Customer Reviews

Runaway: Dream of the Turtle

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This game is surprisingly cool. I picked it up while traveling in Europe, where adventure games are still all the rage, and the range of games available is truly amazing. This game which is apparently 100% "Made in Spain" (though you would never know it from playing, besides some historical references in a couple of hilarious screens!) Being an adventure buff myself, I had already played Runaway: A Road Adventure, which contains some of the same characters, though I actually liked the characters in Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle even more, especially Lokelani, a hot Hawaiian bartender in a skimpy outfit who claims to have gone out with men from all over the planet!

But getting to the main point, the game is purely and simply FUN! The main reason for this is probably that the different places you travel to are wildly different, including tropical places, snowy places, cities, boats, ruins... And the graphics and artwork are simply breathtaking. The whole visual style is completely different from any other adventures I've played, which makes the experience fun and refreshing. I played the game almost straight through over a couple of weeks, since I was always dying to find out where the adventure would take me next. You start out in some truly beautiful yet funny scenes in Hawaii, ending up on a crashing airplane run by "Platypus Tours" (almost seems like you are going to end up in an episode of "Lost"!), but this is only the beginning.

As for the puzzles in this point-and-click game, I would say they are of moderate difficulty. Some of them in the beginning were a bit easier, but a couple had me stumped as I moved on to later chapters. As always, the characters give you many a clue and hint, and in The Dream of the Turtle, the characters have a lot to say! Which is good, because the dialogue and script are really funny and well-done. One of the aspects I most enjoyed was that the writing seemed very well-thought-out and was actually aimed at an audience with a thinking mind on its shoulders! This includes a uge number of references to books, movies, famous personages, and other games.

More technically speaking, the music and sound effects are both excellent. You can tell that an enormous amount of effort was put into every detail in this sense, as with everything graphic, as well. Anyway, I think the game will be a total surprise for everyone who decides to jump in and play.

Just finished playing Runaway 2. How to describe my experience playing this game?....
Lets start by stating that the game is in many ways a refreshing reminder of the good ol' days of classic Lucas Arts adventures of Monkey Island, Grim Fandango and the likes, particulary the Monkey Island series which it attempts to, without giving much away, even imitate in setting and humor towards the end. Indeed the colorful caricature of the game contrasts with the grim visuals of the more recent typefical releases in the genre. More noticably unlike many of the recent adventure games... it distinguishes itself in attempting to, fairly successfully put more character in the Non-playing 'characters' or NPCs.

Alright, people who have played Runaway will find that all of the above comes as no surprise, since this sequel has all the ingredients the original had; it just goes about spicing some of those a bit more. Of particular note are the more lively graphics, some of the more wittier mono and dialogues and lengthier gameplay. Some of the details on animation are a nice touch, e.g. footsteps in snow fading out (as done in Dreamfall too). Voice acting sways from being good to OK to annoying, with quite a few actors seeming to go through their lines in a very flat tone such that one could picture them reading those. Thankfully your playing character's is the best of the lot. Music and sound effects are of good quality and mostly keep in the background so as not become a distraction. Some of the characters are a bit excessively stereotyped to the point of apearing as cliche's. Puzzles, at the core of any adventure game, mostly follow a twisted logic typical of a comedy adventure. However, in some cases, the triggers to these are obscure, e.g. having to point with an item selected in a particular direction rather than at an object to cause an effect. I also agree with an opinion voiced elsewhere about the puzzles mostly not intricately linked with the story or the overall objective; talk about ..semi-SPOLER <almost a complete chapter spent in concocting a gourmet dish for an NPC>.Thus, its mostly piecemeal combinations of inventory items and surrounding objects that reward progress... many important plot advances are indeed made through cutscenes. The ending might also not make everyone happy but was not unexpected if u play knowing how many chapters the game has and the developments made in the latter half of the game.

So, did I enjoy the game or not? Yes, I did. It is very easy to criticize the game on its weak points which would be most unfair to a genre that rarely sees games that are technically polished, yet have a character and decent gameplay. Despite some of the short-comings mentioned above, on the one aspect that it shines through is that it remains true to the classical point-and-click style of the genre, and yet manages to not take itself too seriously. In fact, often places it ridicules the genre on its obvious unrealism of the playing character holding large amounts of items in its inventory...especially through one act towards the very end of the game, where I felt the designers, script writers came out bolder than anywhere else in the game. Another thing to note here is that other than an odd monologue response error or two when clicking on objects, I experienced no bugs, no crashes on my computer.

