Review calaveras 3/5 · Jan 29, 2025
Runaway is a trilogy that is dear to my heart. It's one of the first point n' click series I finished and that really got me to seek out more games like this. Replaying it now, years later, and despite its many flaws, I totally see what reeled me in back then. The 3D animation looks clunky and bad now …
Runaway is a trilogy that is dear to my heart. It's one of the first point n' click series I finished and that really got me to seek out more games like this. Replaying it now, years later, and despite its many flaws, I totally see what reeled me in back then. The 3D animation looks clunky and bad now but the art style remains gorgeous, the characters are sometimes likeable, sometimes annoying but never to a point where it's not at least a bit funny too, and the plot is just one big reference to a billion different movies, so it's never not entertaining to try to figure out where the inspiration came from. As a loser enjoyer, Brian Basco speaks to me. He's the ultimate loser who somehow becomes a hero guy. He's downright annoyingly cocky in the next game in the series, but here he's still tolerable.
Why only three stars, then? Some of the puzzles are still tedious and fucking annoying. I knew about some of them, since I've completed the game before, but the logic of some of them that I forgot about made me go 'Really?' I'm used to dumb point n'click logic and if narratively it somewhat makes sense, I'm willing to forgive a tedious execution gameplay-wise. But the puzzle where you have to drop a pot from the balcony so that the tool will splash out of some muddy water just because Brian doesn't want to stick his hand in it?? C'mon. That's the most convoluted solution one could find to that problem. Especially since there's Saturn upstairs with a workshop full of tools. And ESPECIALLY since at that point in the game, Brian has done worse, dirtier things.
Anyway, that's just one example that stuck with me but I could think of like, five more. Thankfully, some other puzzles are pretty cool and the story is fun, and the game has a decent length, without overstaying its welcome. A Road Aventure didn't age like fine wine, but it didn't age like milk either. It's a comfortable middle. I would only recommend it to people who have nostalgia for this gaming era or who already enjoy point n' clicks.
