Old School RuneScape
Jagex · RPG, MMO, Adventure
Overview
Relive the challenging levelling system and risk-it-all PvP of the biggest retro styled MMO. Play with millions of other players in this piece of online gaming heritage where the community controls the development so the game is truly what you want it to be!
THE GAMEQ VERDICT9,564 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
Most reviews recommend the game, and what they praise is the game itself: slow skill progression that never resets, a 2007-era MMO that has kept adding to itself, quests with jokes in them, and a pace relaxed enough to play while watching something else. Returning players and newcomers both describe getting hooked. Reviewers also single out the updates players vote on in polls, the Sailing skill, and the Ironman and Leagues modes.
Membership pricing comes up in more negative reviews than any other complaint. 42% of game-focused negative reviews raise membership cost, the free-to-play paywall or monetization plans, and reviewers point to price rises and a January 2025 survey that, as they describe it, floated in-game ads and paid support tiers. False bans, hacked accounts and support that reviewers call unreachable come next. After those, players complain about bots, Steam account linking and the Steam client, which some reviewers tell newcomers to skip in favour of RuneLite.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
A progression loop that keeps people coming backHigh
The grind itself is the draw mentioned most often: 24% of the longer reviews talk about levelling up or the pull of watching skills climb. Players describe slow progress spread over many skills that never resets, with old gear and achievements staying relevant: "The character progression is the best there is + the game respects your time." Dozens of short reviews repeat the line that you never really quit, you only take breaks. For some the same pull turns sour, and they call the game an addiction or a second job.
Nostalgia that holds up, in a game that kept growingHigh
Childhood, nostalgia or coming back after years away come up in 22% of the longer reviews. Returning players say the game is bigger and better than they remember: "OSRS as it is today is better than I remember it." New players without that history report the same hook: "Genuinely peak, even if I discovered it in 2026." A few critics think nostalgia is doing the heavy lifting: "Tbh if you didn't play it 20 years ago don't bother with it now, this is only here for nostalgia."
Quests, humour and musicMedium
18% of the longer reviews bring up quests, lore, story or humour: "Quests are another standout feature, offering humor, puzzles, and engaging storylines instead of repetitive fetch tasks." Players also bring up the soundtrack, Sea Shanty 2 above all, with obvious affection. Quest complaints are narrower: most quests need membership, and a few players found particular quests too hard or too punishing.
Friendly players and generous veteransMedium
Stories of strangers handing new players armour, gold and directions run through the 11% of longer reviews that talk about the community: "The community is incredibly generous and friendly." A smaller 3% complain about toxic chat, scammers and lures, and the offer of free armour trimming, an old scam, turns up as a joke in the reviews.
A relaxed, second-monitor MMOMedium
"Great 2nd monitor/relaxing mmo with endless progression," says one review, and 10% of the longer reviews describe the same thing: playing while watching something else, AFK skilling or unwinding. Players like that they can choose between near-idle skilling and intense boss fights in the same session.
Updates that players vote on, and SailingMedium
Players credit the developers with steady content that keeps the old feel. 6% of the longer reviews bring up polls or voting, and supporters like that players get a say: "community voting helps the game evolve without losing the old-school identity that made it special." Reviews written in late November 2025, when reviewers say the Sailing skill arrived, celebrate it, with lines like "returned for sailing and now im hooked!!!". A handful dissent, calling it "the biggest nothing burger of an update", and one critic says the game now has "power creep and content bloat".
Runs on anything, and carries over to mobileLow
Players value that the game runs on old hardware and shares progress with the phone version: "Cross progression is very nice, jumping from pc to mobile is nice." One player sums up the hardware side as "amazing even on a laptop with nonfunctional fans".
Ironman modes and LeaguesLow
The self-sufficient Ironman and Group Ironman modes come up as a way to make the game feel new again: "I highly recommend the ironman and group ironman(if you have friends that is) modes." Leagues get similar praise, though a few players resent that they need membership: "Wanted to play the league but priced behind a paywall, bad game."
