A point&click adventure like a roller coaster ride: In my opinion, Runaway does something right, but also a lot wrong. We recently played the trilogy and are now ready for a conclusion. Let’s see how I liked it.

Let’s start, sensibly, with the first part. Runaway: A Road Adventure is a pretty solid game in my opinion. When I played it for the first time, I was happy with it. Here and there small weaknesses, the story is a bit wild in places, but overall nothing special. At that time I was particularly enthusiastic about the puzzles, the ideas that were ingenious in places and above all the graphics and the successful mixture of 2D and 3D.

The story itself is easy to explain: you drive your car through the streets of New York, almost run over a young, beautiful woman and take her to the hospital. You learn that she is being hunted by the mafia and you want to help her fulfill her father’s last wish: we have to protect a secret from the bad guys.

Of course there are some incidents that make our path more winding than originally planned, of course there are one or the other plot twist and one or the other revelation. A good story, but as I said nothing earth-shattering. I had the most fun playing the game with the mechanics and the puzzles.

As usual in Point&Click Adventures, you don’t find everything just like that. You have to put it together somehow, invent tricks or influence people to do something for you – usually always combined with lengthy rewards. In order to keep an overview, plans are made and stored in the inventory – if you interact with them, the current status is described and which partial points (e.g. distraction, subsequent escape, etc.) have already been completed. Turned out to be very helpful.

I found the inventory of Runaway one and two particularly pretty. A neutral earth tone as the background, the items, and an opening on the right, through which the protagonist looks out and tries to combine or mockingly evaluates – this breaking of the fourth wall had already convinced me from the first playthrough.

All in all, I have to say that I always liked part one very much. Of course there is always criticism of everything, but personally I don’t share it much here.

It looks completely different with part two: The Dream Of The Turtle. I really don’t know what went wrong here, but let’s take the three main points that completely destroyed the game:

• The protagonist. In the first part, Brian was a clumsy nerd who got a beautiful woman at his side in Gina. He a bookworm, she with the street smarts. A classic combination, but also one that works. That changed completely in the second part. He’s become a lecherous, arrogant jerk (imho) who takes himself more seriously than saving his girlfriend. Hardly any regrets, hardly any self-reflection – all the good qualities from the first part have been blown away.

• The tech: inaccurate hitboxes, stuttering scenes with too many particles flying, and multiple softlocks from not triggering certain things – it was all workable, but definitely a nuisance

• The Story. The thing with the aliens, which was more of a side joke in the first part, becomes the main story here. Interesting idea, but far too lengthy and cumbersome to implement. The open ending makes the whole thing even worse: you want to know if Gina will be rescued or not; but you definitely don’t want to play a part like that again

This is a very shortened form, I could rant about this game for hours. There are also a lot of little things, like obscure dependencies (you can’t solve puzzle x if you haven’t read sign y, even though you already know all the facts) or generally the exaggerated use of clichés. It just generally feels like a huge step backwards from part one. Overall only recommended if you want to understand the jokes from part three. And it’s coming now.

In the third part, The Twist Of Fate, one somehow wants to save everything. The story is quickly explained: Bryan allegedly killed the colonel at the end of part two and ended up in a psychiatric institution. He fakes his death and Gina wants to find him.

Even if the story, as in part one, is not too original in many respects (of course we are being hunted by the mafia again), it is still a blessing. In many places you can see the desperate attempt of the developers to somehow save the shit that part two left them – and it works surprisingly well. Part three feels really good to play. You empathize with the characters and want to help them again. There are interesting side characters that don’t just fit any cliché, and all the classic stuff that makes a point and click. In addition, revised graphics and the ability to play from Gina’s perspective – awesome.

The game also has a reasonably sensible story, which of course ends lightly. The second part is very self-deprecating, for example as seen in one of the inmates who can really rumble about the second part. In general, I like self-reflection very much, unfortunately it sometimes feels a bit forced here – but it’s nice that they accept it.

I could also say a lot more about this part – but I don’t want to spoil too much here. I recommend the third part to anyone who hasn’t played it yet. If you’ve played Runaway one and two it’s a must – otherwise you might miss some jokes and context. But you should also be able to have a lot of fun with it on its own.

Overall, the series has been a wild ride. Part one and three are definitely worth playing, part two… is there. It’s a shame that they made such a mistake, but it is what it is. At least we finished the series and weren’t overall disappointed. Other games by Pendulo, such as “Yesterday”, are definitely still on my list.

What do you think of the series? Did you play it yourself or do you want to do it? How did you like the stream? Join the discussion and definitely let me know on Discord!