Is "Runaway" any good?

[GarageGothic]

I've been considering buying Runaway ever since it showed up in the stores, but I'm not sure it's my kind of game. I've read the reviews, but they mostly speak of the story and the graphics - and horrible pixel hunting!

So those of you who've played the game, can you recommend it? I should probably mention that I prefer the realistic Sierra style of puzzle and story to the wacky LucasArts games, and that I'm not a big fan of humorous or too cartoony games (even the first two Broken Swords weren't my cup of tea).

I'm really torn about this, because I could get three DVD's for the same price (not full priced, but still, Labyrinth, Edward Scissorhands and Prince of Darkness...), or I could buy Broken Sword 3 instead, when that arrives.

Thanks,
GG

[Vel]

In my opinion, Runaway is definately worth the money. The story is near excellent, the graphics are incredible. The only thing that might disappoint you are the puzzles - while most of them are good and logical, they distract you from the story a bit.

[woesh]

It is realistic and a bit grimm. The game is devided in chapters. Each on a difrent location, difrent outfits and difrent characters. I do think the game has a lack of humor.

weird thing. the speach is wrong in chapter 2 if you don't install the game "full".

[remixor]

It's absolutely gorgeous, but that's about where the good parts end for me.  I didn't feel for the characters at all, the story was fairly bland, every single puzzle except one or two unnecessary math puzzles was a basic "combine a with b" variety, and the whole game felt very random.  One of the absolute biggest downsides for me, though: PIXEL HUNTING.  DEAR GOD, THE PIXEL HUNTING.  I actually had to resort to a walkthrough multiple times not because the puzzles were difficult, but because I just plain didn't realize there was even an object on the screen I should have noticed!  It was absurd!  Combine this with the fact that the main chracter only picks things up when HE figures things out (regardless of whether you, the PLAYER, have figured it out or not), and collecting inventory becomes very, very frustrating.

It's not a terrible game, but you could do a lot better.

[jannar85]

I hate the copyprotection. You need to insert CD1 everytime you load the game.
That's a bit shitty...

But it is indeed worth the money!

[remixor]

I hate the copyprotection. You need to insert CD1 everytime you load the game.
That's a bit shitty...

Yeah, this was ridiculous.  Even if you're on Disc 3 of the game, you have to first insert Disc 1, then remove it and insert Disc 3.

[Vel]

have the german version of the game and it lets me continue the previous game without inserting disc one every time

[Butcher]

I just got this game. I played a little bit, and the graphics are quite nice, though they look much nicer in the actual game than in the non-interactive sequences.

What really bothers me so far is the lack of humor. But the story is interesting, and all in all it's a good thing to see an adventure game in 2d (even if it has some 3d feel stuff too) that looks a bit like good old adventuregames

[remixor]

What really bothers me so far is the lack of humor.

What's even worse is that it ATTEMPTS humor quite often.

[Igor]

I don't know... it's not bad at all. But quite honestly i found it boring.
The game is story-driven one (Broken Sword style) but the story itself is so bland that i almost had to force myself to finish it.

Graphics are technicaly gorgeous! Ok, personaly i think they are missing some of the freshness, imagination and edge of the old LA games (especially comparing to CMI, Dig and Dott), but they are by far the best aspect of the game.

Sound... i don't know what to think about it. Voices were quite good, but music left me cold. All soundtrack felt so generic that it didn't set me in any real mood.

Puzzles were mixed bag. Some cool and some not so cool. But pixel hunting was *very* annoying.

So, i'd say it's worth playing but it's far from perfect.

[GarageGothic]

Thanks for all your replies. I still haven't made up my mind, but I'm probably not going to buy this game, at least not until there's a budget release.

I think my problem with adventure games is that there are so few of them, that you end up buying the average ones anyway, because even they are a rare breed (can't think of a single great adventure since GK3 really). It's strange, because I'm very picky in what movies I watch, and  there's really no reason to be any less selective just because it's an adventure game - in fact, with the larger amount of time and money you invest in a game, you should be even more wary of bad games than bad movies.

[ze_adventurer]

Funny, I thought the music was quite good and lively, and often set the mood of mystery and danger.

[Ptraci]

I wouldn't recommend Runaway unless it was a really low price edition. I bought it with a newspaper, it was a special offer for less than 6â,¬ and I can't say I liked it. The voices were horrible, puzzles were somehow out of place (I mean they didn't quite fit the general story at all), BG graphics were nice but for some reason I didn't like the characters... I also found it boring.

In general the game is OK, but the DVDs you mentioned are far more interesting than this game.