With The Elder Scrolls Legends currently in open beta, all fans of collectible card games and the Elder Scrolls series now have an opportunity to check out this newest entry to the digital card genre. The game is scheduled to release sometime this year on PC and mobile and is now in open beta. After playing the free to play game extensively in closed and now open beta, we have some impressions of the experience.
First Impressions
When you first launch the game you are presented with a story based tutorial that gives a basic and straightforward introduction to the fundamental concepts many of which will be familiar to players of Magic the Gathering or Hearthstone. It doesn’t lose you by going too in depth off the bat and tosses you some softball AI opponents to tackle, although sleeping on them can result in a surprisingly tough match. Once this is complete, you have a pretty good sense of the flow of a match and some new cards to play with.
Game Modes
Beyond the opening act, the game’s different modes become available after progressing through the main story campaign which is a clever way to encourage the solo component of the game which might be otherwise overlooked. The game’s light story serves to place it in the Elder Scrolls universe and gives the game a reason to exist, which is a nice touch. It’s not going to win any story awards and pales in comparison to the Elder Scrolls RPGs like Skyrim but it’s a short jaunt and gives lore fans that bit of flavor with some choices you can make to stay engaged.
Once you progress through the story, you unlock Versus Battle and the Arena modes which is where the meat of the experience and future replayability truly lies. Versus Battle is your standard 1v1 online match where players pick a deck and do battle for rewards and rankings which also earn rewards. Arena is a draft experience where you construct a deck on the fly over a series of draft rounds and then enter a gauntlet of opponents. Defeating all comers nets you some nice rewards, and this can be played either against other people or against a series of AI opponents. Because of this and the replayable story campaign there is a lot of content available for players who may be looking for a less competitive solo experience. There is a competitive monthly season, daily quests and titles to earn to flesh out the content offerings. making the game feel busy with a variety of things to do.
Gameplay
The mechanics of the game are derivative in parts and revelatory in others. Cards fall into color attributes similar to Magic and decks can be constructed of up to 2 of these attributes. The cards themselves feature keywords and abilities that are similar to veterans of Magic and Hearthstone, with actions like Guard or Drain, but new wrinkles like Prophecy add a new layer of strategy. The colors all feel defined, and have strong identities. Further reinforcing this are Races which are sets of cards that fall under specific attributes. For instance Argonians are featured across both endurance and agility cards and their card mechanics not only reinforce their lore, but help define what those colors represent. Their backgrounds make sense here and don’t feel shoehorned in.
Gameplay plays out similar to Hearthstone, where Magicka is gained automatically, rather than accumulated from card draw as in Magic. Creatures are free to attack other creatures or the opposing player when able, with the ultimate objective to reduce the opposing player to 0 health. Creatures damage each other simultaneously, and actions, items and support cards augment them accordingly.
Lanes and runes are what really sets this game apart. The battlefield is divided in half, with each side called a lane. Creatures when played can be placed in either lane, but the important distinction is that they typically can only attack creatures in their same lane. This seemingly simple feature has tremendous implications for complexity as players have to choose which of the 2 fronts to focus on. Do you stack as much as you can on one side or do you try to balance both? Or do you play 2 very different games at once? Further adding to this are special rules lanes sometimes have, such as cover for creatures on summon, or a wind mechanic which will blow random cards into other lanes after turns. Lanes are a lot to manage, and add a strategic element that really scratch a mental itch.
Runes are a rally mechanic that ensures players always have a chance to turn the tables on an opponent. Each player has 5 and after taking 5 damage, one of these runes shatters and you automatically draw a card. If the card drawn features the Prophecy ability it can be played right away possibly stopping an opponent’s momentum and buying you a fighting chance. This makes the matches more interesting and investing because there is always a chance for a comeback, although at more extreme conditions it can make for a drawn out defeat.
The biggest drawback to gameplay is that you tend to have either a flawless game or get smashed. You can play the same decks against each other repeatedly with markedly different results, which is something you don’t usually see in Magic the Gathering. The cause for this is that the deck size of 50 cards is much larger than MTG, assuming you remove the lands. Most MTG decks are around 37-38 cards AFTER you remove the lands. Since you don’t need lands in ESL, your card pool is around 25% larger. Moreover, you are only allowed 3 copies max per card, compared to MTG’s 4. This adds to a scenario in which you will get the wrong cards a good portion of the time, and, when you are playing against a deck that you match up poorly to begin with, it sometimes leads to a complete one sided and helpless experience. Reducing the deck size or tweaking hand size and copy limits are possible fixes, and could improve the long term viability. It’s hard to build to a theme if you’re sifting through a lot of extra filler cards.
UI & Economy
The UI is adequate, if not just a tad bland but everything is sensibly placed and easy to navigate. Buttons and in game actions are mostly responsive with occasional hiccups when it came to placing a card in a lane. Connectivity is crisp and reliable and the wait times are short and dead on. It’s easy to launch a game with a friend as well, although the game lacks in game communication beyond a dozen or so pre-made comments. Text chat or voice chat would be very welcome additions at some point, as speaking to friends while playing really adds to the fun.
Cards and currency are collected regularly as rewards from defeating opponents across the game modes, sometimes as entire pre-made decks. Upgrades as you level up also improve cards in your deck at no extra cost. You can scrap excess unwanted cards and build new copies of others. It’s not apparently necessary to buy packs to get cards, but buying arena tickets seems like a sensible investment if you’re looking for good rewards. In our pack purchasing experience we found the rarity skewed heavily towards the more common rarities, finding only a handful of epic or legendary cards out of 100 bought. This is a limited experience of course, but it’s enough to see that pay-to-win should not be a concern which tends to a recurring concern in the free to play market.
Closing Thoughts
The Elder Scrolls Legends is a blast. After each loss, you typically come away with a few things you know for certain that could have done to better your chances unless you’ve run into a poor RNG draw. Regardless of the result, after each match it’s back to the deck builder to tweak and fine tune your approach and there are a lot of different cards you can go wild combining. With cards that feature races and creatures that Elder Scrolls vets have come to love over the years, it’s so easy to step in and be engrossed in the game even if the story is a secondary experience. Although in beta, this feels very much like a complete game and after some refinement, a game that players will play with fervor for a long time. Fans of Hearthstone, Magic the Gathering or the Elder Scrolls series really have little reason to not boot up this free to play game and will find a lot to like here.
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