Rune wasn't one of the upcoming
games I was eagerly looking forward to. Being
a third person, part RPG. But this is one of
the best game I've played in a long time.
The game starts with a nice
cutscene in a great looking village. Straight
away the game was like nothing I had seen before.
You soon end up dead and floating underwater,
but help comes from the god Odin who brings
you back to life so that you can try to defend
the runes from the evil. The story wasn't all
that easy to understand, especially with your
name being Ragnar and an evil god named whom
the baddies are trying to free, named Ragnarok!
After fighting crabs and other
weak creatures throughout a bunch of underground
caves, you make your way to a deep underground
region, which is apparently hell. Not a very
convincing hell, but very good nonetheless.
Great stone structures and dungeons have been
carved against the rock, with lava flowing below.
This section of the game is definitely the weakest,
as you fight Zombie's one after another. The
trick is to decapitate them, otherwise they
just keep getting up. Sometimes you'll get them
with one hit, other times it could take several
hits before you finally get the angle right.
It's really just strike after strike, the Zombie's
themselves are fairly pathetic and don't hurt
much. It would have been much better if we didn't
have to fight just these (and a few Crabs) for
almost a dozen levels.
It was a great relief to reach
the next part as you make your way through caverns
fighting goblins, back to the surface. Some
of the caverns are huge, the only other game
of this sort of design being Unreal.
Once at the surface you'll find an extraordinary
looking snowy township. The mix of the historic
Viking village covered in snow was something
very unique, and a beautiful sight. Now only
did it look good, but finally the gameplay became
good as you fight humans. As you encounter stronger
opponents with bigger weapons, the levels start
to change, until eventually you back in snowy
caverns and overwhelming mountain ranges blended
in with deep fog and never end chasms.
The next part of the game would
have to be damn good to have beaten the previous
levels, but the Dwarven region was pretty damn
good. Among deep undergrowth and rivers a great
town had been built. It was a perfect fantasy
setting, with multi-leveled wooden structures
above underground rivers and bush. As you move
deeper through the Dwarven area it gets stronger
in structure design. Steel is used instead of
wood and brick, in what must be the 'tech' region.
The Dwarves themselves are
the best characters in the game, short fat little
beasts carrying a shield in one hand and a hammer
or axe in the other - both pieces being as big
as themselves. They get tougher as you go, as
does your own weaponry. The only complaint with
them is that sometimes they can make huge jumps
towards you, totally defying gravity.
Soon after, you'll enter the
great castle of your enemy. More Zombie's to
fight, but bigger weapons and you can mow through
them without a sweat. Over the last few levels
the monsters become real tough, but so do you!
I was rather disappointed that the final battle
your enemy is just another of these bigger monsters
that's slightly beefed up. It didn't take long
to beat him.
The entire game, however, took
a very long time to complete. Excellent recent
games SOF, Elite Force and Gunman get frowned
upon when compared to the length of this game.
To continue the comparing -
Quake3 engine VS Unreal engine - Rune is enough
to convince me that the Unreal engine is far
superior to ID's popular Q3 engine, also used
in Elite Force. This is mainly due to the Unreal
engines' ability to have such huge areas. The
enormous caverns and valleys of Rune are breathtaking,
and something you won't see in any past ID engined
game.
To put an end to this review,
the visuals are fantastic, complimented with
some really impressive textures. The levels
are all quite unique and flow well between each
style. Much of it would not have been possible
without the Unreal engine to support the huge
areas. The fog and snow and sound effects help
to create a very atmospheric setting. Although
Rune is based around the same historic fantasy
setting, it is one of the best looking games
I have played.
Gameplay wasn't quite as good, again a game
with 1-2 enemies level after level which you
quickly sick of. Games need to have a few different
kinds of enemies to provide some variety in
attack. With the weapons almost all being swords
and axes, and likewise for almost all monsters,
your method of attack is always the same. Fortunately
it still is rather fun jumping and sidestepping
around your enemy as you both exchange strikes
of the sword.
