Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition Review (Switch)

Initially arriving about twelve years after Blade Runner came out in cinemas this always seemed like somewhat of an odd project from Westwood studios. Perhaps, even more strangely, it’s now beenr resurrected again and ported to consoles. The story runs parallel to the movie and follows detective McCoy as he investigates as number of crimes that may be related to an as yet unknown group of replicants. McCoy must gather clues and interrogate suspects as he searches for the truth, whatever that may be.

Blade Runner always was a massively ambitious game with a lot of care and attention has spent on it to keep everything in synch with the world portrayed by Ridley Scott and written about by Philippe K Dick. Voice actors from the original film such as Sean Young, James Hong and Joe Turkel return to add presence to their characters that feature again here. Choice cuts from the original Blade Runner soundtrack are present as well.

The cinematic quality of the movie is also replicated with a number of sweeping shots similar to its on screen counterpart. Locations from the film, as well as small scenes, such as the bicycles riding through the rain, are further used to make players feel they are inside the real Blade Runner world. As far as authenticity goes this game really cannot be faulted.

The game itself is a little removed from what we consider to be a traditional point and click adventure. There are very few actual puzzles to solve and even a few shooting sequences thrown in. Players make their way through the story by collecting clues, using the ESPER photo analysis machine (just like in the film) and talking to suspects. The game has six different endings and your clues can draw you in a number of very different directions. Certain events happen in real though, which can leave players guessing as they were busy investigating a different location when something goes down.

Unfortunately, the titles ambition never wasn’t executed quite as well as it could have been. On quite a few occasions you can be staring at a pile of clues and not really knowing where you should be heading. It is also far too easy to stumble onto a certain path without really knowing, or agreeing, with what your character may end up doing. It can all be just a bit too confusing at times. It’s also fairly short and just when you feel you are stacking up a decent set of clues you suddenly and abruptly arrive at the end of the game anyway.

We would have liked to have seen a little bit more patience from the developers to let players fully develop their opinion about what is going on. Far too often events happen too quickly and you end up thrust into a situation that seems to force the narrative along rather than letting the player do it. Certain sections of the game are also very hard and frustrating.

Criticism aside, the investigation you undertake really is interesting. All the characters are well acted and intriguing to interrogate and McCoy is convincing as the confused detective. The control system also works very well and looking through your clues and piecing together bits of information is satisfying. The combat is reasonable as well and more than adequate for the amount of shooting you end up doing.

The big sticking point is a flawed but ambitious game has now been ported to a less than ideal platform and it hasn’t been done in a massively successful way. For starters there are very few instructions about how anything works – this game really needed a digital manual. You also have an interface which really is not a decent replacement for a mouse and also there are no real quality of life features either. Playing this on the Switch screen really needs some kind of highlight button to show up objects within the scenes.

Fans of the film and book should still definitely check this out though. Sections of the novel that didn't make it into the movie are worked into the story here and the fan service is really worth appreciating. The game may not be perfect but it never stops being interesting and those six endings are going to take a real amount of brain power to track down. Any adventure game fan up for a challenge and something a little different shouldn't be disappointed. But, you really should be playing it on PC if you can.

Overall 6/10

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds (PS2)

Like it or loath it the television series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer should be a good source to make a decent game from, vampires, kung fu, good vs evil and half decent looking women seem like a near infallible combination from which to create an entertaining piece of software. The original Xbox title was decent enough without really being anything truly notable and if you are not a fan of the series there was little to attract you to it, so when the second installment in the all kicking slayer’s gaming adventures fell onto the desk there was a hope that it could actually be ok. Oh dear how wrong we where…

So we have a game which should at least be slightly above average, large levels full of monsters to be hacked and staked, a wide range of weapons and enemies and numerous characters to take control of. Yet despite all of this what emerges is one of the worst games to have ever been made, so let’s begin the postmortem.

First of all, if a developer is making a game closely related to a very popular television show it would seem common sense for you characters to look something like their on screen images, not here though, out of proportion bodies coupled with distorted faces means characters just do not look how they are should. Furthermore, all the voices used are not from the real actors so again instead of Michel Geller you get some strained American half sound alike girl, now this is far from satisfactory when making a title which is predominantly for fans and is lazy and inexcusable.

Let us move onto the next abomination- how the characters play. While each character has a fairly solid, if limited range of punches and kicks there are big gameplay spoiling issues all over the place. First of all every character seems to play almost exactly like every other character which just is not right considering Buffy is a massively strong slayer, Willow is a weak but magically strong witch and when Xanda punching a vampire sends them spinning around in the air it just reinforces the idea that different skins have been placed over the same combat template.

Combat itself has its own set of problems, for a start punches and kicks do not flow very well meaning you are always open to attack after landing your initial strikes and when surrounded by a large amount of opponents you can find yourself being knocked around without ever having a chance to fight back. The title also contains one of the most fascinatingly awful cameras in history. The camera is fully movable by the player but somehow always manages to be right in front of your character so you cannot see a thing and no matter what, enemies will always attack from somewhere you cannot see them, seemingly spinning out of thin air from a place you walked past two seconds before.

