Rune (Mac)

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Product Features

• MAC OS 8
• PCI PowerMac (including IMac 2nd generation machine)
• Hardware Accelerated 3D video card (supporting OpenGL) - 6MB or better
• RAM: 64MB
• CD-ROM; 4x

Product Details

• Our recommended age: 17 - 20 years
• Manufacturer recommended age: 0 months and up
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00004ZB7K
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: December 12, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #21,068 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)

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• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review
Combine the Unreal Tournament 3-D engine with hard-nosed Viking melee combat and what do you get? You get Rune, an epic third-person action game from Human Head Studios. You take on the role of Ragnar, a young warrior spared from death by Odin but who must fight his own way up from the underworld to defend his village and exact revenge upon the dark Vikings who killed his father.

Set in grim, exceptionally well-designed environments ranging from ancient crypts full of undead warriors to a towering mechanical Dwarven city, Rune mixes typical first-person shooter gameplay with the rigors of close-quarter melee combat. Instead of the shotguns and rocket launchers you've mastered in other games, you will find yourself armed only with an array of swords, hammers, and axes in Rune. Combat with these weapons is very different--and very challenging, particularly in the game's latter levels and against multiple opponents.

The graphics in Rune are excellent, with an exceptional attention to detail on just about every level. The lighting is very well done and so are the sound effects used throughout the game. The music is suitably heroic, though it plays too infrequently and loops too quickly. Overall, the game does a marvelous job of setting the mood for head-smashing Viking combat. There are even some nifty gameplay twists that keep you in the proper frame of mind. When you're wounded, for example, you can drink mead, scarf down a leg of mutton, or grab and eat a lizard off any nearby wall to gain some health back. And when Ragnar is done drinking his mead, he smashes the cup on the floor. He deals with crates, barrels, and many doors in his path the same way.

While the single-player game is outstanding--and features one of the flat-out coolest game-won reward sequences ever--the multiplayer action is where you can really test your sword-fighting skills. Although the game includes 43 single-player levels and only seven multiplayer maps, Rune has proven to be quite popular online, with up to 16 players going at it in wild melee combat.

The only disappointment in Rune may be the fact that it does not offer any computer-controlled bots for solo deathmatch play. Even without the bots, Rune is easily one of the year's top games in any genre and an intense epic that no action fan should be without. --Michael Ryan

Pros:

• Intense melee action using the Unreal Tournament engine
• Epic story line set in the land of Vikings and Nordic mythology
• Excellent level design, with impressive attention to detail
• Great graphics, sound, and music

Cons:

• An occasional AI flaw will halt action on some levels
• No bots for multiplayer mode

Product Description
This Third-person Action/adventure Game Is Steeped In Norse Mythology. Players Assume The Role Of Ragnar The Viking Mightiest Warrior Of A Bygone Age. In An Age When Might Makes Right It Is Ragnar Who Doles Out Justice On The Blade Of His Massive Battle-axe. Players Explore Beautiful Settings Both Above And Below The Mountains Of The Far North As Ragnar Fights His Way Through Several Stunning And Unique Kingdoms To An Ultimate Confrontation With The Sark Amen The Shadowy Warrior-masters Of The Netherworld.rune Is A Third-person Perspective Game Of Intense Action And Adventure Steeped In A Blend Of Norse Mythology And High Fantasy. Players Have To Use Their Brains As Well As Their Massive Brawn To Survive As They Explore The Fully 3d Game World Fighting Off Fantastic Creatures From Both Norse Legend And The Fertile Minds Of The Human Head Staff With Their Array Of Swords Axes And Magical Devices. the Game Focused On Equal Parts Melee Combat And Exploration With Levels Ranging From A Viking Town To The Caverns Of The Dwarves To A City In The Mountains. Players Have Access To A Array Of Melee Weapons Based Both In Fact And Fantasy As Ragnar Delves Deeper Into The Realms Of Myth And Further From His Old Reality. rune Included A Full Single-player Game As Well As Several Specially Designed Multiplayer Levels That Allow Players To Cooperate Or Compete As Ragnar Or Another Viking Warrior. The Multiplayer Game Also Included Special Handicap And Team Modes To Widen The Multiplayer Experience. system Requirements: (mac Only)mac Os 8.1pci Powermac (including Imac 2nd Generation Machine)hardware Accelerated 3d Video Card (supporting Opengl) - 6mb Or Betterram: 64mbcd-rom; 4xdisk Space: 400mbsupports Internet Connection (tcp/ip - 28.8kbp)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Everything that's on the cover, January 9, 2001

