The Elder Scrolls: Chapter II - Daggerfall

The Good
The good reviews I've read of it. Glowing reviews, even. Now for the bad.

The Bad
Error 117. I wondered: is it because it is WinME-hostile? I wouldn't be surprised. I logged onto the Net, searched for "daggerfall error 117" and was rewarded with this hint: "Just keep reinstalling it until it works".

You shake your head in disbelief. This must be a sick joke. Oh, well, in for a penny, in for a pound. You reinstall. Error 117. Reinstall again. Wow, it works! Go figure.

A huge, open game, say the glowing reviews. Uh? You find yourself in a dark dungeon of little twisty passages (or are they twisty little passages, or ...?). Confronted with your first enemy, a giant rat, you frantically right-click your mouse while waving it about. That is supposed to get your sword cutting, thrusting or slashing. Yeah, like, once in a blue moon. So the rat gets ten bites at you while you barely manage one swing or thrust. RIP. Reload. Start again. Same story. Is that sword stone-deaf? It appears to be. The thing is known to be literally crawling in bugs, so you download the latest patch, and start afresh. Same sorry story. Sick of it, you look for a cheat, a trainer, whatnot. Got it! Just add "cheatmode 1" to the z.cfg file and Ctrl-F4 gets you into god mode. Nice. So you start again. Giant rat. Try to wield sword. Sword still deaf to your frantic mouse clicking and waving. But never mind, you're invulnerable now and after minutes of waving that mouse about like a fool, you eventually kill that rat, and off you are, on your quest to finding the exit to that miserable claustrophobic hell hole. More boring encounters, more stupid mouse waving at your stone-deaf weapons. Oh... a pox on it all, and you keep hitting "+" until, thanks to cheat mode, all your skills are maxed out to 100%. Is it my imagination? I thought my weapon, then, became more responsive to my mouse-waving.

I spent hours looking for an exit. Sick of it, I downloaded a walkthrough. Equipped with this new knowledge, I knew that, next to that throne (big name for a squarish joke of an armchair), there was a lever I just had to pull, and the platform of the throne (sic) goes up and there you are, almost. So you pull the lever and the platform goes up... leaving you down. Oh... you've got to climb onto it. Pull the lever again, bring the platform back down. Now... how do you get onto the wretched platform? Walking onto it won't work. So you try running and jumping. Missed. Looks like "jump" is only good for an Olympic five-inch jump. Back up, try again. Fail. Back up to try once more. Uh? Can't move? How about turning left? Stuck. Right? Stuck. Try as you may, you are stuck. Was that a feature, or another bug? Thank God for the "escape" key! Hit escape, exit, start again. Eventually, you make it out of this dismal dungeon, to find yourself in a deserted countryside with snow falling. Where to go? I picked west and soon met... what seemed to be someone in the distance, in heavy winter clothes. Makes sense, doesn't it? So I walked up to him (her? it? it did look like a giant mushroom...) only to see a pixellated mess, quite as bad as in the very earliest version of Ultima Underworld. Nothing recognizable. And nothing new there: the "lever" near the "throne" was also completely unrecognizable. You had to look for it, knowing it was there, knowing it was a lever. But back to our mysterious person, or mushroom, who knows? When I walked around it to take a look from different angles it was the same pixellated mess. So I walked up real close, and... I walked through it! Never mind, keep on trudging west, o, intrepid adventurer! Mayhap thou shalt chance upon something of interest. Oh, I just heard a flappity-flap-flap... ah, that's a giant bat all right. They were such pests in the dungeon, but here, you almost feel relieved at having found something recognizable. Dispatch it in two blows of your sword (without god mode and all my skills maxed out to 100% I dread to think how long this THRILLING encounter would have taken, and how many hit points it would have cost me). What now? Continue west, why not? I must have trekked west for two days of game time (judging from the light). It was no skin off my nose, really, since I just ran on and on and on, not even bothering to dodge trees, bushes, rocks: no need, you just whiz through them! Eventually I found a hostile centaur. How thrilling. Slay him! Keep on west... on and on and on... vast expanses of snow now with only mountains in the distance, covered in forests. Wow! A grizzly bear! Slash, thrust, dead. Keep on going.... I must have trudged on for days, and those mountains in the distance did not get one inch closer. If your idea of gaming is to hold your left forefinger on "P" (for "run") and your right forefinger on the up arrow (for "forward")... it's not mine, so I reloaded, and this time waited for dawn. Oh no, you can't rest "there are enemies nearby". Uh? Where? So you have to go around in circles, looking for enemies. Oh, there he is, looks like an archer. Slish, slash, all gone, enemy. Ah, it was a bard. Now for a bit of shut-eye... CRASH! By then I had wasted so much time on this game that an hour more, or two, was nothing. Reload... (sigh). This time I went around in ever widening circles. Still nothing, nowhere. Time to have a peek at the walkthrough:

