Scratching the Itch

I’ve lost count of the hours spent in Skyrim—hundreds, across different playthroughs. I finished it again recently on PS4 with all the DLCs because I needed to be back in that frozen world before Elder Scrolls 6 finally shows up. Whenever that is. Years from now, probably.

But waiting sucks when you’re hooked, and there are ways to ease the addiction: the MMO, the card game, and a mobile spin-off called The Elder Scrolls: Blades, coming in spring.

You’re a Blade—that ancient order. Exiled. When you return home, your city’s destroyed, and rebuilding it is the whole point. Bethesda’s promising the stuff that makes these games impossible to stop: console-quality visuals, real magic, endless loot to collect and upgrade, real-time combat where your fingers swing swords and throw lightning.

City customization is there too—shape your home however you want. Arena for just fighting. Then the Abyss: an endless dungeon getting harder the deeper you go, enemies meaner each level. Like those punishment dungeons in old JRPGs, that Lufia cave on Super Nintendo that felt like it went on forever. Except it actually doesn’t stop.

Whether it’ll actually feel like Elder Scrolls or just feel like a mobile game dressed in Elder Scrolls clothes is the thing. Skyrim was massive—hundreds of hours massive. A phone game can’t be that. But I’ll probably play it anyway. The addiction doesn’t really care about reasonable expectations.