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Back to the Vikings (history lesson)
Ok, Long long time ago, but I can't remember when, I was told that there were some 'Vikings'. Those Vikings believed in Gods and their main God was Odin. He was taking care of the Vikings and guarding them from the evil.
Starting Rune
After you have completed the "Tutorial" you have to go to a ship wich will bring you to a certain isle. Unfortunately you are getting visited by an old friend of Ragnar´s (the main character you are going to play with) father. This old friend drives you in a highly bad situation with the use of the rune stones (they have got too much power). After that the Viking ship on which you have been transported sinks down in the water. Ragnar's father died.
And after that Ragnar swears blood revenge. Your job now is to get the Rune stones back and kill the person who brought your father to dead.
Enemies:
The A.I. of your enemies is not the best: I wondered what was going to happen running after them, well, they just run away! Or when you try to hit them they just go 2 steps back 1 in front take their shield off against you and slap you with the sword they just found lying around 2meters from you. In Hell you will meet some skeletons bitching at you. You will have to place your sword shoots well to kill them, just a well placed shot on the head with your sword and they're more than dead. Those skeletons are pretty dull in movements they can hurt you very hard. If you're lucky enough you will meet the big fat jellyfish, always in need of some new heroes as food. All in all you will be have huge fun hitting around both nightmare and sweet looking creatures. You can play the game through mouse, joystick, gamepad and keyboard. And keys are well mapped.
Normally Action-3D Games dont have a really good background story, well there's few games that have a solid plot, but mostly they don't. Rune is different, it has got a really good storyline.
Everything is linear and you will not be able to do anything that will stop you from going on with the game, of course if you do not die. Perhaps a bit less linear game playing would have been better but in this way new players will have a good chance to enjoy the game. Sometimes it's hard to find your way to the next step, some good thinking will lead you to the right place. A small tip, not everything is as far as you think (the ruins are just 25min of game-play far). Even if sometimes it's a bit hardish, the Game-play curve is really well done.
Multiplayer is not as good as UT, still it is not that bad. You can play different looking warriors and push their power up through rune stones. You will have no firing weapons, just swords and a shield, it will look like Deathtrap Dungeon in Multiplayer. Fun, but not enough.
Funny Bugs:
There are some funny bugs in the game. In some level you will found yourself in a room. Under that room there's some lava. And you can press a button to make it flow up and fill the room. If you jump on the lava you will die, but if you rest and do nothing you can run around in the lava and nothing happens, sadly if you then want to go up, out of the lava, you will die just in the middle of a jump. Another bug is about creatures A.I., while fighting some enemies will just stand up and look at you, like a baby, you hurt it and the creature dies, no effort needed.
Well he's not gay, but he sounds that way. Well, yes, G.O.D. succeded in letting something out of the Vikings to sound gay. The background music is really good and changes according to the place you're on at the moment. So if you are getting into a fight the music will slowly change to a faster style, bringing to a perfect fight-music. Even running around you will be pleased with good music, and discovering new places will be rewarded with new well composed music.
If you listen to it carefully to the music you will know the right way to go through. Actually an awesome work from sound producers.
Thanks go to the Developers of Unreal Tournaments graphic engine, which is used again as main engin in Rune. So expect very nice looking water, really good looking (and moving) sky, all with really well done textures. The graphic system supports 3Dfx, D3D and glide. 3Dfx looks best :) (another heavy proof for my beloved v3 2000). The graphical environment of Rune is one of the best i've ever seen. I personally think it looks pretty more nice than Quake 3 Arena, having a 'alive' sky and damn good textures, Rune offers always breath taking looks. G.O.D. tried to get some new fans, using as main character a sexy boy like Ragnar. This way all the Gay game players and even female ones may discover their own Lara Croft. Sadly you will discover Ragnar is hetero-sexual, leaving all of us, gaymershellers, willing for a new hero!
Final Statment:
For new young players and for professional gamers this one will be a must, yes, go and grab it. Good story-line, good music, good graphics and, ehmm, 2 big bugs. A nice title that offers at least 20 hours of solid game-play. And one thing I'll let you know.. there's a really great final sequence, well worth going over the whole game!