So that is bad controls, camera, graphics, sound and combat what’s left?  Level design. Where to start? If you’re not walking around levels that seem completely out of place with the series doing frustratingly dull things that were dull ten years ago then it’s the incredible long levels where you get attacked endlessly by vampires and demons that look exactly the same. It would not be so bad but when a level near enough takes one painful hour of your life to get through it would have been nice to be able to save your game before the end of it. There are continue points but you can only stop the pain and turn the machine off after completing one whole section of shocking boredom.

Buffy: Chaos Bleeds is a shocking game, a turgid stinking pool of primordial ooze that would take millions of years to evolve into anything remotely resembling something that is worth playing. Truly, they just do not make games this bad anymore; in fact they never made games this bad (perhaps with the exception of ET). The only good thing you can say is that it does not contain any ‘bugs’ but then again there is not exactly anything that feels finished about this title to have bugs in.

It’s hard to express how terrible this game is and it is made all the worse due to the fact that it should be near impossible to create such a shocking result from such a rich resource. Avoid it at all costs as you will have more fun sitting in a chair rocking back and forth, strangely the effect this game has had on almost all that have played it.

Overall 2/10

The Simpsons Hit and Run Review (PS2)

In recent memory the Simpson’s licence has been tacked on to just about any old piece of tat going, from the ‘alleged’ ripping of the crazy taxi formula in road rage to rubbish wrestling games. In fact the last time the Simpson’s got a proper run out was way back in the days of eight bit gaming with platformer Bart vs. the Space Mutants.

One of the better attempts came in the form of this Grand Theft Auto based game. Now on the surface this may seem a strange choice and a fair few changes have had to be made to keep everything from getting too violent. So GTA without the violence in a Simpson’s world? Dear lord what have we let our selves in for?

Hit and Run may be a copy of yet another popular and commercially viable formula with a tacked on gimmick but it would be harsh to dismiss the title out of hand. In reality Hit and Run only borrows certain things from GTA and in fact bares little resemblance to Rock Star North’s classic title.

The game sets players a number of missions in a set area. Driving from one place to another and then driving somewhere else is generally all that is needed to complete these tasks. There is little in the way of the on foot sections found in GTA and even the driving missions are only recognisable in an abstract sense.

Each area of the game has players controlling one of the Simpson’s family as they go about their driving, once a set number of missions have been completed it’s onto the next area where a different member of the family does much the same. While there are things to do other than the main missions the freedom of other titles in this genre really show up Hit and Run, indeed apart from looking for collectible cards and the odd hidden gag event to trigger there really is not anything worth aimlessly wondering the streets of Springfield to find. This really effects the long term appeal as the missions will only take an experienced player a couple of days to get through.

However, what the game does, it does relatively well with the environment of Springfield well recreated with everything more or less where is should be and recognisable characters from the series all making themselves present at one point or another. The handling of the cars is very much in the realms of arcade, but the vehicles handle well and generally do what you want them to. At least the basics have been completed to a competent degree, something that cannot be said about almost every other Simpson’s title.

Unfortunately there just is not enough in the game to make it a worthwhile purchase as a game in its own right. After the first few areas, missions begin to feel repetitive and moments of humour are too far apart to keep players wanting to go on to see what happens next. This coupled with the fact that most missions seem to have nothing to do with the overall plot and the fact that said plot is so dull that you do not care anyway only pulls the title down further into the realms of the exceedingly average.

For fans of the series there is the odd bit of replay value, new costumes and vehicles can be purchased and there is always the hope that the next gag event that you find will actually amount to more than something simply falling over or blowing up. For the real diehard fan there is an unseen episode of the Itchy and Scratchy cartoon to be bought once all the collectible cards have been found. Apart from these odd bits there is really little else here apart from the samey main missions, even going on a wild spree of knocking down innocent people holds little reward as the cops simply come and fine you before letting you on your way again.

Overall, Hit and Run is both a surprise and a disappointment. It is nice to see a Simpson’s game that finally is worth playing. Unfortunately, it is only worth playing for a few hours because anything after that falls into the realms repetition. The basic gameplay dynamic has been implemented competently but that isn’t really enough.

Overall 5/10

Gabriel Knight :Sins of the Father 20th Anniversary Review (PC)

Back in the golden age of adventure games Sierra and Lucas Arts where at their creative peaks and produced numerous point and click classics. One of the best loved of these series’ was Gabriel Knight, a franchise that has stayed dormant since the third game in released way back in 1999. Now, one of best mysteries ever committed to code has had a facelift to bring it up to date for a new generation.

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father introduces us to the charismatic lead of the piece and his assistant Grace as they struggle to make Gabriel’s rare bookshop turn a profit. Gabriel is plagued by nightmares of a hanging man and also struggling to write a new fiction book centred on voodoo. As Gabriel investigates for the book he gradually becomes drawn into something more dangerous than he can possibly imagine.

