Point-and-Click Adventures are not very present in modern day gaming anymore and seem almost extinct with only a few indie developers working on new titles or some classics being remade. Back in the 90s they formed one of the most popular genres with lots of great titles like Lucas Art’s early Indiana Jones and Monkey Island Series or the very great Circle of Blood (Baphomets Fluch) often hand-drawn with a cartoony or comic book art style. One title that is not often mentioned but a really great entry is Westwood’s Blade Runner from the year 1997 based on Ridley Scott’s Science-Fiction Classic with Harrison Ford.
It’s art style differs greatly from its peers at the time, is more dark and mature in tone and combines pre-drawn backgrounds with 3D animated characters and objects. You play as detective Ray McCoy in 2019 Los Angeles ordered to solve a case related to replicants. The player walks around the scenes, looks for clues, talks to witnesses and there are some chase sequences. It is also possible to let persons take a character test to identify if they are human or android. The artwork and scenery are great and full of details and moving objects and the greatest aspect of the game is its calm, moody atmosphere. It is always night, mostly raining, with neon lights glowing in the dark and lots of great sound of ambience and computer devices. You can travel between different locations on a city map with your hovering police car and there are always some little videos showing you flying to your destination, which creates a great sense of continuity. It is little details like going to your apartment, feeding your dog, looking at evidence on your own data device or just standing on your balcony, looking down on the street while a beautiful sci-fi synth soundtrack starts to play that really let you identify with the character and make you feel like you’re a noir detective in a hopeless case.
Definitely worth revisiting or experiencing it for the first time.
Buy Blade Runner on gog.com
