RuneScape : Dragonwilds

[Grey Rhebok]

I just found out that this game came out today and immediately got it and put 3 hours into it.
Having set my expectations to "Valheim clone" (even though I've never played it), I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the game.
I am taking in account that it is still in early access, there's a lot of things missing. But I can see it get big in the coming years if they keep pumping it with updates in a timely manner.
There's some performance issues, which I am honestly used to with every new release nowadays. They seem to be making it a priority, so that's good.
So what do you all think of this new Jagex game ?

[Skaders]

I got it and played  

 

I'm honestly not too sure, Idrk why I got it.. wasnt really interested to trying and playing a new game but I just bought it without thinking so I am like on the fence of still refunding it

 

It seemed okay though, I never really been in these type of games and it felt like minecraft so I think I would need to give it some more time to see if I like it . So probably next week, I will try it some more and give some more thoughts on it

[Beric]

I'm not big on survival games so I was planning to wait until the full release to decide if I wanted to buy it. But everyone's hype yesterday got me to pull the trigger. I'm weak

 

Trash internet, though. It'll be a couple of days before the download completes. 

[EagleWins]

I was just talking about this in the CC. I got it today and for the couple hours I played I really see a lot of potential in the game. Not only for Dragonwilds itself but also for RS3. I think if the dev team gets inspired they could really improve both games to something amazing.

[Bobby]

goblins decided to raid me. i died.

[Its Pebs]

On 4/16/2025 at 12:36 AM, Grey Rhebok said:

So what do you all think of this new Jagex game ?

 

It is very interesting! I'm massive on survival games! You name it, I probably have it! But I was honestly surprised, I've played many early access games, and some are just...

 

BUT THIS. Is rather fleshed out for a "Early Access" game, Yes bits are missing (Range and Mage skill trees) But there is still ALOT there. Yes it's very similar to Valheim but that and Enshrouded are probably two of the best "Survival" games on the market rn. So why not take inspiration from something that works? I see no issues with this!

 

The performance isn't the best (at times) but they're surprisingly on top of it, along with bug fixes which for JAGEX is nice to see! 

 

Base raids are a bit awkward currently as you can't build base defences! So they just ploughed through the wall

 

I do wish we could have more than 4 players to a world, I'm hoping maybe in the future that will be changed! (I'm thinking that will change with dedicated servers) If I would have to guess.

 

I'm very much looking forward to the future, the roadmap looks good! 

[Macacas]

I love survival games, this one looks amazing, specially when it's a let's say.. different perspective of Runescape. 

But I will wait for it to be completely finished (if it will ever), so I can have a better first time experience. 

[Reud]

I have over 8 hours clocked in.

 

It feels like an Enshrouded clone. (I enjoy Enshrouded)
 

The combat feels… clunky. Like I’m not a fan of the 0.5s delayed Parry. Too late and you stagger and get wailed on for 2-3 hits. Just barely missed the opening and you mutually stagger with the ONE opponent you blocked. God forbid YOU get hit and staggered! Time it right, the enemy staggers. I can’t tell if it’s an intended game mechanic or the delay is due to servers since it’s a live-server game. Even when you’re playing Solo with no friends, you're still connected to a server. Press Esc and the game still goes on without you.

 

I hate hate HATE the random dragon bombardments. It’s annoying and obnoxious, there’s nothing I can do! Even taking cover does nothing. 
I don’t like the Warbands of 6+ goblins raiding my base and they’re all over leveled (more on that later).

Being Hunted sucks because these goblins will chase you to the ends of the world.

 

I don’t like how they made Zanik look like a halfling with green skin. She’s a cave goblin! Give her the massive bug eyes! I get sex sells and all but creative direction went a bit off the fly imo. Everyone else looks decent.

 

Woodcutting sucks, just collect sticks from the ground. You still get WC xp. 

Rocksplosion is OP, I love it.

I like the cooking mechanic, I enjoy combining different ingredients to figure out which dishes are the most optimal to carry, make and eat.

