Runaway: A Road Adventure

Everything that's wrong with modern adventure games. If you hear someone describe why adventure games suck, the most common complaints are things like pixel-hunting and illogical puzzles. Add to that bland and charmless character designs, and less intuitive gameplay than some of the worst of the older adventure games and you have Runaway. Gabriel Knight 3 gets a lot of attention for having illogical puzzles and got credited for killing adventure games by Valve's Erik Wolpaw(Portal, Psychonauts), who at the time wrote at Old Man Murray. This was before the release of Runaway though. It would be a much worthier candidate if not for how thoroughly uninteresting and bland it is. When Runaway was released I was starting to gradually lose interest in games, having been mainly interested in adventure games up until that point. I bought Runaway feeling overjoyed that adventure games might not be a thing of the past just yet. Runaway helped me get over the fact that adventure games just weren't getting made as often as they used to. Sometimes I feel like this game was made solely to dupe old adventure gamers into buying it at a time when almost nothing else was getting released.

I really hated that items were hidden so well and there were no hotspots when I first played this game. But I did like the characters and the overall story. The second game nearly completely lost me, but I've just played this one and the third game and ... yes, they are flawed. But I don't regret buying them. They are not in my Top 10 adventures, but I've played both of the twice - more than some other adventures I own.

This is one of the worst point and click games I've ever played. Chapters 1 and 2 are quite cool and balanced. But from the third part onwards, it gets really messy. Flawsy. Slow. Boring. A lot of players have already mentionned the frustrations they met with the puzzle design. Actually, this wackiness does exist in a LOT of adventure games. But in "Runaway", the interface makes it even more dull. The fact that you have to talk to (x) or look at (y) BEFORE being able to pick up an object, even if it has some kind of logic (the character needs to find/think about the idea beforehand), made me consult a walkthrough A LOT. Yes, of course, with this genra, you're supposed to figure all out by yourself. It makes everything more exciting. Well, when it comes to "Indiana Jones : fate of Atlantis" or "Day of Tentacule", maybe. But "Runaway" does force you to inspect every little detail (the infamous "pixel hunting") to get the right item. I even had to watch a video of the game to find the "door" leading to the saloon in chapter 4. It's REALLY not intuitive to go in there. Like if it wasn't enough, some tasks are TOO LONG FOR NOTHING. How can going back and forth 5 times to fill a tank with water is supposed to be fun ? How did de devs made it a thing ? There's also an archaic version of "Master Mind", without any visual system to check your progression. Last but not least, during the last hour of the game, you spend almost all your time talking to someone, then going some place, and coming back to the caracter... come on. Neither the story nor the characters make up for all this chaos. The "road aventure" gets lost quickly lost in the desert. Overall, the script is full of clichés and bad jokes. So yeah, you got it : I really didn't enjoy the game. I think I will skip to the third, because I read that the second was also full of flaws. And I couldn't bare it during a second run... away.

'Runaway' features amazing character and background artwork that will captivate you almost right away. The art is colourful, detailed, and visually appealing. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much my favourite part of the game. To be fair, 'Runaway' is not a bad game -- it's just mediocre compared to its contemporaries. It's hard not to compare the game to 'Broken Sword', which came out five years prior. Whiel 'Broken Sword' is an intriguing globe-trotting adventure with fun puzzles and exciting story, 'Runaway' feels like a mid-budget road movie with a generic, uncharismatic male lead, a good looking female co-star who is there as the eye candy, and some stereotypical villains and supporting cast. The developers did try to do something different with 'Runaway', but failed in execution. Namely, the playable character, Brian Basco, would not pick up objects that he deemed unnecessary at the moment. It may seem good in theory, but it's frustrating for players. Oftentimes, we the players will be a few steps ahead of Brian in solving a puzzle. But, we are unable to pick up some objects until Brian is ready to. This means having Brian make mistakes that we as players would not make until he comes to the same conclusion as we did many steps ago. This alone makes playing 'Runaway' irritating, boring, and infuriating. Plus, the voice acting for Brian is quite flat. So, it's quite grating to have the character comment on almost every action he makes, including walking through a door, as well as be the narrator of his adventure. I much prefer an adventure game (let alone a movie), in which the action is shown and not narrated. Overall, 'Runaway' is a pleasant adventure game for its time. It's not great, but it's fun as a weekend game (much like a 2.5-star TV movie makes for good entertainment on a Saturday afternoon). It's not very memorable, but leaves good enough of an impression for you to considering playing 'Runaway 2'. But, that's another review...

If you're looking for a solid adventure game that will keep you entertained for a bit inbetween bigger, more demanding releases - Runaway is a very good choice. If you're expecting a must-play classic that will stay in your memories long after you finish playing it - look elsewhere. There's not much that makes Runaway stand out from other games in the genre, and whatever good the game does (great graphics for the time, solid interface and soundtrack) is overshadowed by what it doesn't do right (horrible characters, overused jokes, poorly written plot and puzzles). Add 1 or 2 more stars if Runaway is your game equivalent of comfort food, but newcomers should not set their expectations too high. Still, it may be worthwile to play through the decent first game and slog through the horrible sequel just to be able to enjoy the third game in the series, which is the best out of the three.