RuneScape Review

RuneScape has gone through numerous revisions and sliding scales of popularity since its release in 2001, yet still remains standing. It came out during the height of the MMO craze.

At the time, it was unique in that you didn’t have to download any external software. The game could be played entirely online. That, along with the fact that it was originally supposed to be a text-based game like the Zork series, excused its blocky graphics. The graphics weren’t the point. Exploring this world was.

The graphics improved slightly for the second edition of the game, called RuneScape 2, three years later. The release of RuneScape 3 in 2013 saw another improvement, but it wasn’t much of one. The graphics still look like they were developed in 2001.

The navigation mechanics are also fairly clunky. Rather than using the arrow keys to move your character, each movement requires a point-and-click. The arrow keys adjust the angle of the camera, which you need to do constantly so you can point-and-click your way through various tasks.

Story

Most MMOs give you the freedom to make the game your own, but there is a linear story happening in the background. The story affects in-game events, and updates may completely change or renovate areas of your game. World of Warcraft, for example, is nearly unrecognizable from its first iteration in many areas because of such story expansions.

RuneScape has no real story, as such. The setting is a fantasy world where you can fish, cook, mine, and otherwise craft many useful items. You can cut down trees, fight animals for drops, and bury the bones of your kills to increase the effectiveness of Prayers, a kind of magical skill that offers a multitude of buffs.

You can pick up the occasional quest, but you can also pass them up just as easily. They aren’t necessary to advance your character or the story, since there really isn’t one.