Runaway: A Road Adventure

Moby ID: 5453
Windows Specs
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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

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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)

One of the responsibles of adventure gaming comeback? I hope so.

The Good
I spent a lot of evenings playing that game and felt that I have fallen in a time portal or something, Runaway is what the adventure game purists have been waiting for. In a time where this genre seemed lost forever, the Spanish company Pendulo Studios brought us a 2D point and click commercial adventure game reminiscent of the most classic ones. It hasn't got any arcade sequences or any timed puzzles!

The graphics were good too, more or less updated to its time but keeping a "retro" feel.

I first hated a bit the main character Brian, for being so perfect in his own pedantic way and a bit dumb-arse in some occasions, but by the end of the adventure I felt some empathy for that poor guy, and I think that's a good work as the main character personality makes a good progress through the story. There were some charismatic characters too, the type of characters you would like to see again in a sequel.

The Bad
Well, I hate having to come with bad comments for that game, but we must face that Runaway has got some things that can bother the player in some moments.

I could say that the pixel-hunting is a pain, but that wasn't the most annoying thing I found, well people, it's like this: The plot it's predictable. In some moments of the game the plot reached such limits of silliness that I found myself hitting my forehead so hard that it could have been possible for my brains to expel out from the back of my head. I also felt that way when trying to solve some puzzles that could have some other really viable ways of being solved, but no, you must think and do things as the game designers would do.

The Bottom Line
The money I spent on the game was worth of it, Runaway feels like one of the old adventures from the 90s, a must buy for all adventure enthusiasts! I would finish with that line: The game has an 80% of good things and 20% of bad things. At the moment I'm writing this review there is a sequel to Runaway on the works, I hope they solve all the faults from the first game and give us an almost perfect adventure game that it's capable of reviving the adventure genre.

Windows · by Depth Lord (934) · 2005

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

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

[ 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! :)

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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.