Before the fanboys moan and whinge please read this review.
Ok, so what's so horrible about RuneScape? Well, despite the fact that the creators, Jagex make the game for people aged over 13 years of age, I could bet all my valued possessions (real-life possessions of course…) that there are hundreds of thousands of 10 year olds playing there, cussing, trolling, swearing at each other, threatening to kill each other virtually. So that's one thing. You're playing a game with a bunch of immature little kids who are keyboard warriors and don't have a clue about what's going on around them. This game is addictive – if you're a kid.
Like all RPG's there's always a player, who you must train, gain experience, gain levels etc. But RuneScape reinforces the notion of repetition. Once you get your character to level 70-80, it all becomes so boring. The time taken to up your levels, increase. Once your skills are over 85, it's just do the same thing again and again until you die of boredom. For example, my characters Strength level was 92 (how I got that far, I do not know) – in order to advance to the highest level – 99 – in a free to play world, it would take months of training in order to get it that high. It's simply a basis of "attack the other guy, other guy attacks you, attack the other guy, the other guy attacks you". So dull.
The creators of the game, Jagex, have made every good thing about the game go away. Back in the days when I used to play, RuneScape was a lot more "dangerous". There was a Wilderness, where players could attack each other – it was removed because of numerous complaints in regards to "campers" and "2v1 unfairness" - and there was no Lumbridge Teleport if something went wrong. Now the game is too "safe" and that detracts from the fun of it, in my opinion. Who wants to play a game without a thrill every now and again?
The blokes at Jagex are way too tight in my opinion – their customer service is horrible. At one point, it took me 2 weeks to recover my password. Honestly… two weeks.
Fanboys will say that being a member makes the game all worth it. Well, I beg to differ. Being a member – you're surrounded by arrogant, addicted players. Everybody is boasting about their skill levels and what armour they have and how much money they've got. There is hardly anybody friendly out there, and there is not much change to the free version of the game. Take an example – Castle Wars – a minigame similar to Capture the Flag. It gets dull and dry after a few sessions. And the upgrades to weaponry and armour may be "huge" – but that's only "huge" to those addicted players.
Well, unlike others, I actually would like to commend the graphics. The graphics of RuneScape are excellent – bear in mind that it is a Java-based game. However, what's the point of good graphics if the game itself is horrible.
And, also the creators of RuneScape seem to treat their members like kings. I understand that as a business, you would give your customers more benefits than others, however, why are the free players completely ignored? I cannot recall a single good update for free-to-play players, ever. And I played in 2005 – early 2010.
Jagex spends too much time trying to remove bots, gold farmers and the sort. I didn't like them when I played, but you have to accept the fact that they will always be there, regardless of how annoying they are. And, also in the process of removing these bots, there will also be something else fun that is removed.
Some people say that RuneScape is excellent to gain a basic understanding of economics. I beg to differ. RuneScape offers a trading system, where you can trade items with other players. However, personally, I don't think it gives anyone a basic understanding of economics – but – it simply revises the basic skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. How on earth does RuneScape have any sort of resemblance to economics? I have no clue.
To be honest with you, I started playing this when I was a 10 year old boy myself, and now I look back and realise how much of a fool I was. In my opinion, if you're over 14 and you're still addicted to this – get a life. As said before, despite Jagex's age limit of making this game playable to people aged 13 and over, I still maintain my stance in which I say that this game is for people with a maturity age of a 10 year old boy. RuneScape is the most over-rated game I've ever seen in my whole life.
By all means, play this game if you want - but don't say I didn't warn you.One day, when those 10 year old RuneScape players have finally grown up, they will realise, that, hey, this reviewer was right after all.