Things do most certainly get better though. When Ragnar finally makes his way out of Hel things quite suddenly get much more entertaining. You'll at first have hordes of Goblins to slice through, then Dark Vikings, Snow Beasts and eventually even some tough Dwarves. While you can happily wade into Goblins with your blade swinging randomly, when you meet the first few Dark Vikings you'll quickly have to change your play style and let a little combat strategy creep into your play style as these enemies are pretty damn good with a weapon and shield. To win, you'll have to circle round the opponent until you find an opening to attack and make sure to duck out of the way or bring your shield up in time if they swing their weapon at you. As you progress you'll also, of course, get bigger and bigger weapons, eventually ending up with a sword that's almost as big as Ragnar, an Axe with axe heads each the length of his arm and a mallet that looks like a huge squared section off tree trunk stuck on the end of a big stick. Each different weapon also has a special rune power that can be invoked with the press of a key. Some simply make the weapon more powerful, although there are more interesting rune powers that let you freeze opponents, repeatedly throw your weapon or even temporarily turn enemies to your side. Although you need to recharge rune energy by finding rune stones, you still get to invoke these abilities often enough for them to add a little more variety to combat in Rune. If Ragnar slaughters enough enemies he'll even go berserk for a time, doing more damage to his foes until the enemies hurt him enough to bring him out of this blood frenzy.
While much of the game involves carving a bloody path through hordes of foes there is a fair amount of puzzle solving to be done too. Interestingly, many of the puzzles involve simply finding a way to continue your journey. I often found myself at a dead or locked door end even though I had headed in what seemed to be the most obvious and logical direction. This interesting idea makes the game feel a little less linear since there isn't always just one obvious way onwards, although of course all but one of the possible routes but one will be blocked. Finding the way onwards can be a little frustrating although once you do so, it can sometimes be pretty satisfying, especially as there tends to be a new batch of monsters to butcher after you find the way to continue. A number of puzzles also involve hitting switches or destroying things such as weak walls or supports, but not once do you have to find a key or indeed anything to open anything – the only things you'll ever carry are your weapons, thank Odin.
