Back in 2018, Human Head Studios launched the closed-beta phase for their title Rune: Ragnarok. Little did they know, diehard fans of the series still dug the classic Rune title of 2000. With that being said, to satisfy their huge fan base, the studios will need to work much harder than they currently are.

Rune II
Rune II - by Human Head Studios - is the 2nd sequel of the Rune series.

Appreciation from the director

The project director of the series Chris Rhinehart expressed his gratitude towards the fans for their feedbacks. According to him, Rune II needed more time for polishing purposes to be ready for release. Because of that, Human Head started looking for a co-operation partner and controversially, agreed to collaborate with Epic Games. As a result, Rune II will be Epic Games Store exclusively and the sales money will go directly to its development.

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At the moment, players will need to wait until Nov 12th for the official release. As Rhinehart stated, the funding worked out nicely and enabled them to preemptively add the Deathmatch mode into the game. Here, 16 players join a deadly battle and fight till their death.

Rune II overview

Rune II takes place a few decades after the first entry. Meet Ragnar, a faithful Viking warrior on his way to avenge the death of his father. During his mission, he ended up trying to stop the evil Loki from causing Ragnarok. About the name Rune II, the studios renamed it to be a true sequel instead of the original title Rune: Halls of Valhalla in 2001.

After your hero’s resurrection, you get a shot to earn a noble place in Valhalla. All you need to do is to stop Loki - killing him to be exact. According to Rhinehart, the game should take around 15 hours to complete, although completionists will spend much more than that to explore the game.

For Rhineheart and the dev team, they really encourage players to take their time exploring the vast world. Ragnarok flooded the world, creating many different islands to explore. In some quests, you’ll need to travel to these islands, either to hunt for magic artifacts or simply to take down a boss. Generally speaking, such exploration would be extremely interesting.

Rune II
The team at Human Head pride themselves on the vast open-world - you are more than welcome to explore it.

Crafting

In addition, while wandering around these islands, you can come across rare recipes to craft some of the rarest materials out there. In fact, the crafting system in Rune II is really easy to learn. Players can learn recipes after having all the necessary ingredients.

Rune II
Wander around the dangerous world, collect resources and craft better tools and weapons.

When you craft items, they are likely to have improved stats. For instance, rune forges are available for players to build, boosting the damage or healing from a particular item. Especially, some items not only increase your health and defense but also let you run or even sail faster. This is a great feature from Rune II, similar to that of the classic Diablo.

Weapons

Just like in Rune, weapons in this sequel come in unique types and attack patterns. According to Rhineheart, the wide variety of enemies will force players to carry with them an arsenal of different weapons. For example, short swords will be extra effective in close range, while the great hammers work well in range or for knocking back enemies. Spears and bows will mark their first appearance in the Rune series, giving the hero a superior advantage when fighting from far away.

Attack patterns

One important thing to keep in mind is that attacks in Rune II will tie to your movement. In particular, while running forward, strafing or jumping, you’ll have a designated attack animation for each action. Thanks to such feature, combat in Rune II feels fluid and realistic.

Rune II
Battles in Rune II feel smooth and realistic.

Plots

Regarding the storyline, Rune fans would definitely love it as Rune II will bring back the original plot. Get ready to meet the familiar faces again: Loki, Conrack, Thor, Odin, and Hel! Each of the gods has their distinctive quests and mechanical benefits. Rhinehart mentioned that the team is working on tweaks and balance, so it’s unlikely to see any overpowered ability slipping through.

In summary

At the moment, Human Head is planning to add more content into the game after the initial launch. In fact, aside from Midgard, there are still eight other realms to explore. Because of that, we’re counting days to get our hands on the upcoming entries of the Rune franchise.

Rune II
Midgard is just one realm from the potential Nine Realms to explore!

According to Rhinehart, the Norse mythology is attracting more and more people through many games, movies and TV series. Therefore, it’s an absolute delight to keep working on further projects about it and keep the people intrigued.