Run (+ Full Walkthrough)

This is the entire game. Seriously, these 20 minutes is a full walkthrough, start to finish.

Sometimes, games get defined as “art” due to a fleeting, intangible quality that surrounds them. Often, the experience is more evocative and ambient than just merely entertaining, which separates them from lesser introspective media. However, there’s a game called simply “Run” that is neither of those things. It tries to be anything, but other than a good soundtrack and a decent thought, this short game is low on replay value and hindered by itself.

Part 1.

This game is set up in 3 different elements that recur in cycles to entice players. The plot is handled in the first part. A character runs on top of a single line of text that tells the story of the game in a literary form. The drawn characters and minimal setting get enhanced through a captivating score. However, that’s all that’s appealing in this strange platform section. As the character has to overcome jumps and evade enemies while playing, the line is harder to read than it already is through its wavy setup. More so, as words float or fall away, getting a split second of time to piece things together break the consistency even more. Lastly, during daylight segments, the yellow background will worsen things as well, leaving these short stages to be desired.

A second part offers a mini-game, themed after a few classic arcade games such as Snake, to collect sunlight. Simple puzzles are thrown into the mix and certainly at a later stage, this will be the more action heavy portion of the game. For instance, the Space Invaders game will leave a residue can be used as a platform by a stick figure. It’s a basic thought, but it works as a way to collect needed goods.

Part 2.

Sunlight is used for the third cycle, which is based on farming. Now, the player is in charge of a small tribe threatened to be obliterated. In order to survive, the village must farm enough food before the sun goes down once more. With simple actions pressed for tilling, sowing, growing and harvesting, players must manage time efficiently as the clock runs down. Once this is completed, the villagers will tally the food and insufficient stock will kill the subtracted rest of the populace. Within this formula lies the entirety of the game.

There are a few large issues for this game to succeed. Yes, its caring management of a mini-civilization could work, in theory. However, the game is both too simple and too short to really become enamored with it, if at all. As the text is tiresome to grasp, a big chunk of written emotion is already lost. Aside from that, a full game lasts a total of 20 or so minutes. One or perhaps two games might not reach the full total of 25 saved civilians, but after that it should be feasible to cut through the basic patterns of the game. A replay value afterwards would be hard to understand, as there is nothing renewing or captivating to return to. That leaves it to be a fleeting experience of up to 1 hour, with problems in several sections, such as a lackluster platform control.

Part 3.

It should not come as a surprise that Run comes from someone that worked on oddball MMO Glitch, seeing its ersatz artsy appeal. The developer is also known to participate in Game Jam events, where entire releases are made in one or two days. In this Jam context, but only in that context, would this flimsy adventure be remotely passable. Anywhere else, even the most kind-hearted fan of esoteric concepts might wince at this deadlocked title, for it is doomed to falter by its many confinements.

You can either play Run for free in a browser or opt to support the developer with a Desura version for merely $3.99, which supports fullscreen mode. The browser version is here.

Daav Valentaten, NoobFeed. (@Daavpuke)