Been playing this since it came out and have to say I’m impressed, the game gives you plenty of control over your subjects and even allows same gender marriage and babies (though I’ll admit I’m not sure how that works lol). I’m even pleased that you get to choose you king or queen from multiple choices and aren’t stuck with one person or heir.
I will put some suggestions here but most aren’t necessary just some thoughts. One being that I wish the children didn’t wander into the bedroom while a couple is in there, it’s just a tad awkward lol. Second, I wish there was a way to retire your elders with them still providing something, like coins or random materials instead of them working till their death. Just would make me feel better than having a 82 yro working at the mill or something, just seems like there should be a limit. Besides that I love the game!
The game itself is very enjoyable and I personally would pay a one time fee to play it; that being said it does not have a one time fee it has monthly/package fees which are absolutely not worth it. This goes for any game in my opinion.
With the financial system flaws talked about we can move onto the actual games issues. When it comes to happiness you simply get a bad telling you the happiness levels; not something describing why they are at that level. One second everyone’s very happy, five minutes later it’s nearly assassination time. Some reasoning as to why an individual is unhappy would be nice since these radical changes are fairly annoying. I had over 100 subjects all very happy, made one decree that made a single subject furious 90% happiness to 0% happiness and was assassinated the second after. RIP King Georges… you can banish subjects by dragging them outside the castle and off the cliff, but I’d like to have executed that dark elf.
I’ll edit this review when I have time later to add more, overall the game is very enjoyable and will never get a positive review out of me due to how drastically paying for things makes you the best. That’s every game these days.
I love Bethesda. I absolutely love them. From elder scrolls to fallout to starfield. I’ve bought all the games. I’ve bought all the dlc. I’m absolutely ecstatic they’re now in Xbox gamepass. I liked the fallout shelter game. And figured this was the same. It is very similar. But I have a very huge complaint. The adoring fan. I love him in the other games. Especially starfield. But in this game I have to use 500 gems to get. Which isn’t easy. Only to find out he only lasts 30 days. Which wouldn’t be so bad as he’s a collector of your resources. But here’s the annoying part. He ONLY collects IF the game is open. Like. If I have the game open I’m gonna collect anyways. I don’t need him AT ALL. He should be collecting as the games closed. That’s the benefit. But he doesn’t. So don’t waste your gems on this dude. And I absolutely HATE saying that. Cause I love the adoring fan. In all of Bethesda’s games. Having said that. Give the game a shot. I’m level 46 and enjoying it. Just be careful and do you due diligence on how you spend your gems.
I want to start by saying I really do enjoy this game, for what it is. The whole happiness mechanic is thought out and not too challenging, but it is a headache at times when you are trying to put people where they best fit skillwise, even if they are working with an enemy or not working with family (for tribal characters)
However the game feels very pay-to-win. The prices for things with gems in the store are too high considering how slowly you earn gems to begin with. The person that auto-collects materials runs so slow in between stations and doesn't collect materials when you are fighting, he just isn't worth the gems in the first place (and the fact that he has a 30day limit and isn't permanently yours for 500 gems is atrocious) Once you have built a material station for the first time they are impossible to build a second one due to the high cost of building a second station, and I’m a level 50 already. The way that characters regain health makes it take 2x longer to actually accomplish anything because you have to place them from one station to another back and forth and back and forth.
The game has the ability to be do much nicer than it is on release, and I’ll check in with it once or 2x a week after my 30 day pass (almost $15 a month, also high) runs out to see if its updated. After the initial release hype i bought extras to get it jumpstarted and feel like it hasn’t jumpstarted at all.
I’m a fan of The Elder Scrolls - maybe not a diehard fan, but a fan nonetheless. I’m also a fan of Fallout, or more importantly for this review, Fallout Shelter.
This is a Fallout Shelter-esq game, with a new coat of paint. I don’t mean that as an insult, I mean it as a complement. Elder Scrolls Castles is a fun game that, despite using the Fallout Shelter template, is unique and has its own personality. The game fulfills the dream of running a kingdom, making tough choices, learning about and improving the kingdom and world around it.
It could, however, to more.
