The Elder Scrolls: Blades

The Elder Scrolls: Blades is a bland and repetitive grind, a free-to-play mobile game all dressed up like a proper Elder Scrolls title but lacking in any of the adventure, exploration, wit or charm of a mainline entry in the franchise.

I don't hate The Elder Scrolls: Blades, at least conceptually. Bethesda's lightweight F2P Elder Scrolls game has all the hallmarks of the franchise but delivers them all in such a hollow way that it loses everything that makes the franchise beloved. You might find some enjoyment in the game, as I have done, but you will inevitably become weary of the dungeons, frustrated with the timers, and on Nintendo Switch, you will find the performance to be at times unbearable. Fans of The Elder Scrolls deserve better than this, but it's all they will get until The Elder Scrolls VI launches years from now.

I found myself looking to reload Skyrim the more I played.

Bethesda clearly cannot decide on priorities, grabbing everything in a row and rushing from one extreme to the other. As a result, we get a crooked, boring and ugly semi-finished product - The Elder Scrolls: Blades on Switch. Yes, the game is F2P, but spending time in it is physically unpleasant. At the same time, a full-fledged version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is available on the Nintendo Switch, which makes Blades completely unnecessary. Well, unless you want to spoil your impressions of the cult franchise.

The Elder Scrolls: Blades is a game with good ideas but bad implementation. While this story is scaled-down and has a unique twist to combat, this entry is riddled with bugs, monetization, and timers that can make this game a drag.

Blades is a free to play dungeon crawler set in the Elder Scrolls universe, with some interesting ideas, but repetitive, even boring, levels and poor combat mechanics.

Only for hardcore fans of Bethesda fantasy games, The Elder Scrolls: Blades on Nintendo Switch is still, at its core, more of the same of the mobile version.

This game is a creatively broken, anti-intellectual insult.

While it's nice to see more and more things get ported to the Switch, there are things that belong on the platform and things that do not. This would be an example of something that does not. A truly tedious experience, after just a few hours. The best thing about The Elder Scrolls: Blades is that it's a fantastic advertisement for playing Skyrim on the Switch.

While totally different from Elder Scrolls on your console or PC, The Elder Scrolls: Blades is a lot of fun and feels like it belongs… I was mystified by the energy and joy that Elder Scrolls games bring, despite not being able to explore an open world. The Elder Scrolls: Blades has a little something for everyone, even if you’re looking to just past the time.