Runaway, The Dream of The Turtle Reviews

What did I expect: exciting and dynamic adventure with hot bimbo, interesting characters, bright events, simple and fun story with cartoon villains. What did I get: babysitting obnoxious middle aged freak in a company of other annoying middle aged dudes, in a very sluggish, convoluted and boring story, with stereotypical aliens and aged TF2 Sniper as a villain. Huh... where do I even start? Well, obviously, I've seen those negative reviews. But you never know, right? Maybe it's another hidden gem, overlooked and misunderstood by a crowd? So I dived in and... At least initially everything seemed more or less alright. Not without issues, but the first 3 chapters were ok. But the 4th chapter is [b] that [/b] point, where everything goes south. Not only previous issues hit critical mass, but new, even bigger issues appear. First, the gameplay. I don't mind if protagonist can't perform certain action, until he gets so called 'aha!' moment in a story, as long as it seems reasonable. What I'n not ok with - when the game sets certain rules and then breaks it. For example, in the 4th chapter, our charming snaggle-toothed companion forgets important piece of info. Why? - sudden amnesia. We try to exhaust all dialog options with him, but no matter what we ask - Brian says that it's useless and he needs to find another solution. [b]OK[/b] I keep playing, speak with the local, learn about solution... but then I hit the wall. After a #$% of wasted time and trials and errors, I finally learn that this solution is not enough. It must be 'slightly' improved. How do you discover this? You need to go back to the dude with [u][i][b]amnesia[/b][/i][/u] and ask him about his distant past. Excuse me? EXCUSE ME?!! Another example. Same 4th chapter. You need to obtain X item. And you can only get it with another Y item. Tha's the [b]only[/b] possible way. We spend roughly 2/3 of the chapter to get Y in order to obtain X. But when we finallt get Y - Brian just refuses to use it. Then I absolutely accidentally dicovered, that at first, you have to make an obviously failed attempt and try to get X without Y. Like why? This option was never brought to the table. It's totally senseless. There were no any dialogs that it is possible to get X without Y. It was obviously impossible. What the... Gameplay won't become better later on, but enough about it. Let's talk about the story. The true 'meat' is here. And again, the first 3 chapters storywise were more or less acceptable as well. But then, at the end of the 4th chapter it breaks the dumb meter. Suddenly we encounter comical aliens, like in "Destroy all humans". Then we are teleported to the other end of the world with amnesia (how refreshing). How the game explains this mess? Either with flashbacks, or just by saying "don't worry about it anymore" (literally words from the dialog). And it won't become any better later either. It looks like the devs had no idea how to continue this mess and eventually we get a vinaigrette of unifinished plots, ideas, settings, etc. Ah yeah, we also get a lot of long and boring dialogs with tons of useless and absolutely not fun information. At certain point the story just ends on a cliffhanger. But honestly, if the story is a mess like this - you are just glad that it has finally ended. Anyhow. Even most characters are rather unpleasant here. Losers, dumbs, cuckold, freak, hateful hermit, unsociable brat, mary-sue... Brian also turnt into not that pleasant dude. In the 4th chapter we have to orchestrate a rather nasty trap for an absolutely harmless man, who helped us a lot and even invited to his house. As a result of this trap, the dude will be maimed, r##ed and potentially killed. And Brian also regrets that he missed an opportunity to film this and post on the Internet. Hilarious, right? Tags [Funny] and [Comedy] fit just well. And then we, as a sign of gratitude, will steal his belongings. What can I say in the end? I assume it is too late to dissuade you to buy it, because most likely you've already got full Pendulo pack at good price. Thus, at least make sure that you will play it with a guide at your hand. Those reviewers who finished this game with a guide, actually made a very smart choice. Coz I finished it without guides and all I got is frustration and regrets about wasted time. And just in case - you can safely play the 3rd game right after the 1st one. Nothing of value will be lost.