By	S P Brady (Rehoboth Beach, DE United States) - See all my reviews

After finishing the game and playing online for several nights until I hear the garbage men doing their rounds I feel qualified to give my approval of this game.

Rune is a very smooth running enjoyable tension releaser with an arsenal of weapons to choose. It might take a minute to get used to the environment because Ragnar needs to climb up, down, diagonal, and do a few inhuman jumps. The graphics are brilliant particularly the magic runestone effects.

But then there is the multiplayer online mode. This is worth the price of the game alone! It is so much fun to get in these gladiator pits and just let your hatchet fly. Surprisingly quick on a 28.8, in fact the quickest game I've ever played online with a 28k modem.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best game I have ever played!, June 28, 2001

By	Dave Cordes (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

Let me just say that I have been playing video games since the dawn of Pong. I have seen video games evolve over the last 30 years and have owned just about every console system that has been manufactured since the Atari 2600. I have been bored to tears with first-person shooters like Doom and Quake. Alas, Human Head delivers an epic hack & slash game that has provided me with hundreds of hours of pure entertainment. I started out playing the single-person mod, but as soon as I entered the online meshes I was instantly addicted. The game features fantastic modification abilities with 3rd party skins and maps that can be downloaded from many web sites. With 3rd party mods you can play as characters such as Ash from Army of Darkness complete with Chainsaw Arm mutator, or Conan the Barbarian. Download customizable dungeon maps or use any of the built-in game maps to host a mesh on your computer...(if you host it, they will come!). Play all-out deathmatches in the gladiatorial arena (still waiting for a Maximus skin and the announced Gladiator mod that should be available soon). Use cheat codes to play God Mode and strike down all those who oppose you or simply play good old-fashioned man-to-man armored combat. Every night when I get home from work, I pop in Rune and mesh online until the crack of dawn. I am totally addicted to Rune and just purchased a PS2 which will be christened by Rune: Viking Warlord later this month. Forget Tomb Raider... Lara Croft has just been hacked to pieces by Ragnar!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hack it up!, May 16, 2001

By	Peter Hentges (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I picked up this game because I saw a demonstration of it at a game convention last year. Now available for Mac users, Rune is a third-person action game based on the Unreal tournament engine. I've been alternately pleased and frustrated by the puzzles presented by the game as I've directed Ragnar, the young Viking protaganist, through his journey of vengeance. The action is smooth and fast, with the environment beutifully rendered.

It took me a while to get used to the controls for the game, not having played Unreal or games like this previously. After a few trips out of the game to the configurations menu using the ESC key, though, I've picked up the basics pretty well. I've also, in that time, come to some basic understanding of how the game designers were thinking. The very first level frustrated me for a while; all the characters kept telling me to go to the village long house, but I couldn't get there! Once I found a fence I could jump over, however, it all became clear. So now, when stuck, I start looking for the out in the open but overlooked solutions to the problem I'm facing. Some have been quite clever and I'm enjoying the challenge.

My only quibbles with the game are the packaging and documentation. The game comes in a box about the dimensions of a hefty hard back book. However, the game itself takes up only the enclosed CD case. The manual is liner-note sized and included in the CD case. I think because of the size of the manual, documentation is limited. A nice addition would have been a keyboard chart for the main controls in the back where the blank "notes" pages are.

Overall, however, this is a fun game for action lovers. Once you've hacked off the enemy's head, picked it up and tossed it at your next foe, you'll never go back.