By Terris Harned (NWOrpheus)
While Todd Howard might have stolen the show with his Fallout 76 presentation during the Bethesda segment of the 2018 E3 convention, the Elder Scrolls franchise also had some interesting showings. In case you missed it, do make sure to watch the self-deprecating video that Howard started off his presentation with, to get you in the Elder Scrolls mood.
Several people took the stage to discuss various parts of the Elder Scrolls franchise coming up. Howard himself wrapped his segment by presenting us with an interesting offering: “The Elder Scrolls: Blades”. In Blades, you’ll take the role of a member of one of the Empire’s top agents in an organization sharing the titular name. Formerly exiled from your home, you return there to find it destroyed. In Blades’ “town” mode, you’ll be tasked with rebuilding the town. This responsibility comes with perks, however, as you’ll get to shape the appearance of your town. As you progress along the path of rebuilding new NPCs will appear, offering new quests, and new building options will become available. There will also be a procedurally generated/rogue-like mode called “Abyss” where a player can fight against an endless dungeon to see how far they can make it. You’ll also be able to enter the arena and engage in player-vs-player combat.
This game will be going beyond any previous concepts of ‘cross platform’ that we’ve seen before. Not only will the game be offered on PCs, tablets, phones, consoles and even virtual reality systems, but all of those platforms will be able to communicate with each other, in any of the game’s 3 modes. The real exciting part is the fact that they’re bringing amazing console level graphics to next gen mobile devices.
No release date has been give for “The Elder Scrolls: Blades”, other than Howard saying the game will arrive this fall. He did, however, give us its price: free. What sort of microtransactions might monetize this game is unknown. You can pre-register for the game as of now at playblades.com, and possibly gain early access. You can also pre-order on the AppStore or GooglePlay for Apple and Android devices respectively.
Before leaving the stage, Todd Howard also whet the appetites of the audience by giving the merest hint of a suggestion of a taste of the much desired, Elder Scrolls 6. Aside from the video, all we really know is that we probably won’t see the game until well after the next E3.
Matt Firor, president of Zenimax Online, took the stage next in order to discuss the future of “Elder Scrolls: Online”. Matt gave a nod to the incredible pool of designers and creators working at Zenimax on bringing us all ESO, then took a stab at sharing his experiences within the game as a player. Next, we heard about the successful launch of ESO’s latest expansion, Summerset, and two future content additions. A dungeon involving werewolves, as well as a story dungeon set in Blackmarsh which will expand upon the lore surrounding the Argonian race.
If CCGs are your thing, then hopefully you’ve tried and enjoy “Elder Scrolls: Legends”. If so, you’ll probably be delighted by the announcements offered by Christian Van Hoose. It appears Bethesda’s card game is getting a visual overhaul, and will be expanding its platforms from PC, mac, and mobile to also include the Nintendo Switch, XBox One, and Playstation 4. Furthermore, it seems you’ll be able to link your account to Bethesda.net and save your progress in the cloud, allowing you to access the account from any of the offered devices, and play with others on any device as well.
That’s about all we have for Elder Scrolls from Bethesda for this year, but make sure to keep an eye out for “Elder Scrolls: Online” news right here, and check back with us next year to get all the scuttlebutt about Elder Scrolls 6! In the meantime, don’t forget to see our general Bethesda overview for E3 2018, and our in depth coverage of the exciting Fallout 76!
