Runabout 3 Neo-Age

Don't let the title mislead you, Runabout 3 is actually the fourth game in the series. Our last romp in the Runabout world was the enjoyable, though flawed, Super Runabout for Dreamcast. Just about everything you've come to expect from the series is continued with this installment. The physics are still insane with crashes that often result in cars flipping and flying in all manners. Hardly realistic but I'd be lying if I said it didn't put a smile on my face. Though it can get a little ridiculous when a parked car will flip a hundred feet in the air if you tap into it going about 5km/h. It's all in good fun, just be advised, if you are looking for realism, take a drive in real life because you certainly won't find it here.

Also returning is the great surf rock music done by everyone's favorite: The Surf Coasters! If there is one thing that has stayed consistent throughout the series, it's been the music. Fans of Surf Rock akin to Dick Dale will find a lot to like here. It can seem a bit out of the ordinary while plowing through other cars, but trust me, it fits. I can't imagine playing the game with any other soundtrack. The only downside is that the pieces can be a bit short and just as in the past games, they loop. After a while repetition will set in, especially on the level where you have to tail a women. It is a short piece featuring music you would expect to hear in a spy movie. The keyword being short. By the time you finish the stage it will have looped many times over. After playing that stage a few times it got really nerve racking. The fact that that particular mission is dreadfully boring didn't help things along.

Unfortunately, the somewhat odd handling of cars returns as well. While it is improved over Super Runabout it still seems a little off and I can imagine many a gamer becoming frustrated. You just have to get used to it. Sure, it may not be the best, but there is nothing you can do about it. It hardly ruins the experience, you'll just have to spend some time getting acquainted with each of the car's handling. Each car handles differently, some better than others with the tank being the worst. It should be mentioned that you do have the ability to go to the garage and manually adjust the handling, among other things. Those of you who were upset that you could no longer use the D pad in Super Runabout will be happy to know that digital control has returned. For some reason I've always felt that the Runabout series controlled better with the D pad. The analog control is just too touchy.

Runabout 3 ditches the story mode found in Super Runabout in favor of the mission based stages from the earlier titles. It also ditches the bright, sunny and bumpy San Fran locale for a dark, murky and relatively flat New York setting. Much like the Crazy Taxi series, the move to New York isn't exactly a pleasant one. It kind of loses something with the new environment. All of the insane hills found in San Francisco are replaced with flat boring roads. To compensate for this, small trailer ramps have been spread throughout levels to give you some much needed air. Many famous New York hot spots have been recreated for this game. Everything from Times Square to Central Park, complete with smashable horse drawn carriages. It's a shame that they were split into sections rather than connected for one big virtual New York. Each mission takes place in a certain section of the city with the exits blocked off. Stage size varies but for the most part they are all of reasonable size. The only exception being the somewhat small Central Park area.

There are about nine different mission objectives, each featuring multiple difficulties. The higher difficulties either add objectives or make current objectives tougher. Completing these higher difficulties unlocks new vehicles. The missions are varied, but they all boil down to either collecting something and getting to the goal or simply getting from point A to point B while meeting a certain score. Runabout 3, like the others, has an arcade feel and it isn't about depth so much as flat out action. The best part of the game is simply driving through the city streets with reckless abandon. You are racing against the clock to complete your missions. If fast paced arcade style games aren't your thing, you won't enjoy Runabout 3. As is evident by the over the top crashes, there isn't a lick of simulation to be found in this game.

Fans of the series will be glad to hear that the ever popular "Collect X number of items and reach the goal in time" mission is represented along with a few new ones, two of which deserve special mention. The first is without a doubt my favorite, next to the final mission that is. In fact, I like it so much I wish a game were made around this mission. You have to locate and then tail a kidnapper driving around Central Park. It's game over if you hit his car, no matter how soft a tap, so you've gotta be careful to be close, but not too close. Once he gets a set distance ahead of you (depending on difficulty) a timer will count down from 30. If you don't get back within the "safe" distance before time runs out, it's game over. For the easy difficulty you have to stay within 100 km of him, on medium you have to be within 50 km and on hard you have to do the same, only without hitting anything at all. After tailing the subject for a while he will stop to make a phone call. Now is your chance, ram the car and rescue the hostage! After that you must make a mad dash for the goal before the kidnapper can catch you. The resulting chase is a blast, especially on the hard difficulty. You have to swerve in and out of traffic, dodge cop cars and make sure not to hit anything, all while outrunning the kidnapper.

