OK, I'll admit it: Tomb Raider always looked sort of fun. I just couldn't imagine standing in the line at the register holding a box with giant breasts on it. Playing video games as an adult is geeky enough without looking like a pervert. Thankfully, since other game publishers were unable compete with pure sex appeal to lure in the lucrative market of 13 year old males, they had to resort to unprecedented levels of graphic violence. Cool!
Rune is a third-person action-adventure in the style of Tomb Raider, with a lot of Viking stuff thrown in--but that's not really important when it comes to this genre. Rune features wide and expansive areas which almost disguise the fact that it is completely linear, but the false sense of freedom it gives you eventually leads to little more than frustration.
There's too many locations that exist for no reason, closed doors that are nothing more than scenery, and ledges placed conveniently close enough to jump to, which in any other game (post Super Mario Bros.), would be a good idea, as there would be a reward placed on top. However, Rune not only defies all conventions, it mocks you with them. It even throws the worst possible video game scenario at you--forcing you to swim through a tunnel with your "air" bar almost gone, and then presents you with two other tunnels to choose from, diverging in opposite directions. Even the enemies are annoying, as the choice to engage or avoid them is never readily apparent. What's more, a good number of them require a deftly aimed cut to the neck to dispatch permanently.
To Rune's credit, the level design gets better towards the second half of the game, but half of a good game just doesn't cut it. Visually, it looks good, using the Unreal graphics engine (which favors owners of 3dFX video cards), though the sparse level design rarely takes advantage of its ability to create detailed levels, like those that appeared in Deus Ex.
Multiplayer is a new experience, as there are not any projectile weapons, and winning is dependent upon your ability to time your attacks and dodges while trying to stay behind your opponents. While some of the maps are straight out arena battles, which grow tiresome rather quickly, other ones are more strategic and grow tiresome a bit slower. These maps turn into a "camp" fest, where players guard the locations where "runes" (items that give your weapons special abilities) appear. Not only are the special abilities overpowered--one weapon, the massive Dwarven' work sword, is clearly superior to all others in both its natural state and its rune powered mode, which automatically electrocutes anyone who comes near you. Team games are more interesting than the all out deathmatches, but are still hampered by the fact that players re-spawn in random locations after they die, which leads to small roving bands that ignore each other in their search for the other team's stragglers.
Rune is a completely average game that is getting undue praise because the rest of its genre is relatively weaker. Though average isn't necessarily bad, I would urge you to check out last year's Heretic II, which is a better game in many ways and can be found for bargain bin prices.
