Runaway
A Review by Moogle1
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Oh man.

Oh man.

I don't know if I can review this game. I don't think I can really do it justice. It's not just awful, it's surpassingly awful.

You begin the game in a house-like structure. Someone gives you a copy of the weapon you're already holding, then you leave the house and are presented with a maze of houses, all alike. The NPC next to you gives you some friendly advice: "I thought you were going to find your friends. I think one of them is in his house. It looks exactly as yours."

You've got to be kidding me.

You've got to be kidding me.

As you walk around, you're assaulted by random enemies -- and I mean really random enemies, in the sense that who knows where these guys are coming from? You'll either die in your first battle or gain some levels and be able to traverse the map safely. The enemies occasionally drop items like "dung," which the inventory screen helpfully informs you is useless. You can also buy it from the store, as seen below:

After a good amount of exploration, I found a boss on the east side of the map. Unfortunately, even with my elite equips, I still fell in one hit to his awesome attack.

That's the most powerful sword uses it I've ever seen. I started over, made my way back to the boss, used the handy save point next to him... and F11'd my way past him. I died immediately, since the next map only has one enemy, who also knows how to sword uses it. But you have to give the author credit for one thing:

I don't know about you, but I'm impressed. If you make your way to the lower right corner of this mammoth map, you're greeted by another save point and another boss who sword uses it. Naturally I sneaked right by him thanks to my friend F11. I found myself in a foresty area and was immediately set upon by a bunny. I was killed in one hit.

You'd think our hero's natural camouflage would help out in an area like this, but there are still enemy encounters every few steps.

I almost gave up when I saw this map. Fortunately, the boss and exit to this area are not far from the starting point; just hug the right wall and you're golden. With this boss, I tried a new tactic: the Escape key. Sure enough, I escaped the "gaurdian of this forest" and found myself in a new area.

I could include the map to this area, too, but suffice it to say that it's as big as the last. Fortunately, it was encounter-slim. The Escape key couldn't save me on this boss, so I resorted to F11 again. The next area, a dead forest, was a very reasonable size with an unreasonable encounter rate and three (count 'em) bosses guarding the end. You then reach an industrial city kind of area, and if you weren't using F11 before, you'll want to now because your way is blocked by a few dozen useless NPCs.

The ostensible boss of this area does not fight you. Instead he invites you to follow him to the hideout. You do (you don't have a choice). Once there, he asks if you are ready. Ready for what? For what appears to be the final battle. I'm really not sure, but there didn't seem to be anything else to do here.

Bottom line time. Is Run Away good? Should you play it? No. However, the author of this game (who mysteriously showed up and posted it) has obviously put a lot of time into the game, as evidenced by the huge maps. The graphics aren't great, the battles are imbalanced, the dialogue is bizarre (I don't think English is the author's first language, so let's cut him some slack), but the maps are enormous and yet surprisingly detailed compared with other aspects of the game. If the author took some of the time he spent on the maps and used it on the other areas of the game, this could be very playable.

What would my advice to the author be? The game takes the player through a variety of imaginative areas, which is appealing to me. I'd develop that. Ditch the skeleton of a story that the game currently has and focus on the adventure through fantastic landscapes. Add some variety to the battles. The equipment actually seems very varied, but it's unclear what any of it does before you buy it. Add some special attacks and maybe another party member or two. Oh, and get some new music.

Had I legitimately played through the game without the debug keys, this would probably be the longest OHR game released this year. This alone is impressive. You have probably not put this much work into your own game. The annoyances aside, my fascination with the game kept me entertained throughout: how long could this game be? How much further does it go on?

So despite my recommendation that you not play the game, I'm still inclined to suggest that you download the game and take a look at it. Did you put this much time into your newbie game? Have you put this much time into any game since?

Think about that for awhile.