The Elder Scrolls is arguably the most famous RPG series in the world. But in the switch from the game console to the iPhone and iPad, developer Bethesda has put too many skill points in ‘free to play’.
The Elder Scrolls: Blades review
When Todd Howard suddenly took the stage during Apple’s September keynote, Elder Scrolls fans held their breath. Howard, CEO of developer Bethesda, unveiled The Elder Scrolls: Blades, a brand new game exclusively for smartphones and tablets, which can be played entirely with a touchscreen. We have been playing the early access version of this game for a few days now.
After a short intro you create a character and you are sent into the fantasy world of The Elder Scrolls. The new controls take some getting used to. By tapping the screen of your iPhone, you make your hero run. You can look around by swiping back and forth across the screen. In addition, by tilting your iPhone or iPad you can turn on virtual joysticks so that you can control the game a little more directly, which worked better for us.
As soon as you run into an enemy, the game switches to a new screen in which you can deal some serious blows by tapping the screen. You block counter-attacks by tapping the shield icon and by collecting experience points, you gradually unlock additional attacks and spells.
The equipment you wear also gets better with each quest that is completed. You choose from all kinds of different weapons and armor, which all play slightly differently. For example, do you choose a smaller sword so that you can also hold a shield? Or do you go for a larger ax that you hold with both hands to deal extra damage?
We have been walking around in the world of Blades for a few days now. We especially learned that we should not consider Blades as a full-fledged Elder Scrolls game. There is simply too much missing that makes this game series so popular: there is no large open world, the story is paper thin and everything but the much-needed things have been removed from the game.
Once you get over the fact that this isn’t Skyrim for iOS, you’re left with a game that’s surprisingly fun to play in short sessions. This is largely due to Blades’ brilliant graphics, which remain impressive even after a few hours. The game runs smoothly and has beautiful environments with realistic lighting, and except for the somewhat wooden animations, characters and monsters also look believable. We played Blades on the iPhone XS and iPad Pro 2018.
The Elder Scrolls: Free to Play
So it’s such a shame that Bethesda has chosen to release Blades for free and stuff the game full of ways to knock money out of your pocket. For example, you have to wait hours before you can build a new building in your city, you need resources that also take time to get, and you even have to wait to open a treasure chest until a timer has expired.
That starts innocently with bronze chests that remain closed for 5 seconds, but quickly gets worse when silver chests appear that you have to wait three hours for. To make matters worse, you can only collect ten treasure chests at a time, so after half an hour of playing you can no longer hold on to new stuff. Unless you spend green jewels that you can buy for real money in the ingame store, of course.
Conclusion
In addition to all these measures, we would have preferred the option to pay once for Blades, in order to be able to play the game without all those timers and green jewels. All these minor tweaks really take the momentum out of the game, which is at its best when you do a few quests in short sessions and gradually get some goblins on your sword. Which is a shame, because Blades is a lot of fun to pass the time by searching a dungeon, helping with some quests and making your character a little better.
Download The Elder Scrolls Blades
For now, The Elder Scrolls Blades can only be played if you get through a waiting list. The game is still in early access and will be available to everyone at a later date. So if you want to play, you can download the game and join the queue.
Looking for more? Also check out our latest list of the best iOS games of March, which are also worth checking out. Or view our app overview full of reviews and new gems.