Bethesda has announced that the early access phase of the mobile game The Elder Scrolls Blades is now open to everyone on iOS and Android. Pre-registrations are no longer necessary. However, microtransactions continue to face criticism.
How do you play The Elder Scrolls Blades now? While you previously had to sign up at Bethesda.net and then wait for an invitation, you can now simply download the mobile game from the Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store.
However, not all smartphone models are supported yet. If The Elder Scrolls Blades does not appear in your app store, your phone is likely not supported yet. Bethesda is continually adding new models to the list.
Elder Scrolls Blades polarizes
What does the new version offer? Bethesda has also released a new update. This brings some new features:
- There are more quests.
- The amount of EXP in later quests has been increased.
- You can now find gems as rewards.
- Balancing optimizations have been made.
- The UI provides more information.
- Crashes have been fixed.
What do the players think? The Elder Scrolls Blades divides the community strongly. There are those who see it as a mobile game that is financed by microtransactions.
Thus, the game generally receives good reviews in the App Store, where currently 4200 reviews yield an average score of 4.4 out of 5 stars. Some players praise the recent improvements and see it more as an Elder Scrolls for on-the-go.
In the Google Play Store, the game receives only 3.3 out of 5 with 303 reviews. However, The Elder Scrolls Blades has an unusually high 126 5-star ratings, compared to 89 1-star ratings.
Those who rate it so poorly often feel “betrayed” by Bethesda, because the beloved RPG series The Elder Scrolls Online has turned into a mobile game. Or because it has too strong of a pay-to-win influence.
Microtransactions face criticism
What is being criticized? The microtransactions are particularly criticized. That’s why the new early access trailer for the game is currently being bombarded with dislikes on YouTube. 1783 likes are matched against 2511 dislikes (as of 1:30 PM, 03.05.2019):
Although there have already been optimizations, such as with the silver chests, many players still feel that the focus is too much on the in-game shop. The chests, for example, which can either be opened immediately with gems or require a lot of patience if you want to open them without using premium currency, continue to be criticized.
Players would rather pay for the app than always stand in front of timers or have to pay gems so that the flow of the game is not interrupted.
So who is the game worth it for? If you can overlook the microtransactions and view The Elder Scrolls Blades as a mobile game, you can certainly have fun with it.
For a mobile game, it looks very good and is at least entertaining as a dungeon crawler in between.
A core game as mobile
This is behind it: With The Elder Scrolls Blades, a “core game” (Elder Scrolls) has been ported to mobile. This brings surprisingly much conflict potential, as we have learned at the latest since Diablo Immortal.
Many core gamers generally reject the monetization ideas that are typical for mobile games: In mobile games, restrictions are often active that hinder “uninterrupted” gameplay, as core gamers are used to. The player is meant to be incentivized to bypass the intended game pauses through monetary investment.
Those who are used to such hurdles as mobile gamers are much less disturbed by them in their gaming experience – you become numb as a mobile player.
This explains the widely varying reactions to Elder Scrolls Blades.
