RuneScape: Dragonwilds Reviews
In melding the mechanics of popular survival games with classic RPG elements from the MMO that inspired it, RuneScape: Dragonwilds crafts a solid experience that honours the spirit of its namesake. It is vast, mechanically rich, and often unforgiving, to an extent that might ward off more casual players. But just like the intimidating dragons you're pitted against, it's a challenge that can be conquered provided you're willing to slow down, spend the requisite time learning its ins and outs, and slowly build your arsenal.Or you can just spend all your time building a nice, cosy shack in the starting area - your choice. If you've got a few hundred hours to kill, Dragonwilds is a good candidate for your next virtual home-away-from-home. Let's just hope Jagex makes good on those promises of graphical improvements on Switch 2 sooner rather than later.
However you choose to play Runescape: Dragonwilds, it’s clear that Jagex is assembling another forever-game.
RuneScape: Dragonwilds is a ton of fun. Survival games usually aren’t my thing, but Dragonwilds manages to feel familiar while also being simple enough for someone like me who isn’t overly familiar with the genre. Being able to create a world for you and your friends is great, while the option to join other players online and carry your character progression between worlds makes everything feel much less restrictive.
If you’re looking for a survival RPG that captures the magic in the mindless work, RuneScape: Dragonwilds is perfect. But be warned, you’ve got your work cut out for you.
RuneScape: Dragonwilds is an ambitious leap forward for Jagex, giving players the brand-new continent of Ashenfall to explore. The ever-looming threat of dragons has reached its tipping point, as an adventurer on the shores of Ashenfall, you take it upon yourself to seek out and challenge the tyrannical Dragon Queen Kuldra.
RuneScape: Dragonwilds successfully transforms the long-running MMORPG into an accessible open-world survival RPG. Rewarding skill progression, useful magic and flexible base building make exploring Ashenfall enjoyable alone or with friends, despite repetitive resource gathering and a few technical imperfections.
RuneScape: Dragonwilds certainly has some flaws, like building restrictions, excessive grind, repetitive combat, which can sometimes deter you from playing more. But if you get through the more challenging initial section, you will find a delightful, cozy survival experience with a beautiful story, one that you’ll want to replay at least once.
New adventure in the RuneScape universe that could benefit from an extra patch or two
Dragonwilds is a slow and steady grind that while can be rewarding, still feels a bit rough around the edges, making me wonder if more time in Early Access could have refine certain parts of the whole experience. Still, if you've been itching for a survival game that isn't built around more realistic visuals, or you are fan of RuneScape, Dragonwilds does offer a compelling and fairly faithful conversion to the survival genre, just make sure you play with friends, and watch out for those blasted hunters.
RuneScape: Dragonwilds delivers a well-executed survival game featuring robust gameplay, extensive build and construction options, and challenging dragon battles—all while allowing you to share the experience with up to four players across different platforms. However, the world lacks activity variety: dungeons are repetitive, and enemies quickly become monotonous.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Adapting the Runescape's universe into a modern action format is a solid achievement for Jagex. It blends the spirit of RuneScape with a compelling loop of exploration, survival, and cooperation; indeed, the quality of this loop—along with the care put into the lore and sound design—is what keeps the score firmly above average. Excessive solo grinding and frame-rate drops during chaotic battles remain the most obvious drawbacks, weighing enough to prevent the game from approaching excellence, yet they do not negate the overall quality of a title capable of pleasantly surprising players.
Review in Italian | Read full review
RuneScape: Dragonwilds is designed to draw you in and make you lose track of time. The freedom the game offers leaves you with many options, and you'll want to do them all. Progression happens at the player's own pace, and they must explore and discover for themselves. And the world is large enough to have plenty to see. I didn't have the opportunity to experience the game in multiplayer mode; my adventure was solo, but I imagine playing with a group of friends is like being in a tabletop RPG session. Base building is addictive; I was planning constructions that wouldn't even be useful, but I wanted to build a small town just for fun. The developers of RuneScape: Dragonwilds seem to listen to their players a lot to make decisions about the game, and I think that's really cool. RuneScape: Dragonwilds has the potential to become as vibrant as the classic RuneScape.
Runescape Dragonwilds is a joy to play. From its building, to crafting, to unique growth system and massive world, hours simply vanish before your eyes in every session. While the late game can become tiresome if constant raids are not your jam, many will thrive on the challenge and enjoy perfecting their build. I look forward to exploring even more of Ashenfall despite so many games in the genre releasing in this window.
RuneScape: Dragonwilds is a very successful blend of familiar elements, seamlessly combining the familiar flavor of the RuneScape universe with survival mechanics.
Review in Polish | Read full review
RuneScape: Dragonwilds delivers a challenging survival RPG with rewarding exploration, vertical environments, demanding combat and a wealth of new content in Dowdun Reach. Its quality-of-life improvements make the experience more accessible, although overly complex crafting, limited healing options and simplistic weapon progression hold it back from reaching its full potential.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
RuneScape: Dragonwilds condenses 25 years of magic into one massive survival crafting open-world game. This major shift from its traditional “Buying GF” MMO roots feels like a natural evolution for a franchise that inspired countless others, and now it’s RuneScape’s turn to take a few pages from its peers. What keeps 1.0 from being the complete package, however, is that this addictive grind eventually hits a wall, as the lack of meaningful endgame content leaves little reason to keep pushing once you’ve conquered its biggest challenges. Still, that hasn’t taken away what makes its gameplay loop so addictive: horizontal progression that's more forgiving for casual players, while still giving you another reason to keep going until you suddenly realize how many hours have passed.
RuneScape: Dragonwilds is especially appealing because it offers a familiar universe with a completely different gameplay structure. For survival-game fans, it provides a progression system that feels more purposeful than simply collecting materials for increasingly expensive crafting recipes.
RuneScape: Dragonwilds is an ambitious project, with intriguing ideas and a potentially rich world. The visuals are clean, the fantasy setting is captivating, and there’s no shortage of concepts, from runic magic to co-op play, from special abilities to advanced crafting. But the execution falls short. The universal stamina system, excessive cooldowns, restrictive spell mechanics, and unbalanced co-op design make the experience feel more punishing than rewarding. As it stands, Dragonwilds seems tailored to a very specific audience: hardcore survival fans willing to endure structural issues in exchange for future potential. For everyone else, even long-time RuneScape lovers, this is a title worth keeping an eye on, but not quite ready to play.
RuneScape Dragonwilds has a very promising base game even this early on. Despite all of my issues I brought up I have honestly had a blast with it and I am impatiently waiting for updates so I can adventure even further with friends. I would say though that if the game is worth in its current form and asking price heavily will depend on if you like this genre. However, if you're unsure I would say wait a few updates before you deep dive into it yourself, but I can definitely recommend the game as is already.