RuneScape

aka: DeviousMUD, Old School RuneScape, RS, RS1, RS2, RSC, Runescape Classic
Moby ID: 9192
Windows Specs
Buy on Windows
$0.00 new on Steam

Description official description

Runescape is a browser-based 3D Java online-only continuous game in which you possess a character with an inventory and skills. Training in fighting, mining, smithing, magic, prayer and many more skills will enhance your character and allow you to become a powerful player. Trading between players allows one to make money to have the best weapons, armors, runes and other items at their disposition.

The game can be played for free for an unlimited time at the official website. Subscribing members (from $5/month, depending on the method of payment) receive benefits such as a significantly larger map, over seven times as many quests, a number of new skills and priority customer support.

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Credits (Browser version)

43 People · View all

Lead Designer
Senior Designer
Gameplay Programmer
Associate Producer
Head of Quality Assurance
QA Tester
Localization QA (German)
Localization QA (Portuguese)
Front-end Design
Game Engine Developer
Community Managers
Art Manager
Concept Art
Environment Art
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 66% (based on 7 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.9 out of 5 (based on 44 ratings with 8 reviews)

Want a childish, simple-minded, crappy psuedo-rpg game?

The Good
Well, it's huge. Tons of stuff to do, equipment, abilities, quests, you name it! This game offers alot for the simple-minded gamer, and the best part is that it's free.

The Bad
Everything else that can be hated. This game takes NO skill, no thought, no tact, no anything to play. Just alot of free time, and if you feel like getting a couple of cheap perks, 5$ a month. This game is a mockery to the MMORPG name.

The Bottom Line
A no-brained java game that's simply a waste of time.

Windows · by Kain Ceverus (30) · 2007

Back in the day...

The Good
Runescape was one of those games that ā€œwas my childhoodā€ if you are familiar with the expression. Back in middle school I played this game almost religiously, and my brother played it too. And his friendā€™s played it too. Whenever the computer was open we were bound to be on it, fighting over who got off when. We looked up websites and read tables of enemy stats, and researched quests and all that good stuff. Okay, so I didnā€™t have much of a life back in middle school.

I will use my experience as a focal point for this review. That is, no matter how long you play, grind, and achieve, you will never be anywhere close to beating this game. Thereā€™s simply too much to do, too many places to explore, and too many classes to learn. And this was back in middle school, when I had 10 hours of free time to dedicate to the game. And back then there was a quarter of the quests and skills there are now.

Runescape simply does not end. There are millions upon millions of items that can be used in junction with dozens of skills and hundreds of quests. I mean, come on, just look at the freakinā€™ map!. That was what it was like when I was a kid! Any it took me years to try and explore all of that. Even with all of my work I was still nowhere near done exploring all of the secret caves and passageways underneath the ground. But if you really wanna shit bricks, check what itā€™s like now. A walk from one edge of the map to the other would easily take 3 hours. To explore and do everything in between would take years.

But best of all is that it was free. I mean, you really have to understand what I was looking at when I was a kid. This was one of the biggest worlds I had ever seen in a video game (I had yet to be introduced to MMORPGā€™s) and it was all free. It was like giving out World of Warcraft accounts for free. In my premature years, my habit was nothing short of sheer addiction.

It was terrific. It had everything I needed. It gives you a good sense of achievement. The quests were fun, and the characters were very vibrant. A lot of them somehow acknowledged that they were part of an online video game, which made them extremely funny. Some of the quests are just downright silly. One of my favorites was when you have to dress up as a woman to rescue a guy from jail. Even better, the designers slip in funny message when you try to observe really simplistic things like posts or trees. Your own character is pretty witty even in the most dire, dangerous situations, and this was really a high point of the game.

And of course, like I said, its all free

The Bad
There are a lot of gamers out there who simply foam at the mouth just thinking about the potential this game has. It is such a living, breathing patchwork of questing and skills, and players and NPCā€™s that the appeal could just kill you. Even looking at the map gives one the feeling of an epic adventure. But honest to God, it simply isnā€™t as fun as it looks.

The feeling of having so many things around you is just too overwhelming. There are simply too many things to do. At first you want to build your skills, but you also need to do quests. At the same time you want to get better armor. All of this takes way too long. Getting past level 60 even in one skill ranking could take months and months of grinding. Again, I say, look at my example. I played this game for years on one single character, and I could not even get to level 60 in any ranking. Yet that unquenchable thirst that drives you to grow more levels is still there. In the end however, it is truly not worth it. The rewards for level growth is often minimal compared to the hours and hours of work required to get there.

As a result, no matter how hard I tried, I felt like I could never fit in, and in reality I really never was good enough for the big leagues. Everywhere I went, I felt like I was lowest level character in the entire bunch. It felt like I wasnā€™t supposed to be where I was, no matter where I was. I was the only person wearing gray steel in a bunch of Runite-clad knights. No matter what level I got to, there were still areas that were too high for me to go into, and there were spells and equipment I still had no access to.

