Maybe it's the current gaming mood I'm in, and maybe it's because I'm lingering for a more serious adventure with serious graphics. But I dunno, I'm finding runaway 2 a bit of a yawn. The comedy is lame, really bad gags and script. I think runaway 1 was better in that respect. Too many multiple choice dialogue questions and answers, including remembering a bunch of names solely by repeating and repeating until you finally choose the right answers. Uninteresting location? Depends on what games you've played before. Personally, I'm fed up with being on tropical islands. I'll definitely finish it and no doubt be thinking it was better than I'm giving it credit for, it's happened before. But right now, I feel like I'm just going through the motions of standard point n click without any excitement for how the game will progress.

[Owskie]

i found runaway 1's second half to be a real yawn...

[bored]

Not only boring,but even worse.I played Runaway I 3 times,as for Runaway II...let me just say I eas hoping it would end sooner.Big dissapointment,great expectations

[kuze]

The demo of Runaway II was boring. And if a demo is boring, I won't even bother with the full version.

[Wouter]

I never finished runaway 1, but in a strange quest to help keep the adventure platform alive, i bought runaway 2 (i shouldn't but can't help myself). Let's just say that i played it even less than the first part. I lost interest in the beginning, when i met the army dude somewhere on that island.

It's frustrating in a way. Graphicswise, it's really good. But i find the story, characters and humor so flat and non-existant. If you're doing a comic adventure with a cartoon look, it should at least be funny.

What the adventure genre lacks is good story writers (genre Ragnar Tornquist ) and people who can make it a good laugh (genre the old Lucasarts).

[Erwin_Br]

Originally Posted by Wouter

What the adventure genre lacks is good story writers (genre Ragnar Tornquist ) and people who can make it a good laugh (genre the old Lucasarts).

And more importantly: people who learn from their previous games. And people who're in contact with their audience. I'm not saying a developer should listen to every complaint, but it can't hurt to use at least some of the feedback from a previous title.

--Erwin

[noknowncure]

Originally Posted by Roman5

Too many multiple choice dialogue questions and answers, including remembering a bunch of names solely by repeating and repeating until you finally choose the right answers.

I have no idea how I managed it, but I muddled my way through the name quiz in one go. It was a pure, pure fluke and I was so glad I didn't have to do it properly.

Personally I think one of the game's major flaws was pacing. At least with the first - taking the form of a road movie story - you moved from location to location with some sense of urgency.

In the sequel, your initial motivation is: Find Gina. This starts solidly enough, but then you find yourself completely losing focus, and drifting from location to location, seemingly with all the time in the world. Just leisurely flirt with the barstaff, have some souvenir photos taken, chat with some surfers... Fair enough the priorities change, but it creates an uneven story that jumps from one idea to another with little consistency.

[MasterLoo]

Originally Posted by Wouter

(...)and people who can make it a good laugh (genre the old Lucasarts).

or the people who wrote the funny lines for Broken Sword 1 and 2(I guess Dave Cummins, Steve Ince and Joathan Howard). If there is one game that makes me laugh everytime I play it, it's Broken Sword 1 and 2

Oh yeah, while I'm at it. Does anybody know what Dave Cummins is up to these days? I can't seem to find out what he has done since 1997, which is for shame because my gut feeling tells me he is a very good writer.

Also, about Runaway 2. Yeah, I found it boring too. I liked the first game, even though I felt there were too much pixel hunting for me to stick with it. When I spent like 5 min getting everything off the shelf in the hospital - with a walkthrough, I just got tired of it and put it aside. But at least everything else seemed very good(I played it a bit longer with a walkthrough just to see what it was all about).

Originally Posted by Roman5

I'll definitely finish it and no doubt be thinking it was better than I'm giving it credit for, it's happened before.

I knew it! I'm really liking this game now. *embarassed*. I spoke too early and didn't realise how diverse the locations would become after chapter 1.

