed by the Crime Scene Panel; it lists the crime scene along with known suspects and clues related to it. There are occasions when the player will carry out a Voight-Kampff test on suspected replicant
Replicant
A replicant is a bioengineered or biorobotic being created in the film Blade Runner . The Nexus series—genetically designed by the Tyrell Corporation—are virtually identical to an adult human, but have superior strength, agility, and variable intelligence depending on the model...
s; when the true nature of the subject is determined, the test ends automatically. The player must then decide what course of action to take based on the results; the decision influences the rest of the storyline.
The game runs in non-linear "real-time", meaning that when McCoy investigates and gathers clues, the computer controlled
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
AI
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
characters do the same, completing their own objectives. It is up to the player to decide how McCoy will react in different situations, such as interrogating or talking to characters, each reaction affecting the storyline differently.
Plot
The game is set in Los Angeles, in November 2019, shortly after the beginning of the film. The protagonist, Ray McCoy, is a rookie Blade Runner under the command of Lieutenant Guzza. True to the film, the environment is dystopian and heavily-polluted. McCoy is tasked with tracking down a group of replicants, who are suspected of murdering animals—a crime nearly as heinous as murdering humans, since most animal species are extinct, and real specimens are exceedingly rare. McCoy investigates a number of crime scenes, employing various techniques typical of detectives to gather information. The game emphasizes the concept of choice on the part of the player; key among these is the option of retiring every last replicant, or possibly letting them escape.During his investigations, McCoy discovers a black market gun runner who assists rogue replicants by providing them with weapons. Soon afterwards, he is framed for the murder of a civilian by the crooked Lieutenant Guzza, who considers him dangerous to his illicit business at the police station. Forced into hiding, McCoy explores the dark, decrepit underworld of 2019 Los Angeles, and makes contact with the replicant twins Luther and Lance, former genetic designers for the Tyrell Corporation who are working on a way to extend their own lifespans, as well as those of all other replicants. From them, McCoy receives a detailed report containing evidence of Guzza's corruption. McCoy uses this information to blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
his former superior and force him to set his falsified record straight. The two men meet in the city sewers for the exchange, where Guzza is wounded by replicant gunfire. At this point, the player must decide to either run away or finish the lieutenant off himself.
There are thirteen endings, with variations on three major themes, influenced by the player's actions throughout the game. The player can believe that the character, McCoy, is human, and hunt down the replicants; be persuaded that he's a replicant himself, and side with them against the other Blade Runners; or stay neutral, and flee the city.
Characters
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
and a rookie
Rookie
Rookie is a term for a person who is in his or her first year of play of their sport or has little or no professional experience. The term also has the more general meaning of anyone new to a profession, training or activity Rookie is a term for a person who is in his or her first year of play of...
police officer. McCoy lives in an apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
building with his pet dog, Maggie, for whom he shows a great deal of affection. McCoy wears a light brown lounge suit, a dark tie and a brown trenchcoat. He uses a standard issue .45
.45
.45 may refer to:* .45 ACP, a cartridge designed by John Browning in 1904, for use in his prototype Colt semi-automatic .45 pistol and eventually the M1911 pistol adopted by the United States Army in 1911* .45-70, a cartridge developed at the U.S...
blaster as his sidearm.
Crystal Steele (voiced by Lisa Edelstein
Lisa Edelstein
Lisa Edelstein is an American actress and playwright. She is best known for her role as Dr. Lisa Cuddy on the television drama House.-Early life and education:...
) is one of the most effective police officers in the LAPD
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
Blade Runner unit. She is an excellent markswoman
Marksman
A marksman is a person who is skilled in precision, or a sharpshooter shooting, using projectile weapons, such as with a rifle but most commonly with a sniper rifle, to shoot at long range targets...
and participates in undercover work. She refers to replicants as "skin-jobs" and is very much in favour of their extermination
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
. Her attitude towards McCoy at the opening of the game is playful, with a considerable amount of condescension
Condescension
Condescension is a show of disdain and superiority in which the condescending person patronizes, or considers him/herself superior and "descends" to the level of, the disdained person.Condescension can also refer to:...
towards the rookie. She always calls McCoy "Slim". Her fate in the game is ultimately tied to the player's actions; she can either die (killed by the player or in an explosion set up by Sadik) or survive and pair up with McCoy as he gains the rank of "full Blade Runner" following the retirement of Clovis, the rogue replicants' leader, in the Moonbus.
Gaff (voiced by Javier Grajed; credited as Victor Gardell) is a character originally presented in the film. He is a competent and older veteran
Veteran
A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...
cop who appears at various intervals to give advice to McCoy, who he seems to see as young and thus unpredictable.
Lieutenant Edison Guzza (voiced by Jeff Garlin
Jeff Garlin
Jeffrey "Jeff" Garlin is an American stand-up comedian, actor, producer, voice artist, director, writer and author, best known for his role as Jeff Greene on the HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm...
