Seeing one of my favorite childhood games, Rune getting a sequel felt really timely. I’m an adult now and it was great to think that I’d get a chance to relive my childhood with a game that’s grown as I have. I started it up with glee and ran straight into the wild of what Rune II: Decapitation Edition had to offer. Unfortunately, while my life has grown and become complete, Rune II comes off as the buddy I may have grown up with who really never made it off of their parents’ couch. They’re frazzled, unsure, and didn’t seem to get to the point in their life that I have as an adult. They have a long way to go but I still can sit back and endure their company every five years or so. That’s the best way, to sum up, Rune II.
Story
The story set within the world of Rune II is pretty standard stuff. You’re a dead warrior who’s brought back to life by the God Heimdall, tasked with finding and defeating Loki and his legion of zealots. You’ll meet a colorful cast of characters along the way and master your skills to become the ultimate warrior. Most of the story’s quests are carried out with dialogue that you hear as you do your quests and not much of it is really interesting at all. It’s serviceable enough but I never once cared for what I was doing or the main plat at hand.
Gameplay
You’re tossed in an open world where you can fight, craft, and explore, searching for the best loot along your journey to kill Loki. Your main activity that’s going to take up most of your time with the title is combat. The combat is pretty good and was admittedly my favorite aspect. It’s extremely fluid and I honestly can’t remember a title that I had this much fun with combat-wise in a long time. I always remember the original Rune being very fluid in its gameplay as well so it’s fantastic that it’s enhanced even further.
You can use two-handed weapons to really tear through your enemies or use a shield and mace to play a little bit of cat and mouse. Blocking can be done no matter what weapon you’re using and it’s best to watch your oppenant’s movements to figure out how to strike. Enemies can be staggered or parried to get your haymakers in as well. It’s pretty refined and it only gets better when you chop off an enemy’s ligaments. Those chopped-off limbs can also be used as weapons to bash their comrades’ skulls in too if you so choose it. This is the type of content that made the original so cool and I’m glad that they did it justice.
There’s a wheel that acts as a hot bar where you can put weapons, runes, food, and so on. As far as the items go for which you can craft, it’s all the regular RPG type of thing that we’ve seen done to death but it’s enough I guess. The runes are really cool as they actually give your character buffs or powers for a limited amount of time. You can choose a specific class that matches you to its Norse God and each has its own powers and weakness to further the gameplay loop. I’m sure they’re expecting players to join up and enjoy this together but unfortunately, I could not find a game with folks who actually wanted to play nicely so I never got to experience this with others.
You’ll level up your character over the course of the game and can attach special attributes and skills to further develop your capabilities. I have to say that all of the menus are really easy to navigate and instructions are pretty clear. Another aspect rolled into the gameplay are little dungeons that you can fight through which may help you to get to a certain location quicker than running. It’s a nice touch and they actually offered some verticality as well.
Finding loot and lore around the world is fun to scavenge for and adds another layer to the actual environment. You can find all kinds of different treasure chests with each one holding weapons, armor, runes, or other consumables. They helped in having something else to do between the sluggish story quests. Finding Rune II’s version of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice’s “Lorestones” are cool because you get some lore tossed your way as well as a new crafting recipe. They give off a humming sound so that they get your attention whilst running through the wilderness so that you never miss them.
There’s crafting mechanics for building structures, weapons, armor, and such. When it comes to building you basically just spam the E button but it’s not bad. You can destroy structures with your trusty blade and it really feels awesome to play as a Viking cutting down the house with ease. You can also punch trees down with your bare hands too, which is actually pretty remarkable. The armor and weapon crafting are easy to learn and the weapons are really unique to create. These too can have buffs added to them such as elementals.
Sadly, it’s evident that there’s a lack of quality control when it came to this game’s release day. Post-launch is extremely buggy and you’ll find all kinds of weird and off-putting effects that make this title feel like it’s still in the middle of early access. I experienced issues where boats would crash into docks uncontrollably, making it impossible to even get them onto the water properly. This would cause me to have to run to where I needed to go. Even if I crafted a new boat it would just do the same exact thing. Important game moments that went with the missions would either trigger before I ever did what was supposed to be done to trigger said events, or they wouldn’t start entirely.
The frame rate was the worst part of the entire game at one point. I could barely get more than a few frames out at a time just to walk around. I’ve even experienced a bug where I’d get stuck in structures as I built them. It all just seems like they put the cart before the horse on this one. You’d think with them releasing this game the same week as Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, which is another Viking game, that they’d make sure that it even had a fighting chance. Honestly, it doesn’t even matter what I rate this game, I just want anyone reading this to be aware of how bad it is mechanically speaking, as I wouldn’t suggest this game to anyone in its current state. It’s that bad right now.
The devs are constantly fixing bugs but that’s no excuse. These should have been ironed out at launch. Developers these days are taking advantage of players, releasing post-launch patches and it just needs to stop. Games need to be ready at launch even if that means delaying them. It’s such a shame because I can see so easily that there is a ton of potential. I had a bundle of fun because of the combat but it feels wasted on a poorly botched game.
Visuals
If you told me that this game came out in 2020 and not a year or two after the original, I wouldn’t believe you. I say it all the time that graphics don’t make a great game but this just looks like the easy way out was taken to cut corners. There’s no real art-style so it makes the game look like an ugly version of Skyrim. Textures are muddy, characters wonky, and elements Play-Doh-like. Sure there are times like the pic above where you can get semi-beauty but this is very few and far between.
Audio
The audio is just another aspect that gets left at the weigh-side. Characters at most points are well portrayed but you’ll also come across some folks that were acted as if it was the audition and not the big show. I cannot understand how some of these dialogue moments actually made their way into the final product. It’s actually worse than the notorious original Resident Evil dialogue. It’s pretty hilarious but also sad. Kind of lazy like they said, “one take and done”.
Replayability
You can compare replaying a game to almost anything. Going to your favorite store, restaurant, or even Wal-mart. I’d compare Rune II to going to the gym. I’m uncomfortable, bored, and wondering why I’m even doing this. It’s got value but it’s yet to be fully realized. I’d say give it at least 6 months and then it could be worth it but not for the foreseeable future.
What It Could Have Done Better
Every negative thing I’ve had to say about Rune II falls at the feet of the team who put this together. Whoever developed the combat system was doing their job passionately but everyone else seemed to fall behind here. I would never have suggested putting out a game that feels this unfinished. After developers hearing the seething words of both critics and fans for years, you’d think that it would finally dawn on them to worry about quality control instead of dollar signs. It’s not like this game was developed by a company like EA who can come back from a financial hit off of a game that flopped. This title needed to be looked after much much better.
Verdict
I had some difficulty when it came to giving a final score for this title. I really enjoyed the combat, crafting systems, and some of the locations. On the other hand, I don’t want to let it go that this game is plagued with bugs and was delivered severely unfinished in ways. I don’t want to rate this as a full game because it really isn’t but I have to. To me, this is in early access but charges full price for what little it has to offer its patrons. If you want a Viking game, go buy Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. If the developers can get this game running properly it could truly be worth something but in its state, I’d say wait up to a year for it to be worth your hard-earned cash.