The biggest change from the original game is the graphics. Environments are now 3D and everything has had a redesign and overhaul. On the whole the new locations look very good and it certainly doesn’t break the atmosphere of the original. There’s a bit more of a Noir influence going on as well which adds to feeling of danger and mystery. New voice actors have  been cast which means the game loses the talents of Mark Hamill and Tim Curry, a shame, but we soon got used to it.

The only other real shame is that certain fine details have been lost from the transition to the new look. New players won’t notice but the odd creative flourish like the repair man trying to fix the thermostat in the police station or being able to go up the ladder in the book shop have been removed. While this doesn’t really effect how the game plays it does take out some of the character at times.

The game is still point and click and has resisted the urge to move to the style that Broken Sword 3 and 4 have taken on. Most of the time you will be scanning the environments with the mouse for items and talking to characters to uncover clues. Finding things has been made easier thanks to a highlight button which shows up any onscreen areas of interested. This makes finding those pixel perfect objects much friendlier and the game is all the better for it. There is also a button which jumps you straight to the world map which speeds things up quite considerably.

As well as the new look the game has a selection of bonus content in the form of artwork and design comparisons. It’s quite interesting for the most part but could really have done with being put in a separate place. At the minute you can only access things from within individual locations. This means if you don’t look at the content right away and a place becomes unavailable then you’ve missed it. It also doesn’t help with the pacing and immersion when you have to keep breaking from the game to look at the stuff.

The game has had a few sections added as well. Some puzzles are made a little longer and certain items have moved around. The addition of block sliding puzzles is something we could have really done without though and it’s a blessing there are so few instances when things like this crop up. There’s also a slight change of pace with Gabriel only able to visit locations when they become relevant to what he needs to do in that day. It streamlines the experience a bit without taking away from it and does help to eliminate a fair bit of the aimless wandering while you work out what to do.

Any issue are very minor though and for the most part we really enjoyed getting back into the Gabriel Knight world and seeing how it had been changed and brought up to date. The strength of the story and characters holds true and it really is a tale that draws the player in and makes you need to find out how the mystery ends. 

The original game is certainly a classic and it’s still fully playable but we still have to recommend both fans and newcomers to try the remake. It doesn’t feel dated in terms of look or mechanics and that is a big compliment to both the original designers and writers and the team who have taken on the job of creating the new 3D world.

Overall, Gabriel Knight: The Sins of the Father is a game we are more than happy to see back in the limelight. It’s an excellently imagined tale that deserves to be experienced by a new generation and one that has more than enough to offer to keep you entertained. Those who like a good mystery or want to step back into Sierra’s voodoo tale won’t be disappointed.

Overall 8/10

Blade Runner Review (PC)

Arriving about twelve years after Blade Runner came out in cinemas this always seemed like somewhat of an odd project from Westwood studios. The story runs parallel to the movie and follows detective McCoy as he investigates as number of crimes that may be related to an as yet unknown group of replicants. McCoy must gather clues and interrogate suspects as he searches for the truth, whatever that may be.

Blade Runner is a massively ambitious game and a lot of care and attention has been spent on it to keep everything in synch with the world portrayed by Ridley Scott and written about by Philippe K Dick. Voice actors from the original film such as Sean Young, James Hong and Joe Turkel return to add presence to their characters that feature again here. Choice cuts from the original Blade Runner soundtrack are present as well.

The cinematic quality of the movie is also replicated with a number of sweeping shots similar to its on screen counter part. Locations from the film, as well as small scenes, such as the bicycles riding through the rain, are further used to make players feel they are inside the real Blade Runner world. As far as authenticity goes this game really cannot be faulted.

The game itself is a little removed from what we consider to be a traditional point and click adventure. There are very few actual puzzles to solve and even a few shooting sequences thrown in. Players make their way through the story by collecting clues, using the ESPER photo analysis machine (just like in the film) and talking to suspects. The game has six different endings and your clues can draw you in a number of very different directions.

Unfortunately, the titles ambition isn't executed quite as well as it could have been. On quite a few occasions you can be staring at a pile of clues and not really knowing where you should be heading. It is also far too easy to stumble onto a certain path without really knowing, or agreeing, with what your character may end up doing. It can all be just a bit too confusing at times. The title is also fairly short and just when you feel you are stacking up a decent set of clues you suddenly and abruptly arrive at the end of the game anyway.

We would have liked to have seen a little bit more patience from the developers to let players fully develop their opinion about what is going on. Far too often events happen too quickly and you end up thrust into a situation that seems to force the narrative along rather than letting the player do it. Certain sections of the game are also very hard and frustrating.

Criticism aside, the investigation you undertake really is interesting. All the characters are well acted and intriguing to interrogate and McCoy is convincing as the confused detective. The control system also works very well and looking through your clues and piecing together bits of information is satisfying. The combat is reasonable as well and more than adequate for the amount of shooting you end up doing.

Fans of the film and book should definitely check this out. Sections of the novel that didn't make it into the movie are worked into the story here and the general polish and fan service is really worth appreciating. The game may not be perfect but it never stops being interesting and those six endings are going to take a real amount of brain power to track down. Any adventure game fan up for a challenge and something a little different shouldn't be disappointed.

7/10