User Reviews (11 - 21 of 46)

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Fun and Frustrating

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: September 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Compared to other recent adventure titles, I have to agree with most reviews here that the graphics, sound, and voice acting are top-notch, as are the controls and interface. However, many of the puzzles are completely illogical and take a trial and error approach. In fact, I had to check the walkthough on several occasions after spending hours trying to figure out that item A needs to be combined with item B before using it on item C.

Overall, it was enjoyable at first and some of the humor was on-spot (especially the bus full of drag queens), but it lost something when the puzzles became obscure and irrelevant.

To the person who complained that the cut-scenes were upside-down, I think you need to get your graphics checked out. The cut-scenes were all normal on my system...

Time Warp

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: August 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is a great game in the way "Amerzone" was; for the time it was released, it had some pretty righteous effects, animation, and music. It's still impressive, and extremely clever!
As a fan of the "walk around, find things, use things" games, I am completely in love with this game's style! Think "Monkey Island" as a mystery/action/satire. (Love the reference to "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert"!!!)
I'm actually still playing, but am only slow because of time limitations. Hyper-gamers will blast through this, but it runs at or slightly above my speed, which I can appreciate. Great game, and worth the time for gamers like me!

It is just FANTASTIC

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: March 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

It has been quite a while since I played an adventure game (5 years?), and I felt the desire and nostalgia to play some lately. I browsed through the videogames and looked for a graphic adventure old monkey island cartoonish style. Why, Runaway was the perfect pick!! I loved it and I long for more! The puzzles were perfect and challenging and, in some cases, even surprisingly well done. Many players might think that some of the puzzles were non-sensical; however these kind of puzzles lead you to think about things differently than what you ordinarily expect. You really have to use your brain and pay A LOT of attention to the dialogues and to the description of the objects, which are fundamental clues to the solution of the quizzes; pay also some attention to the little anecdotes told by Brian from time to time. It is very important also to check even the tiniest places on the screen for objects you might need. I even laughed when, not knowing what to do, madly explored the screen and found the items I so bad needed.
To conclude, here are some tips that I already mentioned briefly
stated: a)This is a game, but REALLY use your brain b) Pay attention to dialogues, descriptions and anecdotes c) explore, explore, explore without getting frustrated!
This is a great adventure game, and gives so many hours of entertainment with such a cheap price. I also haven't encountered any issues like installation problems, compatibility, freezing screen or such things. The whole was just perfect. I strongly recommend this game to whoever appreciates graphic adventures, and also to those that might want to try a different game genre.
I LOOK FORWARD TO RUNAWAY 2, which shouldn't be long before its release.
CIAO

adventure game with an old time feel..

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: October 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Remember the adventure games with cartoon animation, tounge-in-cheek humor, and a good story.. like the monkey islands, grim fandango etc. miss those? Well wait no more, Runaway is a perfect example of such a game. ... umm, not exactly, but it does come close.

The game is completely 2D and the graphics cartoony. But that dont matter, the art work and the music are very good. Though the dialog can be a bit dull and sometimes plain boring.

But the game has an excellent story. A boy leaves new york to go and study in berkeley, knocks down a girl on the road and has an adventure of a lifetime. To find out play the game.. it does roll like a movie.

As far as the puzzles are concerned, they range from easy to annoying. The biggest reason this game doesnt get 5 stars is due to the puzzles. Some of them are fairly quirky and some involve a fair amount of pixel hunting. You think you finished a puzzle to finish a task at hand and just ... i mean *just* to harrass you the game has an illogical twist which causes you to go and solve another puzzle or adds more to the current one.

But overall it is a good game if you miss the adventure games of yore... definately worth a buy from the bargain bin.

A road adventure?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 16
Date: August 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

My impression of this game, now that I've finished it, is mixed. I mean, on one hand, it plays out like a movie. An animated movie. A grade-B animated movie. The animation and graphics are above average. That feature alone makes this a somewhat entertaining farce to watch.

Unfortunately, there's not much more going for it. After all, if you wanna buy a campy animated movie, there are plenty available for viewing, and they won't cause nearly as much frustration as trying to get through a grand production designed as an adventure video game.

My first thought when I started playing/watching was that Brian, the main character, who allegedly grew up in a New York suburb and is about to travel to California to study at college, has a distinct California accent! This minor quirk irked me all the way through the game, especially since Brian has a voice that at times sounds quite shrill.

