Built on the Unreal Engine, the game casts the player as Ragnar, a young Viking warrior whose mettle is tested when Loki and his evil allies plot to destroy the world and bring about Ragnarok.
The various enemies Ragnar faces include man-eating fish, goblins, zombies, Norse dwarves and other Vikings.
While high-tier weapons tend to be preferable in singleplayer games, all tiers are considered somewhat equal for multiplayer situations due to balancing factors such as speed.
When Ragnar has killed enough enemies in a short span of time, he enters a brief "Berserk Mode", which allows him to resist damage and hit harder.
The geometries of each swing are immutable – thus players are able to fine tune their movement to the precision of a few pixels, and accurately behead their opponents.
The story begins when the player, as Ragnar, is initiated into the Odinsblade, an order of warriors sworn to protect the runestones, magical creations of Odin which bind the evil god, Loki and prevent him from unleashing Ragnarok – the end of the world.
Passing through the Underworld and facing the ghastly undead, Ragnar learns the enemy's plan: Conrack's carnage sends many dishonored souls to Hel's domain, who in turn gives them to Loki to transform into an army which will conquer the world.
When he emerges from the caverns, he stands before Thorstadt, the mountain fortress of Conrack, and fights his way through it to a Temple of Loki.
Inside, Sigurd – Conrack's right arm – confronts his master about all the destruction and asks him to drop the charade of worshipping Loki.
He travels through the industrial powerhouse of the dwarven land and learns that the dwarves are supplying weaponry and armor for Loki's new sinister armies.
However, the great stone snake which binds Loki drips acid onto his gaping chest wound and the green blood turns purple.
Conrack reveals to Ragnar that Loki's armies are invading Midgard and destroying Odin's runestones left and right.
Loki offers one last time to join him, and Conrack sends his men forward to destroy the runestone and Ragnar.
Odin then opens up a portal in his last runestone, telling Ragnar to step through and join him at his side as the first living warrior to enter Asgard.
[4] The genesis of Rune occurred while Ted Halsted and Shane Gurno were working at Raven Software.
[5] When that project fell through, the Viking idea was revived and work began on Rune with the publisher Gathering of Developers.
Epic Games allowed Human Head to keep using the Unreal Engine originally licensed for the Daikatana project.
Despite using an engine made for shooting, the interface lends itself well to a playing style consisting of running, jumping, and hacking at opponents.
An innovative feature of the game is that anything dropped by a dead opponent (body parts included) can be picked up and used.
Although a few single player addons have been made, it is Rune's multiplayer aspect has been the focus of several mutators, skins, and hundreds of maps that are available through many clan and resource websites.
Although many appreciated the cathartic fun of running around lopping the heads off other players, the lack of game modes and problems with lag interfered with the enjoyment.
"[48] Michael Tresca of AllGame gave it three-and-a-half stars out of five, saying, "Despite good graphics and excellent sound, Rune falls short of its potential due to various flaws, glitches, and a lack of variation over the long haul.
"[49] However, Benjamin E. Sones of Computer Games Strategy Plus gave it two-and-a-half stars out of five, saying that it was "too long and uninspiring to hold your attention.
The developers drew inspiration from the violent sport of the Aztecs, in which the losing team of a ball game was decapitated.
"[41] Dylan Parrotta of GameZone gave it 4.5 out of 10, saying, "Though I could not find a stopwatch I would say that I spent around a quarter of my time in the confines of the load screen.
[57][58][59] A sequel titled Rune: Ragnarok was announced to be in production by Human Head in August 2017.
[60] By May 2019, Human Head renamed the title again as Rune II, with a target release for Windows in mid-2019 through the Epic Games Store.
[63] Ragnarok stated they were unaware of Human Head's closure until that day but remained committed to providing ongoing support and releases outside Epic Games Store through 2020.
[64] By December 2019, Ragnarok had filed a lawsuit against the former Human Head staff for failing to provide the final source code and assets for Rune II following the studio's surprise closure upon their request, as well as US$100 million in damages relating to the poor state in which Rune II was released at launch and to cover the game's post-launch support period which Human Head was to have done.
[65][66] Ragnarok had received the source code back from the former Human Head staff by January 2020, but still intend to follow through with the lawsuit.