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RUNE

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: November 15, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I loved the game, great graphics and good story line. It did have a few bugs, but what game doesn't? The level designs are some of the best I 've seen. Until you play the game and see the mirrored floor room and the stained glass floor you fall through, you cannot appreciate it. The locations go from under ground castles with running lava pits to open outside snowy streets. Very Cool. I would recommend the game very highly. Plus Human Head provided a great source of information on their web site at.... Download the demo then buy the full version you won't be disappointed.

Excellent Single Player, OK Multiplayer.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: November 18, 2000
Author: Amazon User

First thing: Rune isn't Quake, nor is it Unreal Tournament, though it does use the Unreal graphics engine and there are 3rd party mods coming out that allow some UT-like modes of play. People who buy this game thinking they're primarily going to be playing DM with their own Viking will get quickly bored and be sorely disappointed by the monotony of the hand-to-hand combat alone, which is fairly repetitive.

What this game does provide is an interesting sort of cinematic experience. There's melee combat like Heretic, there's puzzle solving like Tomb Raider, but Rune isn't remotely like either game because of its feel. It feels flat-out like you're a character in a movie about a young Viking ascending from Hel to Midgard to avenge your father's death. The puzzles all feel appropriate to the game and cinematic cutscenes flesh out the mood to some degree, but what drives this excellent feel is the graphics.

Human Head and GoD have done beautiful things with the Unreal engine and created underworld environments so Hellish you smell the brimstone and ice-caverns so cold your breath crystalizes in front of you. I played it to the end and please believe me when I say that the game isn't about combat, but the sense of being in a story and in a place, and as fantastic as some of these places are that's immensely entertaining.

I'm not so certain about this game.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: December 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Really, I'm not so sure about this game. I haven't a clue what ever possessed me to buy this game. I'm a First Person Shooter (FPS) kind of a guy, not a Third Person Chaser (TPC). Sure, I like games like Tomb Raider and Zelda 64 and such but that doesn't mean that those are going to be my favorite games. So when I saw this game I decided that I had to get it. The developers at G.o.D. must have a contract with aliens or some such to mess with my mind.

So is the game good? Actually, yes if I let the game kind of stand on it's own. Your character (Ragnar) has a choice of three main types of weapons (mind you, I said "types") of sword, mace, or axe. along with a single shield, usually a wood Viking shield, however the weapons do get better as the game progresses. This changes the game style drastically. For snipers (like myself) who can pick off anything from a distance with any firing weapon of choice (I can pick off unseen enemies with the bow or slingshot in Zelda 64) this makes the game that much "tougher" if you will. The player now has the choice of going head to head with the nasties or throwing his weapon and hope it's a kill shot (not likely). There are also other "weapons," chopping a claw off of one of the larger beetles and you can use it to beat up other nasties. The same goes for the head of this ooga-booga kind of creature as well as grabbing his weapons and shields. There are others as well but in the over all scheme of the game it makes little difference except for having disposable ammo. The sword make much better work of the enemies than anything else. One would figure that having the three different weapon types would have significant differences, they don't. Save for the mace's ability to break rock, the weapons have very subtle differences (and I stress the 'subtle' part). It really would have been better to simply have one weapon to worry about rather than three, the differences are that minor. This weapon use is under utilized through out the game. Especially considering the abilities of the game's engine, based on Unreal.

It doesn't bother me that the developers decided to go with a TPC view rather than an FPS, a nice change of pace. The camera swings about very much like MDK2, under total control from the mouse. The camera also adjust itself quite well to accommodate space in tight areas. Coupled with the ability to change the camera's relative position to your character with a twirl of the mouse wheel is a nice plus. I actually don't have a "mouse," so this is useless to me, so for users like myself adjusting the settings is important. One thing that does irk me quite a bit is that Ragnar's head always looks at anything dangerous, helpful or interesting. The game suggests that if you are lost to pay attention to Ragnar's head as he usually looks at the next area or direction to go to. This is nice and all, but occasionally there are so many enemies that no one could tell what's what. I wish that this type of thing could be further refined in the game's settings. (It may actually be, I just haven't figured out what all the advanced settings do.) I suppose having Ragnar look at the enemies would be useful.

