This review was originally published on the Console Purist Facebook group on May 30th, 2020.
Another week, another PlayStation Basement! PlayStation Basement is a weekly review of games for the original PlayStation that are somewhat obscure, unusual, or unknown. Games are rated Good, Bad, or Neutral to emphasize the review itself. Now, let’s go!
Today we return to the world of Runabout (or Felony 11-79) with Runabout 2. This game was released on November 18th, 1999 in Japan and May 19th, 2000 in North America making the 20th anniversary just eleven days ago. It was also published in Europe in February of 2003 and was re-released as a budget title in Japan in November of 2000. Like the first game, this title stars an expert agent who operates via vehicle to steal or retrieve treasures. This game, his motives seem more just compared with thefts he committed for a greedy individual in the first title. This game also has its share of supernatural conspiracies and mythological artifacts in the storyline along with the surreal comedy and chaotic joy that simulated vehicular destruction brings. Unlike the first title, this game was developed by Graphic Research and published by Climax Entertainment (Japan), Media Rings (Japan re-print), Hot-B (North America), and Midas Interactive (Europe).
There are four different variants of the cover art for Runabout 2. The original Japanese cover art is similar to the cover art of the first game. It shows the main car from below the front left wheel. The cover is black and yellow and features the title on a license plate. It is a strong piece due to the minimalism utilized here. This art serves as the basis for the second Japanese version and the European release. The budget version depicts the car once again in higher-resolution (almost like a PS2 cutscene) and places it on a city street at night. The title is now centered with the Fukyuuban 1500 Series logo below it. I don’t love how the titles are placed with this one; they are distracting. The rest of the image is fine. The European version changes the background again to a stormy sky with a similar, high-res car. This version has a huge white border that looks ugly. The image is also displayed on a 3D button. I’m not a fan. The North American version looks like the cover art for the first game but much improved. It shows a red car driving towards the viewer while also crashing through barricades and going off the road. It displays the words “You own the road!” underneath the metallic title. This version is pretty good. I think I like the original Japanese version the best though.
This time, the in-game graphics are much cleaner and include a few different areas. Beach cities, backwoods, deserts, jungles, and Las Vegas - it’s all here. It looks pretty nice too. The graphics department did a good job with the color and lighting effects. There isn’t as much warping here. The menus are clean but fully-functional, and the loading screen has a funny sequence of a police chase with the non-player character getting in a wreck as the anti-hero escapes. The only things that look awkward are the civilians running around; they are depicted with very pixelated sprites with little animation. It’s kind of funny, but they are too hard to make out. Overall, the graphics look pretty solid.
The sound design combines the heavier rock and surf elements from the first game with cleaner production and more experimental instruments. There are some really interesting drums and percussive instruments used for these songs. I really like the menu musick. The rest is not particularly memorable, but it does sound good when you are playing. The production is also just very nice with very clear, reasonably mixed audio. While the overall sound effects are pretty good (I really like the engine sound), the voices are very questionable. The player character has a deep voice that sounds like Batman if he were underwater. He is hard to understand. His utterance when he crashes into things should be a criminal offense with how much of a “RAD 90s!” thing it is. If they had cleaned up the vocals and amped up the compositions, the sound here would be much better.
Like the first title, this is a “racing” game in that you drive from one location to another under a time limit. The controls are very precise and snappy while you try to make the time. There are other cars, but they aren’t racing; they are just other people going about their day (which may involve stopping you). You can smash through the stuff you see lying or driving about with your car/truck/bike/whatever else surviving even deadly collisions (at least until you fill up the fairly high damage bar). The main issue with crashing is that it slows you down. In this title, it’s a big detriment actually. I found this pretty weird for a game that touts itself as being about chaos and destruction.
During the first mission, I felt like I could barely crash once or make even one wrong move without totally failing the mission. The secret is to use manual transmission and also that it’s not just about driving from start to finish. The Runabout series is all about discovering secret passages, tuning your car, and picking the right car for the job. There are a lot to choose from here, and a lot of jobs to choose them for too. There are a total of 31 vehicles and 14 missions. The missions have a good amount of variety and are all obtained via in-game emails, adding to the espionage atmosphere. This game is way bigger than the short Felony 11-79 and it will take substantially more time to complete. They also fixed the huge slowdown, crash cam of the first game to a more reasonable level. I didn’t have a ton of time to play this game this week with many things happening in the world and in my personal life that didn’t make me feel particularly good, but playing Runabout 2 was a fun experience that did help me bounce back a bit with the goofy wreckage of the simulated interstate.
Runabout 2 receives a Good.
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