Westwood Studio’s classic Blade Runner point-and-click adventure can finally be enjoyed once more with ease on PC, thanks to the diligent work of the ScummVM development community.
But first, a quick history lesson! Blade Runner originally released back in 1997, with Westwood (the sadly-now-defunct developer behind the likes of Command & Conquer and Dune 2) foregoing the usual easy cash-in route ordinarily associated with movie tie-ins for an experience both wildly ambitious and legitimately groundbreaking.
Although borne of the familiar point-and-click template, players, in the role of Blade Runner Ray McCoy, embarked on an investigation-based, and largely randomised adventure. Faced with the goal of hunting down replicants, the game would randomly decide exactly which characters were artificial creations at the start, subtly changing their behaviour as the story unfolded.
Blade Runner – Video Game Trailer (1996) Watch on YouTube
Throw in NPCs that didn’t follow a scripted route through the story – instead moving around in relative real-time based on their assigned objectives – branching narrative pathways, and a multitude of different possible endings, and Blade Runner was an experience that didn’t just capture the neon-streaked dystopian atmosphere of the movie with absolute precision, but which made its world feel positively alive.