Runaway 2: The Dream of the Turtle


Runaway 2: The Dream of the Turtle is a 2006 graphic adventure game developed by the Spanish company Pendulo Studios and published by Focus Home Interactive. It is the sequel to '.
The French version of the game was the first available for purchase, followed shortly by the German version, both published in fall 2006. Other versions like the original Spanish version and the English localizations were kept on hold until 2007 due to publishing issues, most notably with its homeland, Spain, where a special collector's edition was released in order to please fans.
Runaway 2 was first released on Microsoft Windows and then subsequently ported to the Nintendo DS in 2007 and Wii in 2009. The sequel and third installment of the series is ', which was released on November 26, 2009.
On October 17, 2013, French publisher and developer Bulkypix released Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle Part 1 for iOS, followed by Part 2 on October 31, 2013.

Gameplay

Plot

Much of Runaway 2 takes place as a flashback sequence, narrated by Brian via instant messages to his hacker friend Sushi Douglas. In possession of $20 million following the conclusion of , Brian and Gina go on vacation in Hawaii. However, as the two take a private jet ride, their pilot experiences health problems over Mala Island. Before they crash, Brian pushes Gina out of the plane with the sole parachute on board, after which the plane lands in a jungle on the island. However, Gina is apparently shot with a tranquilizer dart by a sniper while falling, and her parachute sinks into a lake.
Brian regains consciousness on the plane and finds that the pilot has disappeared. Managing to escape the jungle, Brian stumbles upon an American military camp near the lake where Gina landed. He seeks help from the soldiers there and meets with their leader, Colonel Kordsmeier, who refuses to explain the military's presence on Mala Island and claims to have no information about a parachutist. Convinced that Kordsmeier is lying, Brian investigates the rest of the island. Most of the residents had recently been evacuated by the military, but a few remain: Lokelani, a barmaid and former theatrical makeup artist; surfers Knife and Kai; and Joshua, a man who has recently returned from an alien abduction to the planet Trantor. Joshua claims that he is on a mission from the Trantorians, and Brian agrees to help him.
A local soldier named Zachariah O'Connor becomes convinced that Brian is an undercover superior officer, and he tells Brian that he is waiting to escort an Afro-French scientist named Pignon to Kordsmeier's camp. Lokelani and Brian have sex, after which she uses her skills with makeup to disguise him as Pignon. O'Connor takes him to Kordsmeier, who is fooled by Brian's disguise and authorizes him to explore the camp. Brian is taken to a secured Tiki temple and asked to activate a device called the A.M.E.B.A., but he manages to escape Kordsmeier's surveillance in an attempt to find Gina. Unable to leave the area because of its surrounding military presence, Brian inspects the A.M.E.B.A. and learns that it is a teleportation device. Soon after, Brian discovers a secret chamber guarded by special operatives under the command of a ruthless woman named Tarantula. He overhears a conversation between Kordsmeier and Tarantula that reveals the two as collaborators, and that the two have finally seen through his disguise.
Using the A.M.E.B.A., Brian escapes to the beaches of Mala Island and meets with Joshua, who claims that the Trantorians who had abducted him were behind the teleportation technology. Brian and Joshua escape in a motorboat and travel to Alaska: as part of Joshua's mission from the Trantorians, he must meet with Professor Simon, a reclusive scientist somehow involved with the aliens. Outside the professor's walled compound in Alaska, Joshua eats poisonous berries and forgets the password to enter the area, which leaves Brian stranded. Searching the surrounding area for a solution, Brian meets the bear specialist Ben Wazowski and a violent, condescending loner named Archibald. With help from the two men, Brian prepares a dish of sushi with local salmon, which counteracts the effects of the berries and restores Joshua's memory. Afterward, Brian and Joshua enter Professor Simon's home. The scientist explains that the Trantorians are a scientifically-advanced race that communicates via telepathy. Kordsmeier seeks to use their technology as a weapon, and is holding hostage a substance called Trantonite, to which the Trantorians have a special bond, to pressure the aliens into complying.
Arriving to assassinate Professor Simon on Kordsmeier's orders, Tarantula and her men attack the cabin. Brian and Joshua escape, leaving an injured Professor Simon behind. Their new goal is to find a cache of Trantonite in an ancient Mesoamerican ruin in Palenque—left behind when aliens contacted mankind in antiquity—to remove Kordsmeier's leverage over the Trantorians. Brian's instant-message conversation with Sushi ends during the attack, but, after escaping, he wakes up on Sushi's yacht with no memory of how he got there, as a side-effect of party drugs that Sushi's friend Rutger had slipped him in celebration. While he was unconscious, Sushi had gone to Palenque and learned that the Trantonite had been stolen centuries ago by a pirate named Malantùnez, who had subsequently disappeared. With the help of Sushi and her friends, Brian locates the shipwreck and dives for the Trantonite, but is knocked unconscious by a falling timber.
While unconscious, Brian dreams that he is a captive named "Brushian" aboard Malantùnez's ship. Characters from throughout the game and Runaway: A Road Adventure appear in new guises, and Brian eventually locates the Trantonite. After waking up on Sushi's yacht, rescued by a crewmember, he realizes that he knows the Trantonite's location and successfully locates it on a subsequent dive. The crew prepares to return to Mala Island, deliver the Trantonite to the Trantorians and rescue Gina. Professor Simon appears, having survived Tarantula's attack, and promises to help. The game ends with a cliffhanger as the crew approaches Mala Island.

