Regions of Ruin: Runegate

Regions of Ruin: Runegate is the sequel dwarven-settlement fans have been waiting five years for — one reviewer said as much directly — and this review's research found a game that mostly delivers on that anticipation while stumbling in a specific, repeated way. Developed by Gameclaw Studio and published this time by Raw Fury, Runegate takes the original's mix of side-scrolling action-RPG combat and settlement-building and expands both, even as reviewers describe a campaign that ends well before it feels finished.

Combat and base-building, genuinely expanded

The praise in this review's research is specific rather than generic. Reviewers repeatedly single out the expanded combat kit — thrown spears and heavy weapons that can be recalled with a button press, plus crossbows and guns joining the returning melee-focused system — as a real step up from the original's more limited toolkit. Base-building gets similar treatment: instead of the original game's above-ground settlement, which one reviewer jokingly called "blasphemous" for a dwarven game, Runegate has players restore a proper underground dwarven keep, and reviewers who played both games describe the sequel as improving on the original "in every way" on this front specifically.

An ending that keeps catching players off guard

What stands out most in this review's research is how consistently reviewers — recommending and not recommending alike — describe the same experience at the end of the story: it simply stops. One reviewer who otherwise praised the combat, crafting, and settlement systems said they'd "love to recommend it except it does not have an ending... it just cuts to credits, super SUPER disappointing." Another described finishing the second of the game's two worlds and immediately wanting more, given the amount of "runegate theme" setup that seemingly wasn't paid off. This isn't a one-off complaint from a single frustrated player — it appears independently across multiple detailed reviews with no apparent coordination, which is the kind of pattern this review treats as a real signal rather than noise.

When systems stop mattering

A related, equally specific complaint concerns the game's economy. Multiple reviewers describe resource management and crafting becoming essentially pointless partway through a run — one detailed review said resources "quickly become useless" and that most of what you build "amounts to nothing," while another went further, describing enchanting as "mega busted OP" to the point that base items can be turned into some of the most powerful gear in the game without ever leaving the starting settlement. That's a specific, reproducible-sounding balance complaint rather than a vague difficulty gripe, and it lines up with the broader "feels unfinished" theme running through this review's research — several reviewers explicitly said the game should have launched in Early Access first.

What the achievement data suggests

Steam's achievement data gives some independent texture to the length complaint, though it doesn't settle it outright. The main-story completion achievement sits at 22.9% of all players — a reasonable completion rate for an RPG's central content — but the two higher-difficulty completion achievements sit at just 3.7% and 0.4% respectively, suggesting relatively few players return to the game for a harder second pass once the main story wraps. That's consistent with, if not conclusive proof of, a campaign that satisfies on a first playthrough but doesn't hold players' attention once it's done.

Bugs, camera complaints, and an actively patching team

Beyond the length and balance concerns, some reviewers report specific technical issues: quest objectives that occasionally fail to register as complete, and camera and control feel that one reviewer described as feeling under-tested. Encouragingly, another reviewer specifically credited the developers as "active in their discord on patching the bugs out," and this review's research independently confirmed a real post-launch patch cadence — Patch 1.0.20 landed just two days after the 14 April launch, followed by the more substantial 1.0.30 two weeks later (adding a counterattack mechanic, several combat readability improvements, and balance changes to underperforming weapons and skills), and a further fix in June addressing a specific damage-calculation bug on the game's easiest difficulty.

A free answer to the length complaint, arriving after launch

The most direct response this review's research found to the "the game is too short" complaint came a few weeks after launch, not in the initial release: "Tyranny of the al'Batash," an official mini-campaign with its own full storyline and new characters, published for free via mod.io and built, according to the developers, largely over a single weekend using the game's own in-game level editor — the same editor community members have started using to publish their own worlds. A second free mod world, "Drumdom's Mountain," followed about a month later. It's a genuinely strong post-launch response to a real complaint, though it's worth being clear-eyed that it arrived after, not instead of, the launch-day shortfall reviewers actually experienced.

A day-one DLC complaint, and what the DLC actually contains

One notable negative review centred entirely on principle rather than play: a reviewer refunded after five minutes specifically because of a paid day-one "Supporter Pack" DLC, calling it greed from an indie developer for including gameplay-affecting paid content at launch. This review's research found the DLC's own official Steam description tells a more complicated story: its five items are explicitly framed by the developers as "a silly way to support the developers," each one deliberately double-edged rather than simply beneficial — one reverses your controls in exchange for speed boosts, another makes you drop coins when hit but does the same to enemies. That framing doesn't erase the reviewer's underlying objection to day-one paid content in principle, but it does complicate the specific "pay-to-win" framing of the complaint, and this review didn't find supporting reports from any other reviewer describing the DLC as gameplay-warping in practice.

Where it lands

Regions of Ruin: Runegate delivers real, specific improvements over its predecessor in combat and base-building, and its developers have backed the launch with an unusually fast and substantial post-launch response, including free new content built through their own level editor. But the recurring, independently-corroborated complaint about an abrupt ending and a settlement economy that runs out of purpose too early is a legitimate weakness this review can't wave away — it's specific, detailed, and repeated by reviewers who otherwise liked the game. For fans of the original and newcomers willing to treat the main campaign as a strong 20-to-30-hour experience rather than an endlessly deep one, Runegate earns its largely positive reception; just don't expect the ending to feel like one.