Bethesda launched The Elder Scrolls: Blades, a version that took the key aspects of the Elder Scrolls franchise and made it an experience for mobile devices. Perhaps that is why it has some elements of mobile games that make fans of this game feel a bit annoyed.
The appearance of The Elder Scrolls: Blades on mobile devices was announced at E3 2018. It still takes place in the universe of the famous Elder Scrolls, however, the experiences on the phone will not be an open world. Instead, it focuses primarily on managing a small town and missions.
Players will quickly be put into the game's world and right off the bat they are introduced to a devastating landscape of a village destroyed and burned. The player's tasks are to find the villagers who have fled, rebuild their houses and shops, find new inhabitants and bring life back to the village. Players must explore dungeons and complete various missions to rebuild this village.
The first tasks for players are usually to save the villagers, kill the bad guys and collect necessary items and other things in the dungeons.
Eventually, the repetitive tasks might make you feel bored, but the game provides enough content to entertain you for several hours before that point. Because the quests of the game are really simple, it is not too difficult to overcome but still create a certain interest. Every time you complete a mission, you will get more resources to rebuild the village. What makes it more interesting is that you can completely customize the construction of shops and houses. Village construction and arrangement allows players to feel the change and improvement every day.
Players will also collect new armor, weapons, levels, and abilities after passing each challenge. You can unlock simple skills or magic. Although this feature is hardly anything new, it is highly polished to a level matched by few mobile RPGs.
Currently, the game is not built with an open world but instead, players will explore their own town with dungeons, centers, and other areas. This discovery will depend on the player's level and mission. Again, some might find this too watered down, but remember, The Elder Scrolls: Blades is a game that was designed to be picked up and played on the go, and it does exactly that.
The player can turn off the application while doing the mission, nothing will be changed and you will continue to perform the task when you return to the game later. This is more convenient when you are playing a game and there is an interruption that stops you from playing, especially when waiting for a bus or a friend.
You can say The Elder Scrolls: Blades is a game with graphics and UIs that are quite well done. Its interface is as realistic and sharp as the Xbox 360 games. Sometimes the image of water and light is a little bit weird, but in general, this is still a pretty well-developed game, especially when it doesn't make your phone too hot or kill your battery.
It can be said that Blades meets most of the Elder Scrolls fans' expectations. The variety of enemies, the magic, stamina, armor, and the many playable races are all there. Developers seem to only make the Elder Scrolls work smoother with touch screens and smartphones.
There are not many phone games that allow players to use both vertical and horizontal mode, but Blades' developers are really keen to give it the ability to work well in every way. It allows players to easily play in every position and especially when you only have one hand free. The modes and controls automatically switch smoothly without overloading or lagging when we change the direction of the phone.
If you use the phone horizontally, you will use the virtual joystick to move your character. Meanwhile, when used vertically, the player will touch the ground where you want the character to move.
To fight in The Elder Scrolls: Blades, players only need to touch and hold until a circle is filled and release when you want to attack the opponent. You will have to watch the time to get the best strike. And to prevent an attack from an enemy, simply click on the left side of the screen to use the shield. The higher the level you reach, the more magic and new abilities you can use. Meanwhile, the screen will display the icons for you to click on and use them in the battle.
Although the way to control when fighting is not too complicated, it is enough to make players spend time to become proficient and professional. The dungeon discovery, missions, and battles are not taken directly from the main games on PC, but the developer did very well when redesigning it to fit mobile devices.
However, one downside to Blades is its chest system. All fans of RPGs know the excitement of anticipation while unlocking a chest as soon as they find them, but if that's what you expect in Blades, you are going to be disappointed: The first time you open a chest, it simply disappears and you get nothing. The game then explains that the chests you collect during the quests will be unlocked in a menu rather than clicking directly on it and you have to wait a while for these chests to really open.
Small chests take less than a minute, but special, rare and large chests can take you hours of waiting. Of course, you can skip this wait by using in-game gems which you can buy in the store.
Opening the chest is one of the actions that bring excitement in The Elder Scrolls, but now it is locked with the timer, making you feel a little uncomfortable. Except for this timer, you can enjoy this game for free and not be bothered by other factors.
The rest of the game gives players a sense of freedom and without any manipulation. If this annoying timer is a cost for a high-quality mobile game like this, it is quite worth it. However, many players are still angry with that.
Then there is The Abyss, a randomly-generated big dungeon to challenge players to go as far as possible. If you go deeper into The Abyss, you will receive more items and rewards. A PvP mode is also reportedly in the works, but it is not available in the game just yet, nor is there any information on how it will be.
The Elder Scrolls: Blades is definitely not a mobile Skyrim. The game actually only simulates the core elements, gameplay, and images of the big game and put it on the touch screen. It can be said, Bethesda have successfully implemented their goals.
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