I don’t even know what I want, but I know others could. Some areas of the game are dry, I find constructing is somewhat bare-bones, and would live if there was more options for decor - stylized themes for some rooms or something. I’d also love it if you had more trading options - like cash for rarer resources; it could even be something you earn by partnering with certain caravans or befriending groups of people like Khajiit’s. It has so much potential, and I hope it isn’t going to be wasted. I may write another review, some time down the line. But for now, I’ll just be keeping my eyes on it.
I like games that are time-killers, and also enjoyable. However I hadn’t really found one that kept me occupied until now. The elder scrolls franchise has been a interest of mine so I naturally preregistered to be able to play. You don’t really need to pay, as you can get by well enough without it—the quests are super easy. I only wish we could execute subjects that are disloyal or that assassinate others, and have more realistic gameplay. Such as women and men can have kids but the same gender cannot. Thats weird for me? An alternative could be adoption, possibly. The art style is pleasant, similar to fallout shelter but unique enough to stand out. The throne rulings are really fun. I’m looking forward to updates and new stuff to make it even more fun, hopefully. Oh, and more decorations to really make our castle look and feel more cool. Such as a gothic, or Altmer style. Speaking of that, we should be able to choose our heirs and subjects. What if I wanted an Argonian kingdom? Just a few things here and there but overall I really do like this :)
I really wanted to love this game. I'm a huge elder scrolls fan, and I love simulation games in this style. The characters are really fun, the 'breeding' system to pass traits to future generations makes me think there will be a lot of customization as you continue to play. The quests and stories are pretty random, and that just lends to the storytelling aspect.
The pacing is way too frenetic for me, though. You end up tapping every station, every 5 minutes. You seem to get quests continuously, too. You can go on adventures. The panic begins when you miss one of those five minute taps - maybe you're watching tv. Maybe it takes you 10 minutes to look back. You've run out of oil. The castle goes dark, production snaps to a halt, and your citizens immediately begin to starve to death. Now you have to manage that recovery, while tapping each station every five minutes, dragging people off their jobs to go binge eat or play a harp until they feel alive again.
It's not quite engaging enough to be an active game, that draws your full attention, but it's also not lenient enough to be called an idle game. Great assets, fun writing, great building and decorating system.
It’s really addicting! I love the pace that the king gets tasks. It’s often enough where I have fun, but not so quick that it’s stressful, it’s just right. The building is also very pleasant. It’s easy reorganizing everything and the game won’t let you build yourself a sinkhole if you build it unorganized. Then there’s the little relationships of all the people and the potential consequences. It feels meaningful to make decisions, deciding who gets happy and who gets angry with you, knowing each person can impact you in some way! The only problem I have right now is that some outfits do nothing. I feel the nobles outfit should give 2 extra coins per order, while the rulers outfit should dull the effects of all emotions from decisions? But alas, I’m not a developer so I don’t know what’s right. But I’m having immense fun from this and am loving the game so far!
I bought the fan to collect my stuff but what’s annoying is supplies and equipment can’t be auto set to restart after collected. So your food and oil iron bars will auto recollect but not other things. He doesnt collect limestone unless your game remains open and just drains your battery. Also if I want to make 10 spoons I should be able to set it to auto process 10 or unlimited or etc. also it would have been nice to get a warning that if someone in your castle hates you then they kill your king. I had no idea. Also buying those packs with gems are a waste of time. They provide you with garbage. I regret spending so much money on this.
Edit - I wish you didn’t need to “assign” characters to the war table to just clear quests. That means you need to have dedicated fighters because you currently need to pull them from different areas and change all their equipment and remember where they were when you’re done doing quests. Not sure why we can’t just assign equipment to a character and just use them in the war room. It’s extremely frustrating to do quests
I’m writing this review with tears streaming down my face as my mother (who maybe killed my father?) just murdered my wife out of rage simply because I was a penny-pincher.
On the surface, this game is a Skyrim reskin of Fallout Shelter, but in many ways it feels like a successful evolution of the prior. Missions are simple but fun, building feels so much better (you can move stations and free-build!!!!), and the “rulings” feature impacts the gameplay in subtle but meaningful ways, like the above.
It’s not perfect (my iPhone 15 Pro Max gets warm while playing this for some reason), but it hit the mark of not just repeating the winning Fallout Shelter formula, but bringing fresh Skyrim-oriented life into the mix.
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