Ragnar is the game's main man. He's the kind of Viking we've been longing to play: massive, angry and well armed. He's particularly peeved because someone's been messing with his cohorts, destroying happy little Viking villages (and happy little Vikings) at an alarming rate. This is the kind of thing that can really cut into a man's pillaging and plundering; needless to say, Ragnar Is Not Amused, especially after Conrad, leader of the Dark Vikings (they sound scary!) kills Ragnar's father. Gathering up a big pile of spiky metal things, Ragnar sets off into the mountainous regions in search of a suitable behind to become medieval upon.

Fortunately for gamers, there are lots of different spiky toys to use and plenty of critters to use them on. Ragnar will be able to wield swords of multiple sizes, axes, clubs and the like. Some of the nicer magical items will also have their own slate of powers, making even more spectacular short work of enemies, including beheading and the lopping off of limbs. Said limbs can even be picked up and thrown or used as melee weapons. Rune is a game that is not afraid of getting a little blood and dirt on your monitor. Even better, Ragnar can be coaxed into a berserker frenzy by powering up his Bloodlust Meter. Once the Bloodlust Meter tops out, Ragnar becomes the Viking equivalent of a salad shooter, slicing and dicing everything within reach.

As you can see from these screenshots, Rune is a third-person action game, which helps connect you with the identity of your mighty Viking warrior. You'll probably also notice that the screenshots look damn nice -- chalk that up to our old friend, the Unreal engine. Even two years later, the Unreal engine still looks mighty fine (mostly because computers are finally arriving that can run it without slowing down), but Human Head has also opted to include a few additions of its own to the codebase. A full skeletal system has been integrated into the models -- allowing the developers to animate separate joints on a model independently -- as well as a continuous level of detail system, projected shadows and a new particle system that should keep the blood flowing like water.

Hopefully, Rune will allow the staff of Daily Radar to finally decide who is the toughest Office Viking through a constant storm of deathmatches. GOD is hoping to have Rune conquering store shelves this October, so we're just going to have to wait and see.