14 DAY TRIAL // Runemaster might not yet have an official launch date at the moment, but the team at the Paradox Development Studio is ready to deliver more information about the world of the game and the two main powers that gamers can pledge their allegiance to: Loki and Thor.
In an official forum post, the company explains that the two Norse gods are designed to represent change and stability and the struggle between them is at the core of the tactics and role-playing game mix.
According to Paradox, the god Loki believes that, “The worlds his father Odin created from the flesh of Ymir together with Vili and Ve are not to be changed in any way, for better or for worse. Ragnarök will bring destruction and death upon all the worlds, and only a few will be left alive to mend the worlds again.”
In order to achieve this goal, the player who is aligned with Thor needs to make sure that Loki, the trickster god, remains chained to a stone slab forever and a venomous snake forever lies above him dripping poison onto his skin.
Loki needs to be released in order to launch Ragnarok.
Paradox explains that, “Loki stands for Change and sees the truth of the worlds - that the gods favor some races and ignores the plight of the rest. The new world is a chance to change the current order and shape it so that every being is equal, in both gods’ and other’s eyes. Ragnarök is necessary, and inevitable.”
Runemaster will not include any good versus evil mechanics and each player needs to decide which side of the conflict between change and stability they want to be on.
Paradox suggests that, regardless of the choices the player makes over the course of the game, they will need to fight either Loki or Thor at the end of the experience in order to make sure that they are defeated.
Runemaster is a new type of experience for the team at Paradox, allowing it to explore the role-playing mechanics, while it also delivers a series of tactical battles for gamers to get through.
The company wants to create a very replayable game, one which has a number of set elements, but otherwise re-creates the game world in interesting ways each time a new campaign is started.
The title is expected to be launched before the end of the year on the PC.