Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Elder Scrolls The Elder Scrolls: Blades - free to play, first-person RPG for mobile platforms

Deleted Member 16721

Guest
Because it prevents us from otherwise enjoying a game?

Well a lot of games aren't catered to everyone's tastes. Some would say Outward needs fast travel. They demand it be added for them to enjoy the game (even though in this case, it's falling on deaf ears. Hallelujah!). Same idea with a game like Blades. So if you don't like it just either deal with it and enjoy the game regardless or skip it. Those are your options.
 

Sigourn

uooh afficionado
Joined
Feb 6, 2016
Messages
5,624
Well a lot of games aren't catered to everyone's tastes. Some would say Outward needs fast travel. They demand it be added for them to enjoy the game (even though in this case, it's falling on deaf ears. Hallelujah!). Same idea with a game like Blades. So if you don't like it just either deal with it and enjoy the game regardless or skip it. Those are your options.

I'm not saying every game has to cater to everyone's tastes. I'm saying that you can most definitely make a game that caters to both people. Like that other user said, you simply need to make it so that it doesn't get in the way of the experience for those of us who choose not to play that way. If you don't do that, then it's less about "the game isn't for me" and more about "the developer is lazy".
 

Big No

Novice
Joined
Oct 5, 2016
Messages
47
Don't judge games you play on the shitter by the standards set by Skyrim.
Funny thing is that playing this on the shitter would be so pointless. By the time your dump is done you'll still be waiting to build your in-game house given how bad the wait times are.
 

The Wall

Dumbfuck!
Dumbfuck Zionist Agent
Joined
Jul 19, 2017
Messages
3,023
Location
SERPGIA
Don't judge games you play on the shitter by the standards set by Skyrim.
Funny thing is that playing this on the shitter would be so pointless. By the time your dump is done you'll still be waiting to build your in-game house given how bad the wait times are.

I bet timer for taking a dump in Blades is like 3h. Maybe less with high alchemy skill
Shit accelerator and roll of elven toilet paper: ONLY for 99 gems!
''Mikeee, we ran out of toilet paper again! Weren't you suposed to get it?''
''I did''
''Well, I can't find it?!?''
''Wait, I'll send you some to your Bethesda.net account now! Elven gentle or Orcish rough or Dwemer cleaning spider, got two?''
''MIKE I'LL WIPE MY ASS WITH YOU!''
 

Eggs is eggs

Learned
Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
256
I played this for maybe an hour and uninstalled it. It plays the exact same as every other crap F2P mobile game out there but it has an elder scrolls skin. Grind repetitive quests, upgrade items/buildings, wait for timers, lather/rise/repeat.
 

a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest

i didn't think bethesda could make their games worse than oblivion, but now they have loot crates.

and the character faces still look ugly on top of that.
:prosper:
 

taxalot

I'm a spicy fellow.
Patron
Joined
Oct 28, 2010
Messages
9,613
Location
Your wallet.
Codex 2013 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015
It's not even an Elder Scrolls game with guilds, exploration, free roaming, or shit like that. That's possibly the worse aspect of it. It's a banal Clash of Clans in which you upgrade your city but without the fun and multiplayer component ; the exploring and dungeons drop you there as soon as you start the quest and you just need to walk forward and press the attack button repeatedly to move forward.

In short, it's not that the gameplay is bad : it doesn't have ANY gameplay. It is just a dopamine action/reward application that should be fucking illegal because it's actually, just a fucking drug.
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014


Now that The Elder Scrolls Blades is available to play we look back at the inception of the game from our interviews in 2018, and the challenges the team at Bethesda Game Studios had in bringing Tamriel to the phone.
 

Wunderbar

Arcane
Joined
Nov 15, 2015
Messages
8,809
roc3z0T.png
 

taxalot

I'm a spicy fellow.
Patron
Joined
Oct 28, 2010
Messages
9,613
Location
Your wallet.
Codex 2013 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015
They shilled for Fallout 76 and now this ?
They are not learning animals.

Can't wait for their video about the Diablo F2P.
 

Yosharian

Arcane
Joined
May 28, 2018
Messages
9,430
Location
Grand Chien

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
What a surprise: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-05-01-the-elder-scrolls-blades-is-a-bit-naff

The Elder Scrolls: Blades is a bit naff
Fus Ro Nah.

"Blades, at its heart, is a pure Elder Scrolls game; a massive, first-person RPG with console-quality graphics. Yes, running on a phone - it really looks and plays incredible." That's what Todd Howard said at E3 when he announced The Elder Scrolls: Blades to the world, and it sounded quite exciting. Except, it's a load of old tosh. Blades isn't a pure Elder Scrolls game and it doesn't have console-quality graphics, unless we're talking about an old console, nor does it play incredibly.

