Brighter Shores, A New MMO From The Creator of OSRS

Onur Author

Created - 10.12.2024 Updated - 11.12.2024

34 0

Andrew Gower is trying to shake up the MMO space once again after 23 long years of creating his very successful Runescape. Brighter Shores, launched into early access on November 6, 2024, is an ambitious project of Gowers that is looking to fill a niche that the genre needs. This game can be accessed through Steam and can be played both on Mac and Windows systems.

Who is Andrew Gower?

Andrew Gower is a British developer who created many indie games during the late 90’s with his brothers Ian and Paul. His story and passion for games is a reflection of his wondrous childhood. As a child, Andrew was drawn to the medieval world and was fascinated by it. This led him to the internet spaces where there were text-based games that required your imagination to play. This made Andrew want an interactable 3D medieval world more and more.

With his goal in mind, he started developing his first games that were all published on a website called Games Domain. He created his first platformer game in 1995 and his first shooter game in 1996. From 1997 to 1999 he started to develop using Java and created many different popular games on the website but the website was later bought by Yahoo and shut down destroying most of Andrew’s games.

This incident however did not make him falter as his passion for a fantasy medieval game was vast. He started a project that would change the MMORPG genre as we know it forever. He created the first version of Runescape which was known as DeviousMud during this period. This was his first attempt to create a 3D online medieval fantasy game. This game was published on his website and soon became what we know as the “Runescape Classic” which was released in 2001.

From 2001-2004 the game was further developed, and Andrew co-founded a company named Jagex during this time. In 2004 Jagex released a huge update that turned Runescape Classic into Runescape 2 and rest was history as the game became one of the most iconic games ever created.

Andrew Gower continued his work at Jagex until 2011 when he left the company. This brings us to today because Jagex was just one event in his development life. He started his own company and developed a game called Brighter Shores. This game is our topic for this article and we will explore everything that you need to know about this brand-new MMO to give you a solid opinion on whether you should play this game or not.

Brighter Shores

As we mentioned before, early access to this game was launched last month. As players explored the game, it became more and more clear that this was not one of your typical MMORPGs.

First of all, let’s talk about the monetization method of this game as it is extremely important. Most games nowadays use “microtransactions” to make money, but this system undermines the integrity of the game greatly and makes the game pay-to-win. You can rest assured that Brighter Shores follows the same monetization method as Old School Runescape, which is subscription-based. This game also has a free-to-play option that players can use to check the content and the systems out before deciding whether they want to pay for the whole experience.

Premium Pass

The premium pass is the name of the subscription system for this online game. It costs 5 pounds a month or 63 pounds per year. Let’s take a look at what you will be getting for your money (keep in mind that this game is in early access at all times):

• A lot more new skills
• New areas and new quests that unlock those areas
• Ability to change your name
• Ability to trade with other players
• Ability to get and dye your armor with unique colors
• A unique character name

As you can see, there is nothing pay-to-win in this list. You are basically unlocking the entire game by paying the fee, which is a standard practice across all MMOs.

Gameplay and Mechanics

If you have ever played Runescape before, you will immediately see the similarities between Runescape 3’s art style and Brighter Shores. They are really identical, albeit Runescape 3 has a more vibrant and sparkly color palette while Brighter Shores has a more desaturated one. Many players enjoy this simplistic style that reminisces the early 2010s, but many are also dissatisfied with it as it does not have any artistic style like OSRS does. The UI design of the game also seems pretty problematic, but it is to be expected of an early release such as Brighter Shores.

The game’s world is not an open world. It is better described as a semi-open world or a quarter-open world. The game uses “rooms” where your character is always in a room, an instance with other players. These instances are square chunks that only have pre-set objects and NPCs in them. When you click to move outside of your chunk, your character will move across the border and enter a new one. This is pretty simple. Some players enjoy this system, while others find it limiting. Don’t let this chunk or room system trick you though, as the world is pretty massive, especially considering the early access state of the game. There are tons of rooms to explore, and you can get lost in them even with the well-detailed map all players have access to.

Classes and Combat

Combat in Brighter Shores is pretty simple. You will have your weapons in your weapons bar. Selecting the attack option on an NPC and selecting a weapon will make your character enter combat until one side is defeated. You can drink potions during combat which have a cooldown, but this is pretty much it for combat as of now. There is a special attack bar next to your weapons as well, so some weapons or classes might have special attacks coming soon.

