Runaway 3: A Twist of Fate – Review by Ron Davis I have not played Runaway 1, mainly because it is not compatible with Windows 7. Runaway 2 I have played, but was not very impressed, especially when at one point, according to a walkthrough, a certain action should be taken but in fact was not available! This brought the game to a grinding halt. Somehow after much experimenting I managed to get past this, but I still cannot say how I did it! Another thing that disappointed me is that Gina is only seen during the first few minutes of the game.
Some of the action was interesting but not a game that I would want to play again.

Runaway 3 is very different. This is also a third person, point and click game, which is my personal preference as I like to see and control the protagonist(s). Brian and Gina are back in a new adventure. For the first time you have control of Brian and also of his girlfriend, Gina! Mostly these are in alternating chapters but they do eventually appear together towards the end of the game.
A Twist of Fate is an independent new adventure that players who have never played Runaway before will still enjoy, and knowledge of the previous games is not necessary. The game has high resolution backgrounds, more detailed and expressive characters, and more realistic animations. The interface has been improved and offers an inventory allowing you to check each item from every angle possible. There is an ingenious hint system where you see and talk to a Pendulo worker sitting at a computer who offers useful suggestions without giving away the solution to the puzzles. There is a menu at the top of the screen with an icon for help (shortcut F1), one for hotspots (F2), one for inventory (Tab), one showing latest progress (F3), useful if you are returning to the game next day, or some time later when you have forgotten exactly what you were doing, and one for another menu (ESC) for saving, loading, deleting a saved game (I can’t imagine why this would be wanted as there is no restriction as to the number of games which can be saved), closing the game, subtitles on or off, volume and credits. You can walk from one place to another or double click to go immediately to the next screen. A walkthrough is available for this game but rarely needed, even by me who won’t play any game unless a walkthrough is available because I invariably get stuck in a number of places: the hint system is mostly all that is needed to get past a difficult situation. The voice acting is very good, particularly by the main actors for Brian and Gina. Gina is not a sycophantic girlfriend but in fact a very intelligent young lady, and the part is acted very well. I won’t go into the story itself, as you can find this elsewhere if you like, but it is very well done, interesting and keeps the action moving all the time: in fact it’s difficult to stop for meals! I shall certainly be playing the game again later on, and can highly recommend it.