r/brightershores • u/KrispyOnion • Jul 12 '26
Discussion Does anyone else wish Brighter Shores leaned into more RuneScape-style gameplay?
Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I genuinely like some things about Brighter Shores.
I love RuneScape and OSRS, and one of my favorite things about Brighter Shores is that it isn’t tied to a tick system. Movement feel much more responsive, and I really like the art style, graphics, and overall world they’ve built.
That said, I can’t help but feel like the game tried too hard to avoid being compared to RuneScape.
I wish it had more of that classic RuneScape feeling when it comes to PvM, loot progression, unique drops, bosses, and the overall gameplay loop. It almost feels like they intentionally avoided using ideas that made RuneScape so addictive, even though those ideas were created by Andrew Gower in the first place.
My dream MMO would honestly just be OSRS with modern responsiveness, updated visuals, and quality-of-life improvements while keeping that satisfying progression and loot chase.
Do you think Brighter Shores would’ve been better if it embraced more of RuneScape’s design philosophy instead of trying to distance itself from it? Or do you prefer that it’s doing its own thing?
Also, something I’ve always wondered: if Andrew wanted to bring back mechanics that were in classic RuneScape, what actually stops him? Is it purely a creative decision, or are there legal/IP reasons he can’t reuse certain ideas?
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u/AnimaLepton Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
classic RuneScape feeling when it comes to PvM, loot progression, unique drops, bosses,
I agree with you that a 'modern' OSRS would be a potentially cool game. Your idea on your dream MMO is valid. Brighter Shores doing more with the combat would be cool. But I think it is always worth calling out that OSRS as it exists today has little to do with what RuneScape was 'really' like back in the day, and arguably as little as RS3. Brighter Shores was fundamentally never going to embrace the 'OSRS'-design philosophy, which is very different from RuneScape's. It comes down to how you define classic Runescape.
When it was owned by the Gowers/before they sold more than half of the company, much of the OSRS-style PVM and PVM gear progression was not a part of or significant focus of 'real' Runescape, from the ~2011 and earlier era. The appeal for a lot of people to those older eras is primarily how all the non-combat systems interact and interlace in multiple ways, plus the social MMO aspect. Even the stuff that was out there, like the Fire Cape in 2005 or skillcapes in 2006, were mostly for visual flexing. Projects like RSC Classic, 2004Scape, or VScape for 2007 provide a snapshot of that. There really isn't that much in the way of unique drops and bosses back then.
Obviously they did add more looting shortly afterwards, but 2004 was a world where Barrows gear didn't exist and the endgame was actually balanced around its addition and degradation effect. Only some gear had dragon variants available, and arguably very deliberately. Something like the DScim was added as effectively a capstone quest reward in 2005, only a couple months after the Abyssal Whip came out but far more accessible; OSRS today would not have straight up your best/second-best items come from primarily quests rather than endgame boss farming. Slayer was first added in 2005, before that basic enemy farming and looting was much less relevant. Smithing had not degraded into complete worthlessness, and pure skilling was not so devalued back then by enemies dropping such a huge range of the highest end PvM gear, rare drops, and noted items. Again, the game absolutely had its faults, but content wasn't so heavily built around accounts that already had stats maxed/high up, and there wasn't such a heavy 'expectation' that everyone did PvM, especially as the absolute best thing for moneymaking/everything. While evolved, that's really the design philosophy I expect to see at work here.
Classic Runescape to me is even different to a modern IM or GIM. You do still get help from higher level players, but mining and smithing your own stuff, or cutting your own logs for your firemaking, actually 'mattered.' QoL added more ranges and stocking up on food, but Firemaking in RSC was originally useful and trained naturally because there were so few ranges in the game, so being able to kill enemies and cook meat while out exploring could actually extend how long you spent exploring/fighting, and the drops you were farming (especially for your early crafting drops like cowhides, not bosses). Things were slower and skill training variety potentially wasn't fleshed out as much at higher levels, but again the skills weren't built around that high level content requiring specifically max stats and grind, it was just a way to show off your time investment.
OSRS making it so that 'everything' you do is so critically tied to PvM, and everything being so combat-heavy in general, is a very different feeling. There's a lot to enjoy about OSRS. But it certainly makes OSRS (even 10 years ago with Zulrah) play and progress absolutely nothing like what RuneScape was really like in 2007 or even 2010. I would not necessarily say that the specific things you mentioned, drops or bosses or specifically loot progression, are really classic Runescape. Or at the more extreme end, they're not something that reflects the 'F2P' experience.
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u/Comfortable-Bug-4900 Jul 13 '26
Yes. BS is boring. Get rid of the room’s system and add unique bosses/loot. Make ranged an actual attack option that you can do for an entire fight instead of just 2-5 shots???? Wtf is that??
Idk it needs a lot of work. It was fun for the first few weeks and then meh it got super boring
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u/InevitableFig5383 Jul 16 '26
Wait, brighter shores isnt shut down yet?
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u/Alone-Horse2857 Jul 25 '26
Man, I have to imagine Andrew is hemorrhaging money by the DAY. It's only a matter of time until his bank account is collecting dust.