 

Combat feels VERY unfair. I lose so much health from getting hit once by something as simple as a lv2 Giant Rat and I have leather armor and 17 combat. Lv2 Goblins are just so powerful, everything is Multi-Combat and aggressive. Stand too close to a cow, chicken, kebbit while you’re already in combat? Get fucked. Fighting more than 2 enemies is a chore because sometimes you don’t stagger them in a cone towards you, Goblin Archers are HELLA OP. 
Your stamina drains for absolutely everything, from evading to parrying to swinging. So many times I’ve had to back up and awkwardly stand and hope my stamina comes back in time for another delayed swing before they land a hit on me and stagger me. Hot take but I feel Evading and Parrying shouldn’t consume Stamina. (I can’t remember if Parrying does, I almost gave up on it due to my grievances, I enjoy Ranged)
 

There’s really no guides on anything, when the Wise Old Man asks you to get Antlers, he suggested to build a bow and doesn’t further elaborate on it;

He’s doesn’t tell you how you can acquire strings, so I spent 1hr looting chests, killing (and getting killed by) countless goblins.

He doesn’t tell you where you can find nearby flax.

The game doesn’t tell you that you need roofs for certain things such as spinning wheels (from my knowledge).

Like if you’ve never played RuneScape you’d be absolutely lost. 
 

 

3/5 Game so far.  I want to love it but I’m having more frustration than I am fun.
I get its early access but it feels way too unfinished, unrefined, and unfair. I’m coping by telling myself maybe there’s just a huge skill curve in the combat and I suck, but it seems other people are having the same issues. 

It’s an awesome take on a new perspective of RuneScape but I feel Jagex is way too late to the party in regards to survival rpgs. The ship sailed a couple years ago. 

Edited April 20 by Reud

[Peace 2 all]

i have not yet started but  find it funny how this became a topic on my server  So i figure nice to share. 

 

Things We Wish We Knew Before Starting Runescape: Dragonwilds

[DrSpork94]

Dragonwilds brought me back to Runescape, and that's why I'm with you all today. I love the leveling and building in Dragon Wilds, and I can't wait until they release more skills!

[F O X]

Honestly doesn't seem RuneScape-y enough for me, it's just another Unreal Engine game with a guy called the Wize Old Man. I wish they had built it on the actual RuneScape world because this new "realm" doesn't mean anything to most of us, at least include places like Lumbridge as a starting point.

[Macacas]

Yeah I would love to see more of RuneScape stuff "transfered". But the game feels so so so so alpha, so who knows what is going to be in a few years.
 

[Dotzy]

I am a huge fan to be honest but there just isnt enough content right now to keep my busy

[aTeafan]

I play a lot of survival games and Dragonwilds has some very solid foundations and bones!
Usually in survival games we tolerate a high level of "jank" and bugs and other unfortunate issues that seem to plague survival games as a whole

Runescape Dragonwilds is very very low on said "jank"

I adore Enshrouded so the look and feel of it is delightful. I agree with Fox above in that they need to make it feel more Runescape-like. And playing Dragonwilds made me want to dust off my OSR account. Sadly I cannot get back into it and I think its gone, so I started over and decided to give RS3 a try this time around.

I cant wait until they add magic and ranged systems and other skills and will be playing DragonWilds a lot. Perhaps in the future will host a server for others to play on too! I host minecraft for friends so it would be a fun change

[Seriphia]

I love games of the genre, especially Valheim & Enshrouded. The content seems too bare-bones for me to pull the trigger on it and purchase it currently, once it is out of Early Access I'll surely be playing it though!

[Grey Rhebok]

I played a total of ~10 hours solo and honestly it's really just a survival game with a RuneScape flavor. I like how the leveling works but the skills are so far in between that it's not really enjoyable. Not to mention the lack of any skills for magic and ranged. Ranged looks like it's going to be a lot of fun when it gets added in properly. I also complained in the official survey about the difficulty of the game. It is a bit complicated to make any meaningful progress playing solo past the swamp (without min maxing everything like potions and skills) because the enemies are just too hard to beat if they're in groups. Lots of kiting and you can manage but that's not satisfying, to me at least.

Hopeful for the future of the game though! They haven't updated it for quite a while now so I'm kinda disappointed but at the same time I might get surprised of the size of the next update, who knows.

[Davisses]

On 5/20/2025 at 7:27 AM, Grey Rhebok said:

They haven't updated it for quite a while now so I'm kinda disappointed

This, but hopefully the next update is worth the wait. They definitely needed the game to cook a little longer, but then again that's the point of a alpha/beta release. The absence of magic and ranged skills really did throw it off for me a bit, considering they are a lot better combat styles to use for solo. The game has huge potential and hopefully 1.0 will have something to show for that potential.

Edited May 22 by Davisses