Regions of Ruin: Runegate looks like being a sequel that takes inspiration from its predecessor, but does everything in a bigger, better way.
Taking its world building cues from the rich world of Norse mythology, but also from the dwarven races from JRR Tolkien, Regions of Ruin: Runegate sees you at the brink of your civilisation being completely wiped out, as you create your own dwarf hero and seek to build a new safe haven for your bredren, in a vibrant open world setting where you hack and slash your way through a variety of settings, encountering friends and enemies along the way, and upgrading a central world hub to improve your abilities and experience.
The action RPG gameplay is smooth, satisfying and with enough variety on show even in the short segment I was privy to. The aim of the game is to rebuild your kingdom, which serves as the main game hub that you can return to at any time. To do this you gather resources – namely food – that enables you to push the boundaries and travel around the world map and expand your horizons. The more apples you have – the chosen icon representing your food stocks – the more you can unlock.
Dotted around the map are various scenarios on offer, such as combat encounters, or even sections with mild puzzling elements, and of course bosses and loads of loot to pillage. The way you unlock new areas of the map looks immensely satisfying, as you reveal new stuff to do and places to visit. As your base expands and is reconstructed, new abilities and things like crafting and being able to access new abilities and items unlock.
There are seemingly tonnes of weapons and upgradable kit on offer, with melee and ranged weapons to grease the menagerie of enemies, of which “Greenskins” or goblins are most prevalent, of course. I loved the way the ranged weapons are implemented with a cool guiding arc that glows red when you have aimed it correctly at an enemy.
Regions of Ruin: Runegate has its own in-game day/night time cycle which presumably will affect the nature of your encounters and the things you see and do at specific times. The different terrain and environments on offer in just the brief bit we saw suggests that the gameworld is absolutely enormous with plenty of things to discover.
The 2D pixel art style is beautiful, with some lovely animation and stunning layers of parallax scrolling in the backgrounds. It really looks nice in motion, with so much character to everything. There is some work to be done before the game is finished but it is clear that Gameclaw have a stunning little game on their hands here that will be lapped up by fans of action role playing platformers, myself included.
Regions of Ruin: Runegate is coming to PC via Steam. Impressions based on a trip to Raw Fury HQ, travel and accommodation were paid for by the publisher.
