Urban Runner

Release Date: December 31, 1996

Adventure, thriller, full motion video, singleplayer

Rate It!

A detective adventure thriller made in the form of an interactive film. We play the role of an American journalist who, while investigating a dangerous drug dealer in Paris, is caught up in his murder. Our hero has to unravel the case and prove his innocence by exposing the influential politician behind the whole affair.

Urban Runner is a detective adventure thriller made in the form of an interactive film. The French studio Coktel Vision, known mainly from the Gobliiins series, is responsible for the creation of the game, while the role of publisher was taken over by Sierra On-Line, a company specializing in similar productions.

In this game we play the role of an American journalist named Max, who lives in Paris and investigates the case of a well-known drug dealer, allegedly protected by one of the influential politicians. In exchange for pictures taken by an incriminating officer, the criminal agrees to meet, but when he arrives at the place, it turns out that he was murdered and our hero is framed into this murder. Max, in hiding, continues his investigation to prove his innocence. A man finds an ally in the dealer's lover, Adda, who also wants to explain the mystery of his death.

Urban Runner is produced in a way typical of interactive films and consists of collecting objects, talking to independent figures and solving riddles necessary for the progress of the plot. If you get stuck, you can use one of the 3 available Joker cards as a hint. During the game, we switch between Max and Adda characters, controlling them with the mouse. The game is divided between static detective sequences (during which we can calmly and unhurriedly explore individual locations, talk to people we meet and interact with different objects) and action sequences, in which we have to take specific action within a certain period of time. A mistaken choice usually results in the death of the hero we control.

The production consists of four game CDs filled with more than 20 hours of interactive video footage with 25 actors. At the time, Urban Runner surprised with its relatively high hardware requirements - in order to enjoy smooth gameplay and high quality video sequences, manufacturers recommended the use of a Pentium processor and a graphics card capable of displaying a 32-bit colour palette at 640x480 pixels.

Please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions regarding this description.

Last updated on August 14, 2015

Videos and Screens