The greatest adventure game to date.
When judged by these standards, Blade Runner can be nothing but sub-par. Important objects are easy to spot, placed in areas that make sense, and often, are not completely integral to the advancement of the plot, the majority of the puzzles are entirely logical and can be worked out using half a brain applied in a sensible way and the story and voice acting, while not universally stellar, help to immerse you in an engrossing, if slightly odd, world.
Judged without the preconceptions of more "Usual" adventure games, Blade Runner is a near-flawless example of what the genre should have been.
Playing in 2008, the graphics can often leave a little to be desired, especially the character models, whose terrible pixelation and unnatural, over-exaggerated animations can be more than a little jarring. However, the failings of the actors are more than made up for by the beauty of the stage on which they perform. The pre-rendered backdrops are still nothing short of absolutely stunning, and area transitions are blessed with recreated segments of the cinematography that made the Blade Runner film so famous.
The relationship the game has with the Blade Runner film is unusual. Featuring many of the same characters, locations and events, one could either imagine that the game is an alternate version of the reality of the movie, or, dependent on the ending, an experimental retreading of the movie's events by the fictional world (or vice-versa). Although one could spent a week bending their mind around the philosophical questions and connections thrown up by the relationship between game and film, I'll just say this; If you have already seen Blade Runner, you will be treading some fairly similar ground.
In terms of difficulty, Blade Runner is definitely one of the easier adventure games, aiding it in terms of flow, and giving it more of a feeling of being an interactive movie, instead of a series of rage-inducingly frustrating hurdles. The downside of this is that an experienced adventure player will be able to breeze through this in a relatively short period of time (once they have dealt with the initial brain-rewiring use of logic in the game design).
Although most of the game will be forensic and investigational point-and-click work, you are treated to stints of gunplay as well as being given access to Blade runner equipment; spinners, Voight-Kamph testing kits, the ESPER machine and the database are all available for use and provide some of the most enjoyable moments of the game. Voight-Kamph tests vary between the disturbing and the hilarious depending on the subject and the questions being asked and the ESPER can be used to do coll, if undoubtedly silly, things like look round corners in any pictures you might obtain for clues.
The sound borrows heavily from the movie, and again, is utterly sublime. Vangelis' soundtrack is pure scifi and seems to fit the game even better than the film. Other sound effects are a little slim on the ground, but this helps to keep things atmospheric. The voice acting, while of variable quality, manages to fit well, as much of the important dialogue is voiced by actors and actresses from the film itself. Added to this, the less good actors often have fairly lighthearted lines, and their lack of skill suits this well (if you are wondering what I mean, wait until the Arabic snake merchant berates you about "That disreputable Bob fellow").
Overall, I simply cannot sing the praises of this game highly enough. From start to finish it is beautiful, spectacular and entertaining, and should take pride of place in any serious gamer's collection as, not only the best movie tie-in ever produced, but as one of the greatest adventure games ever committed to CD-ROM.