Kinda dull
NOTE: This review will take into account the updates done to the game over the years including such examples as the Wilderness anti-RWT update, graphical changes and the new skills/quests released.
Runescape is a game which I had played on and off for several years. At one point, I really enjoyed the game world and how immersive parts of it were, and how good MMORPGs like this are to play with any other friends who are interested in it. On the other hand, having come back to it again and again, you realise just how bad it is in some areas.
The graphics were once undeniably awful but have improved greatly over its initial release back in 2001. The original Runescape (now known as Runescape Classic) was a great example of how terrible the game was graphically. Looking at it makes you think there were retro games that were more graphically impressive. Since then, its gone from 3D graphics which were almost as basic as the kind you'd see in Starfox on the SNES, to some graphics which look almost amazingly detailed. Definitely pushing the limits for Java game development there.
However, the game in many parts borders between quite good, and borderline awful. What I liked about the game was the immersive world. For some reason, the Runescape world seems really fascinating, and how much detail there is in the lore, such as the array of gods in Runescape, and how much each quest dwells deeper into the lore of the game. While some of it is a bit silly (e.g. Bob the Jagex cat), a lot of it is quite decent and fits into the atmosphere of a medieval fantasy game.
However, one of the worst parts of the game is the gameplay. It can get too grindy even to MMORPG standards. The core gameplay focuses on the vast array of skills, which levels determined what repetitive actions you can do to gain experience points. Unfortunately, the game gets far too grindy at high levels, where you'll often spend hours cutting the same trees down, or mining the same rocks over and over again, or forging the exact same generic weapons/armor, or fighting the same enemies using the same autoattacks until you gain a level.
Combat is especially bad. Combat in the game is essentially clicking on an enemy and autoattacking. Thats right, autoattacking. And its too random in the way that you'll either miss and hit 0s or hit ridiculously low, or hit ridiculously high. There are next to no special abilities apart from if you count a lot of the members' weapons which allow you to do a slightly different attack which is either more accurate, does more damage, hits twice, or whatever. And its something you infrequently have to do.
As far as Player vs Player combat goes, I would give this game a miss. While some players have gotten a thrill from PKing, you generally need the best gear, and have to risk it all in a battle to the death where the loser has all their hard earned items drop, often due to a cheap defeat. They've also changed around the system a lot when it came to how player vs player combat has been done. The game once had the Wilderness which was a huge PvP zone, but the PvP part of it was shut due to the rise in gold-farming which was crippling the game, then that was replaced with Bounty Hunter (basically a dull volcano crater where you'd get ganked by idiots wielding cheaply rooting and hard hitting Ancient Magicks spells), and later on, PvP worlds which were free for all killfest servers where rather than gain the other player's drops, you gained randomly generated drops which were often very low value.
The incredibly uninteresting combat system and RNG and repetitive eating food to regain your health, and being called a "safing noob" by someone whos now running away from you and has banked all of their items make PvP combat more frustrating too. What happened to finding a player and having a battle to the death?
In conclusion, its a game with a large community, which has changed a lot, mainly for the good (graphically), but sometimes in very bad ways (e.g. some PvP updates). Regardless, theres still huge room for improvement, especially in the gameplay, which is in many areas quite bad.
Runescape is a game which I had played on and off for several years. At one point, I really enjoyed the game world and how immersive parts of it were, and how good MMORPGs like this are to play with any other friends who are interested in it. On the other hand, having come back to it again and again, you realise just how bad it is in some areas.
The graphics were once undeniably awful but have improved greatly over its initial release back in 2001. The original Runescape (now known as Runescape Classic) was a great example of how terrible the game was graphically. Looking at it makes you think there were retro games that were more graphically impressive. Since then, its gone from 3D graphics which were almost as basic as the kind you'd see in Starfox on the SNES, to some graphics which look almost amazingly detailed. Definitely pushing the limits for Java game development there.
However, the game in many parts borders between quite good, and borderline awful. What I liked about the game was the immersive world. For some reason, the Runescape world seems really fascinating, and how much detail there is in the lore, such as the array of gods in Runescape, and how much each quest dwells deeper into the lore of the game. While some of it is a bit silly (e.g. Bob the Jagex cat), a lot of it is quite decent and fits into the atmosphere of a medieval fantasy game.
However, one of the worst parts of the game is the gameplay. It can get too grindy even to MMORPG standards. The core gameplay focuses on the vast array of skills, which levels determined what repetitive actions you can do to gain experience points. Unfortunately, the game gets far too grindy at high levels, where you'll often spend hours cutting the same trees down, or mining the same rocks over and over again, or forging the exact same generic weapons/armor, or fighting the same enemies using the same autoattacks until you gain a level.
Combat is especially bad. Combat in the game is essentially clicking on an enemy and autoattacking. Thats right, autoattacking. And its too random in the way that you'll either miss and hit 0s or hit ridiculously low, or hit ridiculously high. There are next to no special abilities apart from if you count a lot of the members' weapons which allow you to do a slightly different attack which is either more accurate, does more damage, hits twice, or whatever. And its something you infrequently have to do.
As far as Player vs Player combat goes, I would give this game a miss. While some players have gotten a thrill from PKing, you generally need the best gear, and have to risk it all in a battle to the death where the loser has all their hard earned items drop, often due to a cheap defeat. They've also changed around the system a lot when it came to how player vs player combat has been done. The game once had the Wilderness which was a huge PvP zone, but the PvP part of it was shut due to the rise in gold-farming which was crippling the game, then that was replaced with Bounty Hunter (basically a dull volcano crater where you'd get ganked by idiots wielding cheaply rooting and hard hitting Ancient Magicks spells), and later on, PvP worlds which were free for all killfest servers where rather than gain the other player's drops, you gained randomly generated drops which were often very low value.
The incredibly uninteresting combat system and RNG and repetitive eating food to regain your health, and being called a "safing noob" by someone whos now running away from you and has banked all of their items make PvP combat more frustrating too. What happened to finding a player and having a battle to the death?
In conclusion, its a game with a large community, which has changed a lot, mainly for the good (graphically), but sometimes in very bad ways (e.g. some PvP updates). Regardless, theres still huge room for improvement, especially in the gameplay, which is in many areas quite bad.
