Runaway, The Dream of The Turtle
- March 14, 2007
- Pendulo Studios
Get on Steam"Runaway: The Dream of The Turtle" is a vibrant adventure game that takes players across the globe with charming characters Brian and Gina. The game is filled with humor, intriguing puzzles, and stunning graphics, with over an hour of animated sequences and high-quality sound. Explore hundreds of scenic locations and enjoy cinema-quality dubbing in this delightful gaming experience.
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Reviews
- Beautifully drawn backgrounds and animations enhance the visual experience.
- Some puzzles are satisfying to solve and provide a sense of accomplishment.
- The game features humorous moments and quirky characters that can be entertaining.
- The story is incoherent and filled with unlikable characters, making it hard to engage with.
- Puzzles often rely on illogical solutions and require excessive backtracking, leading to frustration.
- The game suffers from technical issues, including crashes and lag, particularly in later chapters.
- story207 mentions
- 16 % positive mentions
- 72 % neutral mentions
- 12 % negative mentions
The story across the "Runaway" series is widely criticized for being incoherent, convoluted, and filled with random events that detract from its overall quality. Many reviewers note that the narrative lacks direction and often relies on absurd humor and pop-culture references, leading to a disjointed experience that fails to build on the grounded storytelling of the first game. Additionally, the presence of unlikable characters and unresolved plotlines leaves players feeling unsatisfied, with many expressing frustration over the series' reliance on cliffhangers and incomplete narratives.
“The story is fun, characters from the first game are making a comeback, long cut scenes (whether this is a good or a bad thing depends on you, but I believe this is the longest game of the three in the series).”
“The story picks up not far from where 'The Road Adventure' left off with Brian and Gina enjoying the cash they scored at the end of the last ordeal, spending it on an island vacation.”
“A fantastic adventure series with an excellent storyline that's a nice challenge; make sure to play all three in order for continuity.”
“The story is stupid, convoluted, and terrible.”
“The plot spends little time on the rails and is told in large parts in awkwardly paced flashback and exposition dumps.”
“Not because it is about unraveling a government conspiracy about aliens, but because it has no direction or story structure: things just happen out of nowhere without rhyme or reason.”
- humor55 mentions
- 93 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The humor in "Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle" is polarizing, with some players finding it genuinely funny and filled with clever jokes, while others criticize it as crass, dated, and often cringe-worthy. Many reviews highlight a mix of absurd and superficial humor, with some moments eliciting laughter but also a significant amount of dialogue that feels pretentious or overly long. Overall, the game's humor seems to cater to a niche audience, with a blend of slapstick and meta-jokes that may not resonate with everyone.
“Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle is a point-and-click adventure with a humorous story.”
“The humor got better; there are some laugh-out-loud jokes, though some of the dialogue will surely make you cringe.”
“The story is fun, and there are quite a few throwbacks to the first Runaway game which made me laugh.”
“Still not funny.”
“He's an extremely unlikable and unfunny character that I tried to click off a cliff more than a few times.”
- graphics54 mentions
- 48 % positive mentions
- 46 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The graphics of "Runaway: Dream of the Turtle" are widely praised for their vibrant, hand-drawn artwork and smooth animations, showcasing a blend of 2D and 3D elements that enhance the visual experience. However, some players have reported graphical glitches and performance issues, particularly in specific chapters, which can detract from the overall experience. Despite these drawbacks, the game's visuals are considered a standout feature, maintaining a high standard since its 2006 release.
“The only part of the game I can’t criticize is its graphics.”
“If there’s one thing no one usually argues about in Runaway games, it is the stunning visuals, and 'Dream of the Turtle' carries this torch with pride.”
“Beautiful cartoon graphics, full of mind-blowing vistas and millions of lovingly drawn details, are painted in vibrant, lively colors.”
“Also, chapter 4 has a graphical glitch that will cause a huge FPS drop on modern systems. A patch is available online, but it didn't solve it completely for me.”
“My first hour playing the game felt gratifying with its puzzles and challenges, but then when I got to the chapter with the snow, the game was painfully slow because of the falling snow effect/graphics.”
“Aside from a slight improvement in graphics and in-game animations, the game uses the same character design, 2D environments, and a combination of 3D modeled cut scenes alongside 2D dialogue sequences among characters.”
- gameplay26 mentions
- 31 % positive mentions
- 58 % neutral mentions
- 12 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game is a mix of enjoyable and frustrating elements, characterized by heavy dialogue and inventory manipulation, with some fun puzzles to solve. While it offers a nostalgic homage to classic adventure gaming, players may find the mechanics—such as needing to complete certain dialogues before progressing—annoying. Overall, it retains the charm of its predecessor but still presents challenges like pixel hunting and lengthy dialogues, making it a solid yet uneven experience.