"In one to three weeks after you surface from Privateer's Hold, you receive a letter--provided you are in town."

Provided I am in town? Where is town? I have been combing that wilderness for days, east, west, north, south, and no town has ever appeared. When in such dire straights, do what every computer user does, when hopelessly cornered: read the manual. And there, there you find the Magic Key (tm): "W". Just press "W" (for world map, presumably). Wow! I wish the makers of Fallout had thought of that. In Fallout, when you leave a town you find yourself automatically in world-map mode. How dumb. Having to leaf through the manual for some Magic Key (tm) would have added sooooo much to the gameplay of Fallout, wouldn't it?

Seriously now. Navigating the world map, I soon spotted Daggerfall town and I had myself whizzed there. And there and then, I discovered the true purpose of my adventure. The citizens of Daggerfall are seriously missing in the pixel department, all the more of a pity because about half of them are buxom wenches, many with a libido-boggling cleavage. But, each being allowed just five or six pixels per ... er... eye, the scenery leaves quite a lot to be desired, as it were. So the purpose of the game is clear: an Evil Wizard (tm) has stolen most of the pixels of the Realm. Your mission, should you accept it, is to slay him and return the missing pixels to Emperor Uriel Octopus (Octopus? perhaps I am one ahead--er... afoot). This brilliant flash of intuition exhausted me. I needed a nap. Clicked on the campfire icon. Was informed that sleeping inside or near a town was illegal. Oh, yes, fair enough, the rule dates back from good old SSI Pool of Radiance. Fair enough. But what's this? Three knights setting upon me, swords drawn? Come on, gentlemen, I'll go quietly. But no way, they won't listen to reason or humble pleading. Oh well, being in god mode, what do I care? Slish slash, slish slash, there they go. A fourth one turns up? Slish slash, poor fellow. Still... reload and be a good boy, find an inn to rest. Knowing, from the walkthrough, that I would have to sit around twiddling my thumbs for quite a while, I booked in for 10 days, at a cost of 30 gold pieces. Still, I felt that, given that eyesore of a pixel-challenged innkeeper, HE should have paid me 300 gold to stay in his flea-pit. Then I lost interest.

Now what sort of a game is that? The graphics are so hideously pixellated that you hardly ever know what you are looking at. And Daggerfall came out four years, four years, yes, after Ultima Underworld. I thought I was back in the days of Leisure Suit Larry and Zack MacKraken. This is ridiculous. Fighting is a preposterous, frenzied waving about of your mouse, right-clicking away like a madman in the faint hope that that will move your weapon an inch, two with a bit of luck. Moving backwards is like wading through a pool of treacle. Jumping is like having balls on chains weighing you down. What gameplay is salvageable from this sorry mess? The "open" play? Play what? At being a highwayman robbing heavily pixellated travellers? A ladies' darling wooing hideously pixellated tavern wenches? An errand boy roaming yuckily pixellated dungