Each dungeon is extremely linear and small, and there is little to no interaction with the environments, which means they all end up being little more than stage dressings, so much so that I don’t even see the point is to let us control our character’s movements rather than just take us from battle to battle. Worse yet, dungeons don’t even do a very good job as a stage dress, as there’s very little visual variety here – it’s just bland stripes of browns and grays. Each dungeon is extremely linear and small, and there is little to no interaction with the environments, which means they all end up being little more than stage skins, to the point that I don’t even see the aim to let us control the movement of our character rather than taking us from battle to battle. You participate in events or go on quests given to you by NPCs to get resources, which you then use to rebuild your property, but every quest is the same. The way you go about rebuilding it, however, is where the repetitive nature of the game comes into play. Contributing to its rebuilding and seeing it grow again is the aspect of the game that probably works the best (although the best is too strong a word to use), especially because you feel like you are making significant progress. The actual reconstruction of your city can be somewhat satisfactory. It’s a usable setup, and the game, to its credit, soaks up some of the series’ famous lore, but sadly everything it drives is, quite simply, a monotonous grind. This puts you on the path to finding out what exactly happened and why it happened, while rebuilding your property. You play as a member of the titular Blades, a group of legendary soldiers and spies who return to their hometown, only to find it burnt to the ground. “Being truncated doesn’t excuse a game of bad design decisions and repetitive and frustrating design – and sadly, The Elder Scrolls: Blades is rife with both of these things. Being truncated doesn’t excuse a game of bad design decisions and repetitive and frustrating design – and sadly, The Elder Scrolls: Blades is rife with both of these things. Just look at the likes of Super mario run Where Pokémon Go, games designed to be mobile-centric versions of big franchises, but still manage to be tons of bite-sized fun.
However, being a heavily toned down version of a much bigger series formula doesn’t necessarily mean that a game can’t have room for brilliant ideas or good design.
It was always meant to be a much lighter experience, and free to play, on top of that. Although he wears the “Old scrolls” nickname, this obviously was never meant to be a game that tries to deliver a type of experience similar to the likes of Skyrim Where Morrowind.
I went in The Elder Scrolls: Blades with my expectations firmly in check.