[Nelza]

Originally Posted by noknowncure

Just leisurely flirt with the barstaff, have some souvenir photos taken, chat with some surfers...

Not only leisurely flirt with the barstaff but

Spoiler:

have sex with her too? What would Gina think if she finds out that instead of rushing to rescue her Brian's taking his sweet old time cheating on her instead.

[Dyng]

Originally Posted by Erwin_Br

And more importantly: people who learn from their previous games. And people who're in contact with their audience. I'm not saying a developer should listen to every complaint, but it can't hurt to use at least some of the feedback from a previous title.

--Erwin

Yeah, I heard they repeated all the mistakes of the first game with pixel hunting and annoying puzzles.

The first game was a bit charming, but the puzzles had me on the brink of an aneurysm on a regular basis (I had to resort to a walkthrough to find the wooden plug in the cabin where you're trapped, and the fill-the-engine-with-water-puzzle was just plain dumb). When I read the reviews for the second game saying they made all the same mistakes I knew I'd never as much as touch that game...

[Synesthesia]

Originally Posted by Roman5

Maybe it's the current gaming mood I'm in, and maybe it's because I'm lingering for a more serious adventure with serious graphics. But I dunno, I'm finding runaway 2 a bit of a yawn.

Haven't visited the forum in a while, but runaway 2 was the last adventure title that I was eager to fire up.

well, I gave up trying to enjoy the game after about two or three hours. I too thought it was just me, maybe my taste for games in general was starting to wain.

but no, the game is in fact a sadistic time vacuum. playing this game is an entirely pointless activity that will leave you feeling empty and cheated. put all the clocks in your house back three hours and watch american sitcoms for the rest of the evening. You'll feel less violated.

[Ariel Type]

Looks like you guys are too lazy I understand that games like Fahrenheit or Dreamfall set new standards for "fast adventure games", with easy puzzles and many non-interactive sequences, but to call Runaway boring..
Personally I foung R2 a very enjoyable experience, much more enjoyable then the first one. Pendulo actually listened to the complaints and improved every aspect of the game (except for, maybe, the dialogs).
Puzzles are logical, inventory is pickable (not in the "right order", unlike R1), characterisation is ten times richer, and humor is approriatley black. The story is a mix of different Hollywood cliches - no need to take it seriosly, that's what the last part is all about (though the MI-parody is rather weak).
The best thing is, developers didn't try to follow modern trends, to make the game "for every gamer". It is completely independent and hardcore adventure for fans, by fans. And it works extremely well as it is.

[Stoofa]

I kind of hated this game. Most of the attempts at humour were terribly tedious and adolescent. The bear thing? Maybe a 13 year old boy would find that funny, not the rest of us.

The linear inventory puzzles irritated me to no end. Click a on b and Brian whines and does nothing. Click b on a and voila, it works. Near the middle of the game I was so un-entertained that I grabbed a walkthrough and sped to the end.

[sultanbadza]

Runaway 2 is the second worst game I ever played... Wait, it's the worst game I ever played...

Just kidding.
But it's not really something

[Valynis]

Wow, that's really weird, all that negativity about Runaway2... I had a lot of fun playing that game with my 11 year old son. The story was interesting and the jokes were pretty entertaining. Frankly, it had been a long while since we had fun with an adventure game like that.

One detail: we played the french version and we're french-canadians. The french version is pretty "France-slang" and "France-accent" and that made it even funnier for us. Even funnier was the voice actor they hired to play the bear researcher. That guy attempted to simulate the french-canadian way of speaking and I'd say he had 1/3 of the pronunciations wrong. I applaud the attempt (and the intentions behind it) but they should have hired a true french-canadian for that job. But I'm not complaining.

I won't try to understand all the negative feedback on that game here... I just hope Pendulo will conclude the storyline regardless.

Oh, PS: Chapter two is the widest chapter and that can be a drag. My advice is to play that game with other people. Ideas come quicker.