Game Rant recently got a chance to sit down with the developers of Rune 2: Decapitation Edition to talk about their new game, a title born from quite a lot of controversy and conflict. Studio 369, the development team behind Decapitation Edition, is currently suing Bethesda, its parent company Zenimax, and the original developer of Rune 2, Human Head. The new developer alleges that Rune 2 was sabotaged by Human Head and Bethesda in order to prevent competition with Elder Scrolls titles, and the story only gets more complex from there.
To get a sense of the lawsuit with Bethesda, we spoke at length with Matt Candler, president of Studio 369; Sam Goldberg, general counsel and manager at the game’s publisher; Dan Felts, a producer for the game; and Mitch Alpiner, the community manager. However, we also got a chance to play through a preview section of Rune 2: Decapitation Edition and ask plenty of questions about the game itself. Because so much of Rune 2‘s data was lost after Human Head was bought by Bethesda, Studio 369 has practically built an entirely new game, and there was plenty to talk about.
After discussing the lawsuit and how the game’s failed first launch motivated the developers to make the best game they could out of what was left, we hopped into a co-op session with Mitch Alpiner, the community manager. With the rest of the team watching over our digital shoulders, we played through an early section of the game just after the prologue, and later skipped through a chunk of the main questline with dev commands, allowing us to play through a dungeon in the middle section. The first question posed to the devs was about their focus on co-op gameplay.
Alpiner: The main host is the hero of the story, and the co-op partners are almost like hired mercenaries. We built our skill system around the characters differentiating from each other, so everyone will have a different character that will play differently.
It appears that the entire game can be played this way, and it’s better for it. While Rune 2 has the rough edges of an indie game with a troubled development, some of its shortcomings are a lot more forgivable when playing with friends. The combat, too, is improved drastically in multiplayer, as skills used by different characters synergize well, and players worshipping different gods will have very different roles that work well together. Depending on which god a player aligns to, their stats will reflect the choice and they will unlock certain unique skills in the ability tree.
Working in a team also makes exploration easier. While the game is entirely open world, there is a linear story, and areas further away from the main quest line will have increasingly difficult enemies. With some well-timed skills and good team play though, it’s easier to range farther afield. During some exploration, we encountered a high-level boss and had to flee, but returned later to find our foe dead and gone. Apparently, a roving giant had come by and crushed him while we weren’t looking. This introduced what is probably the most interesting feature of the game: factions of enemies that will organically fight each other throughout the world and even in dungeons.
While vying factions of enemies may be the coolest feature of Rune 2: Decapitation Edition, the most impressive facet of the game is how different it is from the original Rune 2. In the first version, there were only five quests to play on repeat, and in this version, the developers assured that there are now over 200 missions. Things like survival mechanics were removed, while a huge amount of effort went into writing a new story and overhauling almost every major mechanic and subsystem of the game.
Candler: We had to export the game, and there were a lot of files we never got a hold of. We re-did a lot of core systems, combat, loot, the core loop of the game. We re-wrote the script, got more voice actors, from 4 to 80. So very little remains except the structure. Some of the sub-systems, inventory, and things like that are still there. We want to fix the inventory, but we want to do that when we have more time.
There was plenty more that the team said they wanted to work on as well. It sounds like one of the original goals of Rune 2 was to continue development after launch and support an active community, which Studio 369 now has the chance to make good on. When asked about the chances of PvP modes, they explained some of the features the team has their eyes set on:
Felts: We were working on deathmatch last week, so we will be putting some of that up. Deathmatch, team deathmatch, with both community-based and dedicated servers. We’ve also talked about base raiding, clans, and territorial stuff within the open world… monster hunting. There’s a lot that we can do.
Hopefully Rune 2: Decapitation Edition is able to get the dedicated support and updates it needs not just to fix up some of its bugs and issues, but also to keep a community alive and add meaningful new content for players to enjoy. Considering that the developers went through quite a lot of trouble to make the game in the first place, they seem dedicated to making good on their commitment to the title.
Candler: In our lives, sometimes the best motivation is bad s***. We decided to take a stand and say “we’re not gonna let this happen.” We’re gonna take a stand for the fans and because we want to make good games. We’re not just gonna walk away and abandon it.
Rune 2: Decapitation Edition launches Friday, November 13th.
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