Reviewed by Craxton (craxton@erols.com)

Publisher: JAST USA Cost: $24.95 US (old price) Graphics: Good. Music/Sound: Decent. NPCs: Very Good. Writing: Very Good. Plot: Excellent. Interface: Good. Sex: Very Good. Kinkyness: Mostly vanilla, but contains some 'heavy' S, a few rape scenes, and a menage a trois.

NOTE: Although out of print for some years, Runaway City has been re-released as part of the JAST USA Memorial Collection. See this product for information on this game.

Hiroaki can't help it. He has the power of good luck. It's not like he wants his psuedo-girlfriend to be a call girl who owes him big time. He never asks to be in the right place when some lonely woman feels horny. It's not his fault that his dad's girlfriends take an interest in him. And he certainly never wanted to be the most desirable man on earth.

Yeah, right.

The first thing you'll notice about Runaway City is the foreboding slideshow introduction. It's one of those remarkable moments in a game when everything comes together to make something that sends a shiver up your spine. The game itself takes a while to reach that point, but it's well worth it when it does. And it's not like you won't have fun along the way.

Runaway City starts out with protagonist Hiroaki, typical slacker-boy. Hiroaki is a third-year student of junior college, currently on break from school and trying to decide on his future. Every day he gets up, goes downtown, and just sort of walks around, waiting for someone screwable to come along. And someone frequently does. But this waiting thing gets old fast, and soon Hiroaki adopts a different method: find some directionless woman, help her find her dream, THEN bed her. Which he does fairly successfully. Did I mention he has the power of good luck?

I know that makes it sound silly. For the first part of the game, it IS silly. There are a number of comedic scenes, including an encounter with the most incompetent SM queen ever and a scene where a woman makes love to Hiroaki while playing a video game (it must be seen to be believed).

But somewhere along the line it makes the change from a lighthearted sex romp to something very serious. Getting all the sex you want may seem like the pinnicle of coolness, but there's a decidedly dark side to it. Power corrupts, and over time Hiroaki's power corrupts him. When something is easy to get, it loses it's value, and with the affections of women coming to him so easily, Hiroaki becomes an uncaring monster. Watching Hiroaki make the slow and painful transition from enjoying his luck to fearing it is the best part of the game.

The flaws, such as they are, are relatively minor. I had some difficulties starting up: The game won't work unless you go into an MS-DOS prompt, and even then it sometimes freezes during the opening sequence. The sound is standard faire: nothing special, but not terribly annoying either. The design could have used some work: there are a number of situations where only exhausting all your options will allow you to continue.

One major flaw that almost bumps this game off the A-list is the endgame, which is next to impossible without cheating. See, there are two endings: one good and one bad. In the endgame, you'll be asked to make a series of decisions, and the right choice isn't always apparent. One mistake, and you get the bad ending. After a little save-restore puzzling, I reached the final puzzle, only to find no apparent way to the right ending. A bit of hacking determined the correct option to choose, but it still didn't work. Finally, after a hint from an online friend, I was able to get to the good ending- but I'm still not exactly sure *how* the logic of the situation works out. The ending is good, but the last lousy puzzle kinda hurt the replay value- after struggling for an hour and a half to get past a single obstacle, you don't really feel like starting over.

Bottom Line: Even with the impossible endgame, Runaway City is an excellant game, and a worthwhile addition to any H-fan's library.