Where players are split
The Steam client versus RuneLiteMedium
Which client to play on comes up in 14% of the longer reviews. Reviewers praise RuneLite's plugins, quest helper and HD visuals, tell newcomers to play through it instead, and some share a launch-option workaround so Steam still counts their hours. Complaints about the Steam client itself range from missing plugins to performance and camera controls: "Fantastic game, but do not play it on the Steam client." Others defend it, especially on Steam Deck and Linux: "Steam client is pretty good and is more than playable despite what others will say."
A slow, wiki-heavy start for newcomersMedium
A confusing or clunky start comes up in 9% of the longer reviews. Some say new players need guides, the wiki or YouTube to know what to do; others complain about controls, slow walking, stamina or the small inventory. "Modern game basically requires a Wiki tab open," writes one critic, and another objects that "Inventory is the smallest I ever seen and items that should stack don't stack". New accounts also hit trading limits, which one player calls "the crazy requirement there is for using the grand exchange". Other first-timers push through and enjoy the open-ended start.
Free-to-play: generous trial or a demoMedium
Content locked behind membership comes up in 7% of the longer reviews, and opinions split. Supporters point to hundreds of hours of free content and to bonds, which let players buy membership with in-game gold: "Quite possibly the only MMO that respects your wallet nowadays." Critics call it a demo ("F2P is just the demo", as one puts it) and list small locks that sting, from the Agility skill to shortcuts and this one: "How are you gonna tell me I need to be a member to use the bank deposit box in the crafting guild." Achievement hunters add that the Steam achievement for voting in a poll effectively needs membership, because they say active polls are mostly open to members only.
Wilderness and PvPLow
PvP fans love the risk, with lines like "F2P Pking is insane on this game in the big 2026." Others say "the wilderness is toxic and bad", especially when later content pushes them into it, and complain about freezes and players who world-hop to avoid fights.
High-level bossing and drop ratesLow
Some veterans enjoy the demanding late-game bosses; others feel the game is drifting away from its casual roots, citing "New boss mechanics that require perfect dodging and clicking". Long dry streaks on rare drops frustrate a smaller group: "drop rates are stupidly low".
What frustrates players
Membership price rises and monetization plansHigh
Membership cost, the paywall or monetization plans come up in 18% of the longer reviews and in 42% of all game-focused negative reviews. The main objection is that one subscription covers a single character, and 46 game-focused reviews compare the price with World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XIV or other MMOs that allow many characters on one plan: "15$ a month for one character? Insane price hikes over the last few years." Reviewers also say three and six-month plans and older locked-in rates were removed, and players in Turkey, Brazil and Canada complain about local prices. 8% of the longer reviews mention a January 2025 survey that, as reviewers describe it, floated ads even for paying members, paid tiers for support and account security, and shorter AFK timers: "Imagine paying a pricey monthly subscription, and they survey you on whether you'd like to pay more and get served ads in-game". One returning player says those ideas were dropped ("they apparently didn't go forward with that decision"). A minority defend the prices, arguing that "Server costs went up a lot in the last 2 years" and that bonds can be earned in-game.
False bans, hacked accounts and thin supportHigh
Bans, hacked or lost accounts, or support that does not respond come up in 13% of the longer reviews and in 20% of game-focused negative reviews. A story that keeps recurring is a ban for "macroing" that the player denies, sometimes after playing on Steam Deck, mobile or Linux, or after returning from a break: "I learned I was banned for macroing when I don't even know what a macro was". 25 reviews tie a ban to a hacked account, typically a hacker botting on it while the owner was away, with appeals denied and no human to talk to. Even a player who recommends the game sums it up as "Great game. Terrible support." A few players push back that "people WILL lie in the review saying they did nothing" when they were caught botting.
