Context of reviewer, started playing back during RS2, left a year or so into RS3 and occasionally have been back to both this and OSRS.

Pros:
- Large amount of content due to being around for nearly 20 years now.
- Questing is a lot better than typical MMOs. Doesn't follow general quest design convention.
- Large amount of content available for free.
- Playerbase on RS3(at time of writing) is generally friendly outside of a few specific areas(W84).
- Hotbar combat style for if you're coming from another MMO, the ability to automate the triggering of abilities if you're coming back and played before EoC.

Cons:
- Interface at default is rather clunky and you will likely need to adjust it. I replayed the free to play experience a while back on an alt to relearn this version of the game and I felt the tutorial in Burthorpe wasn't great. This may be different for a completely new player.
- Content updates seem to not be too frequent compared to other games and skewed towards either endgame or beginner content with not as much in the middle.
- Microtransactions. This game has it in the form of Treasure Hunter(lootboxes), Solomon's Store(cash shop) and some other stuff occasionally that encourages the use of MTX(Yak Track). Furthermore, quests regularly provide you with lootbox spins which you will get a lot of early on due to being able to burn through quests. These will run out eventually and be careful if you have a gambling addiction you will need to beware of this.
- Tick system. All actions including movement happen on server ticks(0.6 seconds) which can make the game feel clunky at times.
- Known bugs not being fixed/very slowly being fixed.

I cannot comment on the endgame raiding as I personally have not gotten into that as I predominately quest in this game.

Comparisons to Old School Runescape

- Uses a hotbar combat system compared to the mouse clicking combat system of OSRS. I feel which someone will prefer will be personal preference.
- Both have WoW Token equivalents in the form of Bonds. A bond redeemed on one game will allow membership of the other on the same account.
- Levelling is typically faster on RS3 compared to OSRS but RS3 has some skills that go to 120 compared to all going to 99 on OSRS.
- RS3 has more skills and a bigger back catalogue of content including quests as OSRS is based off a version of the game from 2007 and only some post 2007 content has been ported in.
- Graphically they're very different.
- Content in OSRS is voted in by the community by a poll while on RS3 devs generally put in what they wish.
- RS3 has a wide range of MTX while the only form OSRS has is bonds.

In conclusion do I recommend RS3? It depends, I wouldn't go into this expecting the game of your childhood but it has a lot of redeeming qualities to it but it's slow content releases compared to other games makes it harder to justify sticking with it but at the same time it has such a back catalogue of content that hopping on late you could go through all of that for a long while.

If I could I'd give this game the mixed rating but they only allow yes/no for individual games. If MTX was removed/pulled back to just bonds and there was signs of scaling up on content being delivered then that'd be an easy yes. Ultimately though I'm going to err on the side of caution and mark this a no.

My personal advice is to try F2P and get through a good chunk of the quests. If you're prone to gambling or whaling then like with other games with MTX I'd recommend avoiding this game.

Context of reviewer, started playing back during RS2, left a year or so into RS3 and occasionally have been back to both this and OSRS. Pros: - Large amount of content due to being around for nearly 20 years now. - Questing is a lot better than typical MMOs. Doesn't follow general quest design convention. - Large amount of content available for free. - Playerbase on RS3(at time of writing) is generally friendly outside of a few specific areas(W84). - Hotbar combat style for if you're coming from another MMO, the ability to automate the triggering of abilities if you're coming back and played before EoC. Cons: - Interface at default is rather clunky and you will likely need to adjust it. I replayed the free to play experience a while back on an alt to relearn this version of the game and I felt the tutorial in Burthorpe wasn't great. This may be different for a completely new player. - Content updates seem to not be too frequent compared to other games and skewed towards either endgame or beginner content with not as much in the middle. - Microtransactions. This game has it in the form of Treasure Hunter(lootboxes), Solomon's Store(cash shop) and some other stuff occasionally that encourages the use of MTX(Yak Track). Furthermore, quests regularly provide you with lootbox spins which you will get a lot of early on due to being able to burn through quests. These will run out eventually and be careful if you have a gambling addiction you will need to beware of this. - Tick system. All actions including movement happen on server ticks(0.6 seconds) which can make the game feel clunky at times. - Known bugs not being fixed/very slowly being fixed. I cannot comment on the endgame raiding as I personally have not gotten into that as I predominately quest in this game. Comparisons to Old School Runescape - Uses a hotbar combat system compared to the mouse clicking combat system of OSRS. I feel which someone will prefer will be personal preference. - Both have WoW Token equivalents in the form of Bonds. A bond redeemed on one game will allow membership of the other on the same account. - Levelling is typically faster on RS3 compared to OSRS but RS3 has some skills that go to 120 compared to all going to 99 on OSRS. - RS3 has more skills and a bigger back catalogue of content including quests as OSRS is based off a version of the game from 2007 and only some post 2007 content has been ported in. - Graphically they're very different. - Content in OSRS is voted in by the community by a poll while on RS3 devs generally put in what they wish. - RS3 has a wide range of MTX while the only form OSRS has is bonds. In conclusion do I recommend RS3? It depends, I wouldn't go into this expecting the game of your childhood but it has a lot of redeeming qualities to it but it's slow content releases compared to other games makes it harder to justify sticking with it but at the same time it has such a back catalogue of content that hopping on late you could go through all of that for a long while. If I could I'd give this game the mixed rating but they only allow yes/no for individual games. If MTX was removed/pulled back to just bonds and there was signs of scaling up on content being delivered then that'd be an easy yes. Ultimately though I'm going to err on the side of caution and mark this a no. My personal advice is to try F2P and get through a good chunk of the quests. If you're prone to gambling or whaling then like with other games with MTX I'd recommend avoiding this game.