Fear not, haven’t-touched-grass-since-the-pandemic-gamers, there’s no need for pulse-checking or understanding pronation for The Run as it’s pretty much a passive on-rails experience without any sign of lactic acid or bumsweat. That’s a lot of positives, but a passive on-rails experience sounds a bit naff for a game, right? It depends on how much you like FMV.
As a veteran gamer and narrative-driven whore, cutscenes, FMV, and drama are my vibe, so I was pretty excited about covering this title, which I knew nothing about. Imagine my initial disappointment to find out the game was dubbed, and though there are language options for all the ‘main’ ones, there wasn’t the native choice with English subtitles. I hate dubbed media. But let’s quash that concern immediately by saying that it isn’t dubbed – it was the fact that the Steam Deck version suffers a little latency and looks slightly lip-synced.
Shifting to my desktop and on an ultrawide was the next step. The Run doesn’t have the option to fill the screen without being skewed, though, and by then, the immersion kicked in after the introductory scenes. While some of the acting is a little wooden and the set pieces overly dramatic and gory, the production levels are excellent. Multiple camera angles, natural lighting, on-location scenery and quality drone shots make The Run a standout in a relatively subdued crowd.
To paint a picture of the story, you play Zanna – an influencer who runs (heh) a vlog about running around the world. The Run begins with her waking up following a one-night stand, with her hair and makeup looking immaculate. She starts her day with that god-awful influencer selfie lifestyle of fabricating the perfect settings, broadcasting intermittently to her legion of followers on Instaslop.
She then sets out on her run through a local picturesque village with a few ‘turn left or turn right’ prompts from the player, before setting forth on a trek through the wilderness. This is where things take a turn, and what starts as a self-centred journey turns into one of survival with masked pursuers intent on killing her for the fun of it. With it being rural, there’s limited bandwidth, a lack of people, and, coincidentally, remote from society, justifying the lack of rules on exhibition.
Essentially, you’ll be either making split-second decisions and selecting within the allocated time, or opting for a timeless selection where the screen pauses and allows you to weigh up your choice. It’s always a 50/50 approach, and the added time to think about it isn’t really advantageous, as a selection can lead to a very quick, gory death. This is actually pretty fun – regardless of whether you’re a gorehound or not, as it leads to multiple paths and endings, with a motivation not just to unlock all the conclusions, but death scenes too. A quick nod to fellow film fans, a certain Mr Argento makes an appearance.
The Run’s cast is small, predominantly geriatrics from the region, plus the lead and her supporting fling. Zanna was an interesting character. The first step was dissecting her accent as she didn’t sound American, and when she got angry, often sounded like a Brit. After a quick scan of IMDB, there was a reason that half Canadian/British Roxanne McKee sounded that way. There was also another reason why she was vaguely familiar, too – it’s ‘er off the telly in Game of Thrones. Now I remember her!
Anyway, she’s a good lead, but due to the nature of choices, her personality shifts quite a bit and borders on B-movie territory throughout. Thisn’t isn’t a bad thing whatsoever and fun, but her biggest weakness is, ironically, running ability. Either that, or the editing doesn’t capture her skills. The supporting character, Matteo, supposedly an ex-soldier, was definitely not a runner or was ‘playing a part’.
The other blip with The Run was being unable to skip repeated scenes. After my first playthrough on the desktop, I tried again on the Steam Deck. There evidently was a delay in the speech again, and it froze on two occasions. However, that spectator element of watching a film and doing a Bear Grylls ‘do this, do that’ Netflix-style interaction made it entertaining. Being unable to skip the intro or using that Five Hearts Under One Roof, or The Fame Game: Welcome To Hollywood chapter selection to drop in and unlock other paths was annoying. Equally, being unable to pause the game was a pain, too. Depending on your selection for timed choices, this isn’t a deal breaker, but you might miss important dialogue/action.
The Run doesn’t demand much from the player whatsoever. As stated, you sit back as a viewer selecting from two options at a time, and upon an abrupt death, repeat that same section again. Alas, you have to play through from start to finish each time if looking for 100% completion, which is totally worth focusing on.
Without any unnecessary spoilers, there were a couple of decent red herrings thrown in, and in fear of giving anything away, the plot did resemble that of a famous TV show twist that has left me on the fence with its direction. However, with the multiple endings offering a degree of bespoke satisfaction and a beautifully shot story whose pace matches that of its protagonist, The Run, for me, is an entertaining FMV experience. I suggest you dust off those Asics you bought a few years ago with good intentions and take your first step into trying something new…
