Runaway: A Road Adventure

Moby ID: 5453
Windows Specs
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/23 4:31 PM )

Description official descriptions

For New Yorker, Brian Basco, scientific study and having a career in Applied Physics is everything! He is as "excited as a kid in a candy store" when his application for a position at the University of Berkeley is accepted. Before setting out on the long trip from New York to California, Brian remembers one last errand to do. Little does he know that this slight detour would change his life, and his life style, forever!

Minding his own business driving along the New York streets on the way to a bookstore, he cannot avoid hitting the beautiful girl who runs out in front of his car! He does the right thing and takes her to the hospital. When she comes to, he learns that she witnessed a murder and that vicious gangsters are after her! Because Brian helped her, his life is also in danger! And so the story of Brian and Gina begins...

In this point-and-click adventure, you play Brian in 3rd person as he figures out how to avoid and escape the Mafia-like thugs chasing them. Their travels will take them to a variety of different places (a Museum, the Arizona desert etc.) during the six game chapters. Put your thinking cap on to solve situations and puzzles using objects and conversation with people they meet.

The game features drawn cartoon-like 2D and 3D graphics and cut-scenes. Its original soundtrack includes over 24 songs. Interact with almost 30 different characters with interesting, and often comical, personalities. Find and use a multitude of items that can be manipulated within the inventory window.

Spellings

  • Runaway. Дорожное приключение - Russian spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Videos

See any errors or missing info for this game?

You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.

Credits (Windows version)

152 People (108 developers, 44 thanks) · View all

Story & Design
Project Manager
Game Engine Developed By
Lead Programmer
Assistant Programmers
Art Director
Storyboard and Backdrop Developement
Backdrop Coloring for Chapter 1
3D Design and Backdrop Animation
3D 2D-Integration
Character Development
Character Design
Character Animation
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 77% (based on 55 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 95 ratings with 5 reviews)

If you liked the Broken Sword games, you'll love Runaway!

The Good
I couldn't wait to get Runaway, but I never thought I'd get a chance to play it. It was released first in Spanish and it took 2 years for publisher to be found for the English version. It was well worth the wait!

First of all, Runaway is good and long. It takes quite awhile to get all the way through the Six Chapters. Each scenario is different than the last, so the plot keeps you interested. The story is modern and unique with twist and turns - you really don't know how it will come out in the end. And speaking of the ending, it's great! (Be sure to watch the entire thing ... all the way through the credits and beyond. You'll be glad you did!)

The colorful graphics are as realistic as can be expected from drawings. Some of the locations are truly picturesque. The characters are rendered to depict their personalities - eccentric and quirky. The animators did a great job on coordinating the lip-sync with the speech as well as everything else that moved. Objects don't stick out like sore thumbs like in other games and look like part of the scenery or room. (More on this below.)

Overall I'd rate the sound as excellent. The music is modern and original with an upbeat pace. I enjoyed every single song and tapped my foot to quite a few of them. A subtle melody can be heard when an important objective has been accomplished. Sound effects are blended in so well that none of them seem out of place. The voice acting was also well done (in the English version). Each character's voice sounded like you'd expect it to sound. I did notice duplicate voices for several of the characters, however - Gina's especially.

I enjoyed the puzzles, which are based on interaction with inventory objects and other characters. Although none of them are particularly hard, some of them had me scratching my head - only to find out that I had missed finding the right item. The linearity of the game might bother some players, but after awhile I got used to it. So many things don't become available until Brian has done something else. The first time Brian searches a trash can, for instance, he says he doesn't see anything he can use ... UNTIL someone mentions it. Digging into the trash can a second time, after the conversation, he will find something new.

There are no action elements whatsoever .. it's pure adventure style play. I was glad there were no mazes or slider puzzles. And all of the puzzles seem necessary to the story - none of them were added needlessly. And ... you can't die!

I had absolutely no technical problems installing or playing the game, even though my Pentium II 200MMX barely meets the minimum requirements. (I did need to use the Low resolution setting, though, to smooth out the scrolling graphics.)

The Bad
Only a very few things detracted from my gaming experience. Most of them are design elements.

  • Each time you start the game, you must insert the first disc, no matter where you last saved.
  • The chosen options don't seem to "stick". In other words, if you want the volume at its loudest point, you must set it with each new start.
  • Brian walks too slowly through some of the scenes, and there is no way to make him run.
  • Finding items on the screen can be tedious because they blend in so well with their surroundings. You must use your peripheral vision to watch the words at the bottom of the screen. You should scan the cursor across the entire screen slowly and carefully, looking for changes in the text.
  • When saving a game, a new slot is picked automatically. Although you can erase saved games, it would have been nice to be able to choose to overwrite an old one. (On the plus side, there seems to be no limit to the number of games you can save.)

    **The Bottom Line**
    This is a modern tale with upbeat music and an engaging story. It's an adventure about two young people running away from danger and using whatever resources they come upon to do it. Help comes from the people they meet and things they find during their escape. What begins with a chance meeting turns into a friendship and then a romance. By the end of the game, you may find yourself actually caring what happens to Gina and Brian. Heed the "Teen" rating because of the Mafia-type violence (killing), but there is no blood or gore. There are also some "drag queen" characters and nuances to that effect. Otherwise, there is no offensive language or sexual content and everything is tactfully presented.
  • Windows · by Jeanne (75956) · 2003

    One-line summary not available

    The Good
    New Spanish company Pendulo Studios developed an adventure game called Runaway: A Road Adventure, in an attempt to resurrect the adventure genre. In this mystery, you play Brian Basco who is glad that his application for a position at Berkeley University is accepted. He immediately drives down to California, but ends up hitting a gorgeous nightclub dancer. Brian takes her to hospital where he discovers that her name is Gina, who is targeted by gangsters after she watched her father get murdered. Brian also finds out by helping her, his life is also in danger.

