RUNE II: Decapitation Edition

 PC
User Score
4.7

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 77 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 77
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 77
  3. Negative: 43 out of 77

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  1. Dubeau
    Nov 20, 2019
    4
    Rune 2 seems promising. I like the crafting and the combat seems acceptable. There is a certain level of details in the world making. However the game is poorly optimized. There are countless bugs and in just a couple of hours of gaming, the game froze 3 times. The game won't be updated because of the studio closing. I give it 45%. I like the potential of the game but it was release too soon.
  2. LVVrunner
    Nov 13, 2020
    0
    The game is not optimized and I almost burned my video card. Even it is sold in Steam incorrectly, one thing is stated, but they give another.
  3. pastuh
    Nov 13, 2019
    0
    We all knew how this will end.
    Look at Youtube videos and it's totally different comparing to good old Rune 1.
    Look at UI.. Look at tutorial.. very sad such game is DEAD.

    I like story and lore, but sorry, i can't play such unfinished games..
  4. RPGler
    Nov 28, 2019
    1
    I paid 25 € for this creation, but if I had known beforehand what unprofessional, unfinished mess I was presented with, I wouldn't even have played this "games" if it was for free:
    1) There is actually no story, you just have to defeat Loki.
    2) Consequently there are no missions, you just have to defeat Loki. But you can earn experience points if you kill X enemies of type Y or pick up    I paid 25 € for this creation, but if I had known beforehand what unprofessional, unfinished mess I was presented with, I wouldn't even have played this "games" if it was for free:
    1) There is actually no story, you just have to defeat Loki.
    2) Consequently there are no missions, you just have to defeat Loki. But you can earn experience points if you kill X enemies of type Y or pick up 20 mushrooms.
    2) To defeat Loki, you have to forge a sword. You will realize this fact only by not being able to kill Loki with conventional weapons in one of the dozens of fights.
    3) To forge this sword you need certain ingredients, of which only two are hard to find: 20 times frost giant blood and 20 times fire giant blood. But these giants are very rare to find and they are distributed by chance. And if you find them, they don't always give blood when you kill them. So you have to search the same islands for hours and hours, in new iterations which the game calls "ages". As an example: I had to invest three hours just to find one drop of blood from a suitable giant. If the game developers call "random collecting" fun, then they're in the wrong genre and should go bottle collecting.
    4) The game world is absolutely lifeless, apart from the really boring opponents. They fight all the same, and the AI has the IQ of a rune. The stupidest enemies I've seen since Underworld Ascendant.
    5) The game is absolutely unbalanced: The enemies don't seem tolevel with your level, so after a few levels, each enemy is dead is one strike. That's laughable for today's standards.
    6) The land mass of the game world is very small for a supposed Open World game: If you put all the islands together, you might get 1 to 1.5 square kilometers. Size is faked here by the extensive water masses between the islands. Nothing happens on the water itself, i.e. you can look forward to a lot of wasted travelling time.
    7) As far as crafting is concerned: you can't forge anything special that you don't already own. Till the end I used the sword I got at the very beginning of the game (Warrior Sword). Only the sword to kill Loki is an upgrade. The developers had promised thousands of variations of weapons and armor that you can modify differently, etc. All empty promises.
    8) Technically the game is a disaster: I have a very fast computer and even in the lowest settings it lags again and again, which can be fatal in fights. So this has nothing to do with the graphics itself, which by the way is on the level of 2011, but with bad optimization. Furthermore, enemies and stones float around in the air, you get stuck at corners etc..
    9) The whole game looks unfinished and like an Early Access. The current sold version has the version number 0.0.12, which looks suspicious.
    10) It's also fitting that one day after the release Human Head Studios went broke and was bought by Bethesda and is now called Roundhouse Studiost.
    11) The game has absolutely nothing to do with Rune 1, except that you play a Viking in third person.
    12) Just like Underworld Ascendant, this game is not a real game, but an unfinished product without working gameplay. Allegedly it was created by industry veterans. I think in reality, only a few people from the previous game sat next to it as level design interns thrown islands together in the Unreal engine.
    13) Let me repeat: The whole game concept is "Find the ingredients to forge a Loki-Sword". No missions, no story, no real crafting, no interesting items like in Diablo oder Skyrim, no different fighting styles, no NPCs, just stupid collecting of resources. Worst Game of the Year Award!    … Expand
  5. Insouciant
    Nov 14, 2019
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The entire game has only 1 quest, the quest never changes. Get artifact, deliver artifact, fight loki, repeat. I've repeated the quest 10+ times, and the only thing that changes is the number of artifacts you have to bring after finishing the quest. The battle is still the same, boss is buggy, gets easily stuck and you can cheese him with a bow if u get up on a rock.