Continuing the "Tail the Suspect" gameplay of the last mission, this next mission gives you the job of a "Private Investigator" and you must follow a woman around town while she goes shopping. I mention this mission not because it is enjoyable, but because it is one of the most tedious things I've ever done. While the Kidnapping mission is relatively fast paced and exciting, this mission is absurdly slow and boring. Her trip around town takes approximately eleven minutes. You have to follow behind within a set distance and during the trip she will randomly make stops. At these stops you have to watch what she buys (denoted by a small picture over her head), because at the end, you will be asked questions about her trip in Japanese. Answer wrong and you have to sit through the eleven minutes again and take another chance answering the question. Process of elimination will not work because her purchases are random. To make matters worse, the women always takes the same path through the city. I like the concept it just wasn't handled correctly. In a game like Runabout where it's all about speed and weaving in and out of traffic, or through traffic as the case may be, throwing in a slow paced level with no action is just a bad move. The length of the mission doesn't exactly lend itself to replayability either, something that is definitely present in other missions. I was bored the first time through, why would I want to go through it again? I'll live without whatever can be unlocked via this mission. Thankfully the final mission more than makes up for this, it is a pure adrenaline rush, especially on hard. I'll let you find out the point of that mission on your own.

Speaking of unlockables, Runabout 3 follows in the tradition of rewarding players with new vehicles, among other things. You can unlock some items by simply beating the mission. Since you have to complete missions to progress in the game, unlocking these items is easy. The challenge comes in unlocking the other hidden items. As before the methods to unlock these items range from getting through a mission in a ridiculously short amount of time to going through the entire mission without hitting anything. There is also my favorite way to unlock stuff which is by causing as much damage as possible. There are a total of at least 20 different vehicles in the game. Further continuing the tradition of past games, there are some rather strange vehicles at your disposal, including my personal favorite, a speed boat. Yes, a speed boat. No, it does not run on water, you actually drive it on the streets. It's really odd seeing a boat drive through Central Park with water spraying out from it's motor as though it were on water. Yes, the Tank does make an appearance, as does the series favorite yellow and black Ram truck. There is a nice variety of vehicles, all of which are customizable and feature multiple paint schemes, which you unlock. Some vehicles also have actions, such as the tank's machine gun. Sometimes these actions must be unlocked by completing a certain goal within the game. An example of the unlockable actions is the Tank's canon. The canon is great for clearing a congested street, one blast will send vehicles flying through the air. If you are a good shot you can even blast an already airborne vehicle to send it flying even further.

Despite the jump to the superior hardware, Runabout 3 barely matches Super Runabout in terms of graphics. At times it even looks worse. The graphics are muddy resembling a Nintendo 64 game minus the fog. The frame rate is on the low side and sadly takes a pretty big hit when the action gets intense. Pop up is also a common issue, as is draw in though both are understandable. I saw something in Runabout 3 that I had hoped we'd overcome with the new generation of videogame systems: flat trees. What I mean by "flat trees" are those two sprites placed in a cross shape that are supposed to represent trees. You know the ones, they were so common on Saturn and Psx. They look horrible and should never be used. Your vehicle looks pretty good, but all of the others look like they came straight out of a Playstation game. Let's not even talk about the pedestrians who could easily be recreated on a Gameboy Advance. Clipping issues have also popped up here and there. Overall, the game is hardly a looker. It could easily be done on Dreamcast and probably even Playstation with some minor graphical downgrades. Thankfully, save for a few moments here and there the graphics don't really mar the experience. The frame rate isn't much of a problem. It is rather low to begin with, but it only begins to hamper the experience when it drops. Thankfully, it rarely drops and when it does you are usually spinning out of control anyway.

The language barrier is rather low for the most part. Mission objectives are in Japanese at the briefing screen but they are in English on the pause menu. Menus are in English apart from a few bits of Japanese here and there. The only slight problem can come from the Private Investigator mission. At the end of the mission you are asked about what the subject did on her drive around town. It's usually a simple question, but if you can't read any Japanese you will have to use trial and error. Considering the mission takes eleven minutes to complete and one wrong answer makes you retry, this could be frustrating. The rest of the missions are straight forward enough so I wouldn't pass on the game solely due to this little problem.

The game is rather short, but there are 58 items to unlock ranging from new vehicles and paint schemes to actions such as the aforementioned Tank's canon. Plus you can always go for the high score or best time. As with past games in the series, destroying other objects nets you points. On top of that, you have the free run mode where you can have a leisurely drive around the city, or smash everything to bits without worrying about the time limit. Free run mode is also a nice way to find short cuts. Depending on your skill level, the missions can be completed in a few hours on the easiest difficulty. If you are the type who plays a game through once and then never touches it, you may want to keep that in mind. Personally, the length of the game is just fine for me. It is just the right length to replay over and over again without becoming boring. Also included is an object list. Every time you smash something it is added to your object list. For the "completionist" gamer out there, you can always try to smash every object in the game to fill up your Object List. Many of the objects are hidden throughout the levels and can be tough to find.

So, do I recommend Runabout 3? Yes, I do. It's not graphically impressive nor is it mind blowing, but it is fun and that's all that counts. It's a nice addition to the series and probably my favorite thus far. The game is flawed, no doubt about it, you just have to look past those flaws and you'll find a fun game. Fans of the series will likely eat this game up, but on the same token, if you hated previous installments, you won't find much to like here. It's more of the same over the top action only in a new setting with slightly improved gameplay. Heres hoping for another installment with an improved frame rate.

©2002 Ed Finnegan

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