Jagex seldom get to flex their muscle with a blank space. What we understood of Menaphos was confined within the low-res stone walls at its boundaries - nothing
runescape mobile gold else existed beyond the trollish gates, which players can walk around, but not travel beyond. For the first time, Jagex was operating with some of that empty space, producing content for the Menaphos upgrade from scratch instead of building it along with a town that already existed.
"We had this literal blank canvas," says Redstall,"the town must be there but in the moment it's just sand. So we must choose the way that it was going to seem and that has been a lot of fun during the pre-production stage" The look and tone that they settled on is unquestionably very Runescape, a combination of ancient Egyptian architecture and lush, cartoonish blobs of colour and lifestyle much more reminiscent of modern-day Marrakesh. A glance of the crucial art tells you all you need to know: you're getting a desert area; you are becoming that Indiana Jones, matinee display vibe; you know there's likely to be more exploration, adventure, love, and political intrigue.
Visually, it is among the most striking settings in the game, a total breath of fresh air that's different from even the significant desert configurations such as Al Kharid, Nardah, and Pollnivneach.
It's also one of the biggest updates since Jagex switched Runescape from a browser-based game to NXT, the downloadable client that launched in 2016. Menaphos is something of a show in terms of what is possible with the new client: the Golden City is gorgeous. Volumetric lighting and fresh water effects lend Menaphos a utopian feel. The city is light and open, you feel the heat of the sun overhead, columns of light piercing through palm leaves. But this is not Al Kharid. As much as NXT has helped decorate existing match areas, it is nothing compared to the splendour and opulence Jagex have been able to eke out of Menaphos.
Since the coming of Old School Runescape, Runescape has focussed on providing a single-player RPG experience towards rivalling those offered by Bioware or Bethesda, with an emphasis on questing and Royal progression. Menaphos embraces that
buy OSRS gold mentality wholeheartedly, with skilling built into each street and district in town, as well the Shifting Tombs mini-game and Sophanem Slayer dungeon for non-combat and combat skilling respectively.
