RuneScape

"Most addicting game I've played in my LIFE"

I've played Runescape for three whole years and I know what I'm talking about when I talk about this amazing game. For all who don't know what Runescape is, its a MMORPG(massive multiplayer online role playing game) that takes place back in medeivel times with knights, and wizards, and stuff like that. There are two forms of Runescape, and two ways to play it. There is Runescape, and a Runescape Classic. I have played Runescape since the classic version, which was a NES looking game with bad graphics but still really fun. The modern day "Runescape 2" is commonly just known as Runescape. As i had just mentioned, there are two ways of playing Runescape. There is a Free to play version(F2P), and a pay to play version(P2P), which only costs $5.00 a month. The P2P version is commonly known as membership. In the free version, you can explore a part of Runescape, there are still plenty of towns and a decent amount of quests, and enough player versus player combat to keep you going for months. In the members version, It's just like the free game but It's better. Over ONE HUNDRED quests, tons of new cities, towns, equipment, skills, spells, and all those goodies.

GRAPHICS: 6/10

Hmmm... not really the best graphiocs out there, but nontheless still not too bad. You can change the detail of the game, lower is better for slower computers. I would say the graphics resemble a N64 but not as good as one. At least its a 3-D game. Jagex(Creaters of Runescape) is currently working on improving graphics and actions of characters, cities, and monsters. I have heard people saying that there is going to be a Runescape 3 coming out, but it will never happen. Besides, Runescape is a game that can fit in your browser, so you can play Runescape and search the internet at the same time. Hehe... homework and Runescape at once? I've done that before!

SOUNDS AND MUSIC: 8/10

The sounds and songs are rather impressive for a browser MMORPG. You hear the slashing of swords, sounds of spells, you get the idea. The tunes of the songs are really awesome, and can drastically change the atmosphere with a little music. However, some of the tunes will drive you up the wall, so you can turn off the music and listen to a ipod or something.

CONTROLS: 10/10

The controls are extremely simple and easy to use. you just click on where you want to go, and you walk(or run) there. There's a mini map on the right of the screen, which lets you click on it and your guy will walk there without having to click on the screen. Sometimes there are lots of items on the ground in the same place, and you can be frustrated with picking them all up not knowing what you'll get next. Right? Wrong. Simply right click te spot, and theres a list of items on the ground and you can just easily pick up the items you want. And of course, you use the arrow keys to change the camera angle.

STORY: 5/10

Well there's not really much of a story to Runescape. You start on a screen where you can choose your character's gender, skin color, shirts, etc. Then your on little island where you get a tutorial on the game. it shouldn't take longer than 30 minutes to finish the tutorial.

Well, there is SOME story to the quests and stuff, some are rather interesting, but of course the better ones are only for members. You learn about ancient history, God Wars, and...Oops! I don't want to spoil everything!

GAMEPLAY: 10/10

Ahhh... this is definatley the greatest game in the world. After you finish the tutorial, you are taken to a small town called Lumbrige, where you start your adventures. Most people start off by killing goblins, which are convieniently located everywhere around Lumbrige. But be careful when you fight, when you die, you lose all but 3 of your highest valued items and you respawn at Lumbrige. Eating food can heal your hitpoints.

You can choose many professions to become in this game. There are many many skills in this game, which include Attack, strength, defence, prayer, ranging, magic, hitpoints, mining, fishing, smithing, and more. If you upgrade to a member account, there are some additional member only skills such as thieving, herblore, fletching, hunting, slayer, agility, farming, and even construction which lets you make you very own house!

Combat skills, such as attack, will increase your accuracy, or chance of hitting your maximum hit. Strength increases you maximum hit damage, defence lowers an opponents chance of hitting you. These are quite useful for melee combat. A certain attack level will let you equip higher level weapons, and higher defence lets you equip higher level armors. For instance, at level 30 attack, you can equip an adamantite weapon. Prayer, which some people consider "noobish" is a real life saver. You just have to bury bones to get prayer experience, and you can get better prayers at higher levels. For example, at level 42 prayer, you can use "protect from melee" which temperarily makes you invincible from melee attacks.

Mini Games are everywhere in the Members version! You can go play castle wars, which is a game like capture the flag. There;s a games room where you can play checkers and stuff like that. A madly popular mini game is Pest control, commonly known as PC. You have to defeat 4 portals within 20 minutes, while keeping a knight alive. At the end of a battle, you get a pest point, which you can exchange for INSANE experience points! Another wildly popular but horrifically deadly is called "Barrows". You have to kill 5(or was it 6?) of evil heros' spirits. There are mounds in which the tombs are located, and you explore a dungeon to find the last ghost. In the end, you **CAN** get some extremely awesome armor and weapons!

There's also a PVP(player versus player) combat for both versions. In F2P you can only kill each other in the wilderness, where you can lose your stuff if you die. People who kill each other in the wilderness are called PKers, or Player killers. When you attack a player, there's a skull above your head for 20 minutes. If you die with a skull on your head, you lose ALL of your items! In P2P, theres wilderness, duels(you dont lose stuff only if you stake items) free for all combat, capture the flag, and player owned house dungeon(all of the last four you do not lose things).

Tired of your character's look? No problem! there are many places and ways to change your appearence. For example, you can go to the barber and pay 1000 gp for a haircut and/or a new hair color. You can go to a certain clothes shop and change your pants and shirts, there's a makeover mage who can change your gender and skin color too. A good thing about becomming a member, is that when you get your construction level high enough, you can even change your appearence for free!

Since this is a MMORPG, there are millions of players from all over the world who play Runescape daily. You can add people on a friends list, which lets you know when they are logged in or not, and you can private message people too. Not only that, but is there some annoying person who you just want to duck tape there mouth shut? Now you can! just add theire name on an ignored list, and you will never hear what they say to you. You can trade items with people, you can talk with them, go on quests together, there is no limit on what you can do!

All of this is simply put as, "You have to try this game".

OVERRALL: 10/10

11/28/06

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/28/06