Characters

Following the international launch of , Pendulo Studios began to plan a sequel. The team had spent a year in a legal battle for Runaways rights with Dinamic Multimedia, its bankrupt publisher, during which Pendulo had laid off almost its entire staff. After procuring the rights in mid-2002, the team had launched Runaway worldwide to great success, and Pendulo's Rafael Latiegui said that the team "wanted to immediately get a video game" again. He noted that a sequel was the "quickest way" because of the groundwork already laid: Runaway had not been developed with a sequel in mind, but a large number of unused ideas nevertheless remained after the first game's release. In January 2003, PC Games reported that Runaway 2 was under consideration and had been partly storyboarded, but that it was not yet greenlit. According to Latiegui, Pendulo was waiting for the rest of the game's global returns before committing to a new title. The first game's commercial performance, combined with the team's desire to explore Runaway further, ultimately became a key inspiration to greenlight a sequel.
Runaway 2 was first announced by DTP Entertainment in August 2003, at the Games Convention in Leipzig. By that time, the game had passed the initial concepting phase and its plot was finished. Runaway 2s subtitle was revealed as The Dream of the Turtle in October 2004. For Runaway 2, Pendulo rehired the "vast majority" of those laid off due to the Dinamic turmoil, according to Rafael Latiegui.
Discussing Brian's change in appearance and personality in Runaway 2, Latiegui said that the team intended him to lose control of his life following the events of Runaway. The team had considered early in the process that Brian might discover himself to be gay in Runaway 2, according to Ramón Hernáez, to create a situation "such that he does not really know who he is anymore." Latiegui said of the final story in Runaway 2: "He very much tries to prove himself with his look. He has gained a more realistic view of the world but, deep down, he is not a very commendable person. In the first game, Brian had a lot of principles and he lost a lot along the way." Hinting in 2007 at the story of Runaway 2s potential sequel, Latiegui said that "we will probably soon see a Brian who may have changed too quickly and he doesn't feel comfortable with himself."
Pendulo opted to use an upgraded version of the same game engine from the first title, which had itself used an upgrade of the Hollywood Monsters engine. The project was initially scheduled for late 2004. Because of Runaways high profits, Pendulo was able to put its own money into Runaway 2, although most of the game's funding was derived from French investments.
Runaway 2 underwent numerous delays, first to mid-2005 and then to late 2005, spring 2006 and September 2006. Discussing these setbacks at the time, Latiegui argued that it was "important for the quality of development" to take precedence over deadlines. Runaway 2 received an international release roughly 8 months before its mid-2007 Spanish launch.

Release and sales

On the week ending November 19, 2006, Runaway 2 debuted at #4 on France's GfK-SELL sales charts for computer games. It placed second and sixth the following two weeks, respectively, before exiting the top 10 from December 4 through December 17. However, the game returned to #9 on the charts during the week ending December 24. Combined sales of Runaway 2 and its predecessor had reached 250,000 units in France alone by April 2009.
Runaway 2s computer version received a "Gold" certification from the :es:La Coalición de Creadores e Industrias de Contenidos|Asociación Española de Distribuidores y Editores de Software de Entretenimiento, for sales of at least 40,000 units in Spain.
Worldwide, Runaway 2 and its predecessor together sold one million copies by April 2009. According to ABC, the Runaway series as a whole—including —had risen to 1.5 million units sold worldwide by March 2010.

Reception

Runaway 2s original computer release received "mixed or average reviews", according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Josué Monchan of Pendulo Studios noted that the game was widely disliked by reviewers and, by 2014, held Pendulo's lowest score on Metacritic.

Ports

Like its computer verison, Runaway 2s ports received "mixed or average" reviews, according to Metacritic.

Legacy

In retrospect, Pendulo's Josué Monchan called Runaway 2 "a horrible game" and "the biggest shit we've ever made". He cited his own dialogue writing as a key flaw, as "comedy is rhythm and had no rhythm." In 2019, Monchan stated that he still occasionally returned to Runaway 2s dialogue to learn from his mistakes. He noted that the entire team learned from Runaway 2s poor reception to take feedback into greater consideration for its future titles, which influenced the design of the next Runaway entry. A third Runaway had been considered during Runaway 2s creation, and Pendulo unofficially confirmed that it was under development in November 2006. It received an official announcement at Games Convention in August 2007; certain outlets initially reported that Runaway 3 would be set in Japan and would take place immediately after its predecessor. The game was first shown in February 2008 at the Game Developers Conference, where its name was revealed as . Pendulo and publisher Focus Home Interactive hoped to attract series newcomers with the numberless title, and Jeux Video reported that the game was "not the direct follow-up" to Runaway 2, but a relatively standalone project. Monchan said that Pendulo "rethought everything" about adventure game development as it created the game, in hopes of avoiding the mistakes of Runaway 2.
A new engine was adopted for A Twist of Fate that offered improved graphics, although the game retained a pre-rendered 2D visual style. A Twist of Fate tells the story of Brian's attempt to escape from an insane asylum, where he is detained due to a murder accusation against him. Unlike the first two Runaway entries, the game features Gina as a playable character alongside Brian. A Twist of Fate was first released internationally in November 2009; its Spanish version, again delayed, launched in early 2010.
Pendulo opted to temporarily retire the Runaway franchise after A Twist of Fate, although the team retained ideas for potential sequels. Latiegui explained in 2011, "After almost a decade with the saga, we needed a break." The team reported that it was particularly tired of Brian as a character. Nevertheless, Pendulo undertook a new Runaway title the following year, under the name Hidden Runaway. Unlike Pendulo's earlier work, Hidden Runaway is a hidden object game aimed at casual players. The game was released for iOS devices in October 2012.