Previous Next

A word of warning - if you're a replidroid and your company offers you early retirement, take care. It may not mean a cottage in the country and cream teas with the Darby and Joan. Nope, for replidroids retirement is just another word for a one way trip to the tip. One Ford (Harrison) will take you there and you'll more than likely end up in another (Cortina).

In CRLs Bladerunner, you're the one doling out the pension scheme to twenty-four renegade replidroids on the run on earth. The first screen presents you with an aerial view of the city. You must guide your skimmer car around the streets in pursuit of the robotic runaways, then hover over the area before landing.

The screen now changes to a side on view of the city street with a scanner along the bottom that indicates how far you are from your quarry. As soon as your skimmer's come to rest, start legging it after the replidroid so that you can explain the benefits of retirement to him - you'll find your gun a convincing persuader. But watch out, the streets are mean and you must take care not to blast away any passing pedestrians or get run over by skimmers. The more replidroids you take out, the more money you make for your own retirement.

Now I didn't expect the game to follow the film faithfully - it says on the inlay that it's a 'video game interpretation of the film score by Vangelis' - but a bit more variety in the gameplay wouldn't have gone amiss. Overall the idea for the game's fine but it feels unfinished. A touch more speed and a bit more polish would've improved it no end. As it is, I retired early from this one.