The remastered Old School Runescape, same company, same game, more fun.
A first impressions game review on Old School Runescape, by Ggt
A decade has passed and it's still the same; addicting.
Old School Runescape and addicting. If anyone has played this game before, you know what I mean. Just like when I was a kid rushing home to play Runescape after-school, I find myself walking home with nothing on my mind but grinding mining under the town of Lumbridge. When I found out that Jagex, the company that created Runescape, had brought back their original old-styled version of their popular free-to-play MMO I was thrilled and downloaded it as soon as possible. Before we move on and start looking into what the game is itself, let me share a short history lesson on the game series that in Runescape. It was created way back over a decade ago. Recently, Jagex had released/updated a new version of Runescape that wasn't quite the same as the old, which they took away. After a bit of begging from their community, the company decided to bring back their original game under the name Old School Runescape, which quickly became the superior and popular Runescape once more!
Moving on, to all of you that don't already know, Runescape is a free-to-play MMO RPG that sets you up in a massive fantasy world with tons of quest to complete and a variety of skills to level up. There's so much to do, whether it be fighting monsters, learning magic, exploring, questing, player-verse-player, and so much more, the list just goes on. And for the price that it's set at, there's no reason to not be excited over such a game. It's free after all! Yes there is a pay to unlock membership and yes, there's thousands more hours of content unlocked with it but with only the free-to-play version, there's still so much to do, and when I say so much I mean at least 500+ hours. Do you know of any other free-to-play game that has more than 500+ hours of content to play? That's more than Bethesda's 60$ Skyrim!
It's old, looks bad, but fret not young traveller! It plays well and there's always more coming!
The game's over ten years old. Of course it doesn't have the graphics compared to some of the newer titles and that's ok. The game isn't meant to look good, it's meant to instead play well and it does that, well. . . Well! The game-play is great and addicting, but simple at it's core. It's easy for new players to just pick up and learn. An example being simple like; click on this sword to equip it, click on that goblin to attack it, watch the characters fight, click on loot to pick it up but don't let that dissuade you. The game can for players who put time into get real complex. I've seen higher level characters spend minutes fighting each other as they desperately struggle to balance switching up weapons, re-positioning for attacks, casting spells, drinking potions, eating food and so much more in an attempt to get the edge over their opponent. The game can be simple for those who want it that way yet complicated for others who don't. The choice is yours.
Speaking of levels, lets expand more on the topic. I mean, the game's really about levels, stats, and progression. You start off with all your skills level one and you need to do things requiring that skill to level up. Want to level up woodcutting? Chop trees. Want to level up magic? Cast spells. Want to level up defence? Practise defence and so on. I'm sure you get the point. The more you level up, the more things you unlock and the more you get to do unlocking continuously endless content to play through. Here's a very small example from my first few hours of playing the game again since I was a kid:
I started off fighting goblins to grind my defence, offence and strength skills but found myself always taking too much damage to consistently grind them. So I bought a bronze pickaxe, went off to the mines, gathered ores, smelted the ores into bronze bars, used the bronze bars to grind blacksmithing until I was high enough level to create bronze armour. I created bronze armour, equipped it, continued more easily grinding my stats until deciding to travel towards a new town. I took a quest in that town, realized I had to fight a demon 25+ levels higher than me, went back to the mines, gathered different ores, smelted iron, advanced blacksmithing some more, created iron armour which I then used to level up my stats off of fighting higher level bandits-- See where I'm going with this? This all took me about 10+ hours, to complete one quest. There's 50+ quests for free-to-play players. The one I was doing was considered easy. Starting to get it? Yea.
BUT KEEP IN MIND!
Runescape isn't for the type of gamer that doesn't enjoy a grind. What does that mean? Someone whose willing to do things for hours on end to level up their character to unlock new things to do. If you can't grind and just want something fast-paced, Runescape just isn't for you. Don't even bother.
Another thing about the game I'd like to note is how often new content is added. If you decide to pay for a membership, which is something I'm currently debating doing, you'll unlock so much more stuff to do and a consistent new flow of stuff to do that the developers are constantly putting in. Even though it's an old-styled game, the developers still add in new content that fits the game and gives players more things to do! It's honestly amazing to me and great. Over ten years old and still going strong.
How was my experience?
Which one? The one as a kid ten years ago putting 100+ hours into this game or the one now as an eight year old just out of high-school whose picked up the game again and having the same fun he had before as a kid, a lot. I guess you can say both experienced are relatively good. I mean, I even got my girlfriend into the game and she's having fun so far, which is surprising to me because she's not really a big gamer herself.
Everything I've said so far in this post sums up my experience with the game so far and it's only going to get better;
With you guys, the Steemit Community!
I plan sometime in the future starting a series where I make a new character and let you guys dictate through the replies on how I play him out. I also have plans on creating a Steemit-oriented clan where we as a community can gather together, talk, share content about the game and play together to enhance an already great gaming experience. Let me know what you guys think of this plan and feel free to start dropping some ideas on what kind of character I should orient my new account on. Should he be a wizard, a knight, or perhaps an archer? Who knows, wait... You guys do!
So in conclusion. . .
The game's great, it's free, and there's no reason to pick it up. If you've played Runescape before, I promise you'll get a flow of nostalgia rushing through you the minute you start up a new account and hear that tutorial Island theme. Finally, thanks for dropping by!