If the enemies actually had a brain. The AI is so weak it's almost pathetic. Take notice, the enemies actually can't go up or down "steps," only slopes. So to gain sanctuary one simply has to climb up to a different level (plane). I wasn't sure if this was a limitation imposed by the developers or the game's engine. So I went back to Unreal and played through again. it actually appears to be a limitation to the Unreal engine but the developers of Unreal took great pains to insure that almost everything consisted of slopes. There are rare instances when enemies are moved from one plane to another via elevators and such but it is a limitation nevertheless. Going back to the enemy AI, It's kind of sad. Most enemies don't notice you until you're practically standing on their back. Enemies often don't give chase, especially when moving from one plane to the next. At least the more "intelligent" enemies run away when you remove an "arm" or two. The enemies sometimes "bicker" among themselves as well. Although, it's a bit unclear who are enemies to whom. The creatures tend to get jammed in tight areas or get stuck "off" of their plane, levitating like a magician. It's hard not to compare the AI of the creatures to a game like Half-life. (Now considered an industry standard to scale games against.) Just try not to be too disappointed when those stupid creatures stand there like eggplants while you kill them off with a sword swipe or two.

I'm not going to bother much with the story line. You, Ragnar, have "graduated" to man hood and is honored to join your Viking clan on a quest to . . . to . . . what? Initially to fight Conrack and his raiding party. Conrack calls down a bit of lightning and kills everyone including you during the start of the battle. The God Odin (I think) takes pity on you and revives you to go on a quest. The storyline is a bit . . . vague or I simply don't have the attention span to keep focused. Something about a conflict with the gods and mankind and a great battle is poised to unleash itself on the planet. Or is Loki (a Viking God tortured with a poisonous snake) going to seek revenge for what has happened to him? Whatever, reading the manual, the webpage and going through the game, it's lost on me.

(...) Rune is unable to fully suspend your belief. There is no doubt in my mind that Rune will certainly create a cult following. I do like the game. I really do. It's a nice change of the pace from the FPS kill-any-thing-that-moves kind of thing. And it's a little more suitable to my tastes since I'm sick of the tomb Raider franchise. However, I'm going to wait a few more patches and see how the game comes out then. Maybe I'll change my review if the game improves a bit.

Tigerpomme

Rune is a breath of fresh air

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: December 19, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Having played through the entire set of single player levels included with Rune, I can only say this... "I want MORE!" Granted... the multiplayer aspect is a bit on the weak side, but it certainly has it's moments. I enjoy 1 vs 1 battles the most, and I have to admit; there's few pleasures in online gaming that can measure up to cutting off your friends head... waiting for him to respawn... then beating him mercilessly to death with his own noggin. It truly makes multiplayer Rune worthwhile 8) Not to mention hilarious...

The single player Rune is a great way to kill a day or two. Amazing graphics abound (though a bit on the dark side... I had to max out the screen brightness to see where I was going) and fully customizable controls make it a great play. Though I'm not partial to 3rd person shooters or any Tomb Raider-type games, I found this game quite an enjoyable play. And, on the most difficult setting, downright evil. More stuff to kill would be cool, but I still died plenty of times. At least I'm a chronic saver 8) A little more music would have been nice, but the music that IS there is great and sets the mood well.

I'd recommend this game to pretty much anybody that loves a good solid single player game, or anyone that enjoys deathmatch with friends. (I never fully enjoyed DM unless I knew who I was killing.) I recommend picking up a copy 8)

Promising, but ultimately disappointing.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: April 10, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The opening of Rune's single-player game is incredibly promising; you start in a beautifully rendered Viking village. Once you prove yourself in combat against the Master of Arms (or somesuch), a cutscene takes you onto a longboat and across the sea.

Up to this point, the game had my interest.

Next, however, the ship sinks, your character dies and finds himself in the underworld, and single-player Rune becomes one of the most boring, repetitive games I've ever had the displeasure of playing. It's the same problem Unreal (from which Rune got its engine) has, really; the single player game gets duller and duller as you move on. It bored me so quickly that, desperate to find redeeming value in this game, I fired up the multiplayer.

