Rune Runners Preview — A Simple Co-Op Platformer With Bosses That Demand Your Attention

Something green was running after me. I managed to tense up: where did another monster come from, I thought I'd beaten them all? Then it clicked: it was my pet. I chose it myself—now I'm the one getting scared. It's useless in combat, just races around next to me. It took me a while to get used to it.

In Rune Runners I first played co-op, then continued alone—I wanted to see more levels and worlds. It was more fun with two. When someone is running around next to you, reviving you after death and fussing with you over the next chest, even just collecting coins is engaging for both of you. Alone, you notice more often how much time you spend just running forward and pressing the left mouse button.

At the same time, at some point I caught myself already choosing a wand, checking amulets, and walking around the village picking up quests, even though after the first levels I never expected I'd be digging into all of that.

Before starting, you're asked to choose one of four wizards: red, yellow, green, or blue. Each has their own element—fire, lightning, wind, and water. I picked the red one. Your arsenal includes a jump, a roll, a regular spell on the left mouse button, and a powerful one on Q. You can figure all of this out quickly.

Something strange happened with holding the button. In theory, that's how you charge a spell, but with my red wizard nothing charged: I press—it fires, I hold—no effect. I never figured out whether this works differently for different heroes or if I ran into a bug. Otherwise, you quickly stop thinking about the controls: you run, jump across platforms, and shoot anything that gets in your way.

Later I found an item with a hint: "Apply lightning." Okay, except I don't have lightning. I'm standing there as the red wizard next to a secret, I understand what's being asked of me, and I can't do anything about it. You can't switch characters mid-level, and I never found where to do it after exiting.

The elements have uses beyond shooting monsters. Fire burns thorny vines, and lightning can charge pillars. So the hero you pick also affects where you're allowed to go. But there's little joy in running all the way to the right spot and realizing you came as the wrong character. I read the hint, looked at the item—and ran on.

Regular attacks are simpler, but even here mana imposes limits. It regenerates on its own, so you don't need to constantly watch it. But the powerful spell consumes a lot of it, and afterward you're left just standing and waiting. You want to do something again, but mana is still refilling. In those moments I really missed a way to quickly restore it or at least speed up the regeneration: just waiting in the middle of a level is boring, and it breaks the pace.

Then I found a wand that splits the regular attack in two. Shooting immediately became more enjoyable: you cover more space in front of you.

If you fall, your partner can revive you—for that they need to stand next to you for a moment. If you both go down, you're not forced to replay the level either: along the way you light torches, and they serve as respawn points. For a co-op game you just want to jump into and have fun with a friend, this is a big plus. Even more options for playing together are in the article: Best Co-op Games.

You can make a mistake, fall, fail to figure out an attack—and then simply continue. I have no desire to re-jump through platforms I've already cleared just because we both stood somewhere at a bad angle. This game doesn't torture you with that. Difficulty can also be changed at any time: there are "Relaxed," "Normal," and "Heroic" modes.

But some things are designed for a second player in the most literal sense. I found a chest, and next to it were two buttons at opposite ends of the platform—you need to stand on both at once. In co-op there's nothing to discuss: one goes here, the other goes there. Solo, I shuffled around that chest for a bit and left with nothing (and if you want to play together on something other than PC, check out the article: Best Two-Player Mobile Games for iOS and Android).

It's a small moment, but it explains my attitude toward solo play well. You can get through the levels. You can see the bosses. And then the game puts a chest in front of you that requires someone else. And you're standing there alone.

The characters in cutscenes are funny in general. Whether we're playing co-op or I'm alone—it always shows all four of them. The whole crew is assembled: brothers and sisters set off to save the worlds. Except you can't play as the whole crew of four, only two at most. Every time it looks a little strange.

There's almost no dialogue. The characters are surprised, show emotions, and from those reactions you understand what's happening. I quickly stopped paying attention to the story details: there are evil monsters, there's an evil boss ahead, we're going to make him good. That was enough for my playthrough.

I learned to recognize regular enemies by their behavior fairly quickly. This one goes for melee, that one jumps, that one flies, and another one summons mobs. In new worlds they look different, but their habits stay familiar. So you don't have to get used to every new monster type from scratch.

Before bosses, a shop with a vendor appears. Along the way you collect gold from enemies, pots, and chests, then spend it on wand upgrades or defense. You can also buy a new look. After the usual running around, it's nice to stop and choose what you'll go in with. Especially if you've already found something like that wand with the split attack and want to see what else exists.

