Runescape Dragonwilds: A Nostalgic MMO Tribute Wrapped in a So-So Survival Game

RuneScape Dragonwilds has some great moments but right now it is just an average survival game and can not compete with big titles like Valheim.

The music stops. I hear wings flapping overhead. I look up confused trying to see where the sound is coming from. Then a shrill terrifying roar reverberates through the valley around me. The trees begin to shake their branches swaying in the unnatural wind. A shadow falls over Bramblemead while the scaled form of a giant green dragon flies above. The noise is so loud and I am literally scared but there is a sense of unbelievable grandeur. In RuneScape Dragonwilds you are small in a huge world which can feel both scary and exciting.

Before meeting one of Ashenfall's best, my journey felt old and familiar. After meeting a well-known character. I was asked to collect water chop trees and kill rats. It felt like a typical survival game and besides its connection to MMORPGs RuneScape Dragonwilds did not stand out much from other games. As I gathered water cooked rats and built workbenches and I started to wonder where the magic was both literally and figuratively.

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Luckily I do not have to wait long. Zenik who gives the third tutorial quest informs me that I can mine mysterious floating stones around the area to obtain rune essence which I can rework into other runes. Combining the forms unlocks new offensive and defensive spells as well as some spells that let you change and interact with the environment. And I learned External Projection which allows me to chop down multiple trees in a straight line. I throw my pinky axe at unsuspecting oak trees, and watch them fall to the ground as logs. I am then told that I have to chop off the tops of the logs to break them into pieces which I can then put together. Each piece of wood has six parts which I have to chop into smaller pieces once again. I am wondering what the point of my magical powers is if I still have to chop everything apart.

As you level up your Dragonwilds skills in RuneScape you unlock spells to break rocks and explode trees, but it takes time to reach that point. Rocksplosion becomes available at level 11, and Splinter at level 27. You will also need a lot of rune essence to use these spells and they have cooldowns. Even with these new powers the game starts to feel repetitive and I eventually stop using magic regularly because chopping trees by hand is faster. This makes magic feel more like an extra feature rather than an essential part of the gameplay.

Chopping down trees and collecting rune essence. I am off to kill some ghosts in true RuneScape style. My first encounter does not go particularly well and leads to a quest where NPCs effectively attack you. When I manage to hide. my pursuers randomly return during my travels, giving me a chance to scare me off and level up naturally. Combat is fluid, especially when you shoot fast with a bow and the combination of magical armor and flaming weapons catches up immediately.

After the hunters give up, I focus on my mission: finding one of the wise old man’s lost friends at a nearby goblin camp. I climb to the top of a ruined fortress. but my crew is gone. Suddenly the ground shakes and the wind howls. I look up and see General Velgar, a dragon with a military title coming down toward the wall his teeth dangerously close to me. The last time I saw him he was shooting acid bullets at me from the sky but that was nothing compared to his true power.

With this new info, I go back to the old man. He tells me to go across the map to find the center of the Vault. I stock up on most of my food and water supplies as I find my hunger and thirst will soon subside the moment I reach the Whispering Swamp.

The Vaults are small, multi-level dungeons with loot and enemies. There are easy-to-avoid traps and I can trick one enemy before bringing in another. It is a nice change of pace from chopping trees and boiling water but nothing too special.

Unfortunately that's the main theme of Dragonwilds so far: it is a clearly just the premise for something better. Obviously, it still doesn't have the depth or scale of Valheim (though it's about twice the price of its nearest competitor) and while it is world is a love letter to the RS fan, to the non-player it is just another low-stakes high-fantasy world.

The magical axes and spells are a nice touch especially since they fit well with RuneScape lore. However there is not enough magic or excitement to keep me playing. As the Dragonwilds roadmap develops. the world and systems will likely improve. But for now. it does not feel much different from other survival games.