Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition

It isn’t yet retirement time for the Blade Runner game, but as enhanced versions go, this one takes a solid game and sadly weakens it, much like a Replicant’s limited timespan tragically does to them.

If gameplay is all that is of importance, Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition remains one of the finest examples outside of a Lucasarts' title, bringing together a great story and interesting mechanics. If you want the whole package however, it may be best to look elsewhere for a definitive version. The Nintendo Switch of course does have that major advantage of gaming on the go and on a smaller screen, it may just look that little bit more appealing.

Many will see the score at the bottom of this review and immediately write off Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition. However, there is something genuinely brilliant buried deep inside this Switch release, beneath the lingering issues with pacing and narrative design as well as the myriad painful “enhancements” Nightdive Studios has dumped on top. To cut through all that, you will need a great love for Blade Runner and cyberpunk, saintly patience, a walkthrough on hand, a strict requirement to play on console rather than PC, and a pair of rose-tinted glasses. If you have all those things then you may still see life in this game’s eyes, but we don’t need a Voigt-Kampff machine to tell this version from the real thing.

Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition is for the most nostalgic players but it is not a game for people of this generation. The original story remains but the graphics have not aged well at all and as a result we have a clunky game. Only recommended for those who like the genre or who have played the original from 1997.

Finding anything positive about the new (sic) Blade Runner is almost impossible. The time-honored legend didn't age well in the remastered edition after 25 years, and perhaps it would be better if it remained only in our memories.