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>What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?

Darksiders Warmastered Edition
Blade Runner (1997)

Darksiders Warmastered Edition: A brief review!

Another old game, so I'll keep it brief. Having bought both DS1 & 2 years 
ago for pennies on the dollar to add to the backlog, I ignored this title 
until the recent remastered version came out. For a 7-years-old game, it 
looks and plays wonderfully at 1440p, and THQ Nordic is to be commended for 
addressing early mouse/framerate issues in a quick series of patches.

The 3rd-person action/adventure format really appeals to me. The somewhat 
repetitive hack and slash action is reinvigorated as you progress with new 
moves, abilities, and enemies; the puzzles and hidden items are engaging to 
find and solve; and the story-telling and Darksiders lore – about the war 
between Heaven and Hell and the Council that maintains the Balance between 
the two – captures my attention. A very satisfying game, that makes me eager 
to continue on to the sequel (and hopefully a 2nd sequel!) and perhaps check 
out the prequel novel & bonus comics that fill in more of the lore. Highly 
recommended!


Blade Runner (1997)
    I've said this before, in reference to The Thing, that movie-based games 
that successfully evoke the atmosphere of the original are worth playing, 
and Blade Runner does this in spades.  The music is there, the gritty 
post-WW3 environments, even iconic locations and characters from the 1982 
movie are there.

As adventure games go, Blade Runner is dead simple.  You collect clues by 
pixel-hunting and talking to characters, but there's no combining them, no 
abstruse puzzle-solving.  Once you collect enough items, and follow the 
straightforward hints on what to do next, new areas open up and the story 
progresses.  You do get to use the Esper and Voight-Kampf machines, though, 
which are delightful and put you right in the movie.

But the great thing about this game is that the moral ambiguity, the 
uncertainty in the humanity of those you meet -- and your own -- that is at 
the heart of the film, is the centerpiece of the gameplay.  I went in blind, 
and only very slowly became aware of this aspect, but what assumptions you 
make about characters and how you treat them will change how the game 
progresses.  I blundered my way through, and got the braindead-obvious 
'Super-Blade-Runner' ending, but there are several major ending variations, 
and those inclined to role-playing will have a blast exploring them.  The 
length is short, so this is a reasonable thing to do, and I'll keep it 
installed myself to hopefully come back to at some point.

I got this from an abandonware site as a single zip file, and it ran 
immediately under Win10, no issues.  Blade Runner is highly recommended!

I came across this article while looking at walkthroughs; worth a read, for 
sure:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/11/27/best-games-based-on-movies/

Also, this site dedicated to the game is worth poking through
http://media.bladezone.com/contents/game/

rms