1997’s point-and-click adventure game Blade Runner is being remastered for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition is currently in development by Nightdive Studios, best known for its work on System Shock Remastered. Although its original developer, Westwood Studios, lost the game’s source code, Nightdive was able to reverse-engineer the code and import it into its own proprietary engine to bring the remaster to life.
Head of business development at Nightdive, Larry Kuperman said:
It’s true that the original Blade Runner source code was lost. We painstakingly reverse-engineered the code, importing it into our own KEX engine, a powerful tool that allows us to do console ports of classic titles, even in the face of quite challenging situations.
CEO of Nightdive, Stephen Kick went on to discuss the game’s visuals and gameplay, ensuring his team would be preserving Westwood’s vision with the remaster:
Blade Runner is still a jaw-dropping achievement on every level, so while we’re using KEX to upgrade the graphics and respectfully elevate the gaming experience in a way you’ve never seen before, we’re still preserving Westwood’s vision and gameplay in all its glory. While you can enjoy the benefits of playing the game on modern hardware, the game should look and feel not as it was, but as glorious as you remember it being.
Blade Runner: Remastered will include enhanced visuals for modern hardware—especially in its character models, cutscenes, and animations, along with controller button mapping and widescreen support. It will also feature the game’s original translations including Chinese, French, German, and Italian.
The original Blade Runner game served as a companion piece, with its events occurring simultaneously to those of the 1982 Ridley Scott film of the same name. It sold millions of copies throughout its life cycle and even went on to win the DICE computer game of the year in 1997.
An exact release date has not yet been confirmed, but Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition is expected to launch sometime in 2020.
[Source: Hollywood Reporter]