Not to mention that Runescape was notorious for assholes who refused to help you on quests. It was really every man for himself back then. Quests with combat in them were difficult to finish because most combat quests were done solo. Mines were always packed and it was first come, first serve. If you werenā€™t fast enough to get to a rock in time, it was your loss. If you died, you lost ALL of the items on your possession, and you could count on it that your items would be scooped up off of your dead body within seconds.

Runescape, visually, is pretty unappealing. I can tolerate bad graphics, but even in the years that have passed, nothing has really changed. And I assure you, back then the graphics were shitty. And they still are shitty. When the backgrounds become detailed, they are usually meant fore nothing more than decoration. Thereā€™s really no interaction, and as a result, there really is no immersion that comes with the game.

But not only this, but the game was rife with horrible game glitches. Your character is slow as all Hell. Also, but the game window is seriously small. You move by clicking the mouse button on the ground around you, but because your view was so limited to only a few yards around you, you had to continually click in order to keep moving. Doing this over long distances is tiresome and tedious. Also, the game tended to lag a lot, then spike, so that everyone ran around furiously from all the clicks they made. Worse yet, accidentally clicking in the wrong spot could cause you to mistakenly attack a guard or do some irreversible damage.

Most of the skills are fairly useless too. The most you would need are the combat skills (melee, hand to hand, archery, magic, and maybe prayer) and mining, smelting, fishing, and cooking. The rest of the skills are quite useless. Skills like fletching and alchemy are rarely used in practical situations, so itā€™s an annoyance when you feel like youā€™ve wasted time grinding only to find out that the skill is of no practical use in the game. But the greatest problem I encountered in this game is that the only way to advance in levels was to grind up to the next level. Now, Runescape isnā€™t the most interactive of all RPGā€™s. The most you need is a mouse, since all of the commands are done through that. The result is, though, that training levels often incorporated merely clicking thousands of times in repetition for dozens of hours on end for a number of months until you get good at a skill, at which time you would move onto the next skill. And like I said before, the rewards for these tasks are minimal, and never compensate for the hours of work needed to be done to get to that point.


The Bottom Line
Most of RuneScape is eye candy. It looks like thereā€™s a lot to do and explore on the surface, but the gameā€™s appeal is superficial. Even after months and months of mind-numbing grinding, you are still nowhere close to playing in the big league and go on the ā€œeven more difficult dungeonā€ that you havenā€™t explored yet. There are just too many skills to level, and places to explore, and quests to do, and not enough time to do it.

Thereā€™s nothing really ā€œfunā€ about Runescape at all. It was more frustrating to play than fun. The quests are nice and funny sometimes, but the interface is clunky and frustrating, and the skills are about as useless as being on the high score list at the local arcade; it looks good and it gets you bragging rights, but thatā€™s about it. Thereā€™s no real skill involved. It just depends on how much time youā€™re willing to dedicate to this MMORPG, and how long you can repeatedly click your mouse. So if thereā€™s no achievement and thereā€™s no fun, then what ā€˜s the point of starting at all?

Windows · by Matt Neuteboom (976) · 2007

runescape's da bomb

The Good
Runescape is the best game you can play anywhere anytime...you can meat up with tons of people--trade, kill or chat. I've played Diablo and think this is better than Diablo--5X better! And I'm only playing the free version online at school! I get up at 6am to get to school an hour early so I can play at the computer lab or library! Right now I'm only a level 10. My friend and I meet up in the game world and trade in world 32. We race to see who gets to school first! Peace Out, Meat 94!

The Bad
What I didn't like about this game is nuttin!

The Bottom Line
I'd rate this game a 12 out of a 10 scale! Its an medieval fantasy, action, adventure RPG.

Windows · by D Els (1) · 2005

[ View all 8 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
new game client? Pseudo_Intellectual (66274) Apr 21, 2016

Trivia

1001 Video Games

RuneScape appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Development

RuneScape was originally going to be released as DeviousMUD. However, after a few days, the Gower Brothers pulled the game back off, and later re-released it, with modifications, as RuneScape (RuneScape Classic).

Milestone

On March 28, 2005, the game passes the 300,000 member mark for the first time, four years after the first release.

Information also contributed by lord of daedra

Analytics

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Related Sites +

  • Carl's Runescape Guide
    Includes quest walkthroughs, weapon and armor stats and information on skills in the game.
  • RuneScape
    Official website where you can play the game
  • Runescape Help Website
    A very easy to understand guide for both beginners and more advanced players on Runescape. Everything you need to know about the features of runescape is available, including the Runescape Toolkit, a program that aids players to manage their character skills and other attributes.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 9192
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

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Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Pwa.

iPad, iPhone, Android added by Sciere. Browser added by Kabushi.

Additional contributors: Sciere, Carl Ratcliff, JoonaZZ, lord of daedra, Cantillon, FatherJack, Gianluca Chiaravalle.

Game added May 13, 2003. Last modified February 14, 2024.