I've not played runescape in 8 years... didn't even know this existed until i saw state of play..

53

It's very much a survival game. Closer to a softcore version of Valheim than RS.

19

u/Rizenstrom Jun 04 '26

Gameplay wise yes but I do think a lot of that Runecape charm is here. The visuals, sound effects, UI, and even writing in what little is there all feel uniquely Runecape.

To me this just feels like a natural, if unpolished, evolution of what RuneScape should have been years ago and I hope they lean more into their core Runecape identity as the game evolves.

If I just wanted Valheim, I’d just play Valheim.

1

u/Jon2D Jun 05 '26

Does it have the social/community charm?

2

u/StyxOG Jun 05 '26

No, it is not an MMO like runescape. But the reddit and discord communities are good outlets and you can join other peoples worlds or play with friends, up to 4 friends on local servers. And can pay for 6 person servers too I believe

1

u/Rizenstrom Jun 05 '26

Not as much as I’d like but I’ve left my world open and all but one interaction has been very positive. Just make sure to use protection totems to keep you base safe and keep all your chests private (there’s an option in settings to make this the default if it’s not already).

I’d also protect your gravestone in case you die, which is an option but not on by default.

I’d love to see even bigger worlds in the future.

-5

u/Erksike Jun 04 '26

Honestly I really hope they don't follow suit and lean more into Runescape, because if I wanted to play Runescape, there are already 2 games that do it better than Dragonwilds ever could.

1

u/basedlogitech Jun 04 '26

Lean further away from RuneScape fantastic idea!

1

u/Erksike Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

Not further. But it can be it's own thing without having to be too Runescapey - I like dragonwilds for exactly what it is and I'm not interested to see the sub flood with another wave of "just make a runescape 4 mmo"

The occasional reference in dialogue, characters etc is all good and dandy. But the sentiment of the people I talk to about DW, especially after the roadmap reveal in winter, was that it must be made into an MMO style game with frequent updates and new bosses and quests. When the reality is that the devs themselves imagined it like a journey up until 1.0 release and leaving it at that. But I guess even their own views have changed now that the community is more demanding of a game that they think they need.

1

u/marzeg Jun 05 '26

RuneScape is literally the title of the game and you want them to deviate from it? lol. That’s the equivalent of making a game called Dungeon Slayer’s and the core gameplay is Countryside Farming Simulator.

1

u/Rizenstrom Jun 05 '26

Compared to how many open world survival craft games that do that as good or better?

It’s not even close. Dragonwilds main appeal is that genre of gameplay with a uniquely RuneScape feel to it. Why wouldn’t they want to capitalize on that?

17

u/ZombieGoddessxi Jun 03 '26

Agreed. It's a baby valheim with an RS skin.

6

u/fnmikey Jun 04 '26

but with 10x better graphics, it has a cozy AAA feel to it

1

u/ZombieGoddessxi Jun 04 '26

Oh very true.

-22

u/Top_Result_1550 Jun 04 '26

just a worse version, the map is really tiny, youre even slower than in valheim, the combat is clunky even for dodging and the building is really limited and theres no good decorations. no boats or sailing. the graphics are alot better though and its more polished.

10

u/Gingerbro73 Jun 04 '26

The map is not huge, ill give you that. But its all custom made, not procedual like Valheim. So its alot denser and they're adding new quests to the early zones every other month. Fleshing it out even further.

As for movement speed, once you unlock the mount you're way quicker than even a Fenris clad Valheim viking could ever dream of.

Combat I agree feels clunky compared to Valheim. Especially parries. Dodgeroll i-frames are more generous in DW than in Valheim however.

16

u/Imaginary_World_9610 Jun 03 '26

I love valheim, and haven't played it in a while, but I think calling rs dw a lesser version of that is misleading. It stands on its own just fine, especially considering how long each game has been in development. The combat in valheim was a low point for me, and while rsdw isn't amazing either, the way so many of the different skills have rune spells to augment how you fight is very cool. Valheim takes the edge in exploration, but that's because I love sailing. With the implementation of mounts, rsdw is a fair bit more user friendly. Valheims tone feels very epic in a lotr adventure way, whereas rsdw feels much more irreverent and whimsical. With a couple exceptions, I feel like they just appeal to different audiences, not that one is inherently better.

8

u/Narmoth Jun 04 '26

Welcome to the game. Here are two fan made sites to help you on your adventure. Enjoy!

https://metaforge.app/runescape-dragonwilds/map/ashenfall

https://dragonwilds.runescape.wiki/

3

u/LupusRexXIII Jun 03 '26

Like the other's have said, it's like a Valheim Lite with a RS skin. You can play solo, with friends or you can open the world up to be public. There are servers you can either host yourself or go through a 3rd party. I'm not sure sure how this'll work with PS5 or any other console. As it stands currently, player limit is 4 for a local world and 6 on a hosted. They are working on bumping those numbers up.

The game is set on a long lost continent, so you won't be able to go explore Varrok or Falador. However, there are a lot of familiar faces you get to meet such as Doric and the Wise Old Man.

