Congrats to Chris for his
first review at AG.
First let me point out that I have only seen the
Blade Runner movie once in my life and that was many, many years ago so my memory of the details was all but clear when I played the game for the first time around four months ago.
If it would be up to me
Blade Runner wouldn't get 4,5 stars, more like 3,5 I think, but I can understand why you would feel it's worthy of the high score. I just happen to have slightly different views on some of the games strengths and weaknesses. For example I wasn't as impressed with the graphics as you seemed to have been. Maybe I was spoiled by the graphical splendour that I was served when playing
Fahrenheit a few weeks earlier, but the pixelation just seemed like a bit too much for a game from 1997. The atmosphere was effectively built up by the great artistry of it all though and the cutscenes were, as you said, visually impressive.
I'm not necessarily a big fan of the story either, which I found decent but somehow soulless. I'm not sure what it was, but something was missing.
The multiple endings were nicely done though and unlike in
Fahrenheit where some endings were more satisfying than others
Blade Runner's seemed more in balance.