It is not always easy to talk about works like Runes II, a little for the affection for the title that preceded it, a little for disbelief and a sense of denial. The latest title developed (in every sense) by Human Head Studios in fact it has the thin and bitter taste of defeat, insult and the classic "mockery". It only took a few minutes in the game to understand how this last work was sufficiently carried out, badly cared for from almost every point of view and abandoned to its fate, without even trying to throw a lifeboat in view of the imminent and now arrived Ragnarok. As soon as the title was launched, in fact, the studio closed its doors, leaving it to its fate and effectively denying any unexpected improvement. However, the team reached an agreement with Bethesda, and under that banner they founded Roundhouse Studios, as announced in recent days by Chris Rhinehart himself.
Ragnarok, an infinite cycle
Mind you, if from the title of the game you expect a story that makes you go through the exploits of Ragnar after having averted the Ragnarok against the power-hungry Conrack, devoted to Loki, you are very wrong. In Rune II you will control an anonymous digital alter ego, created and customized by yourself with a quick - and equally simplistic - editor. Catapulted into a large map with marked Norse landscapes (one of the very successful parts), we will be greeted by the voice of none other than Odin, which will briefly explain our purpose: stop Loki before the Ragnarok is fully accomplished. The deity of deception has in fact already started this process and it is only a matter of hours before the great wolves devour the Sun and the Moon, with the sky invaded by a rain of fire and the earth shaking under their feet.
The limits of the case will be clear right away: a mortal will not be able to kill a God, so our first aim will be to forge a devoted alliance with a deity (chosen by the player himself among Hell, Thor e Odin). Even if with a modicum of power, however, we will not be able to face it immediately, so it will be essential to level up, equip ourselves with weapons and armor and all the trappings of the case. At the end of the countdown that marks the beginning of Ragnarok, we will then be transported into a battle to the death with Loki, definitely more powerful than us and with a shield that at first we will barely manage to scratch. After our inevitable death, we will come back to life to relive this cycle, but starting with all that we have discovered in the past and with the objects accumulated up to that moment. To defeat Loki and put an end to Ragnarok it will therefore be necessary to repeat this circle several times, surviving the threats that this world offers and strengthening ourselves beyond belief, only to die and try again. The narrative pretext leaves something to be desired, and in trying to plug some holes regarding the background of these lands there are several lorestones, of the fluorescent boulders that we can read and that once discovered will also give us a little bit of experience.
Rune II and its mechanics
The spawn points will be small portals Bifrost, who will have no other task than this. From here on, exploration will be the basis of everything, looking for materials to repair the Longhouse (where to put the equipment back in order, cook, craft, refresh ourselves and keep us safe from bad weather and enemies), but also to defeat the various opponents that will stand in front of us and look for armaments from their remains, or from the loot coffers scattered around the world of game. The materials, such as stones, wood and resin, can be recovered by attacking trees or rocks with your bare hands or with your weapon, while the flesh will be obtained from the lifeless carcasses of the animals you kill. Craft weapons, armor, healing items - but also boats - will be fundamental, and the method to do it from the general inventory menu is the most basic you can imagine: even if it may seem not very deep, nevertheless they remain easy to understand mechanics and manageable even by newbies. This is also accompanied by the feature of the durability of weapons and armor, which with use will deteriorate more and more, and will require maintenance before they break permanently. You won't be able to craft many items at first, but the game world is still littered with recipes that you will accumulate slowly.
The enemies you will find on the map do not shine for originality and will only be of a few types, but they will not be less dangerous: animals (from the most docile fawns to the much more aggressive wild boars), brigands, ice men and portentous giants will be ready to crush you at any time. Each enemy will be faced with criteria, keeping distance when necessary and parrying at the right time so as not to suffer serious injuries when surrounded. But be careful, because even the natural elements themselves can turn out to be a thorn in the side, such as the fire, the bitter cold (take shelter in the longhouse as soon as you can!) Or the trees that can hit you as you cut them down. The combat mechanics are also basic, and if not all scattered everywhere by various bugs, Rune II would have also turned out to be a pleasant game, especially at a not too high price for the basic version.
The final death
We wholeheartedly regret to say, despite the name it bears and the hope of all longtime fans, that Rune II is a title to be avoided from almost every point of view. On a technical level, we are close to catastrophe - or Ragnarok - in every sense. The title struggles to run even if tested with machinery that meets the minimum requirements indicated (and even better), with slowdowns, freezes and drops in frame rates everywhere which make everything practically unplayable (yes, even by greatly decreasing the graphic quality, and yes, it happens both in single player and online). THE bug are present in any dynamic we encounter, from hotkeys that sometimes don't do their job, to impalement or movement bugs, to objects that are not destructible (such as trees) or rocks with unlimited "life", right up to to hitbox busted as well as combat phases. Last but not least, videos (the most obvious example at the beginning of the game) sometimes end in mid-sentence during speaking. All this is even more a shame if we think that many people will spend money on this product, which inevitably after the closure of development will not see these problems solved. It makes even more anger to think about how the Rune brand has become so badly stained, if we then approach everything that the study of the landscape is all in all intriguing, and that the mechanics created are direct and pleasant ... and therefore with attention greater Human Head would have at least brought the game to a narrow and necessary sufficiency.
