First off, I'd like to thank Pendulo for making a very solid point-and-click adventure game series in the modern era of gaming. It is very respectable to create a trilogy of high production value adventure games in the age of shooters, platformers, and RPGs. Now, on to the actual review. I very much liked this game - it provided a very cinematic and engaging gaming experience. The characters are still quirky as ever, filled with great personalities and humorous moments. I enjoyed the fact that the story was not completely linear, as time jumped back and forth occasionally - it kept the suspense building nicely. What's better is that the story is more grounded in reality, and is not NEARLY as farfetched as Runaway 2, which I found very disappointing. The visuals are still strong, with some nice atmospheres and settings that aren't quite as diverse as Runaway 2's, but still gorgeous. Cutscenes are nicely rendered and integrate decently into the gameplay, though there are many more cutscenes towards the end, leading to a slightly fizzled finish (same happened with Runaway 2, though Runaway 3 has a much more satisfying ending, obviously). The puzzles are not nearly as ridiculous as the first two, though there is still some adventure game logic going on. What I found to be the most improved part of this game is the interface. Everything is just more streamlined, quicker, more finessed. It works better - there are no more pointless animations that are repeated every time you talk to someone or do something. You talk to someone, it's quick, you walk into a new area, it's quick. Another nice feature is the built in hint system. I also really liked the objectives map - it's sort of hard to explain, but whenever you need to do something you can click it in the inventory and Brian will systematically go through each objective you need to complete in order to progress in the game. Although this may spoon-feed you the answers occasionally, I greatly appreciate this because I found myself meandering and doing nothing in the first 2 game, but with this it is much clearer what I need to do. All in all, Runaway 3 is a solid, funny, and ultimately satisfying gaming experience. It is a tad short, but the experience is a good one. Highly recommended.
To start, I'd like to say Dreamfall: The Longest Journey is not a perfect game. In fact, it is quite far from a perfect game - the gameplay is a bit minimal and the combat is clunky. However, the reason why I love this game so much is the story and the characters. I CARED about Zoe, April, and Kian very much, and I wanted to see what happened to them on each step of their journey. The story is one of the best I have ever seen in any medium, and the intermixing of the storylines is quite nicely done. And yes, although it ends on that cliffhanger it makes me long even more for the Dreamfall universe. Ragnar, I am expecting great things for Dreamfall: Chapters.
So being a fan of the adventure genre, I figured I had to play Pendulo's "Runaway" series. I played them all in order, and I'd have to say that unfortunately "Dream of the Turtle" is by the weakest installment. That's not to say the game is all bad - the visuals are gorgeous and Brian Basco remains as charming as ever. The settings are mostly quite varied. However, the real trouble comes in with the gameplay and design. To begin, some of the puzzles are pretty arbitrary, but then again every adventure game has this problem. However, "Dream of the Turtle" takes this to another level... I won't spoil any details but you'll have to repeat things a lot to figure out the right solution. And here comes my biggest gripe: the animations. What i mean by this is that if you want to talk to somebody, you'll see the character do a long animation, then walk over slowly, then start talking. AND THIS HAPPENS EVERY TIME. Now there's this one part in the beginning where you might talk to a Colonel. You might do this more than once. This means you'll have to talk to the guard, get led down, sit down, see a bunch of short cutscenes repeating the same thing again, then see another long cutscene of him telling you to get out. AND YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS EVERY TIME YOU NEED TO TALK TO HIM. These kind of repetitive actions/scenes really tempted me to put the game down - you just get sick of hearing the same thing over and over again. Couldn't Pendulo just have made a quick intro once, then get to the conversation, and take out those short cutscenes? They take forever! Speaking of length, some of the cutscenes towards the end are unimaginably long and really drag out this game too long. AND it ends on a cliffhanger. Talk about leaving a bad impression. Fortunately, "A Twist of Fate" is much, much, much better and smoother so it resolves nicely. If you are an adventure fan I'd say pass but if you want to find out what happens between "A Road Adventure" and "A Twist of Fate" I'd say give it a try.