    Same enemies from the first 30 minutes repeated throughout the entire game. Crafting is useless, outside of using it for leveling up. Hell you can't even sort recepies, it's all just cluttered and you have to dig around to see which one is better. Making runes is not worth it, gathering resources is useless as well. All weapons and armors are the same except for minor changes and some added glow. Inventory UI must be one of the worst ones I've ever seen in a game. There's no character panel where you see what you've equipped, it just stays in your inventory witih a tiny icon showing it's equipped.

    Game's filled with bugs - you can eat multiple foods at the same time to get full hp, attacking and blocking halfway through the animation doesn't use stamina, character gets stuck between stairs and walls so you have to suicide, etc...

    Not to meantion that after about 5 hours, you'll mute all game sounds, simply because Loki will keep throwing rocks at you randomly from the sky every 2-3 minutes repeating the same quote and annoying laugh over and over and over and over and over again.

    Won't bother mentioning optimizaiton, it's non-existant.

    Score of 1 for the effort of the art department.    … Expand
  6. Sarealius
    Nov 13, 2019
    0
    lags, bugs, low fps, not optimized, awful UI.

    good music. fair combat. story? no story.

    this is just a moneygrab on bones (Rune 1).
  7. Alexdorg
    Nov 12, 2019
    2
    Sluttering, low fps and crashes are your best friends if you but this game at the moment. Although graphics are old and poor, I don't understand what can lag my PC so much.
  8. GameplayShinobi
    Nov 14, 2019
    4
    Just wow.... This game is a mess. Ever since the beginning Human Head ignored player's feedback ( stamina bars, combat, empty world with MMORPG enemy respawn style which means you will get attack over and over again if you stay for a minute or two in the same place ) Steam users were used as a Beta Testers with NO REAL reward but a slap to the face when they heard the game is heading toJust wow.... This game is a mess. Ever since the beginning Human Head ignored player's feedback ( stamina bars, combat, empty world with MMORPG enemy respawn style which means you will get attack over and over again if you stay for a minute or two in the same place ) Steam users were used as a Beta Testers with NO REAL reward but a slap to the face when they heard the game is heading to Epic store, player's feedback ignored ( most of us wanted the game to be like the old Rune HOV ) fast hack n slash action combat with no stamina limit and useless progression but the DEV team had a different idea for Rune 2.

    The Result is a buggy unoptimized mess with obnoxious Villan and "Ragnarok Timer" that only frustrate rather than add anything to gameplay. Combat is "WONKY," at times hits do not register even if you clearly stabbed the enemy in front of you with a spear, you can get clubbed to death because enemy attacks are absolutely impossible to tell whether they use heavy or light attack ( both of them are fast ). Add to that FAST enemy SPAWN, limited stamina and you will die more due to unbalance, horrible on screen effects that will block your vision, wonky hitboxes and bad combat.

