Rune: Viking Warlord update

Human Head's Rune was originally released on the PC, despite the game's design being fairly grounded in console sensibilities. In it, you're Ragnar, a valiant Norse warrior charged by Odin--Allfather of the mighty Norse pantheon, the Aesir--to kill a traitorous Viking and escape from the bowels of the underworld. Practically speaking, this amounts to a lot of hack-and-slash gameplay, with some light Tomb Raider-style exploration interspersed throughout. Reviewers generally criticized the original PC version of Rune for its shallow experience, often citing its resemblance to a type of 3D Diablo. Despite the stigma attached to the aforementioned hack-and-slash RPG, it's hard to deny its pick-up-and-play appeal--which is exactly what Rune shares with it.

As Ragnar, you traverse the game's environments (which include deep fjords, northernmost peaks, and inverted forests, and the like) by means of a dual-stick control setup, à la Timesplitters. Mapped to the shoulder buttons are attack and parry commands, while the face buttons control jumping, throwing, and action commands. In all, the scheme works very well, though the swimming controls aren't as precise as we'd like. Still, engaging in combat is how you'll spend the brunt of the game, and it unfolds rather well. Strafing around enemies--be they skeletons, Norsemen, or necro-yetis--is simple thanks to the dual-stick configuration, and switching between weapons is fairly quick and efficient.

Graphically, the game definitely isn't looking up to snuff when compared to the PC version. There's some inconsistency in the textures--some are sharp, while others are fuzzy--and some of the animations seem a bit out of whack. Ragnar is modeled pretty well, though, looking full, strong, and Nordic. There's also a little bit of camera weirdness during certain scripted elements in the game. At one point we had to chop some corpses down from a chain to open a locked door. Upon doing so, the camera pulled back and down, resting at a very awkward perspective. Such instances, granted, seem the exception rather than the norm, but they're evidence that the game needs some more time in the shop. Reinforcing this is the game's frame rate, which seems to cap at the high 30s.

If Take-Two doesn't give the team time to polish up the game, it would be a real shame--Rune has the pick-up-and-play accessibility, as well as the frantic pacing, that could make it a total keeper. The faithful should pray for the Allfather's intervention.