Developer: Dire Wolf Digital LLC
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Platforms: Mac, PC, iOs, Android
Tested on: PC
The Elder Scrolls: Legends – Review
The Elder Scrolls series was started in 1994. So the game series is 23 years old. The Elder Scrolls is usually developed by Bethesda Softworks. However The Elder Scrolls: Legends has been developed by Dire Wolf Digital LLC, who are known for Lanterns, Clank and Cardcraft among others. So they aren’t new to card based games. Our original preview of Legends can be read by clicking here.
Story
Hold the phone, this Elder Scrolls game doesn’t start off with a prisoner. Fans will be scratching their heads over that one. Every good story goes along the lines of introducing a character, laying the plot down and the main conflict and the solution to the problem or the finish line to the quest to save whomever or whatever they are supposed to save. The character you play as is ‘The Forgotten Hero’, who is after the elf Naarifin who plans to unleash the Daedra. For newcomers to the series, the Daedra are demon-like creatures hellbent on destruction. So ‘The Forgotten Hero’ has to get to the White Gold Tower to stop Naarifin and save the planet from certain doom. Of course the journey is riddled with hurdles to overcome.
Graphics
The Elder Scrolls series are known for rather ghastly animations with glazed over eyes and animatronic animations. Not to mention the rather hilarious glitches and weird ragdoll physics. Usually nothing game breaking, but they are often referred to in glitch videos. The Elder Scrolls: Legends doesn’t do graphical glitches. Seeing as there is no possibilities for it. There’s just the artwork of the cards and the animations for when you attack or are getting attacked. So don’t expect anything hilariously glitchy. When talking about the artwork, the artists have gone quite far to really convey the ‘Elder Scrolls’ feeling. Successfully so, because the artwork on the cards is quite beautiful.
Sound
Voice acting is a major part of The Elder Scrolls: Legends, which is fantastic, and the playable character has a voice too. This is a rare when it comes to ‘The Elder Scrolls’ games. Usually everyone around the character has a voice, but the main character doesn’t, to deepen the immersion, because the player can fill in the voice to their own liking or their view of the created character. The Elder Scrolls: Legends is different when speaking about the narrative. ‘The Forgotten Hero’ is predefined so the creators have their vision of him and they aren’t afraid to project it. When it comes to music in the game, it is perfectly balanced to be pleasant on the ears, while still making it possible for the player to be able to focus on the game while they are deciding on what next play is going to be.
Gameplay
The Elder Scrolls: Legends is a card game. So the controls are extremely basic and shouldn’t be a reason to not play the game, it’s completely played with the mouse. You drag the cards onto the playing field and choose your targets. Either the cards on the opponents part of the field or their life points directly. So if you pull the strongest monster in the first turn, the game is already over? Not at all. The game works with a mana pool. Every turn a point gets added to the mana pool. Certain cards can add extra mana to it and make it so you can play stronger cards faster or more cards at a certain time. The system of mana is very reminiscent to Blizzard’s Hearthstone.
For the first turn you’ll only be able to play 0 mana cost cards, the second turn a 1 mana cost card can be played, and so on and so on, the strongest cards cost 7 mana to play and you’ll have to make decisions on when to play certain cards, because playing that card to make your mana pool bigger might seem like a good move now, but maybe you should wait for it until you’ve got some stronger monsters. Maybe you don’t want to play the strong monster, but you want to build a vast army of weaker monsters while upgrading them with lower mana cost cards to start dealing chip damage. Don’t doubt that you can overcome a stronger monster with a couple of summoning cards who summon several weaker monsters. Winning or losing is done when you either lose all your life points, or destroy your enemies life points. You can either choose to target your enemies life points directly or target their monsters as mentioned previously. Targeting their monsters and destroying them means they can’t attack you, but it won’t put as much damage on your enemies life points. It might keep you in the game a turn longer which might win you the game. Because it could all change with the drop of a hat when you or the opponent draws the right card.
Every game has flaws, The Elder Scrolls: Legends main flaw is the involvement of RNG, which basically means, that however great your deck is, if you get a shit hand, you’ll have a hard time getting back in the game. If you are new to card games, you might be turned off to the rather high difficult spike of building your own deck. There are however guides on the internet to help you. That shouldn’t deter you from playing the game.
Conclusion
The Elder Scrolls: Legends is a card game, which might deter you if you are new to the genre and afraid of the difficulty spike. campaign wise it does a great job at helping the player learn the ropes, but to really get into the meta game most players will need some help on building their deck to win the games. The game is free however, so it can’t hurt to have a look at it, seeing as you can get quite some hours of fun out of The Elder Scrolls: Legends, for free. There are some micro transactions, but the main game is crafted well enough for the player to enjoy it without needing to buy into it.
The Elder Scrolls: Legends - Review,
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