Elder Scrolls Blades (Android): Game Review

in #gaming5 years ago

After an extended closed trial phase, the long awaited transition of the Elder Scrolls franchise to mobile has finally occurred. Blades is the free-to-play version of the famed open world gaming stalwart, with only a Bethesda account required to jump straight in and start swinging swords and slinging spells. After a few weeks of playing the game, here are my thoughts!

Please keep in mind it is still an open beta, and so there are many things that will have changed since the writing of this review.

Character Generation

A very quick backstory and mechanics tutorial greets the player... basically, it sets up the premise that the Blades (the Emperor's elite guards) have been declared illegal by the Thalmor (Elves) after a war between the Humans and Elves where the Humans were defeated. Thus, all the members of the Blades are being hunted down and slaughtered by the Thalmor (can't you just turn in your membership card?)... and the tutorial begins with you fighting for your life against a Thalmor Assassin, which doubles as a way of teaching the mechanics of attacking and defending.... and surprisingly very little else!

So... all the lore and mechanics learning out of the way (you will wish they did explain a touch more though...), you are transported to a destroyed town, where you are greeted by Junius the Elder who seems to recognise you. Segue into the character creations pages... (none of this is subtle, it's pretty ham-fisted!).

All the Elder Scrolls races are represented here, along with some racial bonuses and specialisations. After playing for a while, I have to say that the various bonuses are pretty cosmetic. The larger impact will be from your gear that you equip....

A pretty comprehensive character editor is present... although it isn't quite as formidible as the PC versions of the franchise, I don't think anyone was expecting that there would be quite so much variations. However, most of the settings are presets rather than the famed sliders from the PC. In the end, it doesn't really matter what your character looks like, it is just a cosmetic thing... but I do know some players do obsess over this part of the game!

However, there is no danger here... very early in the game, you do meet someone who can completely change every aspect of your character, from race to cosmetic selections. So, feel free to make that Frankenstein that you've always wanted to....

Home Base

Well.... the Town that you show up in, it is completely destroyed... and you are tasked with helping to rebuild it (and trying to figure out the reason and people responsible for the destruction). As you rebuild the town, you begin to unlock various abilities of the townfolk (like the early Smithy for repairing and crafting weapons and armour) in addition to raising the Prestige of the town. The Town's Prestige rating is also linked to which buildings are unlocked to build... which allow you to further raise the prestige and... well, you see the loop here....

Building and uprading buildings cost both marterials and gold, which can be gathered and harvested on one of your many dungeon runs, revealed from opening treasure chests or by paying REAL money for them in the Store. There is also a build time in real time, which can range from 5 seconds through to significant chunks of a day. If you are the impatient type, you can pay in jewels to shortcut the build time... to get jewels, you can get them as rare drops in the dungeon... or pay REAL money for them.

The actual list of buildings that you can build is disappointingly small at the moment (but I'm not sure that they are planning to expand anyway...). The three house types are for raising prestige, which go towards unlocking the 3 workshop buildings which actually have an in-game function.

Character Building and Equipment

So, this is the principal part of any RPG.. even it is a severely "lite" form of the genre. Equipment is found in dungeons in the various chests that seem to haunt every self-respecting hole and ruin.... or it can be crafted from the materials that are found in the same dank holes... or finally, it can also be received as rewards for completing quests. In any case, each particular item has an allotted equipment slot in your paper doll, and can be upgraded with materials (and time...) at the Blacksmith, or imbued with magical properties with the Enchanter. On the whole, it is a pretty uninteresting sort of progression due to the lack of interesting equipment types... but you soon find out that equipment is quite critical for progression and survival, which leads to a very tight hook for the monetisation model....

With each level up (done with XP earned by bashing monsters in the face and completing quests...), you are allocated a single skill point to unlock or upgrade a spell, perk or ability. Only three spells and three abilities are active to use in the dungeon... which I understand that is a limitation of the phone screen (UI space limitation...)... however, it is a big change to the real Elder Scrolls experience. Plus, all of the skills and perks are geared to towards combat... as this is the focus of the gaming part of the game.

So.... definitely a "lite" experience from the RPG angle!

Dungeon Diving

Dungeons are linear and very limited in scope (again... a limitation of the hardware)... and designed to be completed in short runs on the order of about 5 minutes. So, don't expect that Elder Scrolls experience of vast underground ruins to explore... Items are also highlighted and there is a sprite that will point you to your objectives, severe hand holding for the phone generation!

Speaking of objectives... don't expect Shakespearean quality of motivation and quest backstory... you have one liner, bash, kill and fetch quests. The story quests are fleshed out a little bit more... very little bit more.... very very little....

The slightest hint of non-linearity does appear in the story quest dungeons... with the hidden chests that are found in out of the way places on the map. Usually these are found by triggering a piece of the scenery (which is highlighted...), which opens a secret door. Savour it... it is the most exploration that you will be doing in this game!

