The Elder Scrolls: Blades

Genre: First-Person Action-RPG

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Online)

Game Company Bad Behavior Profile Page: ZeniMax Media Inc

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Review:

WARNING: THIS GAME HEAVILY PUSHES MICROTRANSACTIONS AND LOOTBOXES, AND USES WAIT MECHANICS

The Elder Scrolls: Blades is a Free-to-Play Action-RPG originally released on mobile devices in 2019, and ported to the Switch just over a year later. This is a game that plays like a highly-condensed, simplified version of what you’d find in another Elder Scrolls game like Oblivion or Skyrim, albeit without the open-world, the wide variety of gameplay, the high amount of character customization, the wonderfully interconnected stories of a huge cast of characters or… well, many of the things that people most associate with Elder Scrolls games, actually. But hey, free is free, right?

Visually, this looks like an Elder Scrolls game, with a similar visual style, similar sound effects, and a similar style of music to Skyrim and Oblivion. However, the quality of the visuals here pales in comparison to Skyrim, without anywhere near the sense of scale and detail, and that’s without even taking into consideration that Skyrim is a massive open-world game, and Blades is extremely limited and claustrophobic.

The story here is also somewhat generic – players take the role of a traveler returning to their hometown, apparently after journeying for many years, only to find the place has been set asunder by mercenaries answering to someone calling themselves the queen. Players must take it upon themselves to rebuild the town while rescuing the scattered townsfolk.

The town in this game acts as something like a hub, where players accept missions that automatically whisk them away to a linear, randomized dungeon. There, players fight enemies, collect loot and crafting materials, and ultimately return to the town to upgrade their equipment, and use the crafting materials to build or upgrade structures in the town.

Okay, it is very hard to play this game and not compare it to Oblivion and Skyrim. The entire presentation of the game and the very name of this game pretty much demand it, but I try to make it a point to judge a game not based on what it isn’t, but on what it is. So yes, this game is missing a lot of what I love about The Elder Scrolls. There’s no exploration, no sense of discovery, no feeling that you’re operating within a vast, living world… I can’t be my usual sneaky thief nor sneak up on enemies, I can’t really listen in on townsfolk to get snippets of worldbuilding… okay, fine. But that leaves the question, what is there to enjoy in this game?

Well, there’s simple, repetitive combat, where you get spotted by an enemy, wait for them to run over to you, and then trade blows back and forth like a drunken brawl. There’s hunting for treasures in the dungeons, though you can’t really interact with the environments and anything you can take is glowing and highlighted. And then there’s the town-building element, the one thing this game does that’s kinda’ new.

To the game’s credit, there is some variety and progression in this part of the game, and players have a good amount of freedom to recreate the town how they want. It never goes as far as, say, a city-building sim, but it’s still nice to be able to choose where to put the smithy’s shop, where to put the new residences, and so on. However, when building, as well as upgrading your own equipment, you’ll discover the catch these come with – everything you do in town comes with a real-time wait mechanic attached. Oh, and you can bet that the game tries to sell you gems that can be used to skip that wait.

Look, I get that a Free-to-Play game has to make its money elsewhere, but even for a Free-to-Play game, Blades is pretty aggressive. It seems like every time you return to town from a trip to a dungeon, you’re hit with an ad to buy something. Any time you want to upgrade a sword or piece of armor, you’ll be losing that item for hours unless you pony up real-world dough. And it’s one thing for me to try and stave off the feeling that I’d rather be playing Skyrim without this stuff, but with the game constantly harassing me for money, it’s even harder to enjoy this game for what it is.

In short, if you want an Elder Scrolls game on the Switch, get Skyrim. If you enjoyed Skyrim and want to play another game like that, go back and play Skyrim again. If you want to play a different game like that, I dunno, maybe play The Witcher III. The Elder Scrolls: Blades may have the look and feel of an Elder Scrolls game, but it absolutely fails to deliver the experience of an Elder Scrolls game. And that’s fine, so long as the experience it does deliver is worthwhile… but while raiding dungeons and upgrading your town can have its moments of fun, the limitations keep presenting themselves, and many of those limitations absolutely feel like a shady figure trying to work you over for money… well, because that’s pretty much what’s going on here. If you want a simple RPG on the Switch that costs absolutely nothing, The Elder Scrolls: Blades fills that role, but if at all possible you should definitely save up and get Skyrim, it’s just a much better game overall.

tl;dr – The Elder Scrolls: Blades is a First-Person Action-RPG originally released on mobile devices in 2019. It doesn’t have the open world of Skyrim. Or the character customization. Or the variety. Or the graphics. Or the intricate, detailed world. Rather, this is an extremely simplified take on the franchise that does at least have some interesting town-building elements. Unfortunately, even what little joy this game has to offer is bogged down by extremely aggressive monetization that sours the whole experience. If you can manage to scrape together the money, just get Skyrim instead.

Grade: C-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2020 Game Awards:

Winner:

Worst Microtransactions – Some of the games in this year’s nominees earned my ire by targeting kids with microtransactions, some made the overall game a worse experience by pushing them, and some outright pushed players to pay not to have to wait. But The Elder Scrolls: Blades earned this award by being a game that can’t really be played in any reasonable fashion without shelling out for microtransactions, resulting in a game that feels more like a moneymaking scam than the epic quest it poses as. What’s more, the game never lets you forget this, constantly hounding you to give them money. As I’ve said before, I’m not opposed to free games using microtransactions to earn money, but The Elder Scrolls: Blades isn’t a free game looking to make money with microtransactions, it’s a microtransaction money trap posing as a game to lure in victims.

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