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10 Games Like Runescape To Play In 2023

Games like Runescape

The history of Runescape dates back over 20 years, initially conceived as a text-based multiplayer game by two brothers. Since the beta released in 2001, Runescape has been through multiple iterations, with a turbulent history of highs and lows.

Modern day Runescape is nothing like it was in 2001, but remains highly popular to this day. In its current form, the game combines fantastic worldbuilding, story-driven quests, and a freedom to level 28 skills when and how you see fit.

It’s a game you could easily play forever, if you wanted to. But, if you’re a Runescape fan looking for something new, we’ve put together a list of games like Runescape that we’re confident will scratch that same itch.

Albion Online

Games like Runescape: Albion Online

Albion Online is an popular sandbox MMORPG that shares many similarities to Runescape. The game features an expansive map that is split up into territories, each of which contains resources that players must gather to craft gear, weapons, armour, and other useful items with.

Albion Online is heavily focused on PvP. Players must venture into full-risk PvP areas to collect the most lucrative resources, which means a constant threat of enemy ganks from other players, groups, and guilds.

While you won’t find any long, sprawling quests like in Runescape, Albion Online shares many other similarities. It’s extremely similar in the graphics department, and there’s a heavy emphasis on skilling and crafting, with familiar skills like woodcutting, fishing, and mining all making an appearance.

Virtually all the resources you gather and make will either be used or sold to players, resulting in a heavily player driven economy using a system that’s akin to the Grand Exchange. If PKing in Runescape’s Wilderness is your thing, Albion Online is definitely worth trying.

World of Warcraft: Classic

Best MMO 1 - World of Warcraft

For gamers who are looking for a little bit of that old school appeal that Runescape does so well, World of Warcraft: Classic might be one to try.

These official legacy servers dial the clock back to 2004, when WoW first took the world by storm. It’s a much simpler, slower-pace version of the modern iteration, featuring slower combat, fewer quality of life updates, and a classic RPG design that still appeals to many.

Also Read: World of Warcraft Expansions List

World of Warcraft: Classic will appeal to the Runescape players that prefer to take things slow, enjoying the journey, rather than the destination. While the majority of quests are your standard MMO filler, there’s still a large amount of crost-continent, multi-step, story-focused quests that Runescape players will enjoy.

Whether you’re interested in progression raiding or competitive PvP, WoW: Classic provides a simpler, albeit jankier, way to explore Warcraft.

Lord of the Rings Online

Games like Runescape - lotro

Sticking with the theme of old school MMORPGs, there’s a lot of things about Lord of the Rings Online that Runescape players will enjoy.

First released in 2007, Lord of the Rings Online might just be the best way to explore Tolkein’s masterpiece of Middle Earth in the video game format. After almost 15 years of content updates, players can enjoy the vast majority of areas they know and love from the films and books, as well areas from the extended universe.

Runescape players who enjoy questing will be right at home in LotRO, with a mixture of kill and collect quests and a long, overarching story that follows the path of The Fellowship from the books. LotRO’s combat is also fairly similar to Runescape’s, in that it features a slower-paced, multi-actionbar combat system.

There’s also an enormous amount of goodies to grind for, and we know how much Runescape players love a grind.

Valheim

Games like Runescape - Valheim

Valheim is a sandbox survival game that is heavily inspired by Scandinavian folklore. Set in a purgatorial world between the real one and Valhalla, you must prove yourself worthy of the sacred halls by taking down the evil ones that inhabit Valheim.

You start with nothing, and must slowly grind skills and gather resources to fashion yourself new equipment, and a home to call your own. The further you explore this procedurally generated world, the deadlier the enemies and environment become. As you travel to new biomes and level up your skills, you’ll also be able to craft better equipment to take down stronger foes.

Valheim can be enjoyed solo or with friends. We’re including it on this list of games like Runescape because it has the same cathartic, addictive gameplay when it comes to skilling and crafting. It’s slow and steady, but everything you gather can be used to better fortify yourself or your base.

V Rising

V Rising

V Rising is a top-down survival game where you play as a recently awakened vampire in a world that wants you dead. It mixes survival elements like base-building, resource gathering, and crafting, with a moba-style battle system that rewards skill.

You’ll balance building the gothic castle of your dreams while hunting down powerful foes to earn new skills, blueprints, and items. There’s a fitting twist on the formula here, in that sunlight will cause huge damage to you if you stay in it too long. It’s therefore essential to stay in the shadows, which means hunting by night or sticking to the shadows of trees and buildings during the day.

We’re putting V Rising on our list of games like Runescape because it captures the gameplay of Runescape quite well. You’ll spend lots of time woodcutting and mining, and using those materials to craft new items and base components.

While the top-down combat features more skillshots than a game like Runescape, the moment to moment gameplay, especially on PvP servers, is highly reminiest of the thrills and fear that full-risk PvP evokes in Runescape.