Then there's the acting and voiceovers. Well below average. As has been stated in earlier reviews, the character interaction sounds as if it were recorded at different times, with very little proper vocal affect. Many questions sound like statements, many statements sound like questions, and rarely does it sound as if the interaction is taking place naturally. Granted, other than Brian, the various accents dialects can be lightly entertaining, but the movie... erm, I mean, the video game... would have definitely benefitted from more realistic interaction.

The writing is also sub-par. Humor is at a premium price, since there's so little of it. But there's certainly no shortage of words. Very wordy. I suppose if the acting were better, the wordiness wouldn't be so tedious, but as it stands, I found myself continuously thinking that half the speaking was unnecessary.

Along the same lines is the storyline. This "road adventure" was more of a place-by-place happening. In other words, rather than spending much time on the road, the story takes place mostly in each of three places: a New York hospital, a Chicago museum, and the desert in the American Southwest. Furthermore, some of the plot is so far-fetched that it's almost difficult to fathom, even if one suspends disbelief.

The most difficult issue to stomach comes from the puzzles. Even the most dilligent of logic problem solvers will have difficulty with this game. Getting stuck on a problem's solution is a common thing to deal with when playing these types of games, but this game takes getting stuck to a whole new level. Some of the puzzles are incredibly illogical. Once the solutions are figured out, one looks back at them and can't believe that the programmers of the game expected anyone to solve them. It makes for a very frustrating and often tedious play.

Too bad, too, because it seems like the creators spent a good deal of energy to make this game. If only they'd spent more energy on strengthening the weak spots, it may've been better received as a whole.

My recommendation is, if you're going to play this game, expect to do a lot of movie watching, and, don't spend too much energy trying to solve the quagmires. Take along a good walkthrough and enjoy the game for what it's worth: a silly romp with some point-and-click necessities to keep it going.

P.S. I've refrained from comparing this game to others of the genre, simply because I believe comparisons to other game series are unfair.

Finally an great adventure game !

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: November 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Runaway is defenetly a great adventure game !
look good old time, hand drawn Sierra and LucasArts games we used to love so much.
It's fun, and has a great plot line, not to mention a whole amazing look and feel.

Half Good.... and then Half Disappointing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: November 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game started really cool with an intriguing mystery. The first two chapters were good at building that mystery. The third chapter was just for fun but a lot of its puzzles were getting more and more illogical. From chapter 3 and beyond, a lot of puzzles just seemed to be created to prolong the game in artificial way (you already figured out the answer but you still have to keep going back and forth to complete certain missions). It became frustrating. Chapter 4 went back to the mystery and it looked like the story was really proceeding to an interesting dicovery. Chapter 5 was short. And then the last chapter came along and the whole mystery crumbled...turned out to be pretty much about nothing! It was so very VERY disappointing. The story basically lost its draw from that point on and became meaningless and boring. Yet, I still have to complete the chapter to see the ending which was just plain silly hollywood. I like playing 3rd person adventure games, especially the cartoonish types (heard about Monkey Island series?) I liked this game at first and wanted to keep liking it but this game just let me down in a big way with complete betrayal of its own story.

So what does this game got? It got beautiful graphics, smooth animation and two good chapters. I would like to give this game 2.5 stars but Amazon doesn't allow that. Sadly, this game lacks the "magic" - the thing that draws you into the world inside the game and care about what happens to the characters. Or rather, it loses the magic along the way.

If you have been starved for a good 3rd person, cartoon-type game like me, this game will satisfy you about 1/3, but that is still better than nothing at all, I guess. I say this game is worth about 10 bucks or less.

So be warned. This game has some good things going on at first but it will lose them along the way and then disappoint you in a big way at the end.

I don't understand the complaints

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: August 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I love this game. It never crashed or anything like that. The graphics and sound are both great, much better than I expected for the price. I really wish there would be a second one.

A very good adventure game...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: March 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

if you are a adventure tip gamer like: monkey island, larry suit leisure, the dig, sam and max, etc. This is the game for you.

better than most

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: November 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is a better than average adventure game. Major points for point and click ability instead of using arrows and other keyboard letters. It has funny ,politically-incorrect characters, great animation and sense of humor. Where else can you sit around in your sweatpants and be entertained for hours for about 20 bucks?

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