15h in, Thoughts of a Middle Age Fanboy

[Squatch]

Background

I spent a lot of my teenage age years playing RS before RS3 came out. Not min/maxing or anything but just exploring and doing whatever I felt like doing that day. The highlight of those hundreds if not thousands of hours was getting my first whip with my buddy. After he passed, I couldn't bring myself to play anymore. The memories were too strong.

This game has unlocked all those past feelings and nostalgia. If this were a full RS remake, I'd be on my deathbed still playing.

The combat, while basic compared to the RS3 skillbar, is mostly smooth. I say mostly because:
- Magic: will shoot randomly off target every now and again even with being lined up with the target indicator. Or sometimes the utility spells won't affect the item highlighted. Not being able to cancel a spell to dodge an attack is a hassle, but workable.
- Ranged: EATS stamina. Until I came across the crystal bow, fighting anything more than 2 or 3 was almost impossible in higher level areas. Also....Ava's Accumulator when? Thanks :)
- Melee: Could be doing it wrong, but blocking an attack sometimes still damages me, sometimes doesn't, sometimes parry works. Probably user error

Skills are simple enough for newcomers to grasp easily but also provide good QoL items down the trees for later game. Can't quite tell if they're serious about going to 99, but Guthix save us if it keeps the same leveling curve as the other games. Definitely noticed the slowdown around 35-40. The utility spells are awesome and massive kudos for those who came up with the idea. Some are far more useful than others, but I have no complaints.

Crafting is a good mix. Some of the recipes call for items I haven't come across. Might make it too easy, but maybe a hint of where to find the item? I've gone back and forth on that thought a few times, not really leaning one way or the other.

Base building is some of the smoothest I've come across. Little to no clipping or stuttering of any sort. I do wish for the ability to move an item instead of having to destroy it and rebuild.

Gathering is sometimes a hassle. It seems you have to be directly looking dead center at the material. Not ideal for farming runs (ie. Sprinting around gathering materials). I'd like to see a little wider "hitbox" to allow the fast runs.

If there were one idea taken from this list, it be this. A friends server shouldn't be tied to a single user, but the whole group. Getting booted after the owner leaves means the owner has to afk for the others to continue playing. With that pesky dragon and the raids, not only does the owner typically face a thousand deaths, but your base takes a beating too. I'd really appreciate a "shared owner" setting or something similar

As I said previously, if this were the future of Runescape (MMO), You'd have a lifelong subscriber. I can't even imagine the scale of that idea. I just dream of breaking Graardor's ankles for hours on end. One can dream :)

So far, 9/10 gameplay. Great job

[Outlavv]

Game is a really solid foundation. In like a year this will be a great game

[Jet]

Nice review. What are your thoughts on the overall performance so far? Did you have any big frame drops or latency issues at any point?

[Feldsparian]

I am well beyond middle age now (Runescape was a way off when I started roleplaying games), but I very much appreciate the solid review.

[ₛₜₒₙₑᵈᵖᵤₘₐ]

playing on a 3090/5950x 64gb ram. game caps at around 60fps in open world on ultra graphics. when inside a cave or home, it jumps a little over 100fps. the Bloom is trash, and the blur at night sucks. Its still early, and roadmap did mention lighting and effect changes, so lets hope they read all the suggestions. ;) game is 9/10 , graphics 5/10

[Squatch]

Originally posted by Jet:

Nice review. What are your thoughts on the overall performance so far? Did you have any big frame drops or latency issues at any point?

I didn't until we had our 3rd join. Then I started getting frame drops when hitting the lodestone. Other than that it's been solid.