The Elder Scrolls: Castles Review: A Fun Medieval Simulation Game

The Elder Scrolls: Castles is the newest title from Bethesda Softworks LLC, the award-winning developer behind Fallout Shelter and Skyrim. The Elder Scrolls: Castles is a free-to-play castle management simulation game that puts you in control of your very own castle and dynasty. In this The Elder Scrolls: Castles review, I will share my impressions of the game and offer an honest rating.

While conducting this review, I used the Motorola G32 as my choice of device to play the game and have accumulated a playtime of 15 hours. This ensured that I explored all the features present in the game, and could provide a detailed analysis of the game. This will be a mixed review filled with both negative and positive remarks.

If you are recently starting with the game, we have also covered The Elder Scrolls: Castles Beginner’s Guide to help you with the basics and Resources Guide to earn the in-game Resources easily. Also, remember to go through our Redeem codes article to grab some freebies along the way. Additionally, should you face any in-game issues, go through our customer support article to connect with the game’s official support team.

The Elder Scrolls: Castle gameplay is a slower-paced version of Fallout: Shelter

Starting with the review, let us talk about the gameplay experience of The Elder Scrolls: Castles. It is a medieval castle management simulation game, where you oversee your castle and your loyal subjects while making important decisions necessary for the well-being of the Kingdom. Fallout: Shelter, another famous Bethesda title heavily influences the gameplay of this game. What sets this game apart is the medieval Elder Scrolls vibe and the lore that it brings.

For the first 20 minutes, you will have very few opportunities to engage with the game. After choosing a King for the throne, you get a castle to your name with a throne room. Shortly after, you have to build a few rooms, where you set up a Kitchen and an Oil Press. It becomes very slow-paced after that. You will be getting a few decisions to choose from as a King and will have to wait for new choices/decisions.

But one thing that I can guarantee is that this game is entertaining to play. Apart from the first twenty minutes, the game becomes highly engaging. Each day you play in real life translates to a year in this game making it very engaging and the story progresses with each decision you take. Also, keep an eye on your resources, mainly Food and Oil.

The storyline leaves an everlasting impression on you

The gameplay begins with the assassination of the reigning king, Odar which allows you to elect a new King for the castle. Right after the King’s death, you must choose a new King/Queen to rule the castle: King Odar’s wife, Ysabel; the King’s son, Jofarr; the King’s Khajiit mistress Alassi or a local Champion, Rahim.

The story doesn’t stop with whoever you choose as the Ruler. Your loyal subjects age, children grow up, adults become old and a new cycle continues. Your King and all the subjects will grow old and will eventually die of old age or other diseases. You will witness the Kingdom grow with new generations taking the lead. This will lead to new stories, you will have to select a new king for the castle leading to succession battles between the nobles.

Character and environment design feels very generic and average

Although the gameplay blended with a decent storyline is nice, the same can’t be said for the character and environment design. The environment has a very sloppy childish look. The character looks somewhat underwhelming but most of the well-known races of the Elder Scrolls universe are present here.

The Nords, High-Elfs, Argonians, Khajiits, Redguards, Imperial, and so on are all found in your castle. One fun thing about the characters is that they have their personality traits and sarcastic dialogues that they randomly say here and there.

The game does include references to Elder Scrolls lore, characters talking about dragons, Morrowind and Orsinium, and so on. The game may feel underwhelming for some with the basic environment and character design. But you will find the game enjoyable once you give it some time.

The Elder Scrolls: Castles has very underwhelming graphics

Continuing with the review, let’s talk about the visuals. For a Bethesda game and the Elder Scrolls IP, the graphics of the game is quite disappointing. The character models in this game are heinous to look at. Although there are nice details, the art style still looks childish and sloppy.

The game doesn’t look very polished. I was expecting a lot in terms of visuals for a game of this caliber. Even the Breton-style castle is very generic and the game had options to do better. But they did a great job with the loading screen artwork which I love seeing every time I open the game. If only they could do the same for everything else.

Familiar controls and comes with a well-made UI

In the Elder Scrolls: Castles, the controls and user interface will feel very familiar if you have played Fallout: Shelter. The user interface is clean and user-friendly. Even if you are new to this genre, you won’t find any issues with the interface. The game offers clear icons with well-organized menus and settings.

But there are some downsides too. If you zoom out too much it feels very clunky and clustered together. While hovering over the subjects to drag them for a particular task you may misclick a different character. It feels very unintuitive even for resource management. For example, you want to select Kitchen to upgrade it, but the characters come in between. The controls are still pretty decent and if you can ignore the downsides, you will enjoy the game.

The game’s slow-paced nature will force you into buying IAPs

You can play the game freely without any transactions but it becomes very time-consuming. Many of the tasks are time-gated in this game forcing you to check in the game regularly, which limits what you can do in one day. The store in the game offers lots of boosts and in-game upgrades which may tempt you to spend some money. The game also has a battle pass system called the Emperor’s Pass.

Microtransactions are quite reasonable in the game but you can still play for free if you can keep up with the time-gated mechanics of the game. I still found the game pretty enjoyable without spending a single penny.

Final Verdict

The Elder Scrolls: Castles still offers a fantastic gameplay experience with some downsides. The game becomes quite addictive once you give it some time. It is a fun castle management simulation game with engaging gameplay loops.

Although the graphics might not impress a lot of players, the core gameplay is very engaging if you love management simulation games. The timed-gated mechanics and slow-paced nature might frustrate you if you love fast-paced games.

In my experience with the game, you will be tempted by some micro-transactions. Despite the game’s downsides like the graphics and character models, it still offers a great gaming experience, especially for people who want to try management simulations game or love this genre and the Elder Scrolls.

That’s all from us for The Elder Scrolls: Castles Review! Did you find my The Elder Scrolls: Castles Review helpful? Do let us know in the comments!

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