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

Legend of Kyrandia: The Hand of Fate Review (PC)

At the peak of point and click adventures fame there were numerous games of excellent quality to choose from. While Sierra and Lucas Arts took most of the lime light there were also other companies creating some great games. Westwood was one such company and the Kyrandia series is well worth visiting for fans of the genre.

On a personal note, this game in particular has taken me a very long time to get through. I first started playing The Hand of Fate in the mid-nineties one day while at a friend’s house. We spent a Saturday afternoon working out the first chapter before it was consigned back to the draw while we went off to do something else (probably involving clubs). 

I completely forgot the name of the game for ages and it was a few years ago that I managed to search it out on the internet. Upon finding it I only managed to get hold of the non-talkie version and quickly discarded it again. Then the series appeared on Good Old Games and after purchasing it and having it sit in my library for a while I have finally managed to complete a journey started a very long time ago.

Hand of Fate follows the story of a sorcerer named Zanthia who discovers that the kingdom of Kyrandia is beginning to vanish in front of her. Little by little trees and buildings begin to vanish and she sets out to save the day. On the way she’ll encounter a rather suspicious magical hand and a host of weird and wonderful fantasy inspired characters. Zanthia is seemingly the sanest of the residents of Kyrandia and the other, stranger, occupants add a dose of humour and character throughout.

The world of Kyrandia is wonderfully drawn with a lot of character and magical whimsy on show. It does look a little pixelated now but the range of locations keep things fresh and the story moving along. It can be difficult to see certain objects at times but then that’s something that many of the games of the time suffer from. The only real issue is that the cursor arrow doesn’t tell you when you are moving over something that can be looked at or picked up. This means you may be clicking around a few times to see what is about. It never really seemed to be an issue though as most things of interest are fairly obvious.

The game is quite unique in the realms of point and click with some interesting mechanics present. As well as the normal process of using objects to solve puzzles you also need to mix potions by collecting ingredients. This adds a nice build up to the payoff of finally using a potion to solve a problem. These rang e from needing to make a sandwich to distract guards to turning yourself into an abdominal snowman or creating a teddy bear. The puzzles are always creative and normally follow a kind of magical logic (though, the results may achieve your goal not quite in the way you might think a t the time).

It’s Important to save often as there are a few places you can die during the game. There aren’t any instant deaths and you’ll often be warned but it’s likely you’ll be caught out at least a couple of times. You won’t be able to stump yourself by misusing ingredients though as they regenerate once used allowing you to try and mix things again.

Overall, Hand of Fate is an excellent adventure that has some nice tricks of its own to help separate it from other games in the genre. The characters are strong with good voicing and the script and the story is entertaining throughout. Fans of point and click games should definitely try it and It was well worth finally finishing Zanthia’s story.

Overall 8/10