"RuneScape does enormous amounts of good stuff and has charm and wit, but is a struggle to comfortably play," said John Walker in our original Runescape review back in PC Gamer UK 192, before giving it a verdict of "Free and funny but also frustrating" and a 72% score. Here, as part of a week of re-reviews, Austin examines Old School Runescape as it stands in 2018.
Most MMOs lead you on a campaign that introduces the most important characters, areas and activities, and only then do they take the leash off and tell you to do whatever you want. That last bit is where Old School Runescape starts. It's a sandbox MMORPG that's deliberately grindy and intimidatingly hands-off. You go through a five-minute tutorial which teaches you the absolute bare minimum and then you're unceremoniously dropped into the hometown of Lumbridge. It's the kind of game where you have to bookmark the wiki before you can get anywhere. But if you're willing to push through the harsh learning curve, and if you find Runescape's freewheeling sense of adventure liberating rather than overwhelming, you may well find your forever game.
Part of the reason Old School Runescape is so bad at explaining itself comes down to its heritage. A decade ago, there was no Old School Runescape. There was just Runescape. But after a major update totally overhauled Runescape and turned it into what is now colloquially known as Runescape 3, Jagex ran a poll to see if players wanted independent servers where they could play Runescape as it was back in the day. Nearly 500,000 people said yes, and Old School Runescape was born. So, the threadbare tutorial is more than enough for people who've played Runescape before (like myself). That said, Old School could still stand to guide new players a bit better, because it's totally unlike other MMOs...