[h1][i]“It's not easy doing this every single day... and getting a reaction.”[/i]
~Roman Reigns[/h1]
Mistakes. It sucks making 'em. Especially when it's about public stuff and there's no way to pretend they never happened. There's also a good thing, though—the fact that we can learn from them. The biggest problem with Runaway 2 was that Pendulo didn't learn from the things they did wrong in the first one. Puzzles became more confusing, pixel hunting became crazy (which was a [i]huge[/i] problem on the Nintendo Wii, to which the game was ported a bit later), etc. Pendulo also committed a heck of a lot of new mistakes in the sequel, like turning the story into the typical cheap stuff we often see in second-grade European adventures. Therefore, despite being ported to both the Wii [i]and[/i] DS (the DS version was actually released first), the game didn't feel nearly as good as it was supposed to. Runaway 3 was kind of a crucial moment for the series. It was time to either admit the mistakes and aim for the better, or embrace the infamy. Thankfully, Pendulo chose the first option.
Even though the Wii and DS ports of Runaway 2 weren't made by Pendulo (the game was ported by Cyanide, the studio behind Styx and Call of Cthulhu), it looks like Pendulo learned a lot from 'em. The thing is, the Wii version of Runaway 2 had some sort of a hint system, which allowed us to ask Joshua for help at any moment. Those hints were poorly written (most of the time it was something like “the card belongs in the slot!”), but it was better than nothing, since the game was made for PCs and finding the little items in lower resolution on a TV screen (the Wii was designed for older TVs) was painful. Now, the DS version (like I said, it was released first; hence I have absolutely no idea why they treated the Wii version like that) handled it differently. It didn't have the hints, but... it got hotspot highlighting. You know, that thing that was introduced in Simon the Sorcerer II: The Lion, the Wizard and the Wardrobe and allowed us to see all the active elements on the screen. Nowadays, it's an expected feature in these kinds of games (something I heavily disagree with, since I believe that a healthy amount of pixel hunting is good for dopamine income as long as puzzles are nicely designed), but, well, it was only the 2000s. When it was time for Runaway 3, though, the 2000s were almost gone (man, time sure flies...), so... yeah. Pendulo [i]finally[/i] adopted the new mechanics. Runaway 3 has both the hint system from the Wii version of Runaway 2 [i]and[/i] hotspot highlighting (a bit clunky, inferior to what we've seen in Daedalic's titles and even cheaper things like So Blonde, but still) from the DS version. As Madea Simmons often says, [i]hallelujer![/i]
Pendulo also changed the engine. The new one is far from being perfect (increasing the resolution, for example, will only make the game run in a small window with no option to stretch or use anti-aliasing of any kind), but it [i]does[/i] allow hand-drawn 2D backgrounds with real-time 3D cel-shaded models on top, so, there's that. Vera Domínguez, who performed the theme song for the first game, is also back. Without the Liquor band, sure, but still, she's here. Heck, even the DS version (this time there was no version for the Wii) felt much better than what we've seen in the previous game. The DS's screen still was a bit too small for the task (hotspot highlighting, for example, was way too easy to overlook), but the dialogues were properly re-designed for DS standards (in Runaway 2, it was way too easy to choose the wrong dialogue because the DS touchscreens were rather crappy). Pendulo also added lots of voiced scenes—something that the DS version of Runaway 2 didn't have. So, that's it? The series finally regained its footing and Runaway 3 is exactly what we all wanted from Runaway 2? Unfortunately, no.
The biggest problem with Runaway 3 is that Runaway 2... well, exists. Pendulo did try to pretend it doesn't for most of the time here, but still, the damage was done and it was massive. There was just no way to avoid all that alien bull we've seen in The Dream of the Turtle. While the first Runaway tried to be stylish and imitate some famous movies, the third one was doomed to inherit some of its predecessor's bad genes. And yes, it feels rather awful. Not nearly as bad as in Runaway 2, but still awful. And it's a problem.
I mean, obviously it's a problem, but it's actually a much bigger problem than you may think. When Runaway became a thing for the first time, the point-and-click genre was dying. By the moment Runaway 3 arrived, Daedalic (who started with a movie-based adventure, 1½ Ritter: Auf der Suche nach der hinreißenden Herzelinde) realized their true potential and had already released a couple of very solid titles (Edna & Harvey: The Breakout and The Whispered World). Games like Secret Files and NiBiRu: Age of Secrets managed to prove that cheap European adventures, while still being cheap, can be at least playable. The Broken Sword series returned to its roots (because screw The Sleeping Dragon) in The Angel of Death. Bill Tiller (The Curse of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, The Dig) came back with the buggy, unfinished, yet still cute A Vampyre Story. Ukraine's Frogwares was killing it with the Sherlock Holmes games. For those who like their games dark, the Black Mirror series had just brought its second installment. And, of course, the indie market finally became a thing and we started to see gems like Dave Gilbert's Blackwell series and Vince Twelve's Resonance. Heck of a lot of games to choose from, huh? Hence my point: at the moment Runaway 3 came out... there was no real need for it. The genre wasn't in need of being saved anymore. If anything, point-and-click games became popular again. So... yeah. Runaway 3 did feel like Pulp Fiction (one of the movies the first Runaway tried to imitate), but only a very specific part of it: that part with Travolta that became a popular meme.
That doesn't really mean anything, though. I mean, Runaway 3 didn't flop. It didn't kill the studio either. And who cares about the competition? Point-and-click games aren't long anyway. Maybe it's a hidden gem. Maybe it's one of those games that'll make you feel like, “OMG, WHY DID I MISS IT?!” You know what? No. Not at all. It's just a generic point-and-click experience. Not nearly as silly as its predecessor, but without a single special thing about it. There is a word for such stuff, and the word is “meh.” The puzzles are meh, the story is meh (if anything, it's barely there), and the characters didn't become any better; therefore, again, meh. Actually, you know what? Even Pendulo's own Carlos Hernández, who worked on art and animations, publicly said that he couldn't stand Brian (the main character who always felt like a cheap George Stobbart rip-off) and really didn't want Pendulo's next game to be another Runaway. See? Even the parents didn't like their child. Nobody needed Runaway 3. Nobody.
Is it bad, though? Absolutely not. It's solid. The problem is—while being painfully uninspired—the game just fails to make you care. You just don't want to know what'll happen next. You know how pro wrestling works? A rather strange analogy, I know, but still. The same exact wrestler can shine as both a babyface (a “good guy”) and a heel (a “villain”). This means it doesn't really matter which kind of reaction they generate—good or bad. The crowd can cheer, the crowd can boo... it's all fine. The silence—that's what wrestlers fear. As sad as it is, the Runaway series ended exactly like that: in silence. Is it playable? Sure (if anything, while playing I kept thinking that I wanted it to be a worse game, because that would make me feel at least something). Is it worth your time? No. Go play those other games you didn't finish. Even if they aren't better, at least they won't be nearly as uninspired as what we got in Runaway 3. Dixi.
