Interface

Like Quake, but 3rd Person, and No Guns

Control in Rune is very, very simple. In fact, the default setup is your typical FPS control scheme. WASD for forward, reverse and lateral movement while the mouse controls aim and direction. The left mouse button attacks and control is for use items. We did still find it useful to remap certain keys - especially weapon selection, crouching, throw weapon, etc. With a minimum of effort and a few spare minutes, all the major controls were perfectly setup around WASD and this initial bit of tweaking was all that was needed.

Bleed you bastard!

Da Bad Guy

Ragnar interacts with his environment very well and in an intuitive manner. Despite the numerous jump puzzles in the game, we never found ourselves particularly frustrated. The third person camera is obviously part of the reason - it's much easier to tell when to make a long jump if you can actually see that you're right at the edge of a platform.

Ragnar will also automatically latch onto and grab any ledges, chains, ropes, vines - whatever. With the exception of the ropes and similar objects, he'll also pull himself up onto the ledge with no input from the player. While this is a welcome feature, it would have been nice if a second tap of the jump key could be used to pull our man up - that way we could time getting onto a ledge well enough to avoid running into a patrol of enemies.

Lightning Strike!

Sinkin' like a rock

Mortal Kombat With Axes

OK, so Rune isn't exactly Bushido Blade. You don't worry about aiming high, low, near, far, etc. All your strikes are dependent on your movement. If you're moving forward, you typically can get off three successive strikes before a long pause. These will be different from the one strike you make if moving to either side or when retreating. Jump attacks are similarly affected.

Whether the damage potential of each move varies is a mystery, but there is a fair bit of strategy involved when fighting. Moving forward will expose you to enemy attacks but you'll be doing damage very quickly - the three consecutive attacks are rather devastating. A forward jump attack (with a sword, at any rate) has a good chance to lop off a head - particularly useful for those things that refuse to stay dead.

The screenshots definitely don't do it justice

I'm ready for anything!

Rune obviously isn't a hardcore melee sim like the Playstation's Bushido Blade, but it does make a nice compromise between giving variety without bogging down casual players with unnecessary controls. Best of all, the camera is actually intelligent and useful! You can play the game in first person mode, but you'll just suck beyond belief. Humanhead did a great job with the camera - it moves back and forth of its own accord and it will make Ragnar translucent or even transparent if necessary. You still retain manual control of the camera if you wish, but it's really not necessary.

It's a sword, not a lightsabre

Like a fish