    Human Head studio also announced that they will be "Closing Doors". Wow.... I bet they knew that they don't have much time left so they took Epic's money to recuperate some of the expenses... Rushed the game and now who knows whether they will be able to even fix it ( or release it on Steam ). I would advise anyone to save their money and stay away from this horrible mess which is Rune 2. What a shame... I really was looking forward to it but its nothing like the Rune HOV.    … Expand
  9. ProfGamer1981
    Dec 14, 2019
    0
    What a joke of a game, the worst game design I've seen in years! People who are trying to give this game a top rating are likely to be company employees trying to make up for the negative comments. Check out the press reviews if you don't believe the negative user comments: the low scores have a reason! The game is a mess, this has nothing to do with the Epic Store: no story, no missions,What a joke of a game, the worst game design I've seen in years! People who are trying to give this game a top rating are likely to be company employees trying to make up for the negative comments. Check out the press reviews if you don't believe the negative user comments: the low scores have a reason! The game is a mess, this has nothing to do with the Epic Store: no story, no missions, no fighting styles, ancient graphics, thousands of bugs and lags, and so on. Devs, if you don't have the money, brains or manpower to make a good game, let it be.… Expand
  10. KottyBobick
    Jan 30, 2020
    0
    What is this hideous nonsense? Bad story. Bad gameplay. Bad graphics. Absolutely not entertaining. Looks like another 1$ game from steam greenlight. Hideous.
  11. Uriel_UK
    Nov 12, 2019
    3
    With my RTX 2080 i have 40-60 fps (1080p)...
    RDR2 runs with 60*80 fps on ultra xD
    Graphic is very poor - like from 2008 , Crafting system ,campain 4 player coop and easy but enjoyable fights and funny pvp are only and the strongest points for this game.
  12. gameplayhdpc
    Nov 12, 2019
    0
    Horrible broken mess. Instant refund on EGS.
    One of the worst games I've played this year.
  13. Gamerjohn
    Dec 20, 2019
    0
    The game is quite boring, the plot seems to be written by a 3 year old and the game engine sutters even though I have a 1070gtx...
  14. Iglio
    Dec 2, 2019
    9
    People review bombing this because it's EGS exclusive for a year...GROW UP. They had no backer campaign, so no one was fooled and said they HAD to take the deal or the game couldn't come out. This was not a AAA dev with tons of money. It was made by a VERY small team! Probably under a lot of pressures by Epic and the publishers. Think before you cry over nonsense.

    Now the game- It's not    People review bombing this because it's EGS exclusive for a year...GROW UP. They had no backer campaign, so no one was fooled and said they HAD to take the deal or the game couldn't come out. This was not a AAA dev with tons of money. It was made by a VERY small team! Probably under a lot of pressures by Epic and the publishers. Think before you cry over nonsense.

    Now the game- It's not God of War or Rune 1, but only an idiot would expect that given the above. Lots of fun combat mechanics like the weapon throwing from the original that make interesting gameplay in open world. Plenty of items to string you along, and quests you can customize to your gameplay.

    After 2 hours I always see something new still. Like new artifact quests or enemies fighting each other in different ways. Lets me plan how i fight. The changing ages are interesting. Not many games try to dynamic change their environments like that.

    The sailing is rough and needs more stuff to do in the water. The artifact quests can get boring too, but they are probably adding more later since the publishers said they would be updating it even after the studio got acquired.

