The Elder Scrolls: Legends - Heroes of Skyrim for iOS

The Elder Scrolls: Legends - Heroes of Skyrim draws on Bethesda's Elder Scrolls story and offers a game that will feel familiar to collectible card players but is different enough from Hearthstone or Magic: The Gathering that CCG fans will find it worth downloading and playing.

Pros

Quick to get going: Elder Scrolls: Legends starts you off in a useful tutorial mode that helps you get comfortable with the rules and mechanics of the card game. For example, unlike many other card games, the battlefield where you play your cards is divided into two lanes -- the field lane on the left, and the shadow lane on the right. When you play a card, you place it in one of the lanes, where it interacts with other cards in its lane. Games are fast and don't require a big time investment.

And lots to master: Although it's easy to pick up and start playing, the game offers a lot of depth, from the breadth of card choices to learning how to use lanes to your advantage for attacking and protecting cards.

Different play modes: The game offers about half a dozen modes of play including Practice, where you are matched against computer opponents to sharpen your skills; Ranked Play, where you go up against live players using your own deck; Arena, where you build a deck from random cards to play against the computer or live opponents; limited-time events called Gauntlets; and a Spectator mode that lets you watch friends play and chat with them.

Cons

Pay up to build a good deck: The game is free-to-play, but as with other CCGs, be prepared to buy your way to a completive, powerful deck.

Bottom Line

The Elder Scrolls: Legends - Heroes of Skyrim is not just one more CCG: The game offers enough interesting twists on collectible card playing to make it worth adding to the mix of games.