Rune: Viking Warlord could have been a great adventure. It has all the potential that could have made it a classic, but technical problems and unforgivable game mechanics end up killing Ragnar's quest before it even begins.

Rune is a port of the PC game, and the graphics show. The enviroments all have a very plain, low-end PC look to them. The monsters, on the other hand, look pretty cool. Especially the Dark Vikings, but this is ruined by the slow down that pops up whenever there are more than three enemies on the screen. These shortcomings are only made worse by the fogging that is used to try and hide them. Nothing ever seems to stand out, except for the water, but this is mainly because it's poorly done and glows, for some reason or another. While the graphics aren't bad, they just fail to stand up to what we know the PS2 can do.

One thing that should be given credit is the great modeling of Ragnar. While his animations are limited to the normal walks, jumps and climbs seen in other games, they do look good. It's also fun to note that as Ragnar gains weapons, you see them holstered all over his body. Seeing a bad-ass Viking in full armor with weapons hanging all over his body is pretty intimidating.

Sound is one of the real high points of Rune. All of the music has the 'big sound' you would expect from a game with Vikings. Music is used very well in trying to underscore parts of Ragnar's adventure. It's used very sparingly in some low-key areas and just explodes with a very full sound when the action picks up. The voice acting is also done very well. All of the characters have their own voice, and it's neat to overhear soldiers voicing their displeasure at having to work for Conrack as you sneak through the city. I can honestly say that other than wanton bloodletting, the sound was what kept me hooked to the game.

If there is any area that Rune stands out, it's gameplay - but not by much. The fun of this game seems to get better as it moves along, but after reaching it's high point (about half-way through the game), things just seem to fizzle back into a mindless switch hunt.

The story is one we've all heard before, only now it's told with Vikings instead of knights. The god Loki has given Conrack powers in return for the destruction of the runestones protecting the lands of Odin. You take the role of Ragnar, who is saved from death in order to stop Conrack on Odin's behalf.

Most of the game, as mentioned before, takes place in Hel with you walking around dark caves killing enemies and finding switches to open doors. The game does have it's interesting parts though, such as when Ragnar is caught by goblins, stripped of his weapons and made to fight a giant monster similar to what Luke Skywalker had to do in Return of the Jedi. Once you escape from Hel and storm Conrack's stronghold, things do pick up - but this fun is short-lived because you soon have to work your way through Hel (and it's switches) again.

Rune also in includes a multi-player mode, but since the game lacks any projectile weapons (unless you throw your weapon, which is not advisable) and the combat system is sub-par, there's no reason to give it a second glance.

Rune is not hard, even on the Hard difficulty level. There are a few difficult parts but nothing that isn't solvable after using some basic, logical thinking skills. Combat damage is never a problem because there is always some recovery item nearby. The only things that make Rune truly hard are questionable play mechanics, such as the mere singe of fire being an instant kill; or the poor graphics causing you to fall down a hole because you can't see past the fog.

If the graphics don't tell you this is a PC port, the controls will scream it.

You control Ragnar's walking with the left analog stick, and control his direction with the right stick, similar to the keyboard/mouse combination used in PC games. This is an okay method, and something I was able to get used to, but it just doesn't work for this type of game, especially when you have to parry the attacks of groups of monsters. The combat and control systems just lack the speed to have any real efficiency. Combat usually consists of you locking on to the enemy with a very crude targeting system and entering a button mash contest to see who can do the most damage faster. The game tries to add some depth by allowing you to circle your foe, but it's so slow that by the time you are in a good attack position, the enemy has already turned around, losing any advantage you had. Choosing which weapon you use does add some minor strategy, because some weapons work better on some monsters than others. For example, axes work best on zombies, but don't work well on skeletons.

The list of small technical glitches could go on, but I'll spare you the details. The major glaring fault that deserves more mention that anything else is the load times. Now, I can accept loads times, but Rune brings them to a new level - they're way too long and happen way to often. What gets even more frustrating is that sometimes the load times are longer than the actual game time, which drags and already slow game down even more.

The thing is, despite all of Rune's shortcomings; I still had fun playing. It's just one of those games that is bad, but you have a hard time putting down the controller. Had Rune been released about four months ago, it probably would have stood out as a good adventure game - but considering the games it has to compete with for your money, especially in the coming months, it's probably a better weekend rental than anything else.