Old School RuneScape

Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.

Mostly Positive · 70%Mostly Positive · 70%2021

The verdict

A huge, endlessly grindy old-school MMO with deep progression and a loyal community, hurt by steep membership prices, false bans and poor support. Skip it if you dislike repetitive grinding or subscriptions.

Great for

Patient players who love long grinds, nostalgia and relaxed, sandbox-style MMO progression

Main risk

Rising subscription cost, plus risk of false bans with poor support

What players love

Nostalgia and lasting community

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews

“I'd say the best part of this game is the community, not the mechanics.”
Steam review · 0.3 h played ↗

“You never really quit, you just take breaks.”
Steam review · 526.9 h played ↗

Addictive, rewarding progression

Mentioned in ~1 in 6 positive reviews

“The grind never ends, but that's the beauty of it. Every level, every drop, every quest feels earned.”
Steam review · 4843.3 h played ↗

“The grind is real but incredibly addictive and there's always something to work toward.”
Steam review · 276 h played ↗

“The game has a great sense of progression, with the time you put into it leading to rewards and unlocks that really feel like they matter.”
Steam review · 524.9 h played ↗

Huge amount of content and freedom

Mentioned in ~1 in 10 positive reviews

“The massive world, countless skills, quests and player-driven economy offer an absurd amount of freedom”
Steam review · 2.2 h played ↗

“Also it's a sandbox so there's no single way to play.”
Steam review · 82.1 h played ↗

Relaxing, low requirements, plays anywhere

Mentioned in ~1 in 11 positive reviews

“No fancy PC needed and if you're happy with a free membership, no spending required.”
Steam review · 12.2 h played ↗

“Cross progression is very nice, jumping from pc to mobile is nice.”
Steam review · 277.3 h played ↗

Fair monetization and free-to-play option

Mentioned in ~1 in 12 positive reviews

“you can play forever completely free and if you decide to become a member you can actually use in game currency to buy the membership instead of paying real money for it”
Steam review · 669.2 h played ↗

“it's a game that doesn't force a million microtransactions in ur face”
Steam review · 11 h played ↗

Player-voted updates and regular new content

Mentioned in ~1 in 15 positive reviews

“Jagex still keeps it fresh with player-voted updates, and somehow the game keeps getting better without losing that old-school charm.”
Steam review · 4843.3 h played ↗

What players complain about

Membership price too high and rising

Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews

“Monthly membership is practically on par with Disney+ which is a famously overpriced streaming service.”
Steam review · 14.7 h played ↗

“Two price increases in 16 months. Now it costs $130 for a single character.”
Steam review · 919.7 h played ↗

“Sorry, but I won't pay for a subscription.”
Steam review · translated · 13.2 h played ↗

False bans and unhelpful support

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews

“Their "support" team doesn't give a ♥♥♥♥ about us when their flawed systems screw us over”
Steam review · 0.3 h played ↗

“I openned the launcher for the first time and the moment I logged in with steam my account got permanently banned for macroing.”
Steam review · 0.4 h played ↗

“I was permanently banned in the first hours of the game for supposedly "real-world trading".”
Steam review · translated · 16.1 h played ↗

Repetitive, slow, boring grind

Mentioned in ~1 in 12 negative reviews

“Most of the gameplay is doing repetitive tasks for XP to level up each individual skill”
Steam review · 39 h played ↗

“What you do at the very start is exactly what you do in late/end game.”
Steam review · 37.3 h played ↗

Free-to-play heavily restricted by paywall

Mentioned in ~1 in 12 negative reviews

“90% of the game is behind a 15$/mo membership, you cant explore the majority of the map”
Steam review · 10.5 h played ↗

“The subscription is needed to unlock the full world map, and the free part of the map ends VERY quickly.”
Steam review · translated · 0.8 h played ↗

Steam client lacks RuneLite and features

Mentioned in ~1 in 13 negative reviews

“Bring us Jagex launcher and RuneLite to Steam, this client is ass, unplayable”
Steam review · 33.9 h played ↗

“The Steam version uses the official C++ client, which is bloated and slow and severely lacking in features.”
Steam review · 0.7 h played ↗

Botting and account security problems

Mentioned in ~1 in 13 negative reviews

“Total a piece of crap. Flooded by bots which no allow to lvl up your combat skills.”
Steam review · 8.8 h played ↗

“4.5 years of progress gone because of a hacker.”
Steam review · 352.8 h played ↗

System requirements

From the Steam store page

Steam Deck: Playable

Minimum

OSWindows 10 or later

Recommended

OSWindows 10 or higher

ProcessorIntel i3-6100 / any AMD Ryzen CPU

Memory8 GB RAM

GraphicsGeForce GTX 600 series, Intel UHD Graphics 610, AMD Radeon R7 260

Storage2 GB available space

OSWindows 10 or later

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