Rune Classic

I remember that when Rune came out and I've got my hands on the game, I was incredibly hyped. This is a game that defined an era of 3rd person action games along with American McGee's Alice and Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2 for me. While game aged graphically and texturework is sketchy in places, Unreal engine was put to a good use here and levels are impressive. There is for sure much of Tomb Raider influence regarding platforming, however it is way more forgiving than in original TR games and most importantly - Ragnar, game protagonist, is much easier to control than Lara, as gmae embraces mouse look and WSAD movement. What matters most, though, is combat. It has not aged a bit, trust me. In early levels you'll be fighting your way through hordes of critters and undead which are, honestly, not much fun to fight. But later on, when human (and other) opponents appear, combat often feels like proto-Dark Souls with multiple weapons and shields. Story-wise it is typical drama of betrayal, vengeance and conflict between divine powers and after playing Rune you can find yourself wondering if creators of God of War games series took influence from the title when they released first GoW whole 5 years after Rune. Overall, this is great game full of ideas which were revolutionary at the time of release and we often take them for granted nowadays. I have two warnings for you, though - don't play Rune Classic, play Rune Gold included as extra instead - game is longer and while it lacks few enemy types from Classic, it's simply better. Get updated OpenGL driver for Rune if you want to run it on modern PC, it's almost mandatory and will let you play in 1080p and beyond. And don't quit because initial levels are kind of boring - game gets way better after you'll exit underworld.

An absolute gem of a game. Rune has a lengthy singleplayer campaign, with locations ranging from dwarven fortresses, snow-capped towns and an evil underworld packed with the undead, yeti's and badass vikings! Multiplayer is basically third-person Quake with more gore - it rocks! Human Head makes great use of the Unreal engine, the levels are massive and colourful, and the ability to drop or throw any weapon is a great touch. The camera system is elegant and unobtrusive, and the controls are easy to learn but hard to master (unlike it's contemporaries Heretic 2, Severance or FAKK 2). Rune still holds up. Any fans of third-person slashers should check this out.

Man oh man does this game bring back memories. To this day no other game developer has been able to emulate such a kick ass battle system that RUNE has. Single player campaign was ok but online play is where this game really shines. Unfortunately it was plagued with laggy severs but didn't stop me from swinging my sword around in the air and lopping off peoples heads inside some pretty sick battle arenas :] Its a shame no other game developer ever took a queue from this game because the combat system absolutely rocks! RUNE just kicks a whole lot of ass :]

This is definitely one of my favourite games, I remember playing this all through my childhood and teen years. Gotta say it was pretty jarring playing the newest version of the game when I went to climb on the ropes, being so used to the original controls where you pressed "jump" to ascend and "use" to jump off. I also didn't like that they sped up the beginning, it doesn't take from the overall story, but the way they've done it takes away from the original experience of the game where you would climb down into hell instead of wswim up into it, for example. I found in the goodies and extras that I could download the original game though, and am currently replaying the original game and enjoying it just as much as I have done in the past and would recommend it, and the newer one if you decide the pace is too slow in the original.

The combat is simple yet rewards skill, the environments are beautiful (for the age of the game) and the levels are ingeniously designed. No other game has had me so often doing things that I'd swear were secret paths or unintentional holes in the map, only to discover they were the required pathway. That said, the game has a grindingly slow late-beginning section that has you wading through hundreds of zombies that can only be killed with fire or beheading. They start scary, become annoying, and by the end of this section of the game become both easy to dispatch and very monotonous. Persevere, however, and you will be rewarded with a much wider variety of enemies that are a pleasure to fight and an epic ending sequence. The game is also quite long, especially by modern standards, so you definitely get you money's worth, even before you get into the multiplayer, which is worth the purchase price in itself. Also, you get to bite the heads off lizards and beat people to death with their own limbs.