Bottomline, I do recommend Runaway 2 to true fans of the genre as well as to those of the original. People new to the genre might find it a mixed bag though. This one may not belong with the genre's best due to some noticable weaknesses, but is not far behind either in many respects. Give it a go! 8 out of 10.

When I wrote my review of "Runaway 1"(" 'Circle of Blood it's not' ") I criticized the game's pacing, saying that I found it irritating that none of the answers were revealed until way into the third act, I like to get a taste of the big answers as I progress so that I feel like I have accomplished something important to the narrative by the end of a chapter.

Spoiler Alert, kind of.

At least "Runaway" one HAD a third Act. "Runaway 2" on the other hand ends with Brian rattling off a litany of things yet to be done. This left me with the feeling I had accomplished nothing, including the task you set out to complete at game-start. What there is of a story is the most disjointed thing I've ever played, a hallmark of the Adventure game genre is that you start at someplace comparatively normal and soon you're on a journey trhat takes you to far-flung places. ("Gabriel Knight" and the "Broken Sword" series come to mind.) This does that too, but not well at all. While those games are exquisitely constructed, "Runaway 2" whisks you off to disparate places and you say to yourself, "how'd I get here?....Whatever...." And some of the bridges that are there to enligten you as to how you got there and where you're going are easy to miss. I'm thinking particularly of the alien conversation at Prof. Simon's housse in which a big chunk of story is revealed (I couldn't tell you what is was if I wanted to because its revealed in alien speech that is so distorted I missed most of it.) This happens with a puzzle, too. You're supposed to get a series of clues from a parrot, but his squawk is so bad that you can't understand what he's saying. "Runaway 2" made a horrible mistake giving us so little to go on, it ends with a line like: "Sounds like a great story we shold tell sometime" I'm afraid the adventure game climate in this country is such that WE might not get to see it, others might as Pendulo is a Spanish company... Worse, as big of a adventure game fan as I am, I'm not sure if I'd care if we didn't.....

I had fun playing this game, even though the cut scenes were way too long (20 minutes, at one point!). The nice thing is you can pause the cut scenes if you need to. My complaint is the lazy lack of an ending. NOTHING is tied up at the end, except one important task is completed. Then the game basically tells you to stay tuned for the next game. That's lazy and greedy, in my opinion. If they wanted to do another Runaway game, it could have had a different plot, or they could have made this relatively short game longer. By the way, this game was published in 2006, and I just checked the Pendulo website, and no new Runaway release is on the horizon for 2008, so I wouldn't hold my breath waiting to find out how Brian's wacky adventure ends.

Love this game, its funny, clever and just fun! Can't wait for part 3!! This game had me stumped a few times and i just had to cheat! For people who played Monkey island series, Grim fandango, & Runaway 1. had a lot of little scenes that reminded me of Monkey Island 3.

Considering the uncertainty of the game industry and the likelihood of sequels being murdered in their infancy, I haven't been this disappointed in the end of a game since the unfinished end of Still Life. Runaway II built so well, and got me so into the story - I was so excited to see what the final climax would be and then....it ended. With nothing more than a voiceover promise that the rest of the story was to come.

I sat there with my mouth hanging open while the credits rolled, as slowly I realized the story pinnacle I'd spent 16 hours working toward was never going to happen. That's not just bad game design, that's cruel and unusual punishment. If you want to save yourself some pain - don't buy Runaway II until Runaway III comes out.

the game is colorful and the puzzles are cool and fun...only knock is more dialoge than i liked but everything else made up for it.a must play for adventure gamers.hope they make part 3

bought this for my gamer daughter
she says it a challenge but plays it non-stop!

I got a couple of chapters into this game and then disaster struck. Every time I try to start the game, it either prompts me to insert the DVD (which is there) or my PC locks up and I have to power it off and reboot. I have given up on it at this point.

This is definitely a story and dialog game. If you like lots of dialog, i.e. going back and forth to different locations talking to people about a billion things, then you would like this game. It is also an "inventory" game, i.e. you collect things in your inventory and then have to figure out how they expect you to combine them or use them on things in your environment (like putting butter on a cable so you can unfasten it).

I prefer games with more puzzles and less talking (like the Myst series), so perhaps I'm not missing much with it not working for me anymore.