The Elder Scrolls: Blades

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Bethesda Game Studios

Elder Scrolls: Blades is one of those free-to-play games that you'd find on a mobile phone - you can play and do things to a degree, but once you do too much, you've got to wait for a timer to reach zero before you can continue….unless you want to pay some cash to speed the timer up. That aspect alone is a bit annoying. The gameplay itself doesn't exactly make you want to keep playing, either. In Blades, you'll be traversing stages and battling enemies…it looks like an Elder Scrolls game to a degree, but it definitely does not play like one in combat. The combat is boring and clunky. Exploring the stages also doesn't feel like an Elder Scrolls game - it feels unresponsive at times and awkward. There is a neat addition of hidden secrets in each stage to find, which encourages exploration…but after a few stages, I had lost all desire to attempt to find them. The point of traveling through these stages is to acquire materials to rebuild a town…and if your town isn't big enough, you can't accept more difficult quests. So, you'll find yourself returning to the same areas way too many times to gather materials just so you can finally access someplace new, just to start the process again. I want to like Blades…but the poor free-to-play concept, with repetitive gameplay, and questionable controls makes it a very, very difficult game to like.

Review added: 12/29/2024