Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition launches today on Steam, Xbox consoles, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch for $10. It refreshes Westwood’s 25-year-old point n’ click adventure game with 4K upscaled videos, an enhanced HD user interface, improved subtitles, better anti-aliasing, and controller support. Nightdive announced the remaster project in 2020 but delayed it indefinitely the same year. The developer had trouble finding the game’s source code, which disappeared after Electronic Arts acquired Westwood in 1998. Instead, Nightdive reverse engineered the code, and a licensing conflict prevented it from using ScummVM’s existing work.
The 1997 game, a spin-off of the famous 1982 film, employed visual effects and real-time gameplay systems that were unusual for adventure games at the time. It conveys a nonlinear storyline featuring some of the original film’s actors. Nightdive’s next upcoming project – its biggest yet with some cyberpunk themes similar to Blade Runner – is a total remake of the first System Shock game. Its release date is still unknown, but it will reimagine the 1994 classic with modern graphics on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series consoles, and PC later this year.
