As I kick off my slightly longer, more detailed reviews on some of my Steam games, it's only appropriate that I start with a game that was part of my youth.

Rune is, surprisingly enough, one of the few games focusing on Norse mythology that made it into history. Not many good and consistent ones out there, and this one brings its own identity in terms of gameplay, aesthetics, and character development. It creates its own accounting of Norse cultural and religious topoi in fiction, and that does more good than harm as the storyline goes. You play as Ragnar, a young man whose responsibilities escalate with the killing of his kinsfolk and the dooming of his birthplace, Wotankeld. Simple name for a protagonist, simple purpose for his endeavour. Vengeance couldn't be more bitter and more expected.

But that's where things get sharp in Rune. You're introduced to fluent combat mechanics, advanced graphics for the time (the first Unreal Engine was just starting its brilliant run), and the grandeur of the game's environmental variety. This is a videogame epic tale, with all its classic characteristics, as the protagonist rises through the image of the savior and avenger of his clan and descends into the dark realms of Helgrind, imprisoned, assuming the figure of bare life and shamanistic sacrifice - true to the Norse notion of the Cosmogonic death in order to attain the knowledge of the Runes; Wotan speared onto Yggdrasil -, to then rise again as the ultimate Berserk who transcends revenge and defies material existence. Ragnar is ready to put it on the line at every moment. And that motif is auxiliary to the development of the game's combat system, a hack-n'-slash which is as smooth as it gets, and a map configuration that challenges the player's reasoning as well as it puts them under the pressure of claustrophobia and constant darkness.

This is an atmospheric game, and a grim one as it is. The double ending is up to you, and that's a bonus coming from an action game with tacit storytelling elements. Rune scores high in both single-player and multiplayer - which is still active, and resembles heavily the fun and flow of the Unreal deathmatches -, and the variety of weapons, as well as the distinct styles and contrast in movement swiftness that each one of them brings up, enrich the game even further.

A must-have for hack-n'-slash fans, as well as fans of games that dialogue with the epic genre.

Great Hack & Slash using the old Unreal engine, more players = more fun

Chug Mead
Eat Lizards
Hail Odin

So after playing this for a couple days I think this game deserves some attention, and I used to play this a long time ago in 2002 at the time this game was considered advanced it's basically 2001's version of Skyrim (the only problem is there is no free roam,) but now things these days look close to real life I highly doubt this will compete with the other games you might consider getting. Now before I get into detail no not the kind of attention Halo: CE and Half Life get, this game is fun but that's about it there isn't a HUGE deep story behind this game so don't expect something like Halo or Half Life just expect the typical 1990 kill everything in your path game.

Story and plot: The story begins with an introduction saying Odin the all father gave humanity great powerful lucky charms-Ahem! I mean rune stones to hold Ragnarock at bay, however the evil god Loki has attempted many times to unleash Ragnarock by destroying these runes so instead of constantly fighting him every generation Odin had enough of his bull ♥♥♥♥ so he ended up tearing Loki's heart out and banished him into a dungeon like hell, but even with his magic power stripped away and imprisoned he managed to corrupt a handful of mortal's to join his army this then leads to a show down between the wicked and evil vikings and a village's chief and son Ragnar (you the player are Ragnar) so the village's best warrior's were all slaughtered in seconds by magic bolts of lightning summoned by Loki's herald (I know I'm writing a review but there are no character's in this game besides Loki Ragnar and Odin so I can't remember his name currently) everyone dies including Ragnar's father however Odin revives Ragnar and says that he is giving Ragnar a chance at revenge if he can save the rune stones and stop Loki's return Ragnar accepts the offer and fights his way through monsters, demons, undead, to hell and back all the way into the mountains fighting vikings, dwarves, giants, and the list goes on you eventually become a war lord through your journey and now you must travel to Loki's dungeon and finish the fight the gods started.

I won't spoil the rest but there is a lot to fight in this game which makes me disappointed that at the time we didn't have the proper technology to make a free roaming game, because this universe has tons of potential! this is REAL norse mythology! not like Skyrim where everyone worships made up half naked bikini model gods that enjoy watching people bang. I would love to see more of this but in a free roaming game or at least an anniversary edition with new graphics and texture cleaning, this game may end on the very first installment but it deserves an RPG sequel (or prequel) anything can be done in this universe the IP is there we just need a new deveolper building or re-building this universe.

Multiplayer: it's fun but very competitive, there is no "help me" or "power upgrades" or tanks, there is nothing to give you an edge over everyone, it's classic skill vs skill who is the better man? (or woman) basically multiplayer is thunder dome "two men enter one man leaves...And respawns again to get his ♥♥♥ kicked" so it's fun but it's not the best multiplayer I've seen in early 2000 games, the other question you might ask is: "is there customization?" yes, and a bit of no, there are skins you can change into but there is no armor you can unlock and dress up in, (I think there are skin mods but I'm not too sure) but if you want to mod in your own skin I support the idea 100% the game could use a fix here and there.

Final verdict: I'm giving the game a 7/10 now if this was 2004 or something I would have given it an 8 but this game is out dated and old so does it belong in your library? yes and no, it depends what your machine is and there are better games out there that you can spend 10$ on, it's still a great game! but it's not a perfect game, I would love to see more though a RPG could be adapted into this universe giving a new fresh nordic IP, hell if it has Co-op mode free roaming and competitive multiplayer it might even beat Skyrim! but until then we have to wait and see.

Okay, so this is an old game and you can see it in everything BUT this game has some of the most intriguing level design I've ever seen in a game like this. The levels remind me a lot more of "Super Mario 64" than for e.g. "Heretic II" (another old game in a similar mood to "Rune" itself). And despite the fact some of the polygon models are by nowadays standard already more looking abstract than simple, it features some very clever ideas and attends to the detail where one wouldn't expect it in a game from that period of time:

For example you have three different weapon types to equip: swords, maces and axes. After an hour or so into the game you will encounter skeleton warriors. Try to hit them with the sword and it could happen you slash some heads off leaving the skeletons wandering around aimlessly. Or there are zombie like creatures you can hit for ages with maces, because they get up again after a short while. Here a nice and clean razor stile sword swing can come in very handy too.

I haven't played very far until now, but what I can say is that this game has not so nice effects like "Heretic II" (yeah, I know ... the same reference again - but it's the only game in this genre that has been convertet to Amiga, wich was my choice of systems back then ...) but I find it much more enjoyable as it's somehow simpler in design yet strangely deeper in gameplay mechanics though ...

As I said before I'm not too deep into the game yet, but I hope it keeps it nice and easy to get into hack and slash feeling because I really HATE playing magic characters. Thank God this one here is more of a "Conan-Gameplay" meets "Mario-Style-Levels". And it's a very well tasting mixture that is.

Making the fun even better "Rune" is featuring some nice viking setting which isn't seen too often in a game nowadays and besides being very macho after all it gives the game at least a somewhat fresh gameplay experience.

If you like old school action games and don't mind the outdated graphics you should give this game a try when it's on sale.

Rune is one of the best hack and slash games I've ever played. The gameplay remains solid even compared to newer games of the same genre. There are 15 weapons to use. There's puzzles to solve. Then there's food to eat and ale to guzzle when you're wonded from the slaughtering. The multiplayer still works, though there are a few tweaks and quirks to fiddle with depending on whether or not you use a router or have custom firewall settings in order to play with others on Steam version servers. There are a number of older version servers running and active that Steam users can join and play on.
I recommend this game to anyone that likes full 360 degree splatterhouse games.