) is the boorish, overweight superior to McCoy and in overall command of the Blade Runner unit following Bryant's sick leave
Sick leave
Sick leave is time off from work that workers can use during periods of temporary illness to stay home and address their health and safety needs without losing pay. Some workplaces offer paid sick time as a matter of workplace policy, and in few jurisdictions it is codified into law...
. Guzza is rather unkempt and asocial, remaining in Bryant's office for most of the game's duration. It is revealed later in the game that Guzza is corrupt, and has been assisting Clovis and the other replicants to prevent them from revealing evidence of his illegal activities.
Clovis (voiced by Mark Rolston
Mark Rolston
-Career:Rolston played PFC M. Drake in Aliens , Hans in Lethal Weapon 2 , Stef in RoboCop 2 , Bogs Diamond in The Shawshank Redemption , J. Scar in Eraser , Chief Dennis Wilson in Daylight , Wayne Bryce in Hard Rain and Special Agent in Charge Warren Russ in Rush Hour...
) is the leader of the renegade
Turncoat
A turncoat is a person who shifts allegiance from one loyalty or ideal to another, betraying or deserting an original cause by switching to the opposing side or party...
replicants on Earth. Clovis is a man of mystery—on one hand, he appears as a peaceful, highly educated man, eloquent
Eloquent
Eloquent is a free & open-source application for research and study of God and His Word. It is developed specifically for Macintosh computers running Mac OS X....
and elegant, on the other he is sometimes a ruthless killer, capable of inhuman acts of aggression.
Lucy Devlin (voiced by Pauley Perrette
Pauley Perrette
Pauley Perrette is an American actress, best known for playing Abby Sciuto[p] on the U.S. TV series NCIS, a role that has made her the most popular actress on U.S. primetime television. She is also a published writer, a singer and civil rights advocate.-Early life:Perrette was born in New Orleans...
) is a 14-year-old girl who worked at the pet store that was attacked by the replicants. Though suspected as a replicant herself, she is seen by Ray as a key witness to the crime.
Development
The game designGame design
Game design, a subset of game development, is the process of designing the content and rules of a game in the pre-production stage and design of gameplay, environment, storyline, and characters during production stage. The term is also used to describe both the game design embodied in a game as...
was ambitious for the technology at the time. In contrast to other games at that time, the game engine (which included backgrounds that were pre-rendered
Pre-rendered
Pre-rendering is the process in which video footage is not rendered in real-time by the hardware that is outputing or playing back the video. Instead, the video is a recording of a footage that was previously rendered on a different equipment...
and models calculated in 3D), did not require or use hardware 3D graphics accelerators. Game designers, David Leary and James Walls, achieved this through a self-developed technology based on voxel
Voxel
A voxel is a volume element, representing a value on a regular grid in three dimensional space. This is analogous to a pixel, which represents 2D image data in a bitmap...
s (pixels with width, height and depth). They went with the idea and expanded it, calling it "Voxels Plus".
Instead of just having one voxel, dozens of rotating voxels were used in the shape and depth of the actual polygon model data, making it true real-time 3D without requiring 3D hardware. In layman's terms, it was piecing together flat "picture panels", rotating and positioning them in 3D-space thereby giving the illusion of a 3D object.
However, the technology had shortcomings. A powerful processor
Central processing unit
The central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
was required since the engine relied on the processor doing all the work of creating the 3D models. Since processor power at that time was limited, the 3D models looked quite rough in-game due to the low amount of voxels used to display them; had the number of voxels been raised to increase the detail the game would have become too slow to play. With the level of detail Westwood settled on, the game ran at a minimum of 15 FPS on slow systems.
The film's original soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
could not be secured for the game so Westwood brought in Frank Klepacki to recreate the feel of the film. He re-recorded the Blade Runner soundtrack as well as creating original tracks in the style of the film. Original cast members from the film returning for Cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
voice overs include Sean Young
Sean Young
Sean Young is an American actress, best known for her performance in films from the 1980s such as Blade Runner, Dune, and No Way Out.-Early life:...
as Rachael, Brion James
Brion James
Brion Howard James was an American character actor. Known for playing the character of Leon Kowalski in the movie Blade Runner, James portrayed a variety of colorful roles in well-known films such as 48 Hrs., Another 48 Hours, Tango & Cash, Silverado, Red Heat, The Player and The Fifth Element...
as Leon, James Hong
James Hong
James Hong is an American actor and former president of the Association of Asian/Pacific American Artists . A prolific acting veteran, Hong's career spans over 50 years and includes more than 350 roles in film, television, and video games.-Early life:Hong was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His...
as Chew, Joe Turkel
Joe Turkel
Joe Turkel is an American character actor. He is credited in several films as Joseph Turkel.-Background:Turkel was born in Brooklyn, New York, and served in the U.S. Military during World War II. He currently lives in southern California, and has been involved in writing screenplays.-Career:His...
as Eldon Tyrell, and William Sanderson
William Sanderson
William Sanderson is an American character actor.-Early life:Sanderson was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to an elementary school teacher mother and a landscape designer father...
as J.F. Sebastian.
