And God created Man.
And Man created…
Do you ever heard about the genious Philip K. Dick? Or about Ridley Scott? If yes, do you know what connects these men of art? Well, if you don’t, we will help you below.
Blade Runner (BR) is a classic adventure game, but to understand it fully, it’s worth to jump back in time and take a look at the dark dystopia which not just served as the foundation of this game, but it inspired such writers as William Gibson and such movies as The Matrix.
To get the answer for the first question, we have to hurry back in time to 1928; one of the most determining sci-fi writers of the 20th century, Philip K. Dick was born that year. Our topic is not his life and art, so it’s sufficient to mention a few works of him: Martian Time-slip, The Man in the High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, A Scanner Darkly. This latter was adopted to the movie screen with the same title, and there were other filmed novels and short stories of him, for example, Minority Report, Total Recall, Impostor and Screamers. A lot of the master’s art was adopted, so I’m certain I forgot some of them.
Anyway, for us, one novel is more important than the others. It is titled Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? If you didn’t know it already, now you maybe made an uncomprehending face – this was the base of the most successful sci-fi movie beside Star Wars, the cyberpunk-noir Blade Runner (1982). Master Dick died before the first run, but he was VERY displeased with Ridley Scott’s raw version. He was annoyed mostly because of the cuts; Scott cut out the religious sects, the robot animals, and the 3rd World War with its effects by and large.
So, here is the young and ambitious director, Ridley Scott. The date is 1982, and the location is America, of course. The film had an undivided success among both the common audience and the critics. It uncovered a grim future full of doubts, but somehow the noir feeling is so compelling that it grabs you. But the story is not the strongest element of it; that is just about an investigation on the streets of Los Angeles in 2019, with a world-weary hunter of androids in the main role.
Blade Runner game is based on the film, so the story plays in the near future, in 2019. Today we see that this world will not come in such a short time, but don’t forget that the movie is almost thirty years old.
Humankind colonized Mars, but the works there are done by androids. The artificial people can do almost anything, what’s more, they are physically superior to humans, stronger, more agile and tougher than us. However, a new type of these human machines, the Nexus 6 series can stimulate emotions, and it leads to an uprising against the slave work. They can simulate even a fear from death – and this all leads to criminal behavior. They are banned from Earth, but it’s not enough to keep them away.
Police has a special detective unit; the blade runners are searching and destroying the Nexus 6 androids. These latter are called replicants.
The game and the movie have the same setting, but the former got an independent story, so the main protagonist is not Rick Deckard from the movie (and the novel). Westwood developers were brave enough to mix the best elements of the film and the novel, and in this way they created one of the brightest pearls in the history of adventure games.
Ray McCoy believed this day will be the same as the others. A coffee and a donut in the morning, some patrolling, meal at noon at good old Chang‘s Chinese buffet, some more patrolling, then it’s time to go home. But if you are one of the headhunters, you have to be ready for the ugliest or the strangest cases. Our friend, Ray meets the second one when he is called to investigate a pet shop butchering.
Passers-by frightened to death, a broken display window, blood and only a few usable clue… The day is too long, my head is aching, a butthead patrolman and the annoying gaze of the curious masses. When will this damn day end?
Why is it such an important thing? In the future world of Blade Runner living animals are rare, because the expansion of human territories caused mass extinction. People make robot copies of real animals, but killing a living animal is almost as serious a crime as murdering a human being. Furthermore, there is a benefit of animal extinction: humans got some advanced emotional sensitiveness, so most people simply isn’t able to kill a real animal. This way there’s no wonder that every clue points at a Nexus 6 replicant as perpetrator.
This is the Nexus 6, the newest product of the Tyrell Corporation. We made it for the peripheral colonies, due to its outstanding endurance and massiveness. During the show you will see the advantages of the new model. Perfect biological, physical and emotional simulation. Please follow me to the showroom!
Maybe I shouldn’t tell that soon there will be some human corpses beside the animal ones, and the list of the suspects starts to grow. Our rookie blade runner agent got a big task to complete.
If it’s about replicants, no one sees nothing. Or they just dare not to speak…
And this big task is not simple at all. You have to use every tricks to roll up this case smelling circuits and artificial guts.
“…and if you believed it to be some failed adaptation of the movie, better I give you some hint. It’s one of the best and most complex detective games of all time…”
This was the end of a conversation between me and a narrow-minded movie-geek gamer. And this covers almost everything I can tell about the gameplay, because BR really shows every basic practice and technique that detectives use during investigations.
