Before this year, I was a twenty-year veteran of RuneScape. I used to love that game, I put the better half of a year (over 6000 hours) into the game over the course of that two decades of playing. After various issues that I outline in my RuneScape review here on Steam, I decided it was just time for me to hang up the hat with that game and move on. The problem is, RuneScape was always unique in the MMO genre and nothing was able to compare. That's why, when I heard the game's creator, Andrew Gower, was working on a new MMO, I was immediately intrigued.


The first thing you notice right at the start is that this game is both similar and different. Andrew didn't just repeat himself here, he took a good look at what he liked about his previous designs and created a whole new game formula out of it. This isn't a RuneScape clone. It's not even a traditional MMO.

What it is, instead, could be boiled down to this description: a story-driven, shared world RPG with relatively relaxing (albeit grindy) skill minigames that are contained within each zone.

In other words, each story chapter takes place in its own zone. Each zone has its own skills. Quests in these chapters are designed to have varying levels of difficulty, and these skills don't carry between zones, meaning that the first zone remains as relevant as the most recent one, and this will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. This is a really interesting design mechanic that takes some getting used to.

The only thing I don't like about this grind is that it does mess with the pacing a bit. I'll be going through a quest and half-way through it, I find I need to grind some levels. While I understand this is done to prevent people from breezing through the quests, it does feel somewhat like an artificial break in the pacing and makes the story feel less immersive.


Fortunately, what Brighter Shores does the absolute best is give us more of that Gower sense of adventure. RuneScape always had a phenomenal sense of adventure and this game is absolutely no different in that regard. Their blend of British medieval legends, pop culture references and a charmingly innocent sense of humor is just as prevalent here as it was in RuneScape (until recent years, that is).

The stories here aren't particularly lore-heavy but they are traditional sword-and-sorcery tales that feel appropriately 80s/90s, aligning with Andrew's goal of replicating the feel of a tabletop RPG campaign. You feel like a natural adventurer, not a hero determined by fate. The quests here just fill you with that same sense of wonder and adventure that you might have had as a child reading fairytales and Arthurian tales, and that's absolutely where the Gower brothers excel!

The fog of war helps: you really have to explore in this game. As you explore the tabletop-style environments, you uncover new discoveries and visuals. This sort of exploration ends up being strikingly fun and keeps the world feeling mysterious and much larger than it is. And that minimap... man, it took some getting used to (and some QoL tweaks) but it looks and feels just like a tabletop RPG map and it aids in this exploration. Still, I'm not sure how much I like the fact that I can't just openly wander the game world, since exploration is linked to the story. It's not bad but I do wish there were more freeform exploration opportunities in the game.


Where RuneScape was a lot more of a sandbox experience, allowing players to basically do whatever they want, I'd describe Brighter Shores as more of a roleplaying toybox. By this, I mean that you're given freedom to do whatever, but ultimately, you're going to want to do quests and level up those skills as needed. Skills aren't designed to be maxed, they're designed to support the story content and, frankly, that's exactly what I was hoping for. I got really tired of feeling like skills were self-contained games with little impact on anything except arbitrary goals of hitting max levels, as they started to feel in RuneScape.

Skills in this game really do feel connected, both to the story and to each other. Quests that require a specific skill level feel like you need it because the task at hand needs experience to be tackled. I also really do like how, upon reaching level 20 in a skill, you can gradually start putting Knowledge points toward any of those skills to unlock skilling methods that carry on while you're logged out. This reduces the grind for people who don't like excessive grind, which is a great move.

Also, unlike RuneScape (at least after its early days), this game has a class system: Cryoknight, Guardian and Hammermage. You don't get to pick a class until the second story chapter and it makes it pretty clear what the differences are, so you're not locked into something you won't enjoy. What's more is that you're not restricted to one style of weapon. While gear can be specifically made for one class, all classes can use all weapon types. This system combines the best of both worlds.

It also has a solid customization system and a relatively interactive world. It gives the players the ability to create the character they want to play and hang out in the world with other people. In fact, as I'm writing this review, some random person sat down on the bench next to me, and we're just chatting about the game. That's something I missed about old MMOs.

My only complaint in this regard is that I'd like to see some more side content. Minigames, distractions, just side content that would make the game world feel more "liveable".


I'd say my number one complaint is how the game handles the social side of gameplay. While you can see and chat with other players, even play some fun emotes, you can't do much beyond that. You can't group up. You can't trade. You can't fight each other. You can't help people fight. While trade and PVP are in the pipeline, and the others might be an option down the road, the lack of social gameplay makes the game feel more like a shared world RPG. It'd be nice to have a transparent chat window to have open at all times, because otherwise, you just don't get that online, connected feel.

I really wish we'd see some presence from Andrew and the Fen Research team in-game. Part of what made RuneScape so special was that the Jagex team would hop into the game and just chat, hang out, take feedback and so forth. I also hope we get to see some holiday events in this game, since the holiday events in RuneScape were legendary.


I have far too many words and thoughts on this game to list in a review, so things are quite condensed. While this game certainly has room for a lot of improvement, it's a great start and it's already quite a fun little adventure. Besides, since the game released, we've gotten loads of QoL fixes and tweaks in addition to bug fixes, proving that the development team cares enough to listen to the players. It also has a really solid business model that doesn't screw you over, so there's really no reason to avoid this game. Shoot, even if it doesn't hit for you right now, wait six months or so when they leave early access, I'm certain that the majority of player feedback will be implemented by then. The future really is exciting for this game.

In general, I definitely do recommend Brighter Shores, I just want to make a note that people need to go into it without the mindset of meticulously comparing it to RuneScape. Yes, comparisons are inevitable, but it really is its own game and it's completely worth giving a try!