Runaway: A Road Adventure Review

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Runaway: A Road Adventure

Review by JenSeptember 2003

A wacky and improbable story. Wacky and improbable puzzles. Wacky and improbable characters. These are the mainstays, practically the Gilgameshes, of third-person inventory games—they’ve been there since the beginning. They’ve been done and redone several hundred times each. I’ll be right up front with you: I find myself somewhat less than thrilled that these games are still being made. 

Along comes Runaway, three years in the releasing, if not the making, having originally been introduced in Spanish, in Spain, and slowly wending its way throughout the various continents and languages until, finally, we are presented with the English version.

In it, we find ourselves playing as Brian Basco, a young university student who has just accepted a prestigious berth in a graduate program at Berkeley. He sets off on his cross-continental drive and immediately runs down a woman with his car, and thus we are introduced to Gina. Brian becomes sidetracked not by lust for this woman but rather because he wants to do the right thing.  He picks her up and drives her straight to the hospital, wherein begins the game proper.

Runaway is an odd amalgam of other games and movies, little bits of this and that from here, there, and everywhere, and wholly derivative of these sources. It attempts to pay homage to a variety of things but only two of its inspirations rise close enough to the surface to become recognizable. The primary movie Runaway brings to mind is Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, with its busload of transvestites stranded in the middle of nowhere.  You see how this all plays into my “wacky and improbable” thesis for this review?

The overarching gameplay model for Runaway, I believe, is the first Broken Sword (although many nods are given throughout to other games of yore). Gina is to Brian as Broken Sword’s Nico is to George, cast as a maybe-unrequited love interest and purportedly a central character in the game but unwittingly relegated (by the men who designed the game) to merely a foil, the raison d’etre for the pickle that Brian (or George) finds himself in, time after time.

Runaway is almost flavorless, with no new ideas and no new puzzle types. Gameplay is 99% “get the plunger from the bathroom to give to the plumber in the living room to make him expose the putty knife in his butt crack for you to grab and use, instead of the machete that you already have in your inventory, which still doesn’t work, dammit, no matter how many times you try it, to cut the vine that you need to repair the ladder to the attic, which you pick up and put in your pocket and carry off to Timbuktu in order that you may climb the tree and get the apple that will finish off the bad guy” type (this is not an actual example from Runaway, of course, but it is totally representative of the kinds of puzzles found in Runaway).

In addition, there are some frustrating pixel hunts, wherein the hotspot is of the magnitude of three molecules or so, as is the item said hotspot is indicating.

At least there are no mazes.

Runaway’s graphics are a thing of animated beauty, on the other hand. The screens are carefully and lovingly drawn, and work on the characters’ faces and expressions is very well done. Cutscenes are fuzzier than the actual gameplay screens, and often there are too few frames of animation; nevertheless there is some pretty darn good cartooning in these.

I have to admit I had some fun playing Runaway, even though I groaned out loud at some of the design choices where the game could have either gone a new and interesting direction or taken the same old well-trodden path of its predecessors. I had been going to give it the Thumb Up when I first finished, but the more I thought about it, the crankier I got. I don’t know why we are subjected to an endless barrage of these kinds of games being fobbed off on us in some kind of misguided effort to turn back the hands of time, gaming-wise.

This turned into kind of a general rant at Runaway’s expense, didn’t it? Well … in the interest of fairness to prospective buyers, I’ll sum up with this: You will like this game if you have played only a few third-person inventory games before and are not sick of them yet or if you just can’t get your fill of this type of gameplay. There is nothing whatsoever inherently wrong with Runaway, taken as an individual product and not as a member of the group “all third-person inventory adventure games,” and it really is well put together for a representative of its subgenre. But I will go ahead and give it the Rotten Egg anyway because that’s how I feel about it in my heart of hearts. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Pendulo Publisher: Tri Synergy Release Date: August 2003 (English)

Available for: Windows

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System Requirements

Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP Pentium 200 MMX (PII 233 recommended) 64 MB RAM (128 MB recommended) 631 MB free hard disk space (1.4 GB recommended) DirectX-compatible graphics card with support for 1024×768 and 16-bit color 8X CD-ROM drive (24X recommended)

Where to Find It

GoGamer 27.90

Prices/links current as of 9/20/03Links provided for informational purposes only.  FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into by any party(ies).

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

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