Ray McCoy records every important conversation, so you can listen the words of the suspects again and again, if you want. The game is exceptionally complex, so sometimes even a strange tone in a voice can be the key to the solution. Conversations are of high priority in the game, because developers put some more emphasize on them than on collecting and combining items (thank it to them). It’s interesting and a rarity that you may choose not only what you say but in what manner you say that. This always influences the conclusion of the given conversation. Sometimes you need to be silky, but other times only a cop with balls can convince someone.
The high degree of freedom is important for the atmosphere of the whole game. You can visit several places in good old LA while you may map out tracks, locations, interrogations – with two words: your time – as you wish. There even are such tiny elements as the flying patrol car, in which you choose destination, then just sit down and enjoy the ride.
I still feel the hot coffee boiling in my veins. My brain is on high rpm, but my body cries only for a drink and a bed. But the case isn’t closed yet, and I still have a lot to do today. I believe this night never ends…
During this free-timed investigation only the preset “events” give a feeling about playing a story. And that’s just sufficient.
Besides all of these, Blade Runner works not only with point’n’click elements. At any time, Ray can bring out his not too little caliber handgun from under his raincoat. It works reverse too: the game gives a pressure continuously, because you may meet suspicious figures and shadows at any corner, so you may feel that it’s better to keep your finger on the trigger. This could be a weak point, but luckily BR never becomes a mindless shooter game. The action-adventure mix contains a lot more adventure than action. Developers had an excellent recipe, and the gunpowder is only some salt in it.
The shady figure knocked over a few trash bins and heads toward the alley. The cold handle of the gun gives a kiss to my palm. The rain is pouring, but I see the target clearly. My concentration is full. When I whip the gun out, the rubbing of my raincoat is like roaring in my ears. I aim at the target, but I can’t shoot yet. Too much passers-by…
As I mentioned above, replicants are like humans in almost every respect, but there is a method to strain them out. It’s the Voigt-Kampff test from the original story, and it measures emotional reactions (a replicant’s emotions are simulated, so also their bodily reactions are artificial). This is an averagely important element of the game, and anyway, it’s a good filler for the overall atmosphere, what’s more, it is the exact copy of the test in the movie. We ask questions about things that should, for example, upset the suspect, and based on the reactions of the retina we can differentiate androids and humans.
Question 16:
You drive out of the city. It’s evening, the road is empty. There is a forest around. Suddenly, something jumps before the car and you cannot turn the wheel in time. You hit the thing, and when you get out, you see blood on the head of the car. (The retina responds to the word “blood”. This still can be a simulated reaction.) You go behind and catch sight of a fawn. Its tongue is hanging out, its guts are lying on the road and blood is… (Fervent reaction, retina movement, pupil expansion. Simulation is improbable.)
Another element from the film is the analysis of photos and holopictures. The pictures from the security cameras are not too telling in themselves, but in 2019 you can zoom on any point of them, furthermore, you can turn them around in 3D. The joke is: they really made it in a 15 years old game, so you can spend hours with analyzing pictures. And this really increases realism.
Here is an explanation through an example: If you zoom on a dropped glass and turn it a little, maybe a suspicious mirrored image becomes visible on it. If you already have a blurred picture of the suspect, maybe this can add another piece to the puzzle. The pieces come together, but you can always count on some unpleasant event to happen before you finish the investigation.
Of course, there is no perfect game, so I must mention a little flaw in this gem. There are no subtitles. There are no subtitles under the conversations, and there is no option for it in the settings. That’s a pity, although you can re-listen the conversations from your dictaphone.
What he said? Damn, I should write it down!
The game came out in 1997, when the name of Westwood Studios meant a warranty. There is no complaint, because BR shows quality graphics and sound – regarding its age, of course. There are countless meticulously wrought animations, so there is almost no difference between gameplay and cutscenes. Backgrounds are outstanding, characters alike, but of course, without correlating them to today games. The atmosphere is constant, so you don’t step out of its dark sci-fi world until you stand up from the computer. The game is advanced enough to run on newer operating systems too – it is supported by several downloadable patches and fixes.
Summary
So BR got a place in the adventure games Hall of Fame by no accident. It is mentioned together with such masterworks as Longest Journey or Grim Fandango. I recommend it to anyone who liked the novel and/or the movie, or just wants to play an exciting investigation. The game itself is like a Nexus 6 replicant: “almost perfect”.
(Note: The article was published earlier on adventuregames.hu, but this is a re-edited version.)
—Árnyék—
Title: Blade Runner
Publisher: Virgin Interactive Entertainment
Developer: Westwood Studios
Homepage: none, but… http://www.brmovie.com/BR_Game.htm
Style: point’n’click, detective, adventure
What I liked:
stand-alone story
multifarious gameplay
like investigating for real
amazing visuals (regarding its age)
What I didn’t like:
not perfect
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