Runescape is a fantasy online role-playing game created by Jagex Ltd.
Lurking in the shadows of better RPG's such as World of Warcraft or
LotRO, Runescape has always been looked down upon as the poor man's
MMORPG. While delivering a positive first impression, Runescape
combines shoddy graphics, no real story elements, and horrendous sound
effects together to create a mediocre RPG game which generally isn't
worth playing.
Runescape takes place in the land of Gielinor, a place divided by
multiple kingdoms, regions, and other random areas. You play as an
adventurer out to rid the world of evil and generate a lot of income.
When you first begin to play Runescape, you're taken to a character
customization screen where you can begin to create your adventurer. The
options are extremely limited, and most options basically look the
same. You can't customize things like weight, height, or body
disposition, but you can add different clothing options and hairstyles
to your character. Combined with horrible graphics and a zoomed out
camera, character creation isn't all that great and doesn't let you
give much of an identity behind your character.
After creating your custom adventurer, you're taken to the Tutorial
Island, which does teach you a lot of things about the game hands-on,
but it is more of a nuisance than something that is in a sense helpful.
The worst part about the experience is not having the ability to skip
the whole ordeal. The first thing you tend to notice is that there are
no voice overs in the game. Everything is text based, and you will
never hear anyone ever talk to you. After going through multiple
trainers and people who just tend to talk on forever, you're finally
given the chance to go to the mainland. While this may sound exciting
at first, you're soon hit with your first dose of Runescape reality.
After finally appearing in a town called Lumbridge, through testing the
game with three different characters, I was greeted by the same thing
each time. You will instantly have your chat log spammed with people
trying to sell you in-game gold for real life cash, then have people
trying to trade random items with you, and then a whole lot of people
having arguments, who tend to use the word "nublet" in every other
sentence. It's not a particularly inviting situation, but you will soon
get used to it because this is the world of Runescape.
After listening to the never-ending tutorial, you would know that
Runescape is built upon a system of skills. These skills can range from
mining to fishing, and are all in a sense used to make money. Half of
the available skills in the game are members-only, which is a little
discouraging to look at. To raise the level of your skills, you must do
them...a lot. Leveling skills can take long, meaningless hours of
boredom, and really isn't worth the effort. Runescape's entire economy
is about making money, so you can buy new equipment to make you more
money. It basically makes no sense, and once you figure that out,
Runescape quickly loses its appeal.
If you don't feel like mining rocks for hours on end, Runescape also
allows you to fight with several different types of creatures
throughout the game world. Once you are in an encounter with a monster,
you have four basic attack options, which vary with each different
weapon, but all have pretty much the same effects. Fighting in
Runescape is extremely boring, and though you have stats showing you
what you're good at doing with your particular weapon, most of the
combat in Runescape is by luck. I've seen a person attempt to shoot a
giant rat with a bow and arrow a good 40 times before actually hitting
it, and even then, the rat still had plenty of life left. Some battles
can even go on for five minutes or more, just because both participants
can't hit each other.
To add with the skill rising and tacky combat system, Runescape offers
quests for the player to embark on. Quests can sometimes be a lot of
fun, but most are just simple and boring "Kill this number of creature
quests" or "Collect these items" quests. There isn't a whole lot of
variation between the quest types, and most just end up falling flat.
Practically all quest-givers you meet are uninteresting, and are rather
goofy and strange. It takes a whole lot away from whatever story
Runescape might have, when this guy who's completely screwing with you
jokes around and is just generally acting odd, then tasks you with
killing a monstrous dragon.
As with most other online fantasy RPG's, Runescape takes place in a
massive world based around a player-controlled economy. However, the
world of Runescape's apparent goofy-ness and wacky sound effects shows
that the game is clearly leaned toward children. So, in a sense,
Runescape is filled with more annoying 12 year olds than Halo 3 and
Gears of War combined. However, Runescape can teach you a thing or two
in grammar. Here, in the land of Gielinor, was the first time I've ever
heard anyone called "nublet" before. You're going to be hearing this
word constantly through your travels throughout Gielinor, whether you
like it or not, so if you plan on playing Runescape, you may as well
get used to it. Runescape is also filled with spam bots and scammers,
so it all just makes the experience that much more enjoyable.
However, if you're into that kind of thing, Runescape offers you the
choice to subscribe to a membership of their services. By subscribing
to Jagex, your player is granted many new skills for you to endlessly
grind with and a selection of new clothe options to wear. The rest of
the land of Gielinor is also opened to you, and hundreds of new generic
and tasteless quests are available for you to complete. In a quick
overview of the benefits of subscribing to Jagex, $5 a month is just
not worth the wasted hours of meaningless grinding and its associated
childish community.
As if traversing the land of Gielinor and completing meaningless quests
wasn't enough, you get to do it all in an incredibly bland looking
environment. Runescape is all fully done in 3D, but with a world so
large and with a never ending associated community, Runescape just
looks flat out horrible. Everything is colored one of about 16
different colors, meaning there isn't a whole lot of variation between
the environments. Everything is also horribly blocky, and textures
don't seem to blend all that great. Mix this with horrible effects and
constant area loading (which makes the screen distort its colors for a
short time), Runescape is one of the biggest graphical messes ever
conceived from the internet.
Believe it or not, but the sound effects are just as horrible as the
graphics. Everything sounds like it was ripped from an old batch of NES
games. I expect to hear something relative to a hammer hitting someone
over the head, not the chime of a bell. Jagex tried to make a few of
the monsters found throughout the game sound somewhat as passable, but
a mixture of beeps and sound distorters doesn't make up for the lost
feel of combat. It's a shame really; if Jagex had just added in some
decent sound effects, combat might actually feel a little rewarding, or
maybe even fun, but that unfortunately isn't the case with Runescape.
Runescape, as a game in whole, will last you for a little while. There
a few quests that you can complete before the list is cut off due to
lack of subscription, but these quests become so boring so fast that
you probably won't even make it halfway down the list before you quit
the game altogether. Skills sound like a great idea, until you learn
that it is all based around endless grinding that reaps no benefits.
The entire economy based around Runescape is to grind materials, so
that you can make money to buy new equipment to make more money. It's a
never-ending circle of stupidity. With a terrible community, shoddy
graphics, and horrendous sound effects, Runescape just doesn't stand up
as an acceptable game, or a worthwhile experience to be had.
