Runes, an upcoming open-world action role-playing game from Bimordial, released a demo for Steam Next Fest: June 2025. It immediately catches the eye as a fantasy medieval epic with intuitive swordplay. What could be an in-depth look at a promising upcoming story, however, falls a bit flat as not much more than a quick technical peek.

Parry, Riposte, Repeat

If you’ve played Kingdom Come: Deliverance, you’ll be slightly familiar with the directionally important combat that Runes presents. Clicking the left mouse button will swing your sword with a different attack, depending on which direction you move your mouse. The right mouse button will block with a similar system, and you’ve got a sidestep tied to the space bar. It’s unknown if it works with a controller yet.

Where Runes sets itself apart is in the in-depth runic magic system your character has access to. Various combinations of magical runes will allow you to cast a number of spells with different functionality. You can push your enemies away with a blast of force or blow them up with a fireball. There’s a damaging dash spell and shield spells that block physical or magic damage, depending on the version you cast.

There is an archery system involved as well, but it’s unfortunately rather unremarkable at the time of writing. Without a reticle, it can be tricky, but with enough practice it’s easy enough to grasp.

Add these systems together and you’ve got the core of Runes’ gameplay. The demo sees an endless amount of increasingly strong and resilient faceless enemies looking to cut you down. Each enemy defeated grants you experience points, and each wave completed rewards you with a new sword-fighting maneuver or spell to try out. When you reach 1000 experience, you unlock more difficult and specialized modes to try out. There is no fundamental change to the combat between them, however.

Only one of the promised two main characters makes an appearance during the demo. Since the second character seems to be less combat focused, it makes sense for them not to be here. I would have liked some variety in the play style, however.

What the Future Holds

I wish there was more I could tell you about Runes but, for the time being, the demo is solely a system to try out the combat. Now, that’s not entirely a bad thing. The playstyle seems to be one of the game’s biggest selling points and a demo is a great way to introduce people to something new and exciting. I just wish there was a little more.

There is information on the game available on Bimordial’s website, however. It paints a picture of a fantastical story with dual protagonists and a world full of adventure and intrigue. The demo itself doesn’t really portray any of that, however, instead feeling more like a very early technical look. It would be great if we got some nods to the story, or an inclusion of the promised card game mechanics. Instead, we’re left with a combat demo that, while fun, runs dry pretty quickly.

I can say that I had fun during my time with Runes’ demo. If a new, interesting combat system sounds up your alley, I’d recommend giving it a shot. If it can live up to the promises made, Runes has some good potential. I’d say to keep your mind open and your eyes on any news for this one in the future.

Runes is developed and published by Bimordial. The full game does not have a release date, but they are launching a Kickstarter later this month. The demo is available on Steam as part of the June 2025 Next Fest.