Classic Blade Runner Game Is Being Remastered For Consoles And PC

The 1997 Blade Runner adventure game wasn't a straight adaptation of Ridley Scott's film or the original novel, but it received critical acclaim for its deep storytelling and atmosphere. More than two decades later, a new audience is going to get to play the game on everything from PC to Nintendo Switch.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Nightdive Studios and Alcon Entertainment are partnering on a remastered Blade Runner video game for Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Steam. Though the game's original source code was lost and this could have made a new version impossible, Nightdive reverse-engineered the code and imported it into its own engine. It could then get to making improvements to everything from the character models to resolution.

Dubbed Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition, it's designed to feel like what you remember rather than how it actually looked. To see for yourself, the original version is available on GOG now.

The timing couldn't be much better for a remastered Blade Runner game. Like the original film, it's set in the year 2019, though the series' take on the "future" is considerably darker and features androids living among humans. Of course, that could still be true and the population could be in the dark about it.

Nightdive Studios is using its same internal KEX engine on remastered versions of Turok and System Shock. The latter game could be the only new System Shock project fans get for the foreseeable future, as the planned System Shock 3 has reportedly been halted and its developers are no longer employed.