Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle is the sequel to Runaway, which was released by Pendulo in 2003 to critical acclaim in Europe. In Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle, as in the original, you play Brian, who is vacationing with his girlfriend Gina when she disappears. Your quest to find Gina will take you to all four corners of the globe, where you will interact with an eclectic cast of characters and solve some very clever puzzles.

Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle is a classic 2D point-and-click adventure game. The interface is very intuitive even if you haven't really played adventure games before. By left and right-clicking, you can move to different scenes, talk to people, look at items, and pick them up. In fact, I'm not sure how I feel about this yet, but you can only pick up certain items. On one hand, it's nice not to have a totally cluttered inventory. On the other hand, it becomes apparent pretty quickly which items are needed to solve a puzzle.

About those puzzles: I've played a lot of adventure games, and solved many puzzles. Puzzles with dials to line up, puzzles with sound, puzzles with words - really, I like to think I've seen them all. That said, the puzzles in the Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle demo were very entertaining. It definitely takes some out-of-the-box thinking to get through even this small segment of the game. In addition, the puzzles were integrated well into the story.

The cartoon-like graphics in Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle are simply stunning. Crisp, clear, colorful - and the animation is flawless, too. I applaud Pendulo's efforts here. I've seen too many adventure games with blocky characters and jerky movements, which tend to detract from my enjoyment of a game. The game even features some nice music.

If there's anything at all that I think I don't like about Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle, I would say that it's the possibility that conversations with characters could get tedious. Generally you get some fun options while talking to another character, but sometimes the conversations are circular and it's tough to figure out how to end your chat.

Runaway: The Dream of the Turtle offers plenty of enjoyment for adventure game fans out there. The graphics and puzzles are definitely worth checking out. If in doubt, play the demo - it will whet your appetite for more.