Part 4: Act I - ESPER Madness

Act I - ESPER Madness



With the crime scene all taken care of, it's time to go back to the police station to do a little more analysis.



Some more of the neon Japanese/American fusion theme that the Blade Runner movie brought to life. Well, technically that's Chinese on that sign there, but you know what I mean.





They spent a lot of time setting up the first part of the game as a really intricate detective game. You can wander around the police station, go down to the jails and talk to the prisoners, chat with the boss, run through a training maze, etc.

For now, we're going to the lab to see if they've any results from the crime scene yet.









Over near the training room, there's a cigarette still burning on the ashtray.



The game emphasized NPC 'scheduling' a lot. The Ultima games were some of the early pioneers of this, but basically it means that NPCs have their own schedule, and they're not always standing around where you first found them. This is where a lot of the randomization comes in. If we wander downstairs, Lieutenant Guzza may be sitting at his desk. Or maybe his office is empty and we'd bump into him at Animoid Row or something. Pretty much all the NPCs have their own 'lives'.

Crystal, she's off working her own case, but she becomes important later on in the game, so we see her cigarette burning here as a reminder she's still around. It's also a bit of foreshadowing.



We can also check the computer screen for the latest training maze scores. Check out Deckard's score . Judging from the movie, he was indeed a pretty lousy shot.



Speaking of the movie, remember the amazingly archaic ESPER machine that Deckard had in his own apartment? The whole ENHANCE ZOOM TILT LEFT ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM sequence?



We've got our own little ESPER setup in the police station.



We can use it to take a look at the photos we snagged from the camera inside Runciter's shop. Two images found...



Here's the first one. Quiet little scene with Runciter working at the counter, and the tiger in its cage. Minus the stab wounds.

We're looking for evidence to help us in our case here, anything that could help us identify and locate the perps. Let me show you how this works.



That area behind the tiger cage looks suspicious, so we can drag and zoom in on it.



Yep there's definitely somebody behind there, but we need a closer view.





Once we located the right spot to lock on, the camera can amazingly zoom around inside the 2D photograph, spin 45 degrees, and enhance the image. To be fair, the ESPER machine in the movie was also doing stupid shit like this as well.



Anyway, here's the finished result, a full on shot of Lucy. Somehow.

Now it's your turn - here are the two photos we got from the crime scene:





Remember the clues we've picked up so far.

Where in the photos should we focus in on?

Gummy Joe posted:

Well, for the second picture, a good start would probably be the square in the second row, third column. Since that is, after all, our poet laureate perp himself, and a picture of his face could prove to be useful.

quote:

Also, while we're in that picture, the square in the third row, fourth column looks like it'll contain the license plate # for the black car which so carelessly left part of its bumper behind.

Nice. 2 more things to pick out from that photo.





Good try, but Runciter's the victim, not the perp!

Bruceski posted:

Can we also get the second man in the doorway?

Nope, too dark.

MORE CURLY FRIES posted:

Perp's shoes.

Mud on his boots. Must be from out of town.

MORE CURLY FRIES posted:

And the bonnet of the car I think.

The camera amazingly turns the corner.




A black ground car. I thought everyone drove the flying spinner models these days.

That's it for that photo.

quote:

On the first photo, see what you can find on the girl's desk.

A sushi menu, from Howie Lee's.

This game is quite forgiving with clues; if you miss one, chances are you can find something similar later on, either in a photo or while you're questioning a suspect. In this case, if we missed the chopstick wrapper on the scene, we can still grab this shot.

aarfo posted:

Anythinge else we can see on Lucy? Distingushing marks, etc that would make it easier to track her down?

Now you're thinking with ESPER.





A dragonfly bracelet. Or anklet, or whatever you call them.

And that's it for these photos! Thanks everybody.

From these, we have a couple of new leads - the car, the license plate, photos of the perps, and more clues that we should be heading to Howie Lee's...