The Elder Scrolls: Blades

 
For a poor sucker like me, sometimes dreams of Skyrim are busted by realities like Blades. As I already own the former on PC, I still haven't found it in me to buy it again for Switch. Unfortunately, I rarely have time to boot up anything more than a handheld, so my next best thing was Tamriel's finest free-to-play adventure. For something that started it's life on smartphones, it does look pretty fantastic, and honestly, the combat is pretty exciting once you get past the lack of ranged weaponry. The story even kept me engaged for as long as I played. However, I kept finding it hard to pick the game back up thanks to the forced grinding of repetitive side-missions.

Simplifying the Elder Scrolls formula to fit on mobile devices did require big sacrifices, such as the removal of the series-standard open world and developable skills. The result is a clean, streamlined experience that actually fits the platform pretty nicely, at least at first. All gameplay starts in a hub village; tackling missions, interacting with characters, shopping and crafting, and even town-building all begins in the same place. I had a lot of fun developing my town, and it sparked a small sense of pride every time I returned from a mission. Unfortunately, the streamlined approach to gameplay also quickened the pace towards monotony. In order to keep people playing longer, story missions increase in difficulty at a slightly faster rate than you naturally grow in levels and gear. This forced me to grind through repetitive side missions just to get strong enough to take on the part of the game I actually wanted to play. Story missions are loaded with unique interactions and locales, but side missions repeat the same few quests through the same few maps indefinitely. Playing the boring stuff ended up not being with it to me, and I never completed the game's story. Maybe I'll revisit it someday, but I wouldn't count on it.

Blades was a truly enjoyable game while it lasted, and the microtransactions are so unnecessary that I honestly couldn't even tell you what they are. However, monotony creeped in and took over an otherwise promising mobile take on a legendary series, making this a hard game to finish. If Skyrim is easilyaccessible to you, just play that instead. Otherwise, maybe Blades will hold your attention for a little while.

The game is available for Switch here (as of 2/17/21): https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/the-elder-scrolls-blades-switch/
The game is available for Android here (as of 2/17/21): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bethsoft.blade&hl=en_US&gl=US
The game is available for iOS here (as of 2/17/21): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-elder-scrolls-blades/id1358476597

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