Playing this game multiplayer makes it all worth it. I can't describe how much fun it is to beat up your friends with various hand-to-hand weapons, or even with their own severed limbs and heads. The combat and movement is so perfect and smoothly done; instead of using dumb, ultra-generic fantasy monsters in the single-player game, Human Head Studios should have tried to implement more of a bot AI, because playing against humans in this game is fun! It's got the depth of a fighting game but without the dizzyingly complex controls.

The problem is, the only multiplayer modes available in Rune are Deathmatch...and Team Deathmatch.

Because of this, the game is disappointing. The single-player, which was unfortunately probably the focus of the studio's efforts, is godawful. The multiplayer is incredibly promising, and fun despite its limits, but it really needs so much more.

Now, a game with the combat system from Rune, but with more multiplayer modes and levels, and with bot support, would be one I'd not regret spending fifty of my hard-earned dollars on. Rune Tournament, anyone?

utterly generic

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 11
Date: February 17, 2001
Author: Amazon User

oh boy. another game of killing monsters and finding levers. why was this game even made? did they think the world needed a few more sewer levels? a few more lava jumping puzzles?

i really fail to see how killing giant crabs and oompa loompas can be considered any kind of plotline. oh, you're on a quest to stop the villain! what game isn't about that? there is no plot manifestation (of what little story exists) during the gameplay at all. every level is the exact same thing, and it NEVER ENDS. oh look, another cave! i sure hope it has some zombies and levers... you know, for a change.

if you like long, repetitive, and completely linear, secretless, plotless games with just levers and stupid AI, then buy this game. judging from the other reviews here, you'll probably think it was the most wonderful and creative game ever made, anyway. i might've enjoyed it if i were five years old and this was the first game i'd ever played, but after game upon game of the same damned thing, there's no way i could ever give this a better score.

Fantastic Perspective

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 22, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Players are challenged to trade old "first person shooter" tactics in for new strategies and methods of attack because the only weapons are clubs, axes, swords and shields. Rune has vivid Viking scenery and includes a version of UnreaEd (an editor) for creating new levels and modifications to guts of the game.

I'd recommend this game to any die-hard gamer.

Rune Is One Cool Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 07, 2001
Author: Amazon User

After I purchased a new PC in November 2000 for gaming, I was a bit disappointed for a few months. The computer was great, and my old favorite games ran better on the new machine, but the only new game I could find that I really like was Unreal Tournament.

Then came Rune. I tried the demo first and was pleased enough to buy the game. I certainly haven't been disappointed with this game.

Let me tell you the bad news first because there isn't much. Rune has an excess of jumping puzzles. Jumping puzzles can be fun, and some of these puzzles in Rune are engaging, but it gets to the point that I say enough!

OK, here's the good news. Rune has perhaps the best graphics in any game I've played. In one of the levels the software renders a very convincing reflective floor. And the artwork is great! Many of the levels take you into a rich fantasyland full of monsters, dwarves, huge buildings, and steam-belching machines. And despite what the critics have alleged, Rune has plenty of intense combat where your survival is rarely assured, and the levels nicely compliment this combat.

If you like Unreal you'll probably like Rune. If you're not convinced Rune is a great game, then download the demo. At any rate, if you want my opinion, Rune is one cool game that I know I'll be playing for years to come.

Best Hack and Slash Multiplayer of all time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The single player is fun, perhaps the storyline leads a little to be desired, but it is still fun seeking revenge with the help of Odin.

The multiplayer, however is some excellent fun! The weapons are extrodinary, the levels are well put together, and there are a ton of new levels to download off the Internet. A friend and I have spent hours playing Rune. It's a nice change to the "shoot the rocket launcher first persons" on the market today. They really should consider a sequel that would introduce some new graphics and put a multiplayer twist to the idea of Enclave.

2 Thumbs up, if you're in for a hack/slash game this is your best bet for the PC!

Nicely Made Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: November 02, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Now, before we begin this review lets get this straight. If you have come into this game thinking that it is like Unreal/Unreal Tournament just because it was made on the unreal engine, you are totally wrong. Now that we have that out of the way in this game you start out as a viking warrior, who is taking revenge. Smooth gameplay and special things such as Rune Power make this game one that you will be playing until you beat it one or two times. Rune also allows multi-player capabilites to increase the carnage. The overhead view of the character is that of Metal Gear Solid or Tenchi (both playstation games, Metal Gear a PC game now). Get this game if you want a keeper Good luck!

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