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You've just defeated your nemesis, Conrack, an evil renegade Viking who threatened to destroy your village and your way of life with the help of a few powerful Runestones, and have gained the divine favour of Odin. After spending a couple moons feasting and drinking with your Viking compatriots, you begin to grow restless and long for some action. Ah, but what would a group of bloodthirsty Vikings dream up to keep themselves occupied? And so, the great arenas of Wotankeld were built to facilitate the beginning of a new era of Viking sport - the advent of Headball, Arena combat and classic Deathmatch. This may be what the developers were thinking when they released their second offering of Rune. The expansion pack, Halls of Valhalla, offers two new multiplayer modes of play a host of multiplayer levels, and many new character skins. The expansion can operate as either an add-on pack for Rune, or as its own stand-alone game. However, Halls of Valhalla provides no extension of its single-player game, no new weapons, and no new rune powers. The expansion pack is purely a multiplayer experience, and only against other humans, since bot support is not available for the game. The original installment of Rune drew its merits from its crystal-clear graphics, thanks to the Unreal engine, a haunting and deep soundtrack, and a story set and steeped in Norse mythology. Halls of Valhalla contains these same rich graphics with new musical content, but a lack of any new storyline development. Instead, Halls of Valhalla focuses its development on Rune's combat system - a unique aspect of Rune which sets it apart from other multiplayer games because it is completely melee-based, with a limited ranged component.

Combat

As mentioned above, Rune's combat system is completely melee-based, which provides a unique twist to the gameplay. However, the appeal of this mode of fighting style is fleeting. Without the tactical element associated with other multiplayer games such as Counter-Strike and Rogue Spear, Rune's style of fighting quickly degenerates into a superficial experience - a mindless hack'n'slash. Unlike other melee-fighting games such as the Street Fighter series, Rune has no 'special moves' or different attacks apart from the normal attack that can be comboed with repeated taps of the attack button, the ability to throw your weapon, and the ability to use a rune power which usually just increases the power of your weapon. Using techniques such as strafing are about as complicated the fighting gets, and often proves just as effective as mindless button-mashing.

Headball

One of the two new modes of play packaged with Halls of Valhalla, Headball is a sort of Capture-The-Flag type game in which opposing teams must pick up severed heads and limbs placed around the map and throw them in hoops to gain points. This game detracts from the usual style of play, since kills don't help the team score. You can, however, pick up the heads of enemies and throw them in the goal to score points, but often weapons get in the way of picking up your slain opponent's head, since weapons have priority over severed body parts. This often leads to a lengthy ordeal of picking up several items, which leaves you open to attack from other players. The placement of the severed heads and the action are intrinsically chaotic due to the melee system and makes team coordination difficult. Thus Headball, as a team game, ultimately fails to provide the sense of teamwork and accomplishment that it should.

Arena

The second mode of play introduced by the expansion pack is Arena, a game similar to Unreal Tournament's Rocket Arena. Players can face each other in a 1 on 1, 2 on 2, or 3 on 3 match while observers look on from a balcony above the arena. The immediate disadvantage of this mode of play is the long wait time associated with having many players vying for a few spots in the arena. Rune developers have tried to address this situation by creating little distractions for spectators such as placing head dispensers and targets to practice throwing weapons at in the spectator's lounge. Unfortunately for spectators, there is no chase camera mode or floating mode which would allow them to see the action up close. The view from the spectator's vantage point is often not all that great, being too far away from the action to see much.

Final Thoughts

Aside from the initial interest sparked from a couple of new, but unimpressive rules based around the basic concept of sticking a sword in your opponent's neck, Rune: Halls of Valhalla does not provide much lasting effect. A few new weapons or a twist on the rune powers would have been nice, but unfortunately were not included in the expansion pack. As an expansion, Halls of Valhalla fails to extend the single-player RPG aspect of the game and the playability of the multiplayer combat system beyond regular Deathmatch. And as a stand-alone product, don't expect Halls of Valhalla to hold your interest for more than a few sessions of gameplay.

Overall Score: 50%

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