    Runaway is a point-and-click adventure along the lines of the Broken Sword games. Since I have not yet played any of the BS games, I can't tell you how the two compare. Although you need to control the game with the mouse, there is no command line, no icons, just a single mouse cursor which morphs into an icon if you can interact with it. So you don't have to click multiple times, you only need to click once. I like how the cursor morphs into icons. I did not see a similar thing in other adventure games, and it is quite new to me.

    There are six chapters in the game, and each chapter has an objective. For example, in chapter one, you have to find some way of waking Gina and getting out of the hospital before the thugs come by. In chapter two, you need to find the mystery of the crucifix, and in chapter three, you and Gina are held hostage and the both of you must escape. Each chapter has more exciting objectives to complete.

    The graphics are excellent. They contain a mixture of 2D and 3D, although I did not notice the 3D in the game, maybe except for the cut-scenes. The graphics fill up the whole screen, meaning that nearly half of the screen isn't cut off by icons or commands. Each background is hand-drawn nicely. The environments look stunning, and these include the museum, the Arizona Desert, and the ghost town of Douglasville. These are the only three locations within the game, and out of these three, I enjoyed walking around Douglasville. There is so much to do in this town, and so many people to interact with. As for the resolution that the game uses, Runaway uses the highest resolution (1024x768). At the time, this was the highest that adventure games would run in.

    The game's musical soundtrack includes over 24 songs, but I was too busy playing the game to hear them all. Some of the music that I actually stopped and listened to are great. The sound effects are what you expect from old cartoon shows and cartoon-like adventure games.

    Nearly all the characters you meet help you on your quest. Some of them are quite funny to listen to, especially Oscar and Rudger. Along with the graphics, all characters are well drawn. I like how hot Gina looks: sexy and the way that exotic dancers and striptease artists look like. If she was a real person, I would make sweet love to her on a beach. But of course, I have to establish some sort of relationship first.

    There are three CDs that the game uses, and you are asked to insert all CDs both while installing the game and while playing it. Two chapters are installed on each CD: one and two on CD #1, three and four on CD #2, and the rest on CD #3. This means that Runaway asks you to insert a CD every second chapter.

    The Bad
    When I brought this game, I knew that the game was from a Spanish developer, so I had the strange feeling that the character's voices would be in Spanish. But in the end, it turned out that they were in English. To tell you the truth, the voices were originally done in Spanish, but later got translated into English. As a result, the game suffers from poor lip-syncing in some parts of the game.

    As mentioned earlier, you do have to insert each CD throughout the game, to load every second chapter. This wastes a lot of time, which I found annoying. You are asked to insert CDs during install, which I also said, so there is no need for this. Before starting the game, you have to insert CD #1 due to the fact that the bloody StarForce program kicks in.

    The Bottom Line
    Runaway is filled with mystery and suspense, as you, the player, must protect a nightclub dancer from a group of gangsters who are bent on killing her. During your travels, you interact with heaps of characters who go out of their way to help you on your mission. The graphics, sound, and storyline is great, going along the lines of the Broken Sword games. There are six chapters in the game, and in each one of them, you need to complete a series of goals that include escaping from a location and getting to a specific area the hard way. Apart from the shocking lip-syncing from the characters when Runaway was translated, a major problem that I had was inserting CDs during the game. There is a DVD version of the game, so that would have been fixed in that release, but I can't tell because, as of this writing, I don't own a DVD drive.

    Windows · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2006

    Reviving the adventure Genre? Yes and No

    The Good
    Runaway appeared on the games market in a time where everybody wondered: Will the graphic adventure genre survive? It made a bold statement by winning dozens of awards in the computer gaming press for being a fun game with smooth comic graphics and good voice overs. (I can only speak for the German version here).

    The Bad
    But Runaway has a major downside and that is its pixel hunting puzzles. In every chapter of the game there are at least two puzzles that require you to find a grey item on a grey wall. You can either spend hours searching the locations with your nose glued to the screen, or refer to a walkthrough.

    The Bottom Line
    Nonetheless, the game is worth its money. It is almost a classic comic adventure with fresh characters (a physics nerd and a femme fatale). It features a relatively intriguing story and keeps you motivated with good in-game animations.
    Adventure fans should definetely give it a shot. Everyone else might want to check out the demo first.

    Windows · by Isdaron (715) · 2003

    [ View all 5 player reviews ]

    Discussion

    Subject By Date
    missing files san ti Jun 19, 2007

    Trivia

    Legend (and PR) says: Runaway wasn't planned to be released in germany, when it's publisher Dinamix got insolvent... but after many fans started petitions, mail-terror,... (tiny) german publisher DTP got the game, started the localisation and threw it into our shops. And Runaway is a Top10-Success, here! :)

    Analytics

    MobyPro Early Access

    Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

    Related Games

    Runaway Trilogy
    Released 2009 on Windows
    Runaway: A Twist of Fate
    Released 2009 on Windows, 2010 on Nintendo DS
    Runaway 2: The Dream of the Turtle
    Released 2006 on Windows, 2007 on Nintendo DS, 2009 on Wii
    Mickey's Runaway Zoo
    Released 1991 on DOS, Amiga, Atari ST
    Runaway
    Released 1990 on Atari ST
    Runaway
    Released 1994 on DOS
    RunAway
    Released 2009 on Browser

    Related Sites +

    Identifiers +

    • MobyGames ID: 5453
    • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

    Contribute

    Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

    Contributors to this Entry

    Game added by Jeanne.

    Macintosh added by Cavalary. iPhone, iPad added by Kabushi.

    Additional contributors: Felix Knoke, Klaster_1.

    Game added December 20, 2001. Last modified March 15, 2024.