AllieV

I’ve been playing this game on and off for years now, and every time I restart, I get **** into the expansive world of fashion. I mean, over 10,000 fashions in one game? That’s incredibly mind-blowing, and very impressive. Can you imagine the work that went into making all of that? For 16 different fictional fashion brands? You really have to wonder how long it took to come up with all those designs and implement them all into the game. I imagine there was at least some inspiration from the real-world fashion of the time. Honestly, a lot could fit nicely in today’s fashion world. Kinda gives you an idea of how timeless Style Savvy really is. Though, it’s not without its issues. There were some things that made me a little annoyed and that I felt were rather unnecessary. But it is, overall, a solid game worth revisiting.

Considering how the last game ended, I was fully expecting it to start with the great big rescue. Imagine my surprise when it starts with Brian’s funeral. I was further surprised when he was not only convicted of murdering Colonel Kordsmeier but also declared insane and put in a psychiatric hospital. Like, wow, that’s a lot to take in at once. Then it turns out Brian faked his death to escape the hospital to try and clear his name? Honestly, that sounds like something he would do. A welcome twist on the series’ formula is that Gina was much more involved this time. No longer is she a damsel in distress, but a playable character. And her breasts are actually covered for once, thankfully. There is some narrating the past, as per usual, but things do mostly take place in the present time with new, quirky characters. The sad thing about Brian’s funeral is that the only people that showed up were Gina and his ‘favorite’ orderly from the hospital, Ernie, who might as well be an Elvis impersonator. Did the devs forget Brian had parents or what? Even Gina’s dad was mentioned again. In any case, after Gina buries the coffin, she gets a call from who she thinks is Brian, saying they were buried alive. She has to solve quite a few egregious puzzles to reveal the coffin. These mostly required helping some NPC’s that I personally felt were a little unnecessary. Once Gina gets the coffin open, it’s not Brian, but Gabbo, his friend from the hospital, who bears a resemblance to Steve Buscemi (apparently, I don’t really see it). He then regales Gina about Brian’s time among the ‘crazy’ people. As far as fictional psychiatric hospitals go, this one actually seemed to be mostly okay. Genuine beds with side tables, desks and bookshelves, patients freely able to express themselves through art, etc. Considering most of them end up being portrayed as torture chambers, it was a nice change of pace to see one being a halfway decent place to be. It’s not all sunshine and roses, of course; one rotten patient called Kurgan not only bullied Brian but also hijacked his original escape plan. This, obviously, opened the door for many ridiculous puzzles for Brian to solve for an alternate escape route. He does eventually catch up to Kurgan, but the guy got his head cut off, even further complicating things. What’s funny is that despite the decapitation, there was no blood. I guess the game had to keep its Pegi 12 rating somehow. The fact that Brian thought it was a good idea to hide the head in an incinerator (which burned it instantly) made me chuckle. Despite the new and funny bits, Runaway: A Twist of Fate still had about the same amount of problems as the previous games. There were a few offensive words used (refer to my other reviews on this series for examples) but significantly less, thankfully. There was no mention or sight of Joshua either. I guess the devs finally figured out how offensive he was (took them long enough). However, Sushi, Saturn, and Rutger weren’t seen or heard from either. Which is a little confusing, as they were supposed to be helping with the big rescue mission. In a flashback, Brian appears to do everything mostly on his own. While Brian using an alien mind control device to try and get the Colonel to confess his crimes was clever, explaining almost everything through words wasn’t. Though I will admit, Tarantula using the device on Brian to kill the Colonel was something I probably should’ve seen coming. She was only working with the Colonel as long as he was useful to her. And disguising herself as an orderly at the hospital to keep Brian there was pretty genius too. Another thing I wasn’t thrilled about was some of the voices. Brian in particular was vastly different than the first two games. And the Colonel didn’t sound right either; his voice in the second game was very distinctive. The only ones that sounded like themselves were Gina and maybe Tarantula. Why this decision was made is beyond me. It’s kinda hard to get into a game if characters you’re familiar with don’t sound the same. And while it was a nice trip down memory lane, I felt like the whole situation with the homeless screenwriter was needless filler. Though the Groucho Marx waiter/actor was a bit useful. Despite my grievances, I can appreciate attempting to come full circle with Brian and Gina stealing millions from the same mafia they stole from in the first game. They’re on the run again, with brand-new adventures ahead of them. It’s a shame we were robbed of a bigger ‘rescue Gina’ operation, I would’ve loved to see that.

