The Elder Scrolls: Legends, Bethesda's digital card game set in the same universe as Skyrim and Morrowind, has just entered open beta. Bethesda announced at QuakeCon today that the game is now free to download and play through their Bethesda.net launcher. So if the game seems interesting, there's nothing except the ballache of installing another proprietary client onto your computer, to stop you from trying it out.
Legends has only been in closed beta for a few months now, but it's already turning heads. Tim reckons that Legends is good enough to be "the first serious contender" Hearthstone has faced in the digital CCG space.
The two games share a lot of mechanics, most of which were borrowed from the godfather of card games Magic: The Gathering. You build a deck, then play creatures and spells to try and reduce your opponent's life total from 30 to zero. However, there are also substantial differences, like Legends use of a lane system to split the board vertically, and Prophecy cards which can be played for free if you draw them after losing certain amounts of life.
Legends is free-to-play and will remain so even after it leaves beta. As with most free-to-play card games nowadays, what that means is you can collect cards without spending any money, or speed along your collection buy purchasing card packs. You can download The Elder Scrolls: Legends from its official site. We'll have more coverage in the coming weeks, including some beginner's tips to building a cheap deck that doesn't suck.
