An action game about Vikings, spirits, and the underworld sounds pretty good right? What if I said there were lots of weapons, you could pick up skulls and bones and fight with them, and the game even had a multi-player mode to boot? Rune: Viking Warlord sounds like a good concept, but as often happens to good ideas, something bad happened trying to implement it.

Rune uses a modified version of the Unreal Tournament engine, which is a good thing for a PC game, but the PS2 version of Unreal had a lot of issues, which means Rune does as well. While not a total loss, the games many problems prove to be too much for it to overcome.

The game tells the story of Ragnar, a young Viking from the mortal world called Midgard. Ragnar has been raised a warrior, learning how to use an axe, mace, and blade, and is now ready for his tests of manhood. It is then that Ragnar must save his village from evil, a quest that will take him all over the over and underworld. The story isnt terrible, but its got a been there, done that feel to it, and the story has little bearing on what your goals are on each level.

Any time I hear that a game was ported from the PC, I know I can expect at least one of the following: poor framerate, poor textures, sketchy controls and long load times. Rune has all these problems and few more, but lets look at the graphics first. Dark, murky, bland, blurry, bad. These adjectives are best used to describe the games overall visual style. The texturing is extremely low-quality and to make matters worse, quite repetitive. While Ragnar himself looks fine, his enemies are of a significantly lower quality, and some of them are downright pathetic looking. There are a few nice instances of real-time lighting, and the water and lava effects are good from afar, but other than that, its looks are a tough pill to swallow.

The games level design is decidedly uninspired , be it the locales or the way in which they are laid out. Its often times difficult to discern where to go or what to do because the object with which you need to interact is hard to see or in a weird area. I was a big fan of the cheap deaths that seemed to be everywhere. Whether it was getting lost in the dark water because of the poor camera, or walking towards a wall and falling to my death because the floor had a foot wide gap between it and the wall, there are many frustrating ways in which to die. This problem is exacerbated due to the disgustingly long load times that occur after every death or level change. A minute to load a level every time I die? Youve got to be kidding me.

The games strongest asset is its sound, which is good but not great. Vikings are typically portrayed as large, powerful men, so its important that their voices reflect that. This is something that they definitely do; powerful booming voices resonate from all the Vikings you encounter. The performances were a bit stuffy, but they were tolerable.

Theres very little music to speak of, save for some mood-enhancing tunes similar to what is found in Tomb Raider. More music, less music, it wouldnt have helped the game very much. There are the standard effects for weapons clanging, footsteps, chains, its not bad, but after swinging a few thousand times, it can get boring. After a few hours, muting the game and then turning it up at cut-scenes seemed to be the way to go.

When I first began the game, I expected lots of battles and lots of carnage, but I was in for a rude awakening. I found that I would be spending a lot of my time pulling switches and levers, and then looking for the door that I opened.

Note to all developers

Pulling switches and then making a mad dash across a room, down some steps, and over a pit was fun. SIX YEARS AGO! Now, it is nothing but a tired, boring, pathetic attempt at what I can only assume is gameplay. Put your heads together and try a little harder.

Aaron Thomas

Other than switch pulling, there are lots of jumps to make, and a fair amount of unintelligent enemies to kill. The AI is akin to something out of an old NES game; see the enemy from around the corner, pop around the corner where he sees you and he instantly attacks in a pre-programmed lame sequence. Repeat this over and over and over and over and over and over and-well you get the idea.

Despite the fact that you can control the camera with the right analog stick, it is still worthless in combat situations. It often swings around mid-battle causing you to lose track of your enemy or forcing you closer to yet another enemy who hadnt been activated yet. There are three views from which to play the game, but the default one is the only one worth trying. Actually thats not true; the first-person mode is good for a laugh or two because its so worthless, but thats about it. The controls should have been real easy, but apparently someone figured since the Dualshock had all these buttons, they might as well use them, As a result the controls are way too involved for such a simple, simple game.

I let (actually forced is a better word) my brother Daniel play the game for a while, and heres what transpired:

Aaron: Hey buddy, want to come play some PS2?
Daniel: Okay, Gran Turismo3?
Aaron: No, its called Rune: Viking Warlord, come on up.
Daniel: Uh, okay.

Daniel: Whats up with these load times?
Daniel: Ha ha, throwing my weapon is fun. Oops, I lost it
Daniel: This isnt fun
Daniel: This game makes me sleepy, Im going to bed.

When people wonder why the PS2 has underwhelmed so many people, I point to games like this. Half-assed ports of computer games, or games that are just half-assed in general. Look at this game compared to any top-tier PS2 game, and theres no comparison at the amount of time and effort that went into them. Sure they might not have the same budgets, but that still doesnt mean you cant make a great game. Go donate $50 to a relief fund in lieu of playing this travesty.