It seems fans of Blade Runner have been shedding a few tears (in rain) over the state of the newly released Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition. So much so, in fact, that developer Nightdive Studios has seen fit to release the original version of the game as an update for owners on Steam.
While our own review for the Switch version is currently in the works, reception for Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition has not been altogether positive, with many stating that the visual upgrades actually do more harm than good to the overall experience. Over on PCGamer, Fraser Brown writes that the game is "a disaster, not a remaster", and states that it "is an inferior version by a significant margin, and should be avoided unless you desperately want to play it on consoles where it now appears for the first time".
The original version of the game for Steam has been dubbed as Blade Runner Classic, and players will be offered a choice of whether to play the game in its original form or with the enhanced changes when booting it up. There's been no word on whether the Switch version will receive the same treatment, but if the game is as poor as folks say, then we're keeping our fingers crossed for some good news soon.
Have you played Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition for the Switch yet? What do you make of the visuals? Let us know with a comment! We're working on our review at the time of writing, so look out for our verdict on the Switch version soon.
[source store.steampowered.com, via pcgamer.com]
Comments 16
I am a little surprised reading this. Nightdive normally do such good work remastering the classics.
I'm pretty sure they are not allowed to release the original version on consoles.
The original source code is now lost and the "original version" on Steam and GOG is running on the ScummVM source port/emulator.
Mistic released some ScummVM ports of some Junior Adventure games on Wii back in the day, they were taken down as they failed to attribute the code to the ScummVM team.
Because of this whole debacle, Night Dive thought they cannot release the original Blade Runner running on ScummVM in consoles, and did the remaster.
Still, I'm pretty sure ScummVM is open source and Night Dive/Alcon can release the ScummVM version on consoles as long as they properly credit the ScummVM team.
“It seems fans of Blade Runner have been shedding a few tears (in rain)”
Thank you, Ollie. I needed that this morning.
Is it me, or is the comparison basically the same image with a border? Man, I had such high hopes for this to be good...
I don't see much of a difference at all between those two screenshots.
....which probably goes to show the state of the remaster to be fair.
@OorWullie
Surprised myself as well. All the other remasters they made were quite good. Don't know what happened here.
I have seen things you people wouldn’t believe.
Remasters done right. Experiences kept the same.
All those memories of great ports will be lost…. Like tears in the rain.
Time to log off.
Played a reasonable amount and it’s not terrible, about 20 years since I played the original one so I wouldn’t be able to make a fair comparison. If there are no major issues on the rest of my playthrough I won’t feel upset. Not a great step up but considering the issues with remastering / remaking it things could be a lot worse and it’s not priced as highly as some less than impressive ports or remasters I’ve bought.
For me it’s my first chance to play it so I’ll take it as long as it doesn’t crash etc. though based on the above sounds like a few patches wouldn’t go amiss
Just going off those screenshots definitely think the original looks better. More vibrant colors both make the models look more primitive and subtract a lot from the atmosphere.
I don't get the complaint, guess I'll be trying the old version first before getting the enhanced version. I know Nightdive ain't lazy like this, this probably may be the case of older gamers not embracing new modern shine or maybe a charm of the original did get lost somewhere, I know a lot of the old Super Mario Bros. fans still prefer the NES versions over the All-Stars versions so I could see their complaint. This is different from the GTA Trilogy situation which really was a mess. Probably just a matter of preference, the only way to solve this is for Nightdive to add an old look option for the game just like how Square Enix did with the Chrono Cross remastered so those who still want to play it like the original could do so that way.
Hmm, in my phone I really can't tell a difference. I heard they slightly increased the frame rate which adds a odd look.
Grrr, I bought it the day it was released. Had no time to try it yet, then I read all the bad reviews. Not great, and it doesn’t sound like they will (or can, even) do something about it.
I've got this, I think it's decent,tge graphics are like ps2 but that's fine as long as its playable and fun. It's also only about £9.
I have been aware of the hubbub since launch—and given a) the trouble with the source code and b) NightDive’s track record, I am both surprised and not by this news. That said, I read an in-depth feature on why this was an inferior version the other day—might have been on RPS?—and almost none of the bugs/issues that writer complained about affected my Switch playthrough (I finished my first run last night.) I did find another bug related to text size on the clue interface that occurs when switching between docked and handheld and which causes a crash when selecting a clue with an accompanying image. That said, yeah, I would prefer the razor sharp look of the original 640x480 videos that make up many of the game's backgrounds, because what's on Switch is often blurry. That's the same thing that happened with FF7-9 as well, and Chrono Cross, and sadly none of the fan efforts to improve those kind of releases on PC will ever translate over to the Switch version. Nightdive is great at what they do, so I imagine future updates will bring it closer to what we all expected. For now, I’m happy to have the game on a console; getting my big-box PC version to play with a modern computer has always been a huge PITA.
@Pillowpants Yeah, it looks like the JPG compression really ruined both shots.
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