Survival games have, in many ways, become the new battle royale games. In 2024 alone we saw everything from the creature-catching of Palworld to the gaslamp steampunk fantasy of Nightingale, with Enshrouded, Bellwright, and the Valheim-esque Aska all vying for a place in the spotlight. While the trend feels like its tapering off slightly coming into 2025, the colossal Dune: Awakening is just around the corner, and 11-bit Studios’ The Alters, perhaps the most bizarre take on the genre yet, is slated to drop later this year. Where, then, does Jagex’s new spinoff title, RuneScape: Dragonwilds sit in the mix? During an exclusive preview at RuneFest 2025, I quiz senior community manager Jake Blunt for all of the details.

First up: what exactly is RuneScape: Dragonwilds? Set in the same universe as the classic MMORPG, Dragonwilds is a brand new, standalone survival experience. Where other games see you hack at trees with rusted old axes and slave over the forge fixing up your armor, here you’ll use your inherent magical abilities. Summon spectral axes that topple trees with a single swing, or draw upon nature’s power to fix up your gear – the possibilities are endless.

Tapping into its namesake’s classic high-fantasy feel, Dragonwilds looks absolutely stunning, and is steeped in RuneScape lore. Your core mission is to slay the Dragon Queen, a mysterious foe that doesn’t seem like she’ll go down easy. You can attempt to take her on alone, or recruit some friends to help you. As you slay familiar foes and explore the secrets of Ashenfall, you’ll learn more about this long-forgotten land, and draw ever closer to dismantling the Dragon Queen’s tyranny.

But, at the end of the day, Dragonwilds is still a survival game in a world where fatigue around the genre is, quite possibly, at an all-time high. While what I’ve seen of Dragonwilds (more on that soon) certainly innovates on the genre in a way that really appeals to me as a high fantasy DnD enthusiast, I ask Blunt whether or not the team’s feeling the pressure given the level of bloat in the genre.

“100%,” he nods. “It was always top-of-mind. As soon as the team was like, ‘survival game’ everyone was like, ‘hm, is this going to be Valheim with party hats?’ It was a case of going ‘okay, cool, we’re going to have to do a lot more here to really elevate ourselves, so there’s always been a pressure not just externally, but internally. We want to make something that really stands up on its own that leans very heavily into RuneScape lore, but is also very much a survival game.

“We’re hoping that it isn’t just us being like ‘it’s Valheim, but…’ [Dragonwilds] is unique in several different ways that really sets it apart from the others. There’s always that pressure of ‘oh this is a very competitive [genre], but we’re not trying to bring other survival games down and be like ‘we’re better than that.’ We want to embrace the fact that we have things that make us unique, rather than that we’re doing something better than something that already exists.”

But that pressure is twofold: RuneScape is over 20 years old, and has a passionate, dedicated fanbase. Having met dozens of devoted players at RuneFest, it’s clear there is still so much love for the game – Old School RuneScape is indicative of that. I ask Blunt if the team also feels the pressure on the RuneScape side, given Ashenfell and its lore are rooted in the mainline MMORPG’s story.

“We’re very lucky to have our narrative director Mod Raven, who has over a decade of experience working on RuneScape,” he says. Raven, for context, was the main face of Jagex’s Above the Lore podcast, and has created some of the game’s most popular content. “When he left RuneScape to work on other projects [in 2022], when this was announced internally, he came back. He’s become the foundation and the bedrock of what RuneScape is, so that’s helped us be reverent and respectful of both sides of the same coin. It’s been awesome.”

Jagex has confirmed that RuneScape: Dragonwilds will be released in early access in Spring 2025 – that’s not far away. There’s also a deep-dive Twitch stream on Tuesday April 15 at 9am PST / 12pm EST / 5pm BST / 6pm CEST, that’s an absolute must-watch. You can wishlist Dragonwilds here.

While we wait to find out more about Jagex’s new project, check out our list of the best fantasy games. Alternatively, if you’re looking for something a little larger in scale, here’s our rundown of the best free MMOs.

You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.