It’s been 25 years since the last time, but there really is a new Blade Runner game coming out for PC and console soon, so if you’re a fan of the gritty, dystopian sci-fi franchise, buckle up and prepare to get excited. Here’s everything we know about Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth so far.
There’s no release date for Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth yet but we’ll update you when that changes. The game is the first to be be produced in house by Annapurna Interactive, with Chelsea Hash of What Remains of Edith Finch directing.
Annapurna Interactive have uploaded the reveal trailer to their YouTube channel, and just in case you don’t feel like going all the way over there to check it out, we’ve embedded it here for you.
What’s the premise of Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth?
Set between the films Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049, Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth follows on from the Warner Bros. anime short Blackout 2022 where a nuclear missile destroyed the Tyrell corporation and the servers holding its replicant records. After rebel replicants and humans engaged in organized resistance against the government and corporations, they retaliated, banning the production of more replicants and hunting down those already in existence in what was known as The Prohibition. But now all the replicants are gone, which brings us to the question Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth seeks to answer; “What does a Blade Runner do when there are no replicants left to hunt?”
Of course they’re not really gone. With the creation of Niander Wallace Jr.’s Nexus-9 replicants, allegedly unable to rebel, The Prohibition has already been lifted just the year before gameplay starts. Plus, with all the Tyrell records destroyed, there are going to have been those who fell through the cracks and survived by hiding the whole time. In the trailer, the unnamed protagonist, a former blade runner now working for the LAPD, talks about having lost his job after the bomb and how now “they” want him back—and given the appearance of a replicant coyote at a significant moment, hunting down replicants of one kind or another is clearly going to be a key part of the plot in Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth.
Whether or not the protagonist’s mysterious primary target—who he’s searching for in “in the land of the dead”—is also a replicant remains to be seen. It seems likely, but then again, making them a human instead is exactly the kind of twist you’d expect from a game like this.
What’s the gameplay on Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth like?
While we don’t know that much about the gameplay yet, Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth seems to have some similarities with the original Blade Runner game from 1997, with an emphasis on detective work and analyzing clues. There also appear to be memory orbs featured in the trailer, a device that entered the franchise via 2017’s VR Oculus game Blade Runner 2049, and may allow the player to explore other characters’ memories—searching for clues and learning more about the wider story at the same time.
Apparently, Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth will be available on “PC and consoles,” though it’s unclear which consoles (possibly all of them?) Annapurna Interactive are including in their announcement.
(featured image: Annapurna Interactive)
