The Elder Scrolls: Legends – A Card Game Newcomer’s Experience

The Elder Scrolls: Legends has been my introduction to collectible trading card games. I never saw the appeal of opening up packs, or obsessing over how strong I could make my deck. While Legends has not made me a devout fan of the genre, the familiar themes of the Elder Scrolls and a satisfying single player portion has kept me engaged for weeks.

Since I am not an authority of this genre I would not look to this review for an analysis of how balanced or fair for competitive play Legends is; for that I’ll defer to a friend of mine who adores the genre:

“Legends is exciting. The differences in gameplay it has from Hearthstone give it a unique feel and already there is a flow to the game’s matches that is enthralling.”

If you are a newcomer to card games like I am then this review will tell you how effective the game is at introducing you to the nuance of play. Which newcomers will need to make sense of the tactics and mechanics needed to be competitive in matchmaking.

A large part of what helped me get into this as opposed to Hearthstone is that it is an Elder Scrolls game. You collect and battle things you know: races, items, and other familiar sights fill up the battlefield. Yet, even with Dunmer and Dremora, I felt underwhelmed by the visual style of the game. A large number of the card portraits felt incredibly generic. There was nothing about the cards that had a distinct Elder Scrolls feel. Apart from the names given to the cards, they did not feel as if they belonged to an Elder Scrolls game. Many people will look into this game because of their familiarity with the universe, but if the art can not capture the imagination then it could be any other fantasy license. Hopefully some expansions or card packs down the line add some character to the design. Silt Striders, Skooma, and so many other items unique to the world could be put in.

I stayed away from matchmaking for the most part. Playing with people who have been learning the game since the beta and most likely play other games similar to this wasn’t really what I was after. The twenty or so matches I played I lost handily. All except one, which I won only because the other player disconnected. The multiplayer for those who would want to be competitive at it is very engaging – I don’t know this from playing it, but rather inferring from my experiences in the single-player.

I played through five chapters of the singleplayer content, which starts with an in-depth tutorial. Legends does a very good job of making sure the player understands the core concepts of a match, though players will have to become active in the community to keep up to date with what decks are the strongest and what the current meta is if they want to be competitive. But for me, grinding out some victories against the computer and watching the story unfold was enough. I was surprised out of anything for Legends to pull from the main series it chose the branching story arcs. During the campaigns, you are given choices which will affect how the story progresses but even impacts what cards you will win. I found this to be interesting enough for me to replay chapters of the game.

The Elder Scrolls: Legends is a great game to break out while you’re waiting for something else to happen. Playing against the AI is a mindless task you can finish in about ten minutes. With the game being free there really isn’t a reason not to try if you have an interest in it. Though it is free to play I didn’t think any of the practices were exploitative. Many cards can be won through play, and additional booster packs can be had for 100 gold of in-game currency, which doesn’t take that long to earn. Or for players who are fine with putting money down on the game two packs can be bought for $2.99.

Though The Elder Scrolls part of the game is lacking, Legends remains an entertaining game with a story that is deep for a card game and online multiplayer for when the computer gets too stale.