RuneScape: Dragonwilds

I was hesitant to start into this game. The "look and feel" was somehow not what I expected. I can't even put a finger on what was off that made me feel that way, but there it is. Well, I'm almost 30 hours into it now and can tell you I like it. The graphics grew on me. The game has a new (to me) magic system based on gathering materials to cast magic. I like it. That game is a fairly standard survival co-op with character improvement and a story you can follow. Consider it recommended. Things I like: Unlike say Valheim, death penalties are almost zero. You leave a gravestone (that looks quite nice btw) that contains your non-equipment items. Basically you drop any resources you might have been carrying. This is good, given a huge invincible (as far as we know) dragon will occasionally swoop by and drop poison on you. Given that's the big boss that I think we need to kill it does serve as motivation. I want to kill that jerk already... I like the magic system! It is fun and fairly cool. Combat magic you improve by fighting with magic. Support spells you get by doing EVERYTHING ELSE. You chop trees for wood, you learn a spell to chop them swiftly. You mine rocks, you learn a spell to mine rocks, etc. These support spells work for all the other skills in the game; farming, fishing, building your house, and more. They all work by using a small number of the same runes that power the combat magic. Oh, and if you swing a sword or shoot a bot as your combat style; great, you will learn some support magic for that as you get better. Spells for shielding, or shooting better. It's a nice package that all works well. Now, things they can improve: The multiplayer experience needs work. Chests contain (logically I might admit) loot that is not instanced by player. So, things like recipes and EXP boosts need to be shared; or farmed. Your friends do show on your map, which is nice... but you have zero status for them otherwise. There is no "party" part of the UI that shows their health or anything. So, everyone kinda plays solo, but together and greed can be a big deal. Secondly, you get experience for "doing things"... and crafting is no exception. Only most crafting that's worth anything takes some time. You put your meat on the fire to cook and as time passes, cooked chunks of meat pile up next to the fire. That is ok, but realize that you get the exp for that cooking WHEN YOU PICK UP THE COOKED FOOD. That's right, and you autopickup that food as you run by... well you or one of your co-op friends. Yep, you can bogart someone elses experience for cooking; or weaving, or leather working or whatever. Not sure why it's that way, likely just easy to program as such... but it's lead to us having a segmented crafting area in our house for each player. Anyhow, it's a fun game and it all seems to work. We've run into no bugs so far. Give it a go if you like the co-op PvE survival kinda game.