This brings us to classes. There are 3 classes in Brighter Shores, just like in Runescape. Each class is a counter to another one, forming a triangle. The three classes are:

• Cryoknight: This is your Magical Knight class which uses both Magic and Melee weapons with heavy armor. This class uses the Cryonae and is strong against Arborae and weak against Tempestae.
• Guardian: This class is imbued with the magic of Nature and mainly uses Arborae. They use bone-weapons and are strong against Tempestae and weak against Cryonae.
• Hammermage: This class is imbued with the lightning magic of Tempestae. They use hammers and are strong against Cryonae and weak against Arborae.

After selecting a class, the weapons and armor you get as drops will change to fit your class and attributes. As of now, there is no clear indication of how these classes are going to play out, so I would recommend picking the one that you like aesthetically.

Crenopolis

• Watchperson: This is your combat skill for this area. Unlocks higher tier monsters and drops from said monsters in this area.
• Detective: Allows you to complete investigations, bust crime dens, and apprehend criminals in this area. Also unlocks the Detect aura spell.
• Leatherworker: Allows you to craft leathers that can be used for the armorer profession.
• Merchant: Allows you to earn discounts, complete bounties, and receive rare items.

Stonemaw Hill

• Shieldbearer: This is the combat skill for this area which unlocks higher tier monsters and drops.
• Builder: Allows you to build structures.
• Armourer: Allows you to create armours for all classes.
• Unknown gathering: Allows gathering of items that can be used in different professions such as Fisher and Chef.

This list of professions is quite unique since they are all area-based which begs the question of how they are going to be used as the game develops. Nonetheless, you can level up all of these professions up to 500. This requires experience points which can be earned by participating in the skills over and over again.

When you reach level 20 in a profession, you can start AFK training in that profession. You can basically set up your character to fish, for example, and log out of the game, and as long as you have bait, your character will keep fishing and leveling up your Fisher profession. If you like Idle games, this is definitely something you will enjoy.

This consistent cycle of unlocking new areas and using them to level up your professions creates a cycle of replayability that can last hundreds of hours.

Should You Play Brighter Shores?

The first thing to consider is the fact that this game is still in early access. So if you don’t want to be bothered by early bugs, optimization problems, and overall unpolishedness of the game, you should wait for the full release. If you are someone who enjoys the following, then this game is definitely for you:

• A simple and chill progression system
• Ability to progress without focusing on the game (Especially good for you all that have jobs)
• Playing a casual game
• A lot of non-combat activities

Also, I want to emphasize the fact that this game is not a pay-to-win game once again as it can get overlooked pretty easily. Brighter Shores, just like OSRS, looks like a game that values the players' progress and investment.

Professions AKA Skills

There are 22 skills that are available as of making this guide in Brighter Shores. In this game, you unlock skills or professions as they are called by completing the main quests. Each episode of a new quest unlocks 4 new professions alongside a new area. Here is a list of professions and their respective areas in order:

Hopeport

• Guard: This is your combat skill for the area and will unlock higher-level monsters and gear in the Hopeport area.
• Chef: This is your cooking skill that will allow you to cook different tiers of food and sell them to chefs or NPCs for money.
• Fisher: This is your fishing skill that will allow you to catch fish and either sell them for profit or use them for cooking requests.
• Forager: This is the gathering skill that allows you to accumulate items that are used for creating potions, bait for fishing activities, and monument pieces for repairing the fallen monument.
• Alchemist: This skill is used for crafting various potions that especially aid you in combat.

Hopeforest

• Scout: This is your combat skill for the forest area. Unlocks higher-level gear drops and enemies in the Hopeforest area.
• Gatherer: Just like Forager, this allows you to gather items from the environment in the Hopeforest area. Unlike the Forager, you can additionally gather bones for the Bonewright profession.
• Woodcutter: This skill allows you to chop and gather wood to create shortcuts and have resources for the Carpentry profession.
• Carpenter: This allows you to process your gathered wood for the Bonewright, Blacksmith, and Stonemason professions.

Mine of Mantuban

• Minefighter: This is your combat skill for this area. As you level it up, it will make higher-level monsters spawn in the area which yields better loot.
• Bonewright: Allows weapons and shields crafting for the Guardian class.
• Miner: This is your mining skill that allows mining of minerals that you can use for your Blacksmith and Stonemason professions.
• Blacksmith: Allows you to create weapons and shields for the Cryoknight class.
• Stonemason: Allows you to create weapons and shields for the Hammermage class.