Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition

Early in 2020, Nightdive Studios and Alcon Entertainment announced they would be developing an Enhanced Edition of the classic 1997 Westwood Studios Blade Runner game.

It was originally planned to release in 2020 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, but was delayed to an unspecified date due to technical issues.

Stephen Kick of Nightdive explained that while the source code for the game was lost, they had managed to reverse engineered it and reworked it within their proprietary KEX engine they had used for other remastered games.

Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition is a faithful restoration of the classic adventure game featuring:

  • Reconstruction and upressing of original Westwood VQA Videos
  • Cinematic Video frame rates updated from 15fps to 60fps
  • Modern HD Display
  • Enhanced “Knowledge Integration Assistant" (KIA) and clue user interface
  • Enhanced Subtitle support
  • Modern gamepad support
  • SMAA Anti Aliasing
  • Anisotropic texture filtering

Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition is scheduled to release on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One on June 23rd 2022 at a fixed price of $9.99 (~R170).

So far the only store that seems to have posted a complete listing for the game is Nintendo:

Nintendo Switch @ R167

Xbox One + Series S|X
Currently listed as “Not Available Separately”
https://www.xbox.com/en-za/games/store/blade-runner-enhanced-edition/9mvww4nj8tls

PlayStation 4 / 5
Currently listed as “Announced”, but showing 23/06/2022 as a release date.
https://store.playstation.com/en-za/concept/10004549

PC - Steam
No Store Page listed at all yet

PC - Epic
No Store Page listed at all yet


ETA - some suggestion that perhaps the Game Rant article @Mister44 and I saw on the weekend got the details in the press release wrong and that this Thursday is when pre-orders for the game will go live. That sort of tracks with the lack of a Steam page and no-one else really reporting on this. I have sent a Tweetymabob to Nightdive asking to confirm the date.

4 Likes

I have a lot of nostalgia for this game, but I’ll be honest the “Enhancements” seem a bit meh. I might still get it on a sale anyway just to be able to play it again.

3 Likes

Same. For me, the movie too.

There is a ScummVM version of the original available on GOG. It’s currently not included on the sale there, so is the same price as this enhanced edition will be.

1 Like