“The gameplay gleefully continues down the road started in the first part of the series - being dialogue and inventory manipulation heavy.”
“Gameplay here is a combination of crazy fun (entire chapter 6 homage to one of the classics of adventure gaming is guaranteed to put a smile on your face) and frustrating 'why would you do that!?' moments that feels like a well-traveled, but bumpy road.”
“You'll also get a good value for your money in terms of gameplay hours and some of the puzzles are simply fun to solve.”
“The puzzles are sufferable; however, the mechanic of not being able to do things until a certain dialog has been played is frustrating.”
“Gameplay drags along the positives and the negatives of the first game: long-winded dialogs, pixel hunting objects hidden in plain sight within the beautiful hand-drawn graphics, and running back and forth in the same locations. Despite the fact that this is common in adventure games, Runaway brings in one annoyance that LucasArts and Daedalic fans are not used to.”
“Just like for the first episode, the gameplay has some differences with most point-and-click adventures: you can look in the same place and not find something the first time but find it the second, depending on what your characters know.”
- music20 mentions
- 70 % positive mentions
- 20 % neutral mentions
- 10 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally described as pleasant and unobtrusive, with a nice soundtrack that enhances the atmosphere without being overly memorable. While some players find the themes forgettable, others appreciate the catchy theme song and the way the music adapts to different chapters, contributing positively to the overall experience. However, there are mixed feelings, with some users noting that the music could be improved.
“The music is pleasantly unobtrusive, changing theme from chapter to chapter yet never taking over entirely.”
“As with the case of the first game, there’s a catchy theme song that sets the right mood for the kind of wild romp that’s coming up and making you want to… well… runaway from everyday routine for a spell.”
“Sounds and the music with great voice acting creates the right atmosphere.”
“The sounds and music are forgettable but okay.”
“Music is worse.”
- stability12 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability is severely criticized, with multiple users reporting numerous bugs and glitches that render it unplayable, particularly around chapter 4. Players have experienced freezing issues, slow performance, and flawed puzzles, leading to frustration and an inability to progress. Overall, the game is described as extremely unstable, significantly impacting the gameplay experience.
“Unplayable, caused by a lot of bugs and glitches; I've been stuck on chapter 2.”
“I was unable to finish this one because it was so buggy that I couldn't get past chapter 4.”
“The game was also buggy; snowfall halted the game to a near standstill. I had to use a DirectDraw wrapper to get the game running at full speed.”
- optimization8 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 38 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is widely criticized, with users reporting significant performance issues on modern PCs, particularly with AMD graphics cards, and crashes on NVIDIA systems. Many players express frustration over the lack of developer support for these bugs, leading some to abandon the game entirely. While some suggest using third-party fixes like dgVoodoo, the overall sentiment is that the optimization problems detract from the experience.
“Dropped on the 4th chapter because I don't want to waste my time fixing optimization bugs that the developer doesn't care to fix.”
“Since performance is spotty for AMD video cards, and I even had some crashes with my NVIDIA-based laptop that caused me to lose a good deal of progress, I cannot recommend this game.”
“Best vibes; interesting, but strange story; amazing lokelani and bad performance on modern PC (fix with dgvoodoo).”
- atmosphere5 mentions
- 60 % positive mentions
- 20 % neutral mentions
- 20 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is enhanced by high-quality sound effects and music, which effectively immerse players in various environments, such as caves or underwater settings. However, some users feel that the overall atmosphere is marred by a lethargic tone and clichéd storytelling, detracting from the experience.
“Sound effects are of excellent quality, reflecting if our heroes speak in the large cave or with a diving suit on, building up the atmosphere and immersion.”
“The sounds and the music, combined with great voice acting, create the right atmosphere.”
“The sound effects and music work together beautifully to enhance the overall atmosphere of the game.”
“The lethargy-infused atmosphere, combined with a trite story and characters, makes it hard to stay engaged.”
- character development4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
Character development in the game has been criticized for being poor, with reviewers noting a lack of significant growth or change in characters. The visuals, while slightly improved, still rely on outdated character designs and a mix of 2D and 3D elements that do not enhance the narrative depth.
“I think other reviewers expressed it better about the poor character development.”
“Aside from a slight improvement in graphics and in-game animations, the game uses the same character design, 2D environments, and a combination of 3D modeled cut scenes alongside 2D dialogue sequences among characters.”
- grinding2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively frustrating, describing it as a "teeth-grindingly annoying slog" that detracts significantly from the overall experience, even when using a guide to navigate the challenges.
“All these flaws compound and exacerbate each other in a way that makes the overall experience a teeth-grindingly annoying slog, even with a guide in hand (the recommended way to play the game, for your sanity's sake).”