But the bosses themselves were what I liked most. Here you have to watch both what's happening under your feet and what the enemy is about to do: step aside here, jump at the right moment there. Each boss has their own fight, and their attacks change over the course of the battle. I even thought of bosses from World of Warcraft: you stand there, see an attack, and understand that now you need to run away, jump, or get behind them to attack. If you're after a tougher challenge, the The Hardest Video Games of All Time roundup is a good fit.

Bars, circles, and shadows show danger zones in advance. I like it when you can look at the screen and understand where something is about to land—all that's left is to react correctly. After regular monsters whose habits you've already learned, these fights make you focus on the game again.

A defeated boss becomes good. Then you return to the village, the next world opens, and the one you cleared gets a golden statue of whoever you just fought. I stared at them for a long time. It's nice that after a fight, a memory like that remains in a familiar place.

True, one transformation into a good guy noticeably spoiled the game for me. The boss lost, the animation started—and I saw his head texture slide off. Instead of a cute post-victory moment, I was staring at whatever had come off him. A funny and simultaneously creepy bug.

Between worlds you return to where you started—a small village. There you can visit the shop, change clothes, pick a pet. Outfit, hat, and weapon change separately. Sometimes I got distracted by all of that even though I'd planned to go straight on.

There are also amulets—you can wear three at once. These actually give useful effects: for example, one prevents you from being knocked down. The pet, by comparison, honestly remains just a pet: it runs alongside you and doesn't enhance anything. After the incident with the green creature, at least I learned to recognize my own.

In buildings you pick up quests: smash twelve cups, collect shards, defeat certain monsters. You don't need to do anything special to complete them. I already smash pots because coins spill out of them—and with a quest, you get an additional reward for the same actions. The tasks themselves aren't what I'd call exciting, but collecting money for something you've already done is pleasant.

You can also feed a duck. I would have lingered on that too, but the village has a library with a monster book and an achievement book. In the first one you can see what enemies inhabit each world. After a few levels, it's curious to open it and look at the ones you'd mostly been shooting with spells up to that point.

There are many achievements: for smashed pots, defeated enemies, accumulated gold, and other activities that already fill the playthrough. I didn't try to close everything at once—I just looked in and saw what else promised rewards. You can also linger on the world map and think about which biomes await ahead.

So bit by bit, things beyond shooting spells accumulate. At first I saw only platforms, monsters, and the attack button, but later I was already stopping by to change clothes, checking quests, and remembering which amulets I had on. The character progression system isn't overloaded, but it doesn't leave you completely without choices either. For other interesting projects, check out the article: Best Games to Play in 2026.

From the forest world you go to the sand world, then to the crystal world, and then you reach the winter one. Visually these places differ enough that you want to see the next one. The monsters there have familiar habits, just different looks—and I still studied each new one.

The winter world is also memorable for its music—so Christmassy that I paid attention to it separately. Usually in this running around you watch the platforms and enemies more, but here I caught myself listening. I felt cozy there—as cozy as you can be somewhere you're still fighting someone.

Across the levels you collect rune shards, light torches, and smash everything that might drop money. With two people this busywork goes down easier: while one person is occupied with their thing, the other has already run off somewhere or found something else to pick up. Alone, the monotony is more noticeable. Especially when the next group of enemies behaves exactly like the previous one, and the boss is still a long run away.

Sometimes the game adds variety on its own—though in the form of small bugs I didn't ask for. I rolled to dodge—and flew off to some other edge of the map. Monsters' textures also glitch sometimes.

And yet I kept going through the worlds. I wanted to see new bosses, look at the winter levels, try out the wand I'd found. It no longer felt like completely empty running around. It's just that part of the enjoyment clearly stayed in co-op, where there was another person next to me.

Alone I saw more, but more often I missed having someone there on the road between interesting moments. And I still remember that chest with two buttons. Everything about it is clear: I see the buttons, I see the chest. There's just no one to stand on the second one.

Rune Runners is an option for an evening when you want to play together but don't have the energy to figure out something complicated. You pick up the jumping and spells quickly, and boss fights make you pay closer attention to what's happening. That was enough for me to want to continue. Only from here on, I'll probably wait for a partner: I can study the upgrades and quests on my own, but I want to get through the remaining worlds with someone.