I’ll admit, Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle is leaps and bounds ahead of the first game with its animation and backgrounds alone. Characters move much more fluidly and don’t seem like animatronics when there’s up close shots of their faces. The cartoony art style often has characters do wild movements similar to Loony Tunes, which does make for rather hilarious physical comedy. And the backgrounds are simply gorgeous, from the jungles of Hawaii all the way to snowy Alaska. Speaking of the comedy, the game did have some funny moments. Brian found a dog toy in the plane whose gimmick was urinating after being filled with water. It made me chuckle, but you have to admit it was kind of a weird toy. Other humorous moments included some fourth wall breaks, drunken lemurs and a well-meaning but rather dumb soldier, along with other interesting NPCs. Speaking of, there were a lot of new characters to keep track of. Some help Brian on his quest, while others try to stop him from succeeding. These new allies include Lokelani, a bartender who’s had more boyfriends than you can keep track of; Knife, a slightly airheaded surfer who not only has a son but also has a knack for ignoring his problems; and Kai, an older surfer who lost his leg to a shark and perpetuates the ‘lazy mentor’ trope. They all ended up being involved in some of the game’s puzzles. Though I’ll admit that Lokelani’s was a bit annoying, as you had to remember some of her boyfriend’s names while talking to her. There are a lot of dialogue trees to get through with anybody, so you better bring a notepad to jot down the important stuff. There is some clever writing in there, but still. Lokelani was kind of a sore spot for me, given how Brian reacted around her. He basically lied saying Gina wasn’t his girlfriend and they even kissed at one point (and more, ugh). He didn’t even know if Gina was alive or dead (again). Way to make Brian a jerk, devs. The bad guys in this game are none other than the military, led by one-eyed, cigar-smoking, Vietnam-loving Colonel Kordsmeier. A typical solider who yearns for war, he considers himself a man’s man and doesn’t tolerate any weakness from men. He’s harsh on his own son, Leslie, whom he calls Flowerpot and won’t acknowledge him in public as being related. Another villain is a woman called Tarantula, a deadly mercenary with her own small army. She has a few pet tarantulas that she only feeds decomposed flesh, usually from humans. Both she and the Colonel are people you definitely don’t want to run into. They’re following the classic ‘military trying to use alien technology for bad things’ trope because, apparently, Joshua was right. Trantor and the Trantorians exist (and they really have a thing for onion soup). Apparently, they’re a peaceful species whose technology ended up in the wrong hands due to a traitor in their ranks. Speaking of Joshua, he’s back and he’s still a racist Japanese caricature. The developers didn’t even try to make him less offensive. And that’s not all. The word m/idget was used, along with the word ****, which are both derogatory in their own right. A big insult was the use of blatant blackface on Brian. I don’t care if it was stage makeup, a white guy pretended to be a black guy for a significant part of the game. It was massively uncomfortable to watch. Besides the offensive stuff, the game itself lasted a lot longer than it should have. There are several cutscenes that could’ve been left on the cutting room floor, plus a few gameplay sections. And to top it all off, the game ends on the worst kind of cliffhanger. Brian and co. are prepared to take on the bad guys and save Gina, and then the game ends. All that work with no payoff. Who decided that was a good idea? No wonder Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle is considered the worst of the trilogy.

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.

As a fan of point & click adventure games, Haunted seemed very appealing to me. Though considered an 'old' game by today's standards, it still holds up fairly well in terms of visuals and gameplay. I was surprised to see that when Mary was travelling to new locations, she looked as if she was a giant. It pleasantly reminded me of American McGee's Alice: Madness Returns. I'll admit, despite having a dark tone overall, there were some light-hearted moments that made me chuckle. As example would be when William had to kiss Lou and she tricked him into kissing her lips instead of her cheek (ignoring the fact that she couldn't actually SEE him). Victorian children were such stinkers, weren't they? Haunted almost felt like a satirical horror story in that many of the situations Mary got into weren't overly serious. Distracting an uptight woman in order to take a fishbowl was a rather absurd little quest. If I were to criticize anything about this game, it's the use of the word 'g/ypsy' in the latter half. We can go on and on about Haunted being a 'product of its time,' but the fact of the matter is is that the G-word is a slur against Romani people. I understand that the game takes place in the Victorian era and that there was quite a bit of intolerance then, but the developers should have at least included a warning at the beginning mentioning it. Additionally, though not really a criticism, the game could have ended at Mary saving Emily and I would've been satisfied. Going through one last quest to get a music box their parents left for them seemed a little unnecessary. Though it's possible the developers were trying to set things up for a sequel that never happened. Overall, personal grievances aside, Haunted is a game worth playing at least once for fans of the point & click genre.