mintee: I agree. I almost stopped playing the 1st Runaway due to how awful the main character was, the fifteen minute long intro in which you just watched the main character spoil what will happen in the game, with no way to skip dialogue, then it plunked you into the game with no clue on what you were actually supposed to be doing. I almost quit then but decided to stick with it since I had paid for the gog sale pack of all three games. I am glad I did. By the end of the 1st installment my enjoyment value had gone up immensely, especially once I decided to play with a game guide in hand to avoid all the illogical puzzling and huge walking to and fro in order to complete tasks.
The worst aspect of the game is how they change items according to whether or not you have cleared an in game sequence. In other words, a bag you have already looted and searched will have new items in it according to how far you are along in the story. I hate that. That means you as a player have to repeatedly combine, search, look at, interact with each and every item in game in case the dev decided to change that item to be used in another task. Also, many times you will figure out how to finish a task but the dev will not let you combine an item untill you unlock some vague progress threshold. This adds immensely to aggravation factor, hence the use of a good guide while playing will let you enjoy the game much more without extra hours of to-ing and fro-ing and repeated 'will this work now' actions.
The characters. Many are outright offensive sterotypes. The japanese character has buck teeth, squinty eyes and is technically adept, the black dude is rastah and smokes herb and so on. Absolutely hate the main male character, he is pompous, rude and his ethics are scarce. In the 1st game he gladly sets fire to a hospital, lies to and manipulates a mentally disabled but strong person, steals items, lies to other characters who generously help him and many other actions that all spell out he is a jerk.
The female lead spends all her time lying, being manipulative and wearing no clothes. I really think the devs need to get out more due to how much they overly sexed her... and there was no reason for it. I saw from promos part 2 which i havent played yet she is wearing more appropriate attire and hope they got a clue from the last game.
There are some laugh out loud moments, the graphics are cartoonish but well done. Some of the painted backgrounds are stunning. Sometimes the art goes out the door and is very badly done with poor mouth sync and bizarre proportions. The music is well done.
I have heard part 3 the characters are only worse and for many they ruined the game, I only hope that it isnt so but will play 2 and 3 and see for myself.
for now, the game was enjoyable despite the many pathing and puzzle annoyances and character failures. Highly recommend playing with a game guide and using it liberally to avoid having the game mechanics ruin the fun for you. for the gog sale price the bundle pack has been worth it. I would not pay full price for the game.
Yes I agree about the offensive stereotypes! Personally I've played so many older games with similar offensive humour that I can stand it but it is shocking how not enough people really discuss this now in more recent reviews :\ The rasta character and the Japanese guy are based on outdated pop culture characters that just... yeah no thanks
The second game gets worse with the sexism, as well.