RuneScape: Dragonwilds review: Struggles to stand amongst the greats

Although I may be a stranger to the RuneScape universe, I am no stranger to the survival genre and despite RuneScape: Dragonwilds being the latest on the market, it struggles to stand out amongst some of the greats.

As I lift my axe to chop yet another ash tree into pieces, a deafening roar sounds from the clouds above me. Before I even have the chance to cast my eyes skywards, the shadow of a dragon envelops the once-quiet village and poison begins to rain from above.

Luckily, my homestead is nearby and so I race towards it (battling with the ever-draining stamina bar) in the hopes of shutting the door and hiding until the onslaught passes.

However, I soon learn that despite my house having a roof, the dragon’s poison seemingly doesn’t care about this and acid begins to appear on my furnishings, and me, without warning.

Well, it looks like I’m dead… again.

RuneScape: Dragonwilds is the latest survival title on the market and takes place in RuneScape’s forgotten continent of Ashenfall.

Now that dragons have awoken, players can either head in solo or with up to three friends to gather, build, craft and survive whilst uncovering ancient secrets which could help in the fight against the Dragon Queen.

With RuneScape now heading into the survival crafting genre, it is guaranteed to be compared to the greats such as Iron Gate Studio’s Valheim or Stunlock Studio's V Rising but unfortunately, it does not manage to showcase enough originality to stand out.

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Of course, there is only so different games in this genre can be. You will be tasked with chopping trees, gathering resources, building a homestead, fighting enemies, exploring, dying and then completing the cycle over and over.

My first few hours in the game were spent chopping trees, gathering water, crafting furniture and machines which will help me upgrade my weapons and armour, and dealing with bloodthirsty chickens.

I am a fan of grinding, I find comfort in the monotonous and although this gameplay would not appeal to everybody, it is a standard feature of the survival genre.

What tries to set RuneScape: Dragonwilds apart is, as you can probably guess, the inclusion of runes which will allow you to cast a variety of different defensive and offensive spells, as well as spells which will speed up chopping down trees or blowing up rock formations in order to get some much-needed materials.

You can cast Windstep which will allow you to jump higher and fall slower, and another spell will conjure a shield on your back to greatly boost your defence.

However, unlocking these abilities requires a whole lot of grinding and you will need to gather Rune Essence in order to craft the runes which make using these abilities possible.

Although these abilities were cool to try out at first, you will soon run into some issues. Rune Essence can be mined but the ores are on a cooldown and early-game abilities don’t do much to help.

For example, Axtral Projection will allow you to conjure a magical axe which can be sent soaring towards trees to cut them down, saving you the time of hacking away at them with a measly axe yourself.

However, you soon learn that this ability just chops down the tree and you will still need to whip out the axe in order to cut the stump into usable pieces.

Any fan of this genre will know the pain of constantly running out of logs and it is a shame that this magical ability does not do anything to help the grind.

Additionally, there are some quality-of-life upgrades that I would like to see such as the food and drink cores which drain ridiculously fast. As a result, you will need to make sure you are travelling with a lot of resources if you wish to go exploring, but this creates a problem in turn as you can only carry so much in your backpack.

I appreciate that RuneScape: Dragonwilds is still in its Early Access stage, however, so I am hoping that this will be adjusted in the future. Additionally, I would like stamina to be reworked.

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I’m fine with the stamina bar being a feature but again, it drains far too quickly and as I was running a ranged build, aiming my bow, running from enemies and then dodging their attacks all drained my bar in seconds and left me vulnerable. As a result, I died quite a bit.

Dying became a common theme for me in RuneScape: Dragonwilds, especially as I played with a friend and enemies become significantly harder when you are joined by fellow players, regardless of if you are even in the same area of the map.

Luckily, dying is not the end as you can travel back to the sight of your death to collect your backpack and regain your items. However, good luck getting there as you will be without any resources or weapons to defend yourself against the enemies who are seemingly drawn to your gravestone.

That being said, you can make use of teleportation devices if you strategically place them around the map. However, you will once again need Rune Essence in order to create the correct runes which will allow you to travel via them.

Not only that but you will need to find a Vault Core in order to build the teleporters and as you can probably guess, they are found in Vaults.

Vaults are small dungeon-like buildings consisting of multiple floors, traps and goodies. They will have various enemies hidden throughout but nothing too challenging and you will need to make use of your magical abilities in order to navigate through traps or to reach otherwise hidden areas.

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However, clearing the Vault will reward you with a Vault Core which will be a key resource if you wish to get around Dragonwilds expansive map a whole lot easier.

As well as Vaults, you will also stumble across small caves complete with loot chests so exploring is definitely worth it if you wish to find extra resources and weapons.

Overall, RuneScape: Dragonwilds is a perfectly fine entry to the survival genre as it has all the hallmarks of what makes these types of games so enjoyable.

However, due to its lack of originality and some frustrating features, Dragonwilds struggles to stand amongst the greats and as a result, could easily be cast aside by fans of the genre.

Pros: Beautiful graphics, smooth combat, engaging worldbuilding

Cons: Frustrating mechanics, lack of originality

For fans of: Valheim, Enshrouded, V Rising

7/10: Very Good

RuneScape: Dragonwilds is available in Early Access on PC (Steam version tested). A review code was provided by the publisher. Read a guide to our review scores here.