Runaway: A Road Adventure (PC) Review

Constantine Cavafy's Ithaca points out that the beauty of any journey lies not in the destination, but rather the journey itself; a statement that fits perfectly with the strange, almost magical effect road adventures have on people, even though they rarely have an exciting plot to boast about. Case in point, Runaway: A Road Adventure, which tells a straightforward tale of two strangers whom fate brought together, only to throw on an Indiana Jones-like quest involving a mysterious crux and some token bad guys. The concept is simple: talk with people, gather clues, and use all sorts of objects in order to solve problems; in other words this is a simple point-and-click adventure—too simple in fact, since it doesn't have a speck of innovation in it, even though that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

After a long—and unavoidable—cut-scene, the game begins, and Brian, the protagonist, seems to have no problem moving around, commenting on clicked items, picking them up when possible, and placing them in an easy-to-use inventory. Things look pretty good, up until Brian needs to actually do something useful, that is. Despite the blond main character and his voluptuous companion, this is no Broken Sword. Similar to the Monkey Island series, it follows a more cartoonish kind of logic when it comes to problem solving, and while that can be annoying from time to time, it's a traditional and somewhat charming part of the adventure game formula, unless the implementation sucks big time, like here.

Brian might grab a seemingly useless item like a lipstick, but will refuse doing the same with a spanner, since "There's no reason to," meaning that he'll have to search around the place in order to find where that spanner is needed before he finally decides to throw it in his inventory, leading to a lot of backtracking, even when the solution is clear as an atomic bomb-lit day. The thing that takes the biscuit in the irritation department, however, is something else; pixel hunting. There are many instances were scanning the screen pixel by pixel is a necessity, mainly because hotspots are either ridiculously tiny, or simply crammed together.

Runaway's only good aspect is, without a single doubt, its visuals. The various locales are all vibrantly coloured, extremely detailed, and offered from a perspective that frequently compliments the view, with many scenes actually being wallpaper-worthy. The character design is a mixed bag. In an attempt to be funny and distinctive, most characters are actually quite ugly, and not laugh-out-loud-ugly, just ugly, apart from the main duo, who are just… there (and, yes, that involves the buxom heroine too). On the bright side, the cel-shaded style of all characters makes it easy for them to seamlessly blend with the wonderful 2D backgrounds, though this means occasionally enduring a cringe-worthy and annoyingly long cut-scene once in a while.

Although flawed, the gameplay is passable, yet as an adventure game, its story and overall presentation carry a lot of weight too. Unfortunately, this is where the digital faeces get thrown into the digital ceiling fan. The Secret of Monkey Island was a funny cartoon, Syberia mixed realism with a dreamy and steampunk-ish touch of adventuring, and Still Life was dark and violent. Runaway: A Road Adventure simply doesn't know what it is. After the bloody murder of two people, Brian will try to escape the murderers with the help of three dancing, cocktail-drinking, and sunbathing drag queens. After that he'll witness the death of an even more important character, and then proceed with helping an offensively stereotypical Asian weirdo give E.T. a call. It's all an awkward mess of things that just don't mix together.

The storyline is simplistic and full of plot-holes, and the various events (along with the secondary characters) are quite forgettable, even with the latter being bizarre. This road trip's biggest problem is actually the main lady and gent, however. Brian starts off as a dopey geek, and while these are usually funny in video games, he is certainly not. He has an annoying, know-it-all behaviour, and he continuously tries to be funny, ending up with the worst "hip-daddy" kind of jokes this side of the universe. Gina, the token beauty of this story, is even worse, since she's nothing more than a selfish, manipulative girl. During their odyssey they will both "mutate": Brian into a stud, and Gina into a… piece of cardboard, and, as expected, they will fall in love, although their change in demeanour will simply come out of the blue, making those behind the PC monitor do a nice little facepalm.