Which Game in the franchise is the best?

[Lucasen811]

I was wondering which game is the best in the franchise or whether i should just get them all. I'll get them from g2a where they are all 1-3 bucks.

[Dr. Mircow]

TL:DR - Like point 'n' click games? Then get the first game. If you really enjoy it, grab the rest. Simple.

Long answer based on my experience:

When I put my rose-tinted glasses, I find Runaway 1 the most memorable. The characters, locations and the twist in the story were at the very least satisfactory, albeit the game's tone was wacky/campy at times. Do expect maybe one or two annoying characters. Personally, I felt I was actually going through an adventure. The game has flaws though, for instance, a few puzzles can be convoluted for the sake of complexity. And lots of pixel-hunting. Lots. This game, in some aspects, did not age too well. Like the animations in the cutscenes are pretty horrible for today's standards and the audio is pretty poor. But, it is definitely worthwhile for any avid point 'n' click fans. Especially to see where it all started all. It probably won't blow you away, but after all the effort going through its shortcomings, you should be satisfied like I was by the end.

Runaway 2 is probably the best looking out of the three in terms of scenary. Gameplay-wise, it is pretty identical to the previous game. A couple of things were improved and tweaked, but at its core it is the same. So, again, expect pixel-hunting for example. My only real problem with this game, which was addressed by others as well, was that the story pulls an "Indigo Prophecy" in the second half of the game, which for me at least it ruined most of the experience. In case you don't know what that means without spoilers, well, let's just say that lots of things just simply made no sense or were completely absurd. The storyline ends up like a complete mess at the end.

Runaway 3 is perhaps the best Runaway game, but not the ultimate Runaway experience. I'll get to this statement later. It is the most polished game, especially in gameplay, and is also (kind of) a retcon of the series. The first two games had, like I mentioned, a wacky/campy tone which by and large was acceptable. It was an artistic choice; it had a good balance between being serious and not too serious at the same time. Runaway 3 fixed all the bad aspects of the storylines from the previous two games (especially Runaway 2) in a way which makes things plausable again, thus it is probably the most "normal" game, plot-wise. In fact, you don't need to play the second game to understand what happens here because they do a recap of what happened previously up to this point. Runaway 3 is truly great, despite being the shortest (and easiest) game in the series. Back to that statement, Runaway 3 proved that the developers listened to the fans' feedback and poured their soul into it. I kind of wanted a bit more out of Runaway 3 because it felt like they spent too much time retcon-ing the series in this one, so for me it felt a less memorable experience. If they were to make a Runaway 4, that's when they might have made the ultimate Runaway game because after Runaway 3, the developers finally had a clear vision of what a Runaway game is all about. Sadly, I don't think there will be a Runaway 4 any time soon I'm afraid.