Runaway: A Road Adventure

I am a massive fan of the point-and-click adventure games of the 1990s, but Runaway: A Road Adventure is one that was released in 2001, a time when the genre was starting to fall in popularity. As a result, this is a game that is pretty much beloved by those who played it and not all that well known by many. The game has built up a bit of a cult following over the years thanks to being available on STEAM and the iOS store.

A Guy And A Girl

The story of Runaway: A Road Adventure is fantastic and something I had a great deal of fun with. Our main character is a guy called, Brian whose life is turned upside down when he saves the life of a hottie called, Gina. Gina is a witness of a murder and she is a prime target of the mafia as a result.

The story sees Brian and Gina hitting the road as they are pursued by the mafia! It is great stuff with some very witty writing and apparently, the developers were heavily influenced by stuff like Raising Arizona and even Pulp Fiction which is cool.

A One And Done Kind Of Affair

As far as the gameplay of Runaway: A Road Adventure goes, this is as classic point-and-click adventure style as you can get in a game. You control Brian as you move around the screen interacting with items, talking to characters, and solving puzzles. I will say that this game is very linear in its design. It wants you to do things in a very specific way and it won’t let you pick up items, or interact with something until it is time to do so.

While this may sound limiting and basic, it does give the story much more of a laser focus which I did enjoy. It just means that once you have beaten the game, it is probably not going to be the kind that you want to play through again.

So Slick And Stylish

Runaway: A Road Adventure is a great-looking game. It is done with 2D animation and it looks great. The style of the graphics that they went for also means that the game looks great to this day. The version on STEAM has been given a lick of HD paint and you would think that the game was a modern point-and-click adventure game as the visuals as so well done.

This game also has great sound design. It features voice acting and even though this game is 20 years old as I write this, it features voice acting that was very high-quality for its day and the soundtrack is solid too.

Pros:

• The two main characters are very interesting
• It has a very well written story
• The gameplay is very focused
• The visuals have held up incredibly well

Cons:

• The game is very linear
• There are no mini-games or side content

Runaway Is One of those games that you always mean to play, but never get around to doing so. And, in the end, you kind of wished you hadn't bothered when you do play it.

That's probably a little unfair, but it was never going to be the game that clubbed the public over the head and forced it to take notice of the adventure genre once again. While it doesn't really do anything wrong, barring some of the worst lip-synching ever committed to our screens (something to do with localisation issues, we believe). The flipside is that it never really does much right either.

While the game is pleasant enough -at no point are you going to slit your own throat in frustration - but there isn't too much to recommend it for. If you're bored you'll be able to muster up the energy to play Runaway, but it really is a game for a rainy Sunday.