It's not bad though, I want to stress that up front, and lumps and bumps do come with the early access territory. There are many moments where Blades does a pretty good Elder Scrolls imitation. You can create a character and mess around with their appearance, as you would in a core Elder Scrolls game, and you can level your way through a considerable number of spells, perks and abilities. You have a town to build houses in and upgrade, and you can buy and sell and order crafted equipment, each piece of which displays on your character when you equip it. You can talk to non-player characters in multiple-choice dialogues, and when you're poking around subterranean ruins, forests or caves, with rousing music playing in your ears, it can feel like the real Elder Scrolls deal.

But fundamentally, Blades is stunted. A pure Elder Scrolls game, to use Howard's phrase, promises freedom of adventure - a giant simulated fantasy playground to play in. Go where you want, do what you like and the world will shape itself according to you. Blades doesn't offer that, presumably because it's very hard on devices with varying storage space and power, particularly when Bethesda pushes for fancy graphics as well. Blades compartmentalises the Elder Scrolls experience instead.

Your town serves as your in-between-missions place, and missions are instanced clones of each other, more or less. There's a bit of variation in layout and task but it all feels more or less the same: kill X number of Y, rescue X number of Y, find X number of Y. I'm sure there's a story somewhere, about the secret society of Blades fighters you belong to, but so far it's lost on me. Not that repetitive questing is alien to the Elder Scrolls series, but the problem here is it's not much fun to do and the rewards for doing it are fudged.

jpg

jpg

It looks better on a smaller phone screen, and you can play it both in landscape and portrait mode, which is nice.

It's not much fun because of sluggish gameplay and controls. Trying to make Blades have "console-quality graphics" has meant sacrificing snappiness. It's not awful, and there are moments the mobile controls work, both in and out of combat, but there are also moments where you find yourself pinned nose-to-wall, struggling to turn around, or where the on-screen combat controls don't register a quick touch - or fire off an unintended ability and you die.

Sludgy performance spreads into menus and loading screens too, which is a pity given the amount of time you'll see both. Maybe it's unavoidable given the platform and range of devices people will be playing on. I use a Pixel 1, which is about average, maybe slightly under, and perhaps that's the problem. If you have a newer phone and performance is as crisp as freshly pressed bed sheets then, well, damn you, but I'd be surprised if it were the case. Incidentally, Todd Howard said Bethesda wanted Blades available on as many platforms as possible, including consoles, PC and VR, from bottom-end to high-end, but why you'd want Blades on more powerful systems instead of Skyrim, or another Elder Scrolls game, I don't know.

jpg

jpg

That's your town hub there. Mine's a bit of a ruin.

Rewards in Blades are a more fundamental flop because they're inextricably linked to how the game makes money - yes, Blades is free-to-play and yes, it has an in-game shop. In Blades, loot comes from chests - it's not picked from corpses after battle - and you receive them at the end of quests. But you can't open chests immediately, which is exactly as ridiculous as it sounds. You are held back by a timer, and the best kinds of chest take upwards of an hour to unlock. Quite. Oh, and there are similar timers for building houses and shops in town, and for upgrading equipment, which the smithy takes off you while he works!

Of course, you can complete these tasks immediately - for a price. You can spend varying amounts of gems to bypass the timer, and usually the better the thing, the more it costs. You can earn gems in the game but naturally it's quicker to buy from the shop. The biggest bundle I've seen costs £93.

Chests can be bought with real money too, which presents a more aggravating issue, because these buyable super-chests are how you get the best equipment in Blades and they drop very rarely in the game. In other words, Blades' natural grind wears you down in the presumed hope you'll head to the shop.

jpg

jpg

jpg

jpg

Equipment! Abilities! Shop.

It's frustrating because, as I say, Blades has moments where it edges towards fulfilling an Elder Scrolls promise. But when you compare it to a "pure" Elder Scrolls game, to use Howard's terminology, you realise what is lost. It's just too big a concept for mobile devices, and squashing it snuffs the magic. Bethesda would be better off tailoring something to the strengths of the touch-screen platform rather than forcing a foreign body in.
 

majorsoccer

Prospernaut
Shitposter
Joined
Mar 10, 2019
Messages
175
30vkow.jpg


Meanwhile i am replaying Skyrim again ! hell yeah !!! Draaaaaaaagons !!!!
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom