Our author Dave was able to play The Elder Scrolls: Blades (iOS, Android) and surprise: he doesn’t hate it, even though it’s mobile! Read here how he liked the first hour and a half in the game in his small preview test.
Recently, a little birdie told me, that The Elder Scrolls Blades is now available for download.
“Sacrilege! Humanity is going to the dogs!” shouted the core gamer in me. “A free-to-play mobile game in the Elder Scrolls universe? Hell no!”
But then I thought: “Wait a minute, this is from Bethesda after all. And it’s free.” If there’s free beer, I also wouldn’t say no – even if it’s Oettinger. And you can take a look in the mouth of a gift horse before you turn it into sausage.
So I downloaded it, fired it up, beat a knight with the sword and… threw my phone out the window.
Okay, the last point was a lie. But I was eager to play, because after the super short and, in my opinion, uninformative tutorial, there was first a static screen with a thank you for downloading and the information that unfortunately you weren’t worthy to really get started.
I had to wait until they beckoned me over.
Many hours later I was finally able to play and what can I say… Elder Scrolls Blades has everything I hate about mobile games. But it has turned out damn good.
Heydenreich and the Arsonists
This is how it started: Contrary to my expectations, The Elder Scrolls Blades grabbed me from the first second. I returned with my hero to his hometown and found it in flames.
After a little scuffle with the arsonists and a nice chat with one of the survivors, I soon ended up in the character creation menu. Here I could choose whether I wanted to be male or female and of course which race I wanted to belong to.
Khajiit, Dark Elves, High Elves, Nords, Bretons, Argonians, Imperials… all the well-known races and classes from the Elder Scrolls universe are included. You can also vary the body size and the look of head, eyes, nose, and mouth. Either through a movable slider or through numerous options to choose from.
Everything like in a “real” Elder Scrolls. I’m surprised.
Quests and Mission Design
Right after character creation, I got my first quests. Through the quest menu, these can be started and you are immediately in the corresponding level. Well, the quest design can’t be called particularly creative right now. Find and rescue person X, collect Y potatoes, kill Z goblins.
The next ninety minutes, I ran through catacombs or narrow outdoor areas, completed my tasks, and collected resources and gold. I have to say: despite the unimaginative mission design, it’s really fun. You find something useful all the time and the flow of play is never interrupted in The Elder Scrolls: Blades.
A nice detail: In every dungeon, there is a “secret room” or even several. There waits an extra chest for me. It was really fun searching the levels for this secret room – even if it didn’t pose a real challenge to find it.
The City
What’s there to do in the city? At the beginning, the city consists only of ruins that can be clicked and then expanded into a desired building. In the short time I played, I rebuilt a town hall and a forge.
In the forge, I could already upgrade my weapons and armor pieces. There are also many open spaces where you can place decorations. I’m curious about how it will continue.
The Chests
Here comes the catch! As a reward for completing quests, I received chests. While normal chests could be opened within five seconds, unlocking the silver ones already takes three hours and the golden ones a whole six.
Alternatively, I can spend gems, the in-game currency, to open the chests immediately. You probably guessed it: these gems cost money.
Additionally, gems are needed to increase your inventory and to resurrect you on the spot in battle; otherwise, you have to start the dungeon again from the beginning, which I personally have no problem with, as the levels are quite short.
In any case, I haven’t run into a paywall. Since you have ten chest slots available at the beginning and can expand these to twenty relatively quickly, you would theoretically need to get more than ten chests within three hours to feel compelled to spend gems. After my first two hours in Elder Scrolls Blades, only half was occupied. So for now, I was spared a nervous breakdown.
However, it is of course still annoying that you have to wait three to six hours to get your loot. The prices in the shop can, with a lot of goodwill, be described as steep.
A legendary loot box, for example, costs around twenty euros. It contains just one legendary item and a few materials. Mommies and daddies all over the world should be even more careful with their credit cards from now on.
Graphics and Performance
Is the graphics really that good? Oh yes! Right from the first moment when you start the game, you are immediately overwhelmed by the beautiful world. You stand in the forest, the sun is shining, and the trees are swaying in the wind. Sounds unremarkable but it had the ultimate WOW effect.
I have never seen anything like this on a smartphone. The screenshots only partially reflect what you see when playing the game on a Retina display.
And the performance? Is it lagging? I played for nearly two hours on an iPhone XS and could not detect any lags. There was also no crash. The device’s heating remained well below expectations. It got a bit warm after an hour, but at no point uncomfortably hot. Very commendable.
However, it cannot be denied that there are performance issues with other smartphone models when playing The Elder Scrolls Blades.
Controls and Handling
Is The Elder Scrolls Blades enjoyable to play? Absolutely. On the one hand, you can choose whether to play it in portrait or landscape mode. Thus, with one or two hands.
On the other hand, it offers both the classic touch control (left stick to run, right stick to look around) as well as a point and click control. Of course, it’s still not as pleasant as with a controller or with mouse and keyboard, but once you get into it, it’s fun. Yes, you read that right: fun.
I was positively surprised at this point too and did not wake up this morning with cramped hands.
That’s why I forgive you, Blades
The Elder Scrolls Blades, you entertained me very well in the first two hours.
The gameplay is nice, the graphics are excellent, the controls are good, and the flow of the game is not interrupted by ads or similar. That’s more than most mobile games can claim for themselves.
Still, you are still a mobile game. And if the chest situation should escalate later in the game, you’ll be removed from my storage. But for now… Holla die Waldelfe! I would say that the waiting time in front of public restrooms could significantly increase in the future if this game becomes a hit.
Don’t feel like mobile? And have you always wanted to have a stone as a pet? Play Elder Scrolls Online! It’s currently also free, including a prologue to the next addon…
This is how you can play The Elder Scrolls Blades: If you want to try out the mobile game yourself, we have compiled all information for downloading The Elder Scrolls Blades on iOS and Android for you.