The combat is very much a quick time affair... with the enemies telegraphing attacks and you need to respond with timing blocks and returning attacks. It is a melee and magic spectacle only, with all combat being one-on-one.... even if you are surrounded by goblins! Very honourable... and very stupid and dead goblins! However, you soon realise that level and equipment are the principal factors determining the outcome of a battle and thus the dungeon run... an unfortunate and inevitable side effect of the free-to-play model.

Monetisation

The downfall of pretty much every game that I've played that relies on the free-to-play model... is the problem of the monetisation infecting gameplay. Blades is no exception... chests take time to open, buildings and crafting take time to finish (okay, that is realistic....)... everything can be short-cutted with the application of gems... which cost money. Better equipment, no problem... pay up... faster completion... no problem, pay up...

That said, there is no need to pay up for anything... you can just be patient and wait... but then you need to grind like crazy, as the story missions do reach a difficulty spike that can only be overcome by better equipment and skills. Sadly, the story and the motivation to continue is just NOT worth the effort!

... and it just isn't worth the money either!

Visuals and Performance

Visuals are pretty much what you would expect from a phone... jaggies and reduced textures about... and there is some degree of pop-up. On my hardware (which is likely better than most...), there was no lag at least... which would be a killer in a QTE based game. So, not pretty... but not terrible.

On the sound front, it is great... that epic music soundscape from the Elder Scrolls series is also present here. I would have to say that it is the single stand out of the game! Sadly, it means that you will also want some decent headphones to play with... and this isn't really a sit down and savour game... more a, kill time on a bus sort of game... so, unless you are a completely impolite fool, you will need a good set of headphones to really appreciate the sound... otherwise, you will have it on silent most of the time!

Conclusion

TL;DR? Play Steem-Monsters.

I'm afraid that this particular installment in The Elder Scrolls franchise is a big big miss.... monetisation is too much in the way of a passable game... however, that said, the actual mechanics and narrative background of the game is just not that engaging! The Elder Scrolls is all about going off the beaten path... getting lost in a world that is open and full of little stories waiting to be discovered... then you realise that you've completely forgotten that you've neglected the main storyline... and the Universe destroying main event is patiently waiting whilst you get lost in some random hole somewhere following some inconsequential little quest given to you by a random person in a tiny hamlet....

There is none of that open-world grandness in this game... aside from the music scoring... everything is so small and linear... this is not a game worthy of the Elder Scrolls franchise... it is a money grabbing abomination that has no place in our beloved Elder Scrolls canon.

Reviewed on

OnePlus 5 (A5000)

OS: Android 9 (Oxygen 9.04)
Screen size:AMOLED 5.5-inch.
Resolution: 1920 x 1080.
CPU: Snapdragon 835.
RAM: 8GB of RAM.
Storage: 128GB.

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Sounds like a typical, modern Bethesda game. A money making exercise with the minimal amount of content.

Posted using Partiko Android

Yup... sadly, that seems to be where the money is... but there will be other studios who will take up the mantle of creating high quality, in depth games... like maybe the creators of Witcher!

Elder Scrolls keeps moving further and further in the wrong direction it seems at least in what I enjoy.

There is a lot of money out there in the mobile market. Even more so in the emerging markets where people have phones but not desktop computers. I’m just not so thrilled about games being of lower quality and costing 100 times more than they ever could have ask for when they are using a cash shop instead of just buying the game if you want any "enjoyment" out of them.

Yup... although, that said, there are lots of new studios putting out some really high quality and in -depth games as well... so, if TES goes, then there will be others...

Mobile games have been such a disappointment in general... fine for casual time wasting... but they are really designed to be a cash machine. There are some pretty good exceptions though... but that said, I rarely want to be draining my phone battery on gaming! That's why I have a Switch... phone is for communication, less so for gaming! (I even have a gigantic battery pack, but I still don't really want to be using my phone for gaming...)

What a great review I haven't played Elder Scrolls but my Stepson dd I must ask him tomorrow if he is aware of the mobile version when I talk to him tomorrow he may be interested in it

Oh... if he loves Elder Scrolls... then this is a pale imitation and a poor representation of the franchise!

Oh I see so maybe i wont even mention it to him thanks for the info

Ugh I hate pay to play, it really grates. I finished Skyrim on the PS3 a few years back and all the DLC, love RPG's.

Yeah, when it really drives the game it gets too much... Hard-core RPGs with worlds that you can really get lost in... they are the best!

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This is an excellent review, thank you. It's sad how much monetization creeps into games for phones nowadays.

I think a much better model would be limited but replayable demo versions of games, and then a single purchase for the full game. Or, I've seen some actually decent ad systems that are genuinely not too intrusive and are rewarding to do, I feel like that could be an option as well.

I'm considering making some kind of phone game in the near future, so these sorts of reviews are awesome to see what is good and bad for other people.

Posted using Partiko Android

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