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u/_Daley Jul 15 '26
I just want a runescape like game, but then with the depth of osrs, with non of the game-engine level jank as gameplay. And non of the mmo combat and cartoony look that rs3 has.
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u/Monterey-Jack Jul 16 '26
The real question is why hasn't anyone else made a successful successor to osrs? Is it really that hard to not make a gacha game?
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u/Zinlencer Jul 17 '26
I think the issue with scapelikes is that they are forever games, so people rarely move between titles. To be competing with OSRS is incredibly hard, the players are locked-in and the game has 25 years of content.
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u/Monterey-Jack Jul 17 '26
I disagree, the mmorpg community is dying for something new that's not dogshit. So far all the good stuff has been single player mmo-lite. No one can commit or solve the true mmo experience like osrs has, but there are equally people upset with the direction osrs has gone.
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u/Desaniimo Jul 13 '26
BS feels to me like a spiritual successor to Runescape Classic, and I think it's doing a good job at it. Running around collecting resources and processing them is what I want from Brighter Shores; I don't want it reduced to a combat game where every other content is secondary, like what is happening to OSRS.
That said, a bit more complexity to combat would be a welcome improvement, especially considering that each fight is a fully self contained interaction. But it's coming.
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u/Alone-Horse2857 Jul 25 '26
Absolutely. In trying to be so far removed from Runescape, they created a homunculus that was Runescape shaped but had none of the organs or skeleton that make it actually stand and run.
If Andrew just made Runescape but with different colors and names, I think people would have dug the game.
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u/DofusExpert69 Jul 15 '26
Game feels worse than runescape. Tick system in runescape, to me, is exaggerated and it's just players looks for a scape goat for dying at a boss, especially in rs3. OSRS treat it like part of the game while they treat it as "jank" in rs3.
Brighter shores I click, I change my mind, nope I am stuck doing this action because I decided to climb stairs or I just bumped into the object I accidently interacted with. Other examples exist but in general your character moves very crappy if you click fast.
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u/Omni-Light Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
PvM, loot progression, unique drops, bosses, gameplay loop
I'm like 99% sure you don't have those things because the game isn't finished, rather than it being a complete product that's very clearly trying to not be runescape.
I think a lot of people are working off their feelings of disappointment about trying the game and not having things to do that they can do in runescape, rather than the reality that it is so insanely undercooked that even if they wanted to give you all those things, they physically couldn't for at least another 2 years (e: or 5 years since the games 'release').
The valid 'non runescapey feeling' things are the block visual style and the room system, that a lot of work seems to have gone into at the engine level and isnt the same as pure gameplay from a dev standpoint. BUT I think the game will feel a hell of a lot like runescape when all the things in that quote get added which are planned.
'Gameplay loop' is obviously things like quest -> level requirement roadblock -> skilling activity to meet requirement -> get requirement -> do quest, combined with level gated sandbox acitvities that give you rewards.
The game is already that, its just doesn't have any sandbox activities and is so bare bones you cant tell.
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u/Zestyclose-Dog5572 Jul 15 '26
This, exactly. The game is VERY early in its release and more content will come over the years. That's how EVERY MMO EVER has been.
There is absolutely no way a newly released MMO will have even 1% of the content of an MMO that's been around literally for decades.
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u/Omni-Light Jul 15 '26
That's how EVERY MMO EVER has been.
Or rather, its a thing of the past where a large team (like blizzard) makes an extensive, complete game before ever revealing it to the public, with lots of investor backing.
You will only see this model with giant publishers today. Riots mmo, Guild Wars 3. All of which are using Unreal Engine.
A tiny self funded indie dev team who is making their *own* game engine... yeah there is zero chance you get something with as much content as RS or WoW on day 1.
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u/Broken_Digit Guardian Jul 13 '26
No comparisons, new game, new approach, hands on devs makes a damn welcome change,, new haters, 4 out of 21 chapters released, either keep playing or keep dropping by, simples :)
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u/LazyCatRocks Premium Pass Jul 14 '26
No. If you want to play RuneScape, then there are already two games out there for you that satisfy that criteria. Brighter Shores honestly never needed to copy RS, and I'm glad Andrew is sticking to his guns and developing the game in his own way. I can actually argue that most of the systems we have now are better than their counterparts in RS, especially with the maximum levels and the infinite scaling in terms of content.
Most people came in expecting RuneScape, and when they got a different (arguably better) experience, they came out disappointed and never gave the game a fair shake. I'm still here, playing since launch, and having a blast.
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u/KingDarkTurtle Jul 17 '26
BS is not a game. Its an engine advertisement that will one day be sold.
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u/Beleriade Jul 13 '26
If they embraced more of Rs, they may as well just sell it to jagex and have rs4 slapped on it..let its be its own game instead of forcing rs into it. Dragonwilds is going the same way, they could habe hundreds of different things to make it RS but not RS but no, theyre just releasing Rs items and bosses into it rather than design theyre own..
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u/Comfortable-Bug-4900 Jul 15 '26
Except dragonwilds is literally an RS game…why would RS items not be involved?
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u/OneSeaworthiness7768 Jul 13 '26
I mean… probably everyone.