RuneScape: Dragonwilds’ first deep-dive livestream announces that it’s out, uh, right now, apparently

RuneScape: Dragonwilds was announced just a couple of weeks ago, and today developer Jagex hosted a livestream where they showed a deep-dive of the game and revealed the game’s release date. Turns out, it’s today! As in right now, today, as in you can go to Steam to buy the game in early access if that’s something you’d be interested in.

This’ll be quite a different RuneScape experience than you might be used to, though, as this spin-off from the long-running MMO is one of those open world, co-op, survival crafting kind of games. The Steam page makes it clear that the game is still “RuneScape at its core”, as you’ll have quests to venture out on, magic to use to craft homes and fight enemies, and there’s even some “light RPG elements” too.

It’s still a multiplayer experience too, as up to four of you can play together as you set out to slay the Dragon Queen. Oh, yeah, dragons aren’t your friends unfortunately, you have to kill them, which I suppose is the traditional thing to do to the scaly creatures. Overall, it looks something akin to Valheim, albeit with that general RuneScapey vibe.

In a press release Jagex said they’re planning regular updates for the game, with a big focus on “listening closely to the community” – hence the early access release, I suppose. I’m not entirely convinced by how the game looks just yet, I think it’ll need a bit more of a hook than multiplayer survival crafting game, but it’s RuneScape. The genre’s just a bit too saturated these days. I like the sound of there being quests rather than just self-directed play as many games of its ilk tend to be, fingers crossed Jagex leans into that a bit to help Dragonwilds stand out.