Runaway: A Road Adventure (2001) Review

A light-haired man out traveling meets a dark-haired woman and goes on a global adventure involving an old artifact. Sound familiar? No, this isn’t Broken Sword, though the first game in that series did come first. This is Runaway: A Road Adventure, featuring the exploits of Brian Basco, college student, and Gina Timmins, a lounge singer (actually a stripper) who witnessed a murder by the mafia. While the gameplay and mechanics are a typical point & click affair, the story and characters are very colorful and engaging. For a game that had trouble before, during, and after production, it’s pretty amazing that it was ever released. Though it equal parts surprised and disappointed me, I enjoyed it and can see why it did so well in Spain and, eventually, the US.

Let’s start with Brian. He’s supposed to be a nerd, but I never really got that impression. Sure he’s rather smart and wears glasses, but he seems more like a regular guy. Maybe it’s because of how he’s designed. If the developers were going for a stereotypical nerd look, they would’ve made him much skinnier. I saw a comment on Twitter that described another character as a ‘nerd wearing a varsity jacket,’ and I think this explains Brian pretty well. He was initially going to college to study applied physics, after all. And the way he solves some of the game’s puzzles could only happen with some clever, creative thinking. Even though the story is linear and Brian can’t die, you still feel a sense of urgency when combining items together knowing the Mafia could show up at any minute. Something I appreciated about Brian is that he wasn’t the typical man some adventure games have. He effortlessly stitched a basketball, wasn’t afraid to carry around some lipstick, and treated three drag queens with respect. That’s impressive, considering this was 2001.

I was also impressed by the backgrounds in this game, though they did seem a little busy. From Manhattan to Arizona, there was always something to look at. Even something as simple as a bathroom had multiple items in it. One of the more detailed places was the Museum of Archeology and Natural History. There were some dinosaur skeletons on display, and you could practically count every single bone. And the artifact restoration room was filled with shelves of items and various gadgets from floor to ceiling. The analyses laboratory didn’t skimp on crazy details either, what with all the computers and scanners and such. Though the characters stood out from the backgrounds, given how they were animated, you still really felt like you were in the same places. I hope the people who worked on the backgrounds were paid well enough.

So where did Runaway: A Road Adventure fall short? Sigh, where do I even begin? A lot of this is ‘product of its time’ stuff but should still be talked about. There was a short, black man who was an informant for the Mafia with the nickname ‘Munchkin Bob.’ Calling a little person that can be considered both infantilizing and dehumanizing. Also, and this is a great personal grievance of mine, Native Americas were constantly referred to as Indians throughout the game. And this is after Brian actually called them Native Americans to start with. As if things couldn’t get offensive enough, he meets a character named Joshua in the desert who’s a horribly racist Japanese stereotype. Fake accent, buck teeth, ill-fitting clothes, the works. And this is from a game company in Spain. You would expect this sort of thing from America, but apparently, it’s a global problem. The stiff, robotic animation is a whole other argument, but that mostly can be forgiven due to the fact that a, it’s 2001, and b, the developers at Pendulo Studios were in constant financial crisis.

Other missteps include having to go pixel hunting for certain objects, as they blend with the backgrounds a little too well, along with some of the puzzles not being solved in a logical way. There’s a lot of trial and error trying to figure out what combines and what doesn’t, which takes away from enjoying the game. Plus, when planning to save Gina in the desert, Brian repeats the plan the more items he gets to help him enact it. Like, you don’t need to repeat the whole plan every single time, just mention the new parts. Players are smarter than you think. And Brian gave up on Gina a little too quickly after she fell down a hole. At least try to look for her first before thinking she’s dead. Speaking of Gina, while I wasn’t thrilled with her outfit choices (especially in the desert; seriously, boobs can get sunburnt too), the fact that she was more of a plot device than a character didn’t do her justice. If Brian hadn’t accidently hit her with his car, they never would’ve met and she probably would’ve died. She goes through so much throughout the course of the game and yet she’s regulated to a secondary character. There’s more to her than just looks, and I find myself wondering how things would’ve been different if she was the protagonist.