The music stops. I hear the sound of wings overhead. I jerk my head upwards, perplexed, desperately looking for the source of the commotion. Then a screeching, draconic roar reverberates through the valley around me. The trees begin to shake, their branches whipping in an unnatural wind. A shadow falls over Bramblemead as the scaly form of a huge green dragon flies overhead. The noise is deafening, I'm genuinely terrified, but there's a wondrous sense of majesty. In Runescape Dragonwilds, you are an ant in a world of giants, and that can feel equal parts oppressive and exciting.
Before my encounter with one of Ashenfall's finest, my journey had been stale and familiar. After visiting the aptly named Wise Old Man – a character we're all familiar with – I'm sent off to collect water, chop down trees, and kill rats. It's all the standard Runescape Dragonwilds apart from its competitors. As I collect yet more water, toast more rodents, and craft workbenches, I find myself wondering where the magic is, both literally and figuratively.
Thankfully, I don't have too long to wait. The third tutorial quest giver, Zanik, informs me that I can mine the mysterious, floating stones around the region to acquire Rune Essence, which I can rework into other runes. Combining variants unlocks new offensive and defensive spells, as well as some that let you alter and interact with the environment. I learn Axtral Projection, which allows me to cut down multiple trees in a straight line. I hurl my pink spectral hatchet into unsuspecting oaks, only for them to crash to the ground in log form. I'm then informed that I have to do an overhead chop to split the logs into pieces, which I can then collect. Each log has six constituent parts, which I need to hack up once again into smaller parts. I'm left wondering what the point of my magical powers is if I still have to chop everything individually.
As you level your Runescape Dragonwilds skills, you eventually unlock spells that allow you to blow up rock outcrops and explode trees with ease, but there's a bit of a grind to get there. Rocksplosion is available at level 11, while you get Splinter at level 27. Plus, you'll need an abundance of Rune Essence to use those abilities, and they're all on a cooldown. Even with my newfound powers, the core loop soon starts to feel like a grind, and I even stop using my magic as regularly because cutting down trees manually is faster. In many ways, it makes the spells feel more like fancy bells and whistles rather than exciting and essential mechanics.
Having cut down trees and hoarded Rune Essence, I head off to take down some goblins in true Runescape style. My first encounter doesn't go particularly well and sparks a hunt, where NPCs effectively charge you. While I manage to sneak away, my pursuers return at random throughout my journey, providing both jump scares and a natural way to level. Combat is fluid, especially when you quickfire with the bow, and the addition of magical armor and flaming weapons comes in clutch early on.
Hunters bested, I return to my original mission to locate one of the Wise Old Man's lost allies in a nearby goblin encampment. As I rip and tear through the camp, I ascend to the top of the ruined castle, learning that my charge has zipped away elsewhere. Then the ground begins to shake; the wind begins to whistle. I turn to see General Velgar – yes, that's a dragon with a military title – landing on the ramparts, his teeth a little too close to my tiny, pixel form. Last time I saw him, he was slinging acidic blobs down on me from the sky, which, while certainly an expression of power, doesn't come close to encountering him in the scales.
With this fresh information, I return to the Wise Old Man, who sends me off to the other side of the map to locate a Vault Core. I stock up on supplies – mostly food and water, as I find my hunger and thirst deplete quickly – and head out into the Whispering Swamp.
Vaults are small, multi-floor dungeons abundant in loot and enemies. There are traps to dodge, which are simple to avoid, and I find that I can easily kite one foe, defeat them, then pull another. All in all, it's a welcome, combat-focused respite from the general 'cut trees, boil water' loop, but it's nothing exceptional.
Unfortunately, that's kind of the overarching theme with Dragonwilds so far: it's so obviously the bare bones of something better. Understandably, it doesn't yet have the depth or scale of Valheim (though it is almost double its closest rival's price), and while its world is a love letter to the RS fandom, to a non-player, it's just another low-stakes high-fantasy world.
The magical axes and spells are a nice addition, especially given how well-rooted they are in Runescape lore, but there simply isn't enough genuine magic and flair here to keep me playing. As the Runescape Dragonwilds roap rolls out, I don't doubt its world will start to come alive and its systems will develop nicely. For now, however, Dragonwilds doesn't quite separate itself from the survival crowd.