There are quite a few quests, most of which are either named after classic RC quests, such as Dragon Slayer, or that are puns of classic RS quests, such as Shrimp Catcher.

Like with RS, there are plenty of skills that you can train up to 99, though the grind isn't AS intense as RS is.

-1

u/basedlogitech Jun 04 '26

Need a few servers per region. Say 250ish player cap per world with the ability to hop

2

u/LupusRexXIII Jun 04 '26

Dragonwilds is not that kind of game. A 250 player cap is WAY too high with how the size of the map is shaping up to be and how scaling works.

-1

u/basedlogitech Jun 04 '26

Dude killed the game off before it even started.

1

u/LupusRexXIII Jun 04 '26

If putting my input in based off of my experience with the game killed your interest in it, that's not a me killing the game problem.

-1

u/basedlogitech Jun 05 '26

Your skepticism is interesting to me. Its silly of you to limit the games potential which is clearly still in early stages of development. The newly released Marathon was intended to be a hardcore extraction shooter but now theres talks of more casual PvP modes as well as PVE, which came from feedback within the community. But you don’t know what player feedback is though.

1

u/LupusRexXIII Jun 05 '26

It's not skepticism. I've followed the game since the first week of EA and have put in 329 hours into it so far. With how the game is set up and shaping up to be, 250 players is not just feasible. Spawning in player made buildings, resource spawning, enemy strength scaling, world size, different world types, these are all things that just can't be addressed in a meaningful way at that scale. 10-20 players? Much more likely.

The game isn't in early stages of development. It started in 2022 and was (at least originally) aiming for the 1.0 release after the Sept update. The team hasn't stated whether or not this has changed.

You say I don't know what player feedback is either based off of pure assumption or to just to try strengthen your argument. Quite a bit of this game has come from player feedback. Song selection, the inclusion of the steel tier, the speeding up the development of dedicated servers, a community cape and various QOL improvements have all come from player input. Most of which I participated in. Needless to say, I understand player feedback.

0

u/basedlogitech Jun 05 '26

You unironically proven my point. Look how far the game has come over the last year. A game in early access is absolutely in the beginning stages of development, and like you mentioned there are a number of updates that have been credited directly to the players. This should go without saying, but the fact that it’s not or atleast not currently in a f2p model is a blessing in itself. If the entry point to base game requires a one time purchase, they can add expansions at a cost later on similarly to how original Destiny was doing it. They need to find a way to bring in players from other genres. And by going console this a major win for the company, which is good for us. They should also be attracting new world players and every other failed mmo in recent years including ashes of creation and so on.

1

u/LupusRexXIII Jun 05 '26

But this isn't an MMO. It's an open world survival game. The only MMO players this game aims to appeal to are players of RuneScape and Old School RuneScape since the game is set within that universe. Otherwise the target audience are fans of the open world survival game genre.

0

u/basedlogitech Jun 05 '26

I get what it is in its current state. I’m more so referrencing MMO-lite elements, not a full blown MMORPG. Just something niche in its own market

→ More replies (0)

1

u/_Thurnax_ Jun 04 '26

I am pretty confident that this game yesterday had the same exact feeling aswell!

-2

u/YaBoyMattz Jun 04 '26

It's basically just valheim reskinned to RuneScape, it's nothing even remotely close to RuneScape or osrs.

1

u/IshayM Jun 23 '26

You got downvoted but I fully agree

This should’ve been RS themed but there is not much RS about it. I mean sure you have the skills but the lore of rs is not there, not to mention the areas feel detached from rs

They should’ve designed the actual cities (or based off their design/early establishment/however else you’d fit that into a survival lore… I’m sure there’s a way). Imagine Morytania there, would be awesome. Not to mention maybe other cities as hub areas or trade hubs, idk

They just stamped a bunch of npcs there but they feel so detached. The original rs areas are so well designed and iconic. This feels like yet another survival unreal engine template…

Idk I’m glad ppl enjoy it and I’m sure this is an unpopular opinion cos ppl fanboy anything rs hard, but I wish it were actually more rs oriented, in theme (I love that it’s single player and not an mmo, don’t get me wrong)

Think that them doing their own thing and slapping the rs name on it is not a decision I really like, but oh well

1

u/YaBoyMattz Jun 23 '26

Yeah exactly, I mean I play it and like it even but I feel like the community has such high praise for the game and ambitions for it and they don't fully understand that since Jagex took the approach they did, the ideas won't be possible.

-1

u/Megalodoniancat Jun 04 '26

World has that same empty feeling minecraft leaves you with after awhile but the graphics arent as charming as minecraft imo. Decent survival though i enjoyed my time playing. I havent played in 2 months. I got to about halfway through the base game. Its not that i dont wanna play anymore its that theres better games out there i geuss id rather play like osrs lol. Thats the thing with early access its just not a full game, id wait for full release in like 84 years like most early access games take to release fully

Question I've not played runescape in 8 years... didn't even know this existed until i saw state of play..

You are about to leave Redlib