Brighter Shores, the upcoming MMO from Fen Research, is having its early access launch on Steam pushed back by a single day to Wednesday 6th November. Why? Well there’s that whole US election happening on Tuesday 5th November, so Andrew Gower, one of the founders of Fen Research announced the one-day push back on his X (formally Twitter) account yesterday.
Andrew Gower is best known for being one of the creators of RuneScape, having developed the long-running MMO alongside his brother Ian and Paul. RuneScape continues to be a popular title in the MMO scene since its release in 2001. It even gained a sister title in 2013 with Old School RuneScape where players can enjoy the traditional RS gameplay from 2007. (The XP grind will never die.) Gower, however, left Jagex in 2010 and founded Fen Research shortly after his departure, with development on Brighter Shores beginning in September 2016.
From the graphics to what we know of the gameplay, Brighter Shores definitely has a RuneScape vibe to it. I would know – I’ve been playing RuneScape for like 18 years. (Honestly, it could be longer. I’ve started to lose track a little. Let’s just say Lottie’s played a lot of RuneScape for a long while.) Combat is divided into melee, range and magic through three classes: Cryoknight (melee), Guardian (range) and Hammermage (magic). Meanwhile, Brighter Shore’s professions, such as Fisher, Chef and Woodcutter, have a similar flavour to RuneScape’s selection of skills, like Fishing, Cooking and Woodcutting.
Still just because a cabbage looks the same, doesn’t mean it tastes the same and the difference always reveals itself in the eating. (Cabbage is a RuneScape joke. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.) Brighter Shores promises to have an on-going storyline released in episodic format; beginning with the player starting their new job as a town guard in Hopeport. Each episode will then add additional features to the MMO, such as new areas and side quests. There will also be no microtransactions in Brighter Shores, with the MMO instead being divided into two tiers – one for free-to-play and a Premium Pass, which will include additional locations and features, like player-to-player trading.
Gower has stated, again on X, that Brighter Shores will remain in early access until PvP is added and that ‘There will NOT be a save reset at the end of early access.’ This means everyone’s free to venture to Hopeport on 6th November without the worry of losing any progress later down the development line. You may get to experience Brighter Shores a little earlier though if you’re part of its closed beta starting on Tuesday 22nd October.