I never want to discover exactly how much of my life has been spent grinding for experience points. Even discounting all the hours spent training Pokémon, it’s still going to be an uncomfortably large number thanks to my 18-year investment in RuneScape. Technically, I could find out at least how much time, down to the minute, I’ve spent in Gielinor by talking to an NPC called Hans. I don’t talk to Hans. I’ve long accepted that RuneScape is more of a life choice rather than a video game.
Brighter ShoresDeveloper: Fen Research LtdPublisher: Fen Research LtdPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now in early access on PC (Steam)
It’s thanks to this life choice (and a genuine love of the game, too) that I’m so excited about Brighter Shores, another MMORPG that’s currently in early access. Why? Well, its developer Fen Research was founded by Andrew Gower, who also co-created RuneScape with his two brothers. At a passing glance, Brighter Shores looks awfully similar to RuneScape. It has a high fantasy setting, a lot of the game is focused on grinding for XP, and even the graphics have an RS3 touch to them. So I was curious to see exactly how reminiscent this new MMO was.
The first thing that caught my attention was the portrayal of its world – and I’m not talking about the graphics. Rather than having an open landscape for you to traverse, the world of Brighter Shores is divided into a series of main locations, which are then constructed out of a collection of individual spaces, be it a town square, thief-infested alleyway or forest meadow. You travel through them one-by-one, and while this may sound restrictive, it actually feels like you’re exploring vignettes of this world, and filling in the map piece by piece, room by room. There’s always an element of mystery when you reach a new location, as it’s impossible to say what size the next area will be, or what it could hold. Will it be a collection of useful resources or a bloodthirsty creature?
Brighter Shores Trailer Watch on YouTube
Luckily, the map keeps track of both these possibilities as you’re able to record any enemy and resource, including their required level, every time you enter a new vignette through the power of ‘Discover’. This can become a little tedious after a while, especially when you’re ‘Discovering’ the same tree for the third time. But it pays off in usefulness, as even this kind of basic information is listed alongside where each enemy or resource sits within the menu for its dedicated Profession (Brighter Shores’ term for skills) – and that includes the ability to pull that location up on your map. Combined, it ensures you never get lost in the woods trying to remember where you saw those leeks for the pie recipe you just unlocked. Instead, it can be an XP grind all the way down.
Brighter Shores’ locations are also tightly intertwined with its main storyline, which opens with you becoming a guard in the town of Hopeport. The main plot is told through a series of episodes, with each one taking place in a specific location. You also need to complete an episode before you can venture further into the world, meaning you can’t, for example, visit Hopeforest before you’ve completed Hopeport’s episode. Having played through the first two episodes so far, I can’t say I’ve been wholly won over by the story of Brighter Shores so far. It’s very much the standard fantasy affair of ‘Someone’s doing something with magic they shouldn’t be touching.’ I’m still very much in the opening act, though, so I’m hopeful there will be juicier elements waiting around the corner in future updates.