Bots on every skilling spotMedium
Players trying to gather resources in free-to-play worlds write most of the bot complaints, which appear in 6% of the longer reviews: "Every mining site has bots that go from node to node even if you are trying to mine them." Players ask Jagex to "crack down harder on the botting problem", and several point out the irony of bots surviving while they themselves were banned. A long-time player shrugs it off: "In reality bots dont ruin the overall experience".
Steam account linking, logins and purchasesMedium
Crashes, login trouble or failed purchases come up in 5% of the longer reviews, and a share of these are specific to playing through Steam. Players report being unable to link an old account or switch characters, losing mobile access after linking Steam, captcha loops, and a birthdate screen that will not accept them: "I couldn't get past the date it kept telling my my birthdate was invalid". Purchases through Steam are another sore point, with reports of membership not being credited, double charges and refunds bounced between Steam and Jagex: "DO NOT buy youre membership from steam they will rip you off". Connection loops add to it: "it takes thirty minutes to connect to it fifteen times in a row until one works."
Crashes and launch failures on the Steam clientLow
A smaller group reports the Steam client crashing or failing to open, sometimes only playing menu music. One player says the Steam version "crashes every time you catch a fish". Another writes that "The game crashes after playing for about 30 minutes consistently" and switched to RuneLite, which crashes less; others say RuneLite or the Jagex Launcher ran fine on the same machine.
No nearby servers, no translation, tiny textLow
A few players outside the main regions report high ping, with "no servers nearby the Asian region leading to average 200+ ping", and others ask for South American servers. Non-English speakers ask for translations ("I'm surprised that the language can't be changed to Spanish."), and some players with large or high-resolution screens say "The UI is so comically small" with no way to scale it.
3. The player conversation
The short reviews are affectionate and full of in-jokes: one-liners about "number go up", buying a girlfriend at the Grand Exchange, Sea Shanty 2 or the game being as addictive as a drug. Some criticism comes wrapped in praise, with negative reviewers calling it a great or favourite game, or introducing themselves as long-time players, before objecting to membership prices, bans or support. First-time players raise different issues: the free-to-play paywall, not knowing what to do after the tutorial, and Steam login and linking problems.
The tone swings with monetization news. Game-focused reviews written between 13 and 31 January 2025, the weeks reviewers link to the membership survey, were only 15% positive (784 reviews), and those written between 9 and 22 March 2026, when reviewers report a membership price rise, were 41% positive (110 reviews). Reviews from 19 November to 2 December 2025, around the Sailing launch, went the other way at 94% positive (277 reviews). Reviews written from April 2026 onward were 82% positive (853 reviews).
4. What the developers could do
- Rethink membership value before raising prices again: membership cost, the paywall and monetization plans come up in 42% of game-focused negative reviews, and players compare the single-character plan with MMOs that cover many characters for the same price.
- Put a human, evidence-based review behind ban appeals: players banned for macroing they deny, some after playing on Steam Deck, mobile or Linux, say appeals were rejected without explanation.
- Stop punishing the victims of hacked accounts: 25 reviews tie a ban to a hacked account, and those players say support was unreachable when they tried to sort it out.
- Bring RuneLite-level features to the Steam version, or let Steam launch RuneLite: reviewers tell newcomers to avoid the Steam client, and Steam players ask for plugins, quest helpers and a fix for crashes.
- Fix Steam account linking and Steam purchases: players describe being unable to switch or unlink characters, captcha and birthdate loops, lost mobile access, and memberships or bonds bought through Steam that never arrived.
- Clear bots from free-to-play skilling spots: gatherers say bots take the nodes in popular mines and worlds, leaving them to world-hop for resources.
- Ease small free-to-play locks and early trading limits: newcomers single out the Agility lock, the deposit box and Grand Exchange restrictions when they call free-to-play a demo.
- Add servers for Asia and South America, plus UI scaling and translations: players in those regions report high ping, and others ask for larger text and for Spanish or German translations.
