Review #826: Rune Viking Warlord

 Featuring Odin's floating head!

 I love early PC-to-PS2 ports, such as Rune: Viking Warlord over here. The slippery movement, the poor performance and the somewhat muddy textures that didn't make the jump to PS2 intact. It may sound like a diss, but it's anything but, I find it super charming. Rune was an action/adventure game on the PC that was well received enough to get a port to PS2, and it's more than just a port, we get new levels as well as the multiplayer mode that would be part of the PC game's expansion.

 In the game you play as Ragnar, the last surviving Viking of his tribe, who is rescued by Odin... kinda, kinda because while Odin protected you, now you must get out of Hel yourself. What follows is a story of revenge, you as Odin's Champion vs Loki and his own champion. The story is simple and unintrusive, there are very few cinematics in the game, and it's mostly just Odin's floating head checking up on you. The game has about 8 different sets of levels, it starts off in Hel and then you'll go through goblin caves, snowy mountains, viking castles and even dwarven enclaves.  All in all, it can probably be beaten in about 8 hours. I played the game on medium and it was relatively easy most of the time, a few awkward jumps over botomless pits here and there, but it doesn't get hard until the very end, which is ironic considering you get a massive power up.... but you'll need it, since you'll be fighting the hardest enemies in the games in large numbers.

 Combat is quite clearly the focus of the game, and it plays like a PC game, while combat takes place in close distances, strafing around the enemy and mashing the R1 button is the name of the game, like any PC game of its era. It's not elegant, it's not deep, but it's fun. Ragnar can carry Maces, Axes and Swords, a shield as well provided you aren't using a heavy weapon. And even between these types of weapons you can carry many of each, so in actuality Ragnar carries about 15 weapons: 5 swords, 5 axes and 5 maces. While weapons get progressively stronger, there's a point to carrying the old weapons: Each one has a unique Rune power, which consumers energy from your rune gauge. Ragnar can throw his equipped weapon by pressing triangle, which is necessary a very few times to solve some puzzles, but by the end of the game I threw away my weaker weapons since cycling with the L1 button was a bit boring, however, since powers are unique... I was compelled to keep the fourth sword, since its vampiric rune power proved invaluable a couple of times.

 Rune energy is extremely valuable, for you can only recharge it by finding yellow runes hidden throughout the level, which also means that you can't use your runic powers wily nily. Hidden through the game you may also find the elusive blue runes which permanently increase your health bar, or the more common red run that activates your berserk mode on the spot. Berserk status can be reached in two ways: By finding the aforementioned rune or by landing hits on enemies, once the red bar fills to the top you enter Berserk status. Berserk lasts for a few seconds, and you are invulnerable throughout its duration.

 Level design is what you'd expect of a PC game of its era, a tiny bit mazelike with a ton of levers to find in order to open up doors or extend bridges. Think something like classic Doom but without the keycards. There are a few puzzles here and there, but they were pretty easy to figure out. That said, the Snowy Mountains felt a bit poorly made. You have to realize that the blowing wind will carry you through gaps, and you also have to figure out that you must jump into the crevice for the wind to carry you. Then there's another segment in which the icy road cracks below you as you run, and if you fail to react and get to safety... you'll fall into currents that'll push you back to the start of the section, which quickly got boring. Platforming is as lackluster as you'd expect, which is why fact that there are so many bottomless pits or murderous lava is so surprising. But the worst part about it... the game has obscenely long loading times, and if you die, for example due to a spotty jump, you'll have to sit through another loading screen. No bueno!

 I had fun with Rune, but I'll admit that the frequency and length of the loading screens do put a damper on the experience, but luckily, that's the game's biggest problem. The combat itself is fairly shallow but also very charming, I enjoyed this throwback to an older era of PC games, I find these kinds of ports very appealing, and as janky as the game is by today's standards.... I still think there's something a bit timeless about strafing around skeletons while madly slashing around.
 7.5 out of 10