Film references
Pyramid
A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a single point. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least three triangular surfaces...
structures, the Bradbury Building
Bradbury Building
The Bradbury Building is an architectural landmark in Los Angeles, California. The building was built in 1893 and is located at 304 South Broadway in downtown.-History:...
, and the L.A.P.D.'s cylindrical skyscraper.
When the game begins, Deckard has already been sent off on his own assignment
Assignment
'Assignment may refer to:* Assignment , a type of modification to a variable* Assignment , a task given to students by their teachers to be completed out of the class time....
, and the player will hear references of his activities, though they never meet, so as to remain consistent with the film's plot. When visiting the Tyrell building, Rachael mentions that she has already spoken to another Blade Runner and Tyrell himself tells McCoy that "as I explained to Mr. Deckard earlier, I've given the Nexus 6 a past." One of Izo's pictures, taken at Animoid Row, shows Deckard in the background. While searching the Yukon hotel McCoy discovers Holden's badge and Guzza questions how Deckard missed it and goes onto to say "Deckard, he feels too much, ya' know? He's too far along that curve."
Reception
Sales of the game were in excess of one million, and the critical reception of the game was generally positive. In the Science Fiction Weekly review, Peter Suciu awarded the game A+, highlighting that the "computer-generatedComputer-generated
The term computer-generated most often refers to a sound or visual that has been created in whole or in part with the aid of computer software...
setting of Blade Runner is simply one of the best", and "an outstandingly enjoyable adventure simulation." Game Revolution's Marke Cooke stated that the game "is one of the best adventure games out there", and gave it an A− score. Chris Pickering, in his Adventure Gamers
Adventure Gamers
Adventure Gamers is a computer game website created in 1998 dedicated to the genre of adventure games. It publishes reviews and previews of adventure games, as well as opinion articles and interviews with game designers....
' review, praised the game for its "glorious aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
, intriguing storyline, and well implemented controls." giving the game 4.5 stars (out of five).
RPGFan gave the game an overall rating of 93%, praising the game for "the best pre-rendered backgrounds..." with "rain, spotlights
Searchlight
A searchlight is an apparatus that combines a bright light source with some form of curved reflector or other optics to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direction, usually constructed so that it can be swiveled about.-Military use:The Royal Navy used...
, Spinners or blimps advertising off-world vacations. The crisp images never fail to dazzle." The review went on to criticise the graphics, saying they can become a "tad blurry
Gaussian blur
A Gaussian blur is the result of blurring an image by a Gaussian function. It is a widely used effect in graphics software, typically to reduce image noise and reduce detail...
and pixilated..." close up, yet it was pointed out that "this doesn't detract too much from these otherwise stunning visuals." In his review for PC Zone
PC Zone
PC Zone was the first magazine dedicated to games for IBM-compatible personal computers to be published in the United Kingdom. Earlier PC magazines such as PC Leisure, PC Format and PC Plus had covered games but only as part of a wider remit. PC Zone was founded in 1993.The magazine was published...
Paul Presley gave the game a score of 8.8 (out of ten) and stated that "the story is strong and intelligent enough to compensate for the problems I have with the technical side of the game..." and "while I'd argue that the challenge could have been a lot higher, it's by no means an easy game and the urge to keep playing is there. The multiple ending factor also helps." The game achieved a 3.5/5 rating at Quandary, where Rosemary Young pointed out that "though some aspects of Blade Runner aren't all that sophisticated, it is worth considering for fans of 'hard-edged' crime/science fiction."
In the Gamespot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
review, Ron Dulin gave the game a 6.0 score (out of ten) and stated that the game was "an interesting mood piece, built upon some very detailed graphic work and an interesting premise—but somewhere along the production line, someone forgot to include a game." Duncan Harris emphasised, in his Computer and Video Games
Computer and video games
A video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device, but following popularization of the term "video game", it now implies any type of...
article 'Blade Runner: A classic revisited,' that "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
Exploration
Exploration is the act of searching or traveling around a terrain for the purpose of discovery of resources or information. Exploration occurs in all non-sessile animal species, including humans...
...", "But you couldn't deny that here, for once, was a movie tie-in
Media franchise
A media franchise is an intellectual property involving the characters, setting and trademarks of an original work of media , such as a film, a work of literature, a television program or a video game. Generally, a whole series is made in a particular medium, along with merchandising and endorsements...
which put the movie first, dismissing thoughts of its own genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
and letting the subject dictate the design. With its insular thinking, it's something the games industry all too rarely sees." The game was nominated for "Best Adventure Game" of 1997 in the PC Gamer
PC Gamer
PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...
awards in 1998, but lost out to The Curse of Monkey Island
The Curse of Monkey Island
The Curse of Monkey Island is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts, and the third game in the Monkey Island series. It was released in and followed the successful games The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge...
. The game did however win "Best Adventure Game" of 1998 by the Interactive Achievement Awards.