Runescape - Evolution of combat beta. REVIEW

I have been playing Runescape since 2004 - 2005 (A rather long time), and I am still faithful to the game. I love it. One of my favourite things about Runescape was the relative simplicity of the combat system.  The company that runs Runescape (JaGex) have been issuing a number of major updates in recent years, and when they introduced the news of the  'Evolution of combat' to the Runescape community, I was really quite excited. I was also doubtful and a little worried that the evolution would mean I pack up my weapons and never darken the doors of combat again. I am not the best player when it comes to Runescape, nor am I very good at the combat side of things. I am the player that quests, and gathered and processes raw materials. In fact I only really ever pick up a weapon when it is quest necessary. I had a quest cape in 2007, but due to real-life commitments my time dedicated to game play, significantly decreased and I succumbed to the multitude of new quests released. I am currently 6 quests away from regaining the cape, and I am hoping to do so before the proposed combat changes come into play.

I have always remained a Runescapian, even though I did begin playing WoW a few years ago and gave up after falling off a cliff. (LOL) I started upon a friend's recommendation, but obviously I didn't get on too well, and I was already well established in Runescape. Anyway, I have drifted from the point of this paragmaflop. I started playing WoW again in the January of last year, because all my friends were playing it. I actually endured it a bit longer this time and only really gave up after 11 months ish of playing? I think?! I did LIKE WoW bit it wasn't a scratch on Runescape, and was not worth double the subscription.Quests were repetitive, RPers were frustrating beyond belief and I didn't really like the combat system. I tried a few dungeons, the players were insufferable, I didn't have a clue and it was obvious, so they yelled at me rather than kindly pointing me in the correct direction. In fact I can really truly say that the only things that WoW has over Runescape are the dance moves (my blood elf had smooth dance moves), and the fact that you can choose factions and race.

The Runescape community is much more understanding of newbie players, and each player has a definite sense of individuality. I must say however that I changed the sex of my player from my real life gender (Female) to a male character, purely because I was fed up of the f2p hounding of players for a "sweet gf pl0x". That leads me to another great thing about Runescape, there are two fully interactive versions of the game; F2p (free to play), and a subscription based membership p2p version (Pay to play). It has gone up in recent years but it is still much better than the cost of WoW.  Many people slate the graphics in Runescape but I personally think they are fine and I sometimes prefer to play on the lowest graphics settings. I also personally think that the graphics in WoW were pretty crappy.

The comparisons aside, let us talk about the Beta. It was a sign up based register, I signed up but I didn't get full access to the beta. The qualifications were basically having been a member for a full 12 months prior to the start date of the beta, or to be in the lucky 50,000 other players that were selected. Unfortunately, I had a few months break at the end of last year, (booo).

JaGex have been fair however and have permitted all other members to access the beta at weekends. Which is exactly what I have done. (Woweee I am writing a blog on the date I did something, a first for everything?!).

So prior to the Beta, (and still  in regular Runescape) I had 820LP (Level 82 Constitution), and a combat level of 100. In the Beta, I have something like 5100LP and I am combat level 168. Well luckily for me I happened to be training up my ranged at the Fire Giants' lair under the waterfall north of Ardougne. HAHAHA. I died straight away, because I take no food, (being able to stand out of the way and all.) I didn't really, think that 820LP would be low in the new beta combat system. It also turns out that the Fire Giants have a new magical ranged attack. I died before I knew what the hell was going on. Thanks JaGex. However, that has been the only major annoyance for me from the beta, so far.

 Combat tab, new look.

So after I did the whole running-back-to-gravestone thing I decided to play a game of Castle Wars (One of our many minigames within Runescape), mainly because this is one of the four week-endly requirements to receive a full steampunk- mad scientist outfit. I want that outfit so badly! I rarely play mini-games but Castle Wars is one of my favourite, it was the first of four events so I gave it a go. We lost but I still qualified for part 1 of 4 pieces of outfit. I only had to play through an entire 20 minute game.

Castle Wars is a capture the flag style game, situated in a special arena with 2 castles, one for the Evil God Zamorak (the God my character normally identifies with) whose players play in red, or a castle for the 'good' God Saradomin, whose players fight in blue. I went through the balance god's portal (Guthix) and was placed on Saradomin's team (boo). I decided to carry on as a ranged player for the game, even though my character is predominantly melee based.

 Here is a screen shot of me standing in the Castle Wars lobby, next to the bank chest.

As a ranger, I ran straight into the tunnels to defend and died, several times. Haha. I did enjoy it though, and I apparently got 7 kills. I am terrible, but I do manage to kill the heck out of Quest bosses. So nerrr. I am not used to all the abilities yet, but I do like the WoW style utility bar, which you can hotkey different abilities.

 So this is my bar that I set up for ranged, with a few melee and mage abilities just in case.

There are 5 lines of these utility bars. Which I think is adequate at the moment. Players select the abilities that go into these bars from the spellbook tab. 

I think I am going to end up spamming this when using mage, it's going to be a big change to get used to.

I haven't tried anything else to do with the beta out yet, but I did have a browse of the official Runescape forums. Alot of people seem to be calling this a 'WoW bandwagon trip', but I really quite like it. After all, Runescape has always been an ever-evolving game and sure people have quit over updates, but I think I could get used to it, there are probably changes that I would make to the beta as it currently stands. I have a few friends that 'may' play Runescape once the combat update is complete, so that is a plus for me! 

JaGex have stated all along that everything in the combat beta is not final and is subject to the scrutiny of the players, after all it is US that need to be happy with the game. I think JaGex have been very fair and have trod very carefully with such a major and a hotly debated update. 

Of course all images I have included in this blog are of my player Soul_failure, I also have a lower level f2p character Herra_Lisko, however all these images are of course copyrighted by JaGex Ltd. You can check out the game, and all related Hiscores, Forums and new articles at www.runescape.com. I use a community website which you can visit here www.tip.it/runescape it has loads of extra information about the game including calculators and other technically whatnots. I am in no way a brilliant player, infact I hate PVP unless it is in the fairer and hilariously fun minigames. I am still a fan of only killing scary boss monster. Nerrrgh! 

So that is my humble and honest first review of the new beta. 

Trollbyt