Mike Bantick
Monday, 01 February 2010 16:39
Entertainment
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It has been a while since I sat down with an old-school point and click adventure, a game where using your brain for thinking rather than ‘twitching’ is important. Runaway: A Twist Of Fate makes for a nostalgic and mature reboot for the genre.
The Monkey Island series of point and click adventures along with other Lucas Arts classics such as Grim Fandango, were a step up from the earlier Sierra branded games, with the game-play maturing beyond the trial and error approach of such titles as Space and Kings Quest.
In modern times however, there has been a dearth of these games, seen as old-school up against increasingly sophisticated shooters or role-play games. But there has been a mini resurgence, with companies such as Telltale Games reimagining the seminal Sam & Max series as well as bringing Wallace & Gromit to latent fans of the point and click adventure.
Similarly, Pendulo Studios has been working on their Runaway series of modern-point-and-click adventures for a couple of years, and the latest one, Runaway: A Twist Of Fate is about to hit the PC market.
I have had the chance to play through the first two chapters of this game as my introduction to the Runaway series. From what I have experienced, Like Monkey Island in its day, R:ATOF is again a step up for the point-and-click style adventure game.
Graphically, R:ATOF has a pleasing cell-shaded cartoon style that colourfully and clearly presents the game world in a way that does not make the game a cluttered pixel hunt for clues. Different scenes including cut-scenes will even have different angles or tracking shots to modernise the look and feel of this game, lifting it out of the stereotype.
For those unfamiliar with the game-play; players are asked to control an onscreen avatar, solve puzzles and manipulate inventory items to progress the story. In this case, this third in the series starts off with Gina beside Brian Basco’s grave, immediately post-funeral.
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