RuneScape (By Jubal)

[Jubal]

RuneScape

Game Type: Free online play
Genre: MMORPG

Link: http://www.runescape.com

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Runescape is one of the most popular MMORPGs (Short for Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) on the internet, with over a million players. It runs in a browser instead of (as most do) a downloaded game client program. The graphics do not have the quality of those in games that are run on your PC, but nevertheless it is still very popular with people who don't want gigabytes of download on their hard drive.

Runescape is certainly no worse than most RPGs – its levelling and quest systems allow newer players to get into it without too much boredom or being too out of their depth. There are different attack styles with different animations, and a large range of music. Also 'emotes' which cause the player's character to do a certain action (waving, blowing a raspberry, etc.) can be unlocked. The ability to play in part of the game for free is probably the major attraction.

Runescape uses Java to manipulate 3d animated graphics. The graphics are reasonable but by no means stunning, with things like attack animations quickly getting boring and repetitive to watch. The quests are often not very funny and at the same time are hard to take seriously, and the freestyle game play gets quite boring as the player has little effect on the result of a combat besides their level going into it – watching the two characters sit and take turns to hit each other with the same animation each time can get boring. The music is over-dramatic for a game that seems unsure if it is grounded in high fantasy, comedy or simply surrealism, and the emotes are just silly. The slight comedy in the free area is overridden, too, by the marketing that Non-Player Characters throw at you from all sides ("Perhaps I might talk to you on a member's server", etc). The game is overall somewhat lacking in humour, and yet not really serious enough to be classed as epic.