Runaway: A Road Adventure

Runaway: A Road Adventure
Developer(s) Pendulo Studios
Publisher(s) Dinamic Multimedia
FX Interactive
Tri Synergy
Platform(s) iOS, Microsoft Windows
Release Microsoft Windows
  • ESP: July 6, 2001
  • NA: August 28, 2003
  • UK: May 15, 2004
iOS
  • WW: June 6, 2013
Genre(s) Adventure
Mode(s) Single player

Runaway: A Road Adventure is a point and click adventure game developed by Pendulo Studios in 2001. The game follows the long tradition of two-dimensional adventure games like the first two installments of the Broken Sword series. It enjoyed immense popularity in countries like Germany and France, and ultimately sold 600,000 units in Europe alone.

The original Spanish version of the game was the first to become available in Spain on July 6, 2001, with other localizations waiting up to two years for their publication, including the German version in fall 2002 and the rest during 2003. It was released in the United Kingdom in May 2004. The original publisher was Dinamic Multimedia and it was their last distributed title before their closure. After that, the distributor has been FX Interactive.

Runaway has been released on CD-ROM and DVD-ROM.

A sequel: Runaway 2: The Dream of The Turtle was released in November 2006 in France and Germany and was released in March 2007 in the United Kingdom, USA and Spain. A third game, Runaway 3: A Twist of Fate was released on November 26, 2009.[1]

Story

Brian Basco sets off from New York City to California, but plans to make a quick stop on his way there to pick up a book at a bookstore. On the way there, he just avoids running over a fleeing girl who then blacks out. Brian takes her to the hospital and finds out that her name is Gina Timmins and that she witnessed a Mafia murder. He saves her from the killers, but now he also has to run away.

Characters

Brian Basco, the only player-controlled character, is a student of Physics who just got accepted to the University of California, Berkeley. He is portrayed as a shy, almost nerdy, young man at first.

Gina Timmins is the girl Brian almost ran over with his car and immediately fell in love with. She works as a dancer in a New York City nightclub, where she is handed a mysterious crucifix and shortly thereafter witnesses a murder.

Gustav and Feodor are two hitmen working for the Mafia. Gustav, who wears an eyepatch, is seen as the head of the team, while Feodor is prone to rash acts of brutality. They are sent after Gina at first and Brian as well later on...

Development

According to the developer, the game was developed using a mixture of external and internal produced tools to achieve the combined 2D and 3D graphical look of the game.[2] Internally, the game engine utilised three dimensions to model the characters and objects,[3] but then a special filter was used to render them two-dimensionally to the screen. This gives the effect of making it look like a traditional cartoon-like 2D adventure, while enabling real-time lighting and shading effects, camera changes, and panoramic shots.[4]

The original soundtrack [5] for Road Adventure contains all four songs from game, the CD is included in the special collectors' edition. All the songs are composed by David García Morales and performed and composed by Vera Domínguez (His Haircut).[6]

Reception

Sales

Runaway was a commercial hit,[7][8] with sales above 400,000 units in Europe alone by early January 2004, before its release in the United Kingdom. At the time, publisher Crimson Cow told The Market for Computer & Video Games that this success "prov[ed] that the adventure genre is not just a living but also a thriving genre".[7] According to designer Rafael Latiegui, the game sold best in France and Germany, and in Spain achieved sales of "100,000 units in just one weekend as part of a newspaper campaign." He noted in February 2004 that the game "hasn't done badly at all" in the United States,[9] where its lifetime sales at brick-and-mortar retailers totaled 12,928 units by the end of that month.[10][11]

Chris Kellner of German publisher DTP Entertainment declared Runaway "a huge success" in Germany.[12] By late 2003, it had surpassed the sales of any other adventure localized by DTP;[13] as of March 2003, it had spent five months on Germany's computer game sales charts.[14] According to the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce's Hamburger Wirtschaft magazine, Runaway it ultimately sold 60,000 units in Germany and helped to revive the country's adventure game industry.[8] It remained DTP's best-selling adventure release by September 2004.[15]

Runaway reached roughly 500,000 global sales by March 2004,[16] and GamesRadar+ reported in May 2006 that the title had totaled 600,000 sales in Europe alone.[17] By April 2009, the game and its sequel, Runaway 2: The Dream of the Turtle, together had sold one million copies. Of these sales, France accounted for 250,000 units.[18]

Critical reviews

Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
CGW[19]
Game Informer7.25[20]
PC Gamer (US)51%[21]

According to review aggregation website Metacritic, Runaway received "mixed or average reviews" from critics.[22]

References

  1. ↑ "Game Download Page". Archived from the original on 2009-11-02. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
  2. ↑ "Adventure Classic Gaming interview with Rafael Latiegui, Pendulo Studios". Archived from the original on 2008-05-13. Retrieved 2008-03-06.
  3. ↑ "Just Adventure review". Archived from the original on 2007-02-23. Retrieved 2007-03-12.
  4. ↑ "Developer's website". Archived from the original on 2007-02-11. Retrieved 2007-03-12.
  5. ↑ "Runaway: A Road Adventure — Original Soundtrack". Archived from the original on 2009-02-15. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
  6. ↑ "Runaway: A Road Adventure". Archived from the original on 2008-12-22. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
  7. 1 2 Mischkowski, Frank (January 9, 2004). "Crimson Cow zieht positive Jahresbilanz". The Market for Computer & Video Games. Archived from the original on March 28, 2004.
  8. 1 2 Mansutti, Klaus Jürgen (April 2006). "Die Spielemacher vom Goldbekkanal". Hamburger Wirtschaft. Hamburg Chamber of Commerce. Archived from the original on July 20, 2018.
  9. ↑ "Interview with Pendulo". The Inventory. No. 12. Just Adventure. February 2004. pp. 10–14. Archived from the original on July 1, 2004.
  10. ↑ Sluganski, Randy (March 2004). "Sales December 2003 - The State of Adventure Gaming". Just Adventure. Archived from the original on April 11, 2004.
  11. ↑ Staff. "Total Sales for Jan/Feb 2004". Just Adventure. Archived from the original on April 11, 2004.
  12. ↑ MacDonald, Laura (February 3, 2005). "dtp entertainment - Chris Kellner interview". Adventure Gamers. Archived from the original on February 17, 2005.
  13. ↑ "The Lounge; Interview with DTP". The Inventory. No. 10. Just Adventure. November 2003. pp. 20–23. Archived from the original on August 13, 2006.
  14. ↑ "Zeitraum: März 2003". Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland. Archived from the original on April 17, 2003.
  15. ↑ "The Lounge; Interview with DTP". The Inventory. No. 17. Just Adventure. September 2004. pp. 16–21. Archived from the original on August 13, 2006.
  16. ↑ Bronstring, Marek (March 15, 2004). "Runaway 2 concept art". Adventure Gamers. Archived from the original on June 17, 2004.
  17. ↑ Cundy, Matt (May 2, 2006). "Runaway 2: The Dream of the Turtle". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on June 19, 2018.
  18. ↑ Nini, Nourdine (April 23, 2009). "Runaway 3 : des images inédites". Gameblog. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018.
  19. ↑ Jongewaard, Dana (December 2003). "Reviews; Runaway: A Road Adventure". Computer Gaming World (233): 129.
  20. ↑ Mason, Lisa; Zoss, Jeremy. "Adult Cartoony". Game Informer. Archived from the original on November 18, 2005.
  21. ↑ Osborn, Chuck. "Runaway: A Road Adventure". PC Gamer US. Archived from the original on October 17, 2006.
  22. ↑ "Runaway: A Road Adventure (pc: 2003): Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on July 26, 2007.
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