The card game market is already getting a bit crowded with most people gravitating towards Hearthstone at this point – Blizzard’s wildly popular free-to-play card game. Then there’s the Magic: The Gathering games which have their own dedicated audience. Hell, there’s even Gwent in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt which is actually really fun to play, but just built into the game itself. Now Bethesda are gearing up to release Elder Scrolls Legends – their fantasy-based card game.
With ten classes to choose from, each governing certain attributes such as Willpower, Intelligence and Strength, Elder Scrolls Legends is going to attempt to do something a little differently to carve its name in an already crowded market. Similar to Magic: The Gathering, the attributes players select will govern what cards can be put in their deck. With Legends, there is a maximum of two attributes that can be selected, dictated by the class chosen.
You will learn a lot of the game’s mechanics and story through the campaign mode. Hopefully, since this is Elder Scrolls, there will be a lore-heavy narrative to differentiate itself from some of the other card games that rely on the cards themselves to tell the story. Legends will showcase new stories never told about Tamriel, and hopefully give fans of the series a reason to get invested.
One of the key features of Elder Scrolls Legends seems to be its lane system, which allows players to place a card in one of two lanes. Once in that lane, they can attack another players lane or simply go straight for the jugular and attack the player himself. Naturally, lowering the opponent’s health to zero will mean you win the match.
Battle mode will be the traditional versus mode, but Arena mode is what sounds pretty compelling. Players will build a deck right from the outset and choose to play against AI or real-life opponents. Once in the arena, you fight eight opponents and a boss if playing against the AI, and only seven opponents if fighting against players. There will be rewards in the Arena that can only be found there, as well as higher chances of getting certain cards. This will likely help make the mode feel essential to the Elder Scrolls Legends experience.
Elder Scrolls Legends is now accepting registration for the beta via their official website, where you can also find a more comprehensive breakdown of the game and how it will operate. The strategy card game is still set for a 2016 release on iOS and PC. We will likely hear more about the game at Bethesda’s E3 conference in June.
