The Elder Scrolls: Legends is a free-to-play collectible card game based on the popular Elder Scrolls series of games by Bethesda. Full disclaimer: I’m a huge fan of the Elder Scrolls games and I pick up on all the references the game drops. People who aren’t familiar with Elder Scrolls games might not get as much out of it. That being said, you don’t have to know the lore to enjoy the game. The gameplay is fun, the artwork is excellent, and the soundtrack is enjoyable. The rules are easy to pick up, but hard to master. If you’ve played Magic: The Gathering or Hearthstone, you pretty much know how to play already. I have more hours logged on this game than I do most others in my library, largely because it’s both addictive and easy to play while doing other things. In fact, I’m playing it as I write this!
Direwolf, the game’s publisher, seems more concerned with keeping the player base active than squeezing out as much money as possible. I’m usually skeptical of free-to-play games, as they frequently have a ceiling where you have to pay if you want to do anything beyond the basics. Not so with Legends. You can easily play this game forever without paying a cent. The paid content consists of story modes, starter decks and promotional bundles, and regular card packs. However, many of these can be unlocked with in-game currency, in the form of coins, that you earn by daily logins, completing quests, and winning games. The cost in coins is generally quite reasonable, too. Most quests pay anywhere from 40 to 70 coins (a few even give you a whole booster pack) and you can buy packs for 100 coins each.
You can also earn “soul gems” that can be exchanged for specific cards. They are obtained through daily logins, selling excess cards from packs, playing tournaments and arena matches, or by beating the AI in practice mode. I’ve acquired thousands of them and it makes customizing your decks very accessible.
If you like trading card games, the Elder Scrolls series, or just a quality game that’s completely free, The Elder Scrolls: Legends has a place in your library.
Elder Scrolls Legends – Houses of Morrowind
I was ecstatic when I learned that Elder Scrolls Legends was coming out with a Morrowind-themed expansion. I played The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind years ago and to this day it remains one of my top 10 favorite games of all time. The new expansion brings back plenty of memories and nods that will give Morrowind fans some misty-eyed nostalgia.
The official trailer, which you can watch above, is odd and utterly delightful. Featuring everything from a cliff racer in a suburban backyard, a guar waiting for a train, a mudcrab at the subway station, and even a billboard for an Indoril florist, it’s packed with loving nods to Morrowind fans.
There’s no story expansion this time, but the designers have added strategic puzzles where you have to play your cards in just the right way to win. I am not very good at puzzles and riddles, so I confess I had to look up the answers to a lot of them. They are not ideal for beginners, as you have to know the game mechanics inside and out to figure out the solutions, but veteran players should have some fun with them. One comes unlocked and the other two can be bought with coins or money. You get prizes for completing the puzzles, including card backs and booster packs, but the cost isn’t really worth it if that’s all you want. The real draw is the puzzles themselves.
Probably the biggest change is that you can now create three color decks. The card minimum for these is 75 and the maximum is 100. While I haven’t been able to get as far with them as the traditional two-color decks, they are definitely fun and allow for a greater variety of strategy. The main downside is that you have to use at least one three-colored card to make a larger deck. It can feel a bit constrictive.