    Otherwise it's enjoyable for the price. Probably even more fun with 4 people co-op. I see why Bethesda wanted the devs so bad. They can see things in small packages lots of other devs struggle with, or think they need to go bigger with. Again, it's not God of War, and it's not Rune 1, but it's not supposed to be. It's a top seller on EGS so clearly serves its audience. Nice work HH!    … Expand
  15. Nekotin
    Nov 13, 2019
    1
    Only 20 people online. Game have a lot of bugs and devs closes down. Wow?
  16. Auticus
    Nov 13, 2019
    7
    Great concept. Pretty. Lots of room for performance and content improvement. Several release bugs that need ironed out. I played up until level 6, it was fun and enjoyable. I see where this game is going and I am excited and have faith that the team will iron out the technical issues that have cropped up at release.
  17. TheFrog
    Dec 14, 2019
    5
    I can live with the poor graphics and the mostly empty world, I kinda like the simplistic combat, but I cannot force myself to ignore the many incredibly poor decisione the designers made. Every minute or so, some kind of penalty randomly spawns. Undead emerge all around you while you are in a heated fight with a giant. Meteors falling down or snow storms that quickly drain your health.I can live with the poor graphics and the mostly empty world, I kinda like the simplistic combat, but I cannot force myself to ignore the many incredibly poor decisione the designers made. Every minute or so, some kind of penalty randomly spawns. Undead emerge all around you while you are in a heated fight with a giant. Meteors falling down or snow storms that quickly drain your health. None of these hazards is too dangerous, but they are too frequent and annoying as hell, especially considering how infinitely pestering Loki's manic laugh is. The worst is being forced to leave everything and being sucked to some plane to fight Loki in a fight you cannot win (but temporarily defeating him will grant special materials you 'll need). Also, whoever decided to auto-switch weapons and armor? It's really an asinine idea, as some armor may have better protection than the one you are wearing, but much worse buffs. Or, you pick up precious elemental arrows and the game auto-selects them in place of the easily replaceable ones you are using.
    Most of all, I'm tired to wait forever for the age of fire, when I can finally find a few of the elusive fire giants I need, to ever so slowly collect their blood for the final sword. Gah, boring as Hel!    … Expand
  18. G181818
    Nov 13, 2019
    10
    Open world with lots of action. Fun combat. Great art.
    Crazy news about HH joining Bethesda!! And I thought Anakin Skywalker becoming Darth Vadar was a twist...
    Love that the Rune II team is rallying to the community.
  19. Kreuzoong
    Nov 13, 2019
    10
    In my opinion this is kinda awesome. This was created by the same (!) guys who created the first one. The did it after all those years. I rspect that. This was a huge devotion. Just remember please that this is not a AAA game. Just remember that this is NOT created by huge team. That this wasn't founded by EA or Activision, Ubisoft or someone like those guys. KO
    Ok, So its buggy, its    In my opinion this is kinda awesome. This was created by the same (!) guys who created the first one. The did it after all those years. I rspect that. This was a huge devotion. Just remember please that this is not a AAA game. Just remember that this is NOT created by huge team. That this wasn't founded by EA or Activision, Ubisoft or someone like those guys. KO
    Ok, So its buggy, its crashing frome time to time, and the graphics aren't that great either. But gameplay is awesome! Lore is Amazing and guys! FIGHTS AREY    … Expand
  20. matpamat
    Nov 16, 2019
    9
    Well, I didn't like the first Rune. But Rune 2 is very ok. The action starts after 1.5-2h . Lot of stuff, crafting. Interesting solutions. Combat is brutal and simple. Many attacks possible with use of super powers or runes. The game doesn't look very beautyful but it's not ugly. For such a small price and a fan of gothic/risen/elex it's a very good game. I would give from 7-9 . I'm at theWell, I didn't like the first Rune. But Rune 2 is very ok. The action starts after 1.5-2h . Lot of stuff, crafting. Interesting solutions. Combat is brutal and simple. Many attacks possible with use of super powers or runes. The game doesn't look very beautyful but it's not ugly. For such a small price and a fan of gothic/risen/elex it's a very good game. I would give from 7-9 . I'm at the beginning but the game already consumed me. Gods speak to me I have to choose one. Super powers. Loki sends rains of fire. It build the atmosphere. I'm playing on Geforce 1660Ti on my laptop with i7 9th generation and everything runs fine on the highest setting… Expand
  21. BlueHalo
    Apr 20, 2020
    0
    This is a mess, i can get a random game from 15 years ago that has better mechanics and everything else better.
    Talking about the involution of gaming. R I P.
  22. MadclownJack
    Dec 18, 2020
    5
    It's an okay game, not without faults. Graphics are meh, the environment can be monotone, and the combat can be rigid. I still like it though, it's got some sort of an indie Gothic feel. The timer is kinda the bane of my existence, i don't like being pressured to do anything in an open world game.
  23. leaveit
    Mar 3, 2022
    0
    Garbage. Studio 369 is on pure damage-control mode, trying (and failing) to salvage this dump that Human Head took last year. It is obvious to anyone who's played the game that they are actually working on it, but, sorry, to no avail. There are only 64 people playing it during Thanksgiving week on Steam and the game remains horribly buggy and unoptimized, yet they are releasing DLC. PureGarbage. Studio 369 is on pure damage-control mode, trying (and failing) to salvage this dump that Human Head took last year. It is obvious to anyone who's played the game that they are actually working on it, but, sorry, to no avail. There are only 64 people playing it during Thanksgiving week on Steam and the game remains horribly buggy and unoptimized, yet they are releasing DLC. Pure damage-control. Sorry about your financials, guys. What Feremuntrus said about how the gameplay looks is hilarious and accurate, as I still recall a glimmering anecdote from RUNE 1 when a guy's sole tactic was throwing 4-weaps (sigurd's axe, dwarf ws/hammer) and saying "owens." Still a problem 20 years later - except the difference is that it actually took time to pick up weapons in the first game. The game is not an evolution, just a pastiche of some other contemporary garbage - mostly Conan Exiles.

