Brighter Shores

This is probably what people who don't like runescape think runescape is. Unfortunate.

Brighter Shores is a tedious, clunky chore simulator masquerading as nostalgia. The rigid room-by-room grid movement makes exploration feel incredibly claustrophobic, and the gameplay is nothing but an endless, mind-numbing point-and-click grind. It is so inherently boring that its main selling point is letting you progress while offline, which is a blatant admission that the game isn't actually fun to play. Once you hit the premium paywall for later zones, there is absolutely no reason to keep clicking.

So, I've been following videos and updates on this game for a while, as well as observing the playerbase. Decided to give it a try anyway, being a RS veteran like the rest of you (mostly) I'd imagine. I created a character, some good customization options right off the bat, designed a character I liked, went to name my character aaaannndd.... Paywall! As a F2p player, I was forced to have "#1" after my selected name (ex. HeroName#1) If I was p2p I wouldn't have to have the pesky pound sign and number after my lovely name. Played anyway. I enjoyed a bit of the dialogue in the tut quest, some cheeky lines and personality, and played till I could explore a bit. The exploration is very linear at first, I would imagine it opens more after the into quests, but this is what led me to putting the game down. I was lvl 2 combat by this point, tried to attack a crab on the beach, the game WOULD NOT let me! A window popped up and said I needed to be 30 combat to attack this crab! I'm approaching 40 years old. When I was a literal child playing RSC, people would murder me and take all my items. As a grown man, I lack the chance to bite off more than I can chew. This this the main factor of me putting the game down, combined with the multiple paywalls.

I love long grindy games. I also don't mid the progression reset. What I do mind is that this game is lacking in any element of fun. Are you stuck cooking eel for hours on end to level cooking? You wanna know what makes that fun? The other people around also leveling cooking. However there is no one socializing, because there isn't ever a reason to. Even when there is a reason to it becomes impossible because the map sections are so small it's almost impossible. MMO's live and die on their communities. This game could become an offline solo game and nothing would change.

I really wanted to like this. Unfortunately, it's terribly forgettable and unrewarding. Everything you do feels empty. I felt empty playing this. It made me sad.

I gave this game an honest chance. I have to admit. I was hyped because I thought it would be great as Old School RuneScape. I lived on this game. It is actually sad. This game is horrible. Ill be back to check in on it once it grows. I just hated grinding and making friends but being so busy that we would just run past each other and say hi. This game was 100 percent grind to me. Nothing else but clicking.

I wanted to like it so bad...but there is so much wrong with this, just filled with poor choices. I have nothing to say that hasn't already been said, insane and pointless grind being one of the biggest offenders, Just play OSRS honestly...this game is so busy trying not to be Runescape.

I really wanted to enjoy this, to support the creators, but also have a decent Runescape alternative, but in this game's attempts to distance itself from Runescape, this game is designed to it's core in way it's just no fun to engage with, at all.