Publisher Bethesda Softworks and developer Dire Wolf Digital have taken the Elder Scrolls brand and turned it into a digital tabletop card game, where simple concepts of strategy and mathematics quickly turn into heated battles for survival. I have had the absolute pleasure previewing The Elder Scrolls: Legends in the last week, so without further delay let me enlighten you on what to expect.
Simply put, you’re just playing a game of Magic the Gathering, where you put together a stack of randomly ordered cards that are hand-picked by the user (well, in most cases), but with familiar sounds and stories that echo from the Elder Scroll series. You can go with specifically themed stacks of cards that the game gives you or you can create your own deck as you progress through the title. The specifically themed decks are represented by groups from the series. For example, there is a woodland-esque deck and/or an undead deck which focus on those particular themed areas. The default decks are quite impressive, though having a customized deck of you own puts your success in your own hands.
The card variety is tiered by creatures, perks and guards. Two values initially come with the cards, the one on the left-hand side is the amount of damage you will deal to your enemy, while the right-hand side is how much damage you can take. In addition, and in true Magic the Gathering style, most cards have unique attributes that come with them. Sometimes you can deal damage instantly to an enemy, sometimes you can raise a card’s damage/health by a particular amount and sometimes you can completely wipe out an enemy from the field of play. There are a lot of nice attributes that come with most of the cards, so read them carefully before choosing.
On the perks side of the equation, you get special cards that help to do things like increase power/health, add players to the board and/or remove enemy cards from the field of play. The perks are the most helpful, at least in my opinion, when it comes to winning matches, especially against other actual players. When/if you create your own deck, don’t skimp out on these cards. They will be the win/loss deciders.
The guard cards help to protect a player’s lane(s). The online battles feature two separate lanes people can put down cards on. Each lane keeps the other out of its business. This means that if you put a card in the right lane, then you can’t attack an enemy in the left. Just think of a highway and you’re there. Anyway, the guard cards prevent additional cards from getting attacked while in the lane of play, which means that you can lay down a guard card and go off on your enemy’s main points (the actual enemy points that you’re trying to deplete in the game), while still having your cards protected. If the guard gets killed, you’re open game. Regardless, the guard cards are vital to the success in the game, so load up on those as well.
While I have only created one solid deck of cards, maybe it’s because of the lack of effort on my part or the comfort level with my decision-making, the deck creator option is invaluable. You’re going to find a lot of fun, strategy and motivation to keep winning to obtain more cards because of this option. My Jon Smallberries deck is darn good, though it can be a little top heavy with high level of characters sometimes, so trial and error are a part of the deck creating process.
Staying with cards, you play the cards in the game by the levels indicated on the top right of the card and the amount of levels you’re allowed to choose as you progress in a match (bottom right of the screen). Every round adds another level option to your leveling amount. For example, when you begin the first round you have a 1/1 level range, which means you can choose characters that are level 1. The second round raises that number by one, which means you can now choose characters that have a level 2 on them or choose two level 1 cards. Each round adds another level and with it more card choice options. It is easy to follow and fun to strategize with in regards to card choices during a match.
Shifting to the topic of matches, players can compete head-to-head with other players across the country or can simply choose to play alone (so sad) in a multi-verse battle arena or through a solo and practice mode. Regardless of your style, Legends doesn’t short change modes for specific types of players. The game is broken into five modes of play. They are:
Story – This is the first thing you’ll dive into when you boot the game up. You will have twenty chapters to complete before finishing it and all of the chapters form into one neat little story. Each point in the story acts as an enemy with a deck of cards. You’ll find knights, the undead and even robbers. Each character you face has a different type of deck with a specific difficulty. While I beat the story mode in about 3-5 hours, it was still fun as a solid tutorial system that didn’t seem to drag.
Versus Battle – This is the one-on-one mode against another online player. It doesn’t bring anything special in terms of gameplay other than an unpredictable match against another strategy driven enemy. It’s probably going to be the mode everyone plays to death. It’s fun and challenging as hell.
Solo Arena – This is where the microtransactions come in (or maybe come in, depending on your skill). You face off against multiple opponents in hopes of getting to a boss opponent. You have only three losses you can take during this mode, so if you use those up, you’re gone. Also, the opponents are tough as nails, so enjoy this mode. It’s certainly the challenge.
Versus Arena – More of the same, though not a solo affair.
Practice – This is the place you can go to practice your deck and skills. It’s a fallback mode when you need it to be. It’s quick and telling when it comes to how good your deck is.
While there doesn’t like there is much here, you will be surprised on how much time you’ll spend on these modes, especially the versus battle mode. It’s tough to do work when you’re playing this mode. The rewards you garnish from succeeding in the modes are going to be the driving point of continually playing them. Sometimes you get gold (to use in solo and versus arena), sometimes you get cards, sometimes soul gems and sometimes you get names. The rewards are widespread and they crop up with victories, as well as leveling your character. Again, motivation to keep going.
All of the above gameplay elements are simple and well thought out. They make sense when trying to get newbies, like myself, into the digital card game genre without much headache. The process isn’t so simple enough that it’s going to offend veteran players out there in the gaming world, though. Dire Wolf Digital has done a helluva job so far with making a balanced game for all types of players. It’s nice and easy, yet complicated enough to keep the fun going. The amount of modes you get is insane, as they offer up a variety of fun ways to play the title. The rewards and prestige you obtain from doing well will offer a lot of motivation to keep up the good work.
Anyway, this game is already good enough to wear the Elder Scrolls moniker. Hopefully it continues an upward trend of development, as well as some additional pieces to expand the experience.
More to come, stay tuned.