    Unsurprisingly, the rescue team went out of business and the game's support ended sometime the middle of 2021. That's a F-U-very-much to whoever downvoted this. This thing had disaster written all over it from the moment the first trailer released.    … Expand
  24. Feremuntrus
    Dec 7, 2020
    2
    IN NEED OF A MAJOR OVERHAUL

    To preface, I was an Alpha & Beta tester for Rune II who actively provided feedback to help the Dev team. I also played the original Rune for 14 years and was active in the competitive PvP scene. I never believed Rune II had to be a clone of the original, but it had to feel like Rune and improve upon what made the first game great. As it stands, this game    IN NEED OF A MAJOR OVERHAUL

    To preface, I was an Alpha & Beta tester for Rune II who actively provided feedback to help the Dev team. I also played the original Rune for 14 years and was active in the competitive PvP scene. I never believed Rune II had to be a clone of the original, but it had to feel like Rune and improve upon what made the first game great.

    As it stands, this game FAILS ON BOTH ENDS. Although bearing the “Rune” name, this game does not share the original's free-flowing (and deceptively complex) combat and movement, platforming options (e.g., think what was possible in DM-MtEverestFinal), and modding capabilities – all of which still keep the original game alive for 20 years now.

    For specifics, I’ll focus on one of Rune II’s biggest problems – its terrible combat system. Rune II’s combat is janky, has poor hit detection, has next to no flow and worse of all, is NOT fun. Pain delays are non-existent so there is no consequence to getting hit, and weapon spam is encouraged. The camera does an annoying shake every time you hit something. The game’s double-tap dodges are restricted to four sides instead of being omnidirectional. There are no natural hit combo strings. You cannot swing an attack into dodges to drag and get delayed strikes and/or combos. There is no crouch button and by extension crouch attacks to evade blows and bypass shields through precision strikes. Weapon swings are delayed, and if you press attack after suddenly switching directions, you are not guaranteed to swing in that direction. Weapons have little angular/swing variety, so most weapons feel alike. Damage values are laughably low and limb severing is a rarity that only occurs with sheer luck. Shields do not passively stop attacks. The game's rolls make the double-tap dodges useless because they're faster and because double-tap dodges cannot synergize well with strikes.

    Characters are not forced to pause when picking up items so combat devolves into people running through weapons, picking them up, throwing them at opponents, and then continuing to run away. It is almost impossible to catch people who actively run away from you. You can also hoard and then spam health runes which, because of their instant activation, encourages abuse. The direction you aim a power attack (ground or mid-air) is almost always inconsistent with where your character actually swings. And the UI system for changing weapons is horrible, forcing you to hold the mouse wheel which often causes you to activate food/runes by accident.

    EVERY problem I described here that Rune II has, the original Rune DOES NOT have. Likewise, the features I mentioned that are missing in Rune II, EXIST in the original Rune. The original game was not perfect by any means but its core combat experience remains unique to this day and would have helped Rune II differentiate itself from its competitors. The formula for success was right in front of Studio 369’s face but they purposely moved away from the original Rune to give a metaphorical middle finger to Humanhead Studios – at the cost of the game and the original fanbase. What's even more frustrating is that all the problems I mentioned were reported over the past 2 years, but the combat has only gotten more stiff and unstable since then. To Humanhead's credit, they listened and implemented a lot of community feedback even though most of the changes were incomplete and rushed. The same cannot be said for Studio 369. In fact, some community members were effectively silenced by Studio 369 in the Rune II discord when bringing up some of these topics because, in the Dev team's own words, "we're not making a remaster of another game" - completely refusing to acknowledge any merit in our feedback and instead dismissing the Rune Classic community as an annoying vocal minority. Unfortunately we are a minority BECAUSE thousands of fans of the original game were completely turned away by Rune II, while those of us left are trying to help Studio 369 succeed and bring those fans back.

    Studio 369 explicitly wanted Rune II to be different from the original Rune. But what they offer instead (as far as gameplay & combat is concerned) is far worse than both the original and other melee-based combat games. Basic tweaks to the speed and inputs of combat will not be enough to fix this. If the fundamental combat system itself is flawed and not fun, then Studio 369 will not find much traction and continued support for new PvP game modes like deathmatch and arena (which should have been a part of Rune II from the start). The poor combat system implicates the enjoyability of Rune II’s campaign/PvE as well, which is further plagued by poor AI in the enemies you find in the open world.

    As it stands, this game is only “Rune” in name and while I wish Studio 369 the best, this is not a game I would play or recommend fans of the original to purchase.    … Expand
  25. Anonymous007
    May 31, 2021
    0
    I wish I didn't purchase the game there is nothing in this game literally bad optimization bugs lag low fps if you have a good pc there is no story really! The graphics overall is bad the UI is BAD the gameplay is garbage even {rune I} it was good but this ughhhh, I have played games from 2010 and they are better from rune II and now I'm uninstalling the game at this moment I didn'tI wish I didn't purchase the game there is nothing in this game literally bad optimization bugs lag low fps if you have a good pc there is no story really! The graphics overall is bad the UI is BAD the gameplay is garbage even {rune I} it was good but this ughhhh, I have played games from 2010 and they are better from rune II and now I'm uninstalling the game at this moment I didn't complete 30m and I said fallout 76 is now my fav game ...… Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
50

Mixed or average reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 12
  3. Negative: 6 out of 12
  1. DarkStation
    Dec 8, 2020
    50
    Full of bugs, glitches and a laundry list of elements that feel unfinished or outdated, it’s pretty hard to recommend Rune II: Decapitation Edition to anyone whose enjoyment depends on a quality experience. Players with a love of all things Viking and high tolerance for mediocrity might be able to find a few hours of fun in Rune II’s messy world, but most gamers would do better to spend their time and money elsewhere.
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  2. Hardcore Gamer
    Nov 24, 2020
    60
    I wish I was able to play the original Rune II to see how bad it truly was and get a better sense of how much Rune II: Decapitation Edition improved it. At its core it’s a fun Viking hack and slash looter, like a third-person Borderlands set in the Viking age. It doesn’t achieve true greatness as it stands, with the technical issues not helping matters. But those aside, Rune II: Decapitation Edition is a fun, accessible game that’s better with friends, with potential to improve with future patching. The degree Studio 369 has improved the game isn’t something that can be personally ascertained, but it can faithfully be said that they did turn it into a game that’s not without its issues, but one where a good time can be found.
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  3. TheSixthAxis
    Nov 13, 2020
    70
    Rune II: Decapitation Edition is an entirely new game rather than just an update of last year’s release. It may look like it’s competing with Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla for your Viking gaming time but it is a very different experience. At its best in co-operative multiplayer, Rune II is a throwback to the chaotic and brutal combat of early third person ARPGs and offers a blood-soaked alternative to the clinical and focus-grouped approach of many games. So gather a band of your most loyal friends and prepare to set sail – this Ragnarok isn’t going to end itself.
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