STAR WARS: The Old Republic

STAR WARS: The Old Republic is a MMORPG that is, you guessed it, set in the Star Wars universe in a galaxy far far away. Marking Bioware’s first venture into the MMORPG genre, The Old Republic features many story and gameplay elements that the studio is famous for, such as multiple dialogue choices, a morality system, and decision making that impacts the world around you.

It’s certainly an MMORPG at its core, and borrows much from industry giants such as World of Warcraft. Expect a tab-target combat system, lots of exclamation marks to indicate new quests, lots of killing and collecting, and so on.

It’s the dressing that makes this one unique; the care that the developers took when implementing Star Wars lore is clear (as you might expect from the studio that built the most critically acclaimed Star Wars games of all time).

Classes are themed around popular Star Wars archetypes including Jedis, Bounty Hunters, and Smugglers, and you can choose whether you want to play on the side of the Republic or the Empire.

As a game that puts focus on the story, Runescape players will find plenty of fun and replay value inside The Old Republic.

Villagers and Heroes

Games like Runescape - villagers and heroes

Villagers and Heroes is a free to play MMORPG that can be played across PC and mobile. Originally released way back in 2011, the game has over a decade’s worth of content to explore, and has received a myriad of graphical upgrades, gameplay improvements, and quality of life updates.

There’s lots of your typical MMORPG fun-stuff to enjoy here, including a hybrid tab-target action combat system, in-depth gathering and crafting professions, and extensive player housing. The latter is what sets Villagers and Heroes apart, as as you might have guessed from the title, you’re able to found and grow your own village.

If you have a quick look at some screenshots of the game, you’ll immediately see why we’re including it on this list of games like Runescape. Graphically, Villagers and Heroes is extremely similar to Runescape, as is the emphasis on crafting items and gathering resources.

If you’re looking for an online game that’s both casual and mobile friendly, Villagers and Heroes is worth checking out.

Guild Wars 2

Games like Runescape - Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 is an MMORPG that forgoes the traditional MMO levelling and endgame experience and instead uses a more freeform approach. There’s a huge base game to try free of charge, with the options to buy expansions if you want to.

There’s a vast world to explore, split into dozens of regions or ‘maps’. Each region contains an incredibly large ‘to-do’ list, with traditional quests, dynamic events, bosses to take down, vistas to discover, and much more.

We’re including it on this list because like Runescape, the player sets their own goals. With the absence of an endgame gear grind, you’re instead encouraged to find and collect everything the game has to offer.

At its core, Guild Wars 2 is a collectors paradise with worthy rewards that Runescape fans will love grinding for.

Final Fantasy 14

Final Fantasy 14

Final Fantasy 14 is an MMORPG that, despite the number in its name, doesn’t require you to have played any of the previous games in the series. Unlike most games in the MMORPG genre, FF14 manages to tell a complex, character-driven story that rivals some of the best stories videogames have to offer.

Outside of the story, there’s also tons of classes, known as jobs, to level, as well as multitude of crafting and gathering skills. Complete with dungeons, raids, and loads of side activities, FF14 does a fantastic job of merging together single player and multiplayer gameplay options.

If you love Runescape because of the stories it has to tell, you’re in for a treat with FF14. The main quest, known as the MSQ, will take you hundreds of hours to complete, and contains an incredible overarching story as well smaller stories within each expansion.

Similar to Runescape, you can do everything with one character. There’s a class system, but every class and profession can be played and levelled up a single character. Like Runescape, you can dedicate your entire playtime to becoming a crafter if you’d like; each skill has a wealth of content to play through, and rewards to unlock.

Old School Runescape

Old School Runescape

It would be strange not to include Old School Runescape on this list. If you’re a Runescape fan, chances are you’ve tried Old School Runescape before, or at least have some idea of what it is.

For the uninitiated, Old School Runescape is a version of the game that existed in around 2007. That’s not to say there isn’t content that didn’t exist in the Old School version, rather that new content is released in the spirit of the gameplay that old school players enjoy, with a release schedule that’s dictated via community surveys and feedback.

You may not have given OSRS much of a chance due to its graphics, and because it’s, well, pretty old at this point. But as a Runescape fan, you’re truly missing out one of the most unique, rewarding, and satisfying gaming experiences there is.

While there isn’t as much visual sparkle in the older version, there’s a certain spirit and charm that arguably, Runescape lost along the way.

Which Games Like Runescape Have We Missed?

There’s sure to be many other games like Runescape that we didn’t have time to cover today. Let us know which games would you recommend for Runescape enthusiasts!

Kristian Longden

Kristian is a writer, gamer, and music lover. He's been writing about video games for several years, and he's probably better at writing about them than playing them. His favourite games are Bloodborne, Final Fantasy 14, and Jak and Daxter.