Rune Classic

Rune is a game about taking cronchy bites of very much still living lizards. I guess there is a viking battle epic there somewhere too. Fun game with slightly too simple and mashy combat that mostly still holds up in 2021 4/5 Pros: + Level design is great. The scale is majestic, and yet, getting lost is a lot harder than in other games from the era. + An interesting story that goes to places. The creators understood Nordic madness well. + Sound design and music. Munching on those lizards sounds delicius. Cons: - Combat is too easy. Enemies just stand there while getting a warhammer in the face. - Bugs. Some hilarious, such as the trees stuck in ground that re-erect as soon as you hit them. Some annoying, such as the late game crash at certain section. *Hint* To prevent this crash, you have to mute the game in the settings. Because that is a sensible thing to do.

Rune Gold (the original release which is included here) ran perfectly fine on my Windows 10 rig, but I had to install dgVoodoo 2 to get the brightness slider working. By default the game is pretty dark. I didn't play the rereleased "Classic" version, but Rune Gold is good fun. It's a pretty straightforward hack and slash action adventure game with a cool Viking aesthetic and brutal combat. Combat mechanics are simple but satisfying to master, and the level design is solid. Visually it's still appealing as well, as it makes great use of the Unreal engine's colored lighting. My only complaints are that the game can get a little repetitive after a while, and as a result feel longer than it actually is. The early levels in particular can drag at times. Also I wish the game featured more music. Still, Rune is an easy recommendation if you're craving old school Viking fun!

RUNE is a classic that anyone who played at the time (2000s) will surely remember with pleasure. It's basically a sword-wielding Tomb Raider, but at the time everyone wanted to look like Lara Croft. Replaying RUNE today is not exactly simple, you have to get used to rigid mechanics and a too old technical structure especially if pushed on modern monitors. But if you manage to overcome these small rocks, you find yourself in a well thought out fantasy world, fresh and very fun to play, with a scary level design. The use of mouse plus keyboard is strongly recommended, the use of the joypad is not recommended.

I played this one back in the day, and it felt great! It's like barbarian Tomb Raider. Level design is superb. The acrobatics are not that hard but they'll get you killed more than once for sure. The fighting is simplified and logic but also hard, and don't let the bad guys gang up on you. The visuals and environment are fantastic, mythical and varied. Well, you go from deep caves to the surface then down to the underworld (Hel) and up to the dwarven (Nibelung) land. Epic all the way.

Rune is brutal fun, and an emblem of this era when 3D games started to look good, while also being creative and ambitious in their storytelling. It is a simple and raw action game: the lack of autolock or combo system makes it feels like a movement shooter without guns rather than a beat 'em up, but the controls are very functional. Taking your biggest weapon and staying mobile while slicing enemies to bits is usually the go-to strategy, made even more satisfying by a fun dismemberment system! The most original feature is that each weapon lets you use a special power, often with devastating results. The level design is good and mixes combat, exploration and puzzles in a well-balanced manner. Common complaints, however, are that the exits are often hidden and hard to find, and that Rune's first hours are mostly about fighting annoying enemies, making for a rather unexciting start. Much like a Viking version of Half-Life or Unreal (which shares its graphic engine), most of the fun and epicness comes from the great sense of escalation given by the campaign, and the feeling of exploring a living world. The environments are huge, have awesome landscapes and architectures, and most of the narration and worldbuilding is done through visuals: while atmospheric and strange, the places you visit are grounded in a sense of practicality and detail which makes the whole game world surprisingly believable. The art direction and animations are pretty good for their time, and a great deal of emphasis is put on how brutal and grim this world and its inhabitants are – the overly manly way your character moves, grunts and picks up items is something to behold! This release lets you play both the original and "enhanced" versions of the game – I personally stuck with the original, which I think feels more authentic, although the newer one is apparently more player-friendly. Whatever you choose, Rune is a badass adventure that has some rough patches, but remains thoroughly awesome!