Rune

Walking out to the GOD (Gathering of Developers) lot was always a blessing. Those guys had everything: free drinks (read: beer), a nice outdoor tent, and booth babes galore. What more could one ask for? Maybe midgets in KISS outfits? They had those too. In terms of games these guys weren't lacking either. Some of the noteworthy games that the GOD had were Rune, Max Payne, and KISS.

Rune

Developer:humanhead
Publisher: Epic
Release Date: Summer 2000

Third person melee, I think that would sum up this game in a nutshell. Rune places the player in a quaint little Nordic environment. The main character in the game is a Viking named Ragnar. Strife ridden, Ragnar was thrown head first into a Conan-esque storyline. Family pillaged, and village raped, Ragnar is forced to take things into his own hands. And so the game starts.

Rawr!

Uh not good

Game Play

The developers complained a lot about being near the port-a-potties. We sat down in that air-conditioned RV and were glad just to be sitting in the cold air. After all, G.O.D.'s outdoor lot gets pretty warm under the LA sun. The odious smells from the port-a-potties that should have bothered us weren't quite getting to us, yet. I guess there isn't much of a difference between that and normal L.A. air. After our bodies had been properly acclimated, the developers turned on Rune and took us through a little tour. At first, I was a bit skeptical of the hand-to-hand nature of this game. I really disliked Jedi Knight for that reason. Using the light saber in that game was exceedingly difficult. With Rune, I had a different experience. I was taken back to the good old days of Golden Axe - your basic hack and slash with some special moves thrown in. Only, this was no Golden Axe.

It got interesting when Ragnar went in for an attack and completely severed an arm from one of the enemies. It got even more exciting when the second arm was taken off. Now we had some armless fool trying to, I can only guess, bite our head off or possibly kick at us. We got flashbacks of Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail upon seeing that! While not as gory as Soldier of Fortune, Rune isn't exactly lacking in the blood department.

That's gotta hurt

Smashy smashy?

Rune, as mentioned before, is played from the third person point of view. From what we saw of the game, the camera angles turned out to be pretty good, which is important for control. The developers were playing with a keyboard quite easily. When all the combat is totally hand-to-hand, the third person perspective works really well. The closest the game gets to range-based weaponry is the ability to throw a sword or an axe. With a total of 18 weapons in the game, there are quite a few ways to dismember enemies. Whether this number includes limbs I don't know. (Didn't I mention that? You can beat people with their own arm.) Some weapons feature special abilities such as health stealing and force blasts. Another feature that will be implemented is something called blood lust. If numerous enemies are dispatched in a short amount of time the blood lust meter rises. After the meter is maxxed out, the player drops into berserker mode. For a short period of time, attacks are quicker and more powerful.

Ah glory

Look at my horns!

Graphics

Rune didn't shortchange on graphics either. Based on the Unreal engine, this game delivers wonders. Movement and attacking animations looked very fluid. Lighting seemed quite good, and bodies of characters were quite detailed. Among the perks of the game is a moving head. Whenever something important is in the room Ragnar's head will look at the items or areas of import. It's a great use of technology to enhance gameplay.

Tunes

Music was some of the best I have heard in a game. I'm a pretty big fan of the Basil Pouledoris (Conan the Barbarian) style of music, lots of heavy bass mixed with some pretty good sounding instruments. It's very becoming of a game that has you go around hacking with axes and swords.

My handiwork

Gizmo?

Single player Rune will feature a pretty linear storyline, with the occasional branch in the game. Multi-player battles will be fought on levels designed for that specific purpose. I can't wait to see 20 people running around with axes and swords. Hopefully the multi-player will look as good as the single-player does at the moment.

Rune should be released in the next few months.