Review for RuneScape: Dragonwilds (First 4 Hours of Gameplay)

[wei]

After spending around 4 hours in Dragonwilds, here are some major issues I ran into — and honestly, they killed the fun pretty fast.



1. Dragon in the Tutorial Area
The dragon somehow always knows where you are, no matter what. Even if you’re indoors or hidden behind multiple walls, his attacks still hit you — through floors and walls — like they completely ignore terrain or line of sight. It feels broken and unfair. What makes it worse is that his attacks don’t seem to affect other mobs, so while you’re dodging dragon fire, you’ve still got goblins chasing you nonstop. It's chaotic in the worst way.

2. Ambush System
I get the idea — surprise enemy encounters can be exciting — but the execution is a mess. Ambushers teleport directly to you regardless of where you are. There’s no real way to prepare or escape. You're just instantly surrounded and overwhelmed. I’m all for a challenge, but when enemies phase through everything and appear out of nowhere, it stops being fun and starts feeling cheap.

3. Base Attack Mechanic
In theory, this sounds great — defending your home from raids. But in practice? It’s a nightmare. The enemy goblins teleport an entire army right next to your tiny 2x2 block home. You can’t build real defenses, there’s no room to fight, and the best strategy seems to be unequipping your gear and letting them kill you so they eventually leave. That shouldn't be a valid tactic. It’s just bad design.

If we could actually build functional defenses, traps, or walls that enemies respected, this could be an amazing mechanic. But right now, as a solo player, you just get punished for trying to base build.

Final Thoughts:
I wouldn’t recommend this game to anyone who enjoys base building or structured survival mechanics. Enemies ignore terrain, teleport into your base, and the dragon punishes you constantly even when you’re not engaging him (It was cool at first but got repetitive as he kept knowing where i was and attacked). It feels like the game is actively working against any effort to create a safe or stable home or a way to counter it unless you drag yourself to do stuff you don't want to do.

I don’t mind a tough game — I actually enjoy a good challenge — but these events aren’t challenging, they’re just badly designed. Every 10 minutes or so, you're hit with an event that feels more like a punishment than gameplay. Either a dragon shows up and spawn-kills you repeatedly, blanketing your base in toxic sludge that lingers for what feels like an entire in-game day, or a warband appears and floods the area with endless enemy waves until you inevitably die. It’s not a test of skill or strategy — it’s a test of how long you can tolerate mechanics that ignore player agency. There’s no real counterplay, no way to prepare, and no sense of fairness. It’s not hard — it’s just frustrating.

There’s potential here, but the balance and mechanics desperately need fixing.

[Kankaku]

This sounds like what I was wanting from a survival game. Something actually challenging. Thinking about purchasing, so I hope they don't change this.

[BoroParmo]

I 100% agree with everything you've said here. I'm all for a challenge but it does seem like a struggle when you have only just started out. Also not a fan of how your house can be easily destroyed (not a fan of this in survival games in general tbh).

[BobbyBae]

+1 base building is pretty meaningless as of right now

[zirtrix]

Base building easy, defending is easy, killing them is easy… I have 0 struggles what so ever… you can level up your combat and abilities so fast none of this is even a big problem. The dragon coming by wasn’t even that bad to me tbh. I’m not sure why you’re in a 2x2 block house either. To me it’s a great game and I would recommend it to anyone. Very fun and will only get better, early access as well.

[zirtrix]

Originally posted by Kankaku:

This sounds like what I was wanting from a survival game. Something actually challenging. Thinking about purchasing, so I hope they don't change this.

I would recommend it! I played all the big survivals and this had the it factor. This guys complaints are insane to me. The games great and very fun and addicting. Will only get better! Early access!

[oliverisshak]

Completely agree with everything you said. To make matters worse, a warband spawned in my base (which was a massive base btw) and completely destroyed 6 storage chests which most of the material is destroyed and gone. They need to fix some major issues but it could have potential

[PocketYoda]

My review 3.5 hours..

No way is this game worth it.. Its buggy the whole game flickers when i run around. plants trees and everything.. On my Core i5 7500 32gb ram RX6700XT 12gb.

The game is pointless as there is zero story, the gameplay is really hard in 3.5 hours i died about 8-10 times, when you die you lose everything and cannot get your stuff you grinded for back without dying again..

Stamina is a bane, its gone after about 4 hits and then the enemies chain attack you to death, constantly out of stamina, if you block with a shield stamina gone..

Building is pointless as enemies just destroy it over and over, The dragon literally spewed poison onto my house killing me twice in a level 2 zone.. You do not get time to breath or craft anything as things attack you constantly, i ♥♥♥♥ you not chickens, rodents, cows all constantly attack you. If you die you lose everything and must run back again and again.

Food and Water is terrible its gone in less than 5 mins and you must eat constantly.. Each time you die the bars diminish/get smaller until you rest if you can even rest..

The games brightness is all messed up and the game looks like you've smeared oil all over your screen, blurry as which helps motion sickness.. On that topic there are zero options in the game to remove motion blur, depth of field and chromatic abomination.. the game is literally horrible for motion sickness.

I'd avoid and play Enshrouded or Valhiem..

[Jondalf]

Originally posted by Kankaku:

This sounds like what I was wanting from a survival game. Something actually challenging. Thinking about purchasing, so I hope they don't change this.

I don't think it's challenging, honestly. It's just unfair and annoying. Like imagine playing Valheim, but every so often, your character just explodes. It's not that it's harder, it's that there's a cheap death every now and then.
When they say a dragon attacks, they don't mean a dragon lands and engages in combat with you. They mean a dragon does a fly-by and drops a poison bomb or three into your house through the roof and walls, leaving behind little poison blobs you have to avoid for a minute or so. You don't get to fight back, you just die.

[PocketYoda]

Originally posted by Jondalf:

Originally posted by Kankaku:

This sounds like what I was wanting from a survival game. Something actually challenging. Thinking about purchasing, so I hope they don't change this.

I don't think it's challenging, honestly. It's just unfair and annoying. Like imagine playing Valheim, but every so often, your character just explodes. It's not that it's harder, it's that there's a cheap death every now and then.
When they say a dragon attacks, they don't mean a dragon lands and engages in combat with you. They mean a dragon does a fly-by and drops a poison bomb or three into your house through the roof and walls, leaving behind little poison blobs you have to avoid for a minute or so. You don't get to fight back, you just die.

Challenging means you can win, its not here you can't win.. You are just constantly stood on by the game for no apparent reason..

[Tachyon]

Originally posted by Kankaku:

This sounds like what I was wanting from a survival game. Something actually challenging. Thinking about purchasing, so I hope they don't change this.

I agree, but then I'm quirky like that. I've been through one dragon attack so far, and I never even got hit. The poison cloud attacks are telegraphed well in advance and easily dodged. I ran away from my shack, and sure enough it concentrated on chasing me, so at least that took no damage. The dragon attacks are nothing to worry about, at least not at this stage,

I have the armour on that reduces stamina drain and does other stuff as well, so that keeps me going. I don't bother with the shield at all, as right-clicking blocks with the weapon anyway.

[PocketYoda]

Originally posted by Tachyon:

Originally posted by Kankaku:

This sounds like what I was wanting from a survival game. Something actually challenging. Thinking about purchasing, so I hope they don't change this.

I agree, but then I'm quirky like that. I've been through one dragon attack so far, and I never even got hit. The poison cloud attacks are telegraphed well in advance and easily dodged. They're nothing to worry about, at least not at this stage,

Try it in your house constantly, watch your buildings crumble.

[KoV]

Thx for the review guess I wont buy

[PocketYoda]

Brightness, blurry and oily
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3464793977

Dragon destroying my home
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3464793928

Get used to this
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3464793851

[Bones]

Yeah that doesn't sound fun at all. I hate when survival games add a bunch of annoyances instead of challenges, so guess I will hold off for now.

[Tachyon]

Originally posted by PocketYoda:

Originally posted by Tachyon:

I agree, but then I'm quirky like that. I've been through one dragon attack so far, and I never even got hit. The poison cloud attacks are telegraphed well in advance and easily dodged. They're nothing to worry about, at least not at this stage,

Try it in your house constantly, watch your buildings crumble.

Nah, I ran from the house ASAP. Hiding in a wooden house from a dragon didn't seem a very good tactic. 😄 I wasn't expecting a dragon attack, tbh, as It's flown over me a few times on my wanders, but hadn't attacked me. I've played games with this kind of raid tactic before, and in those games your base doesn't get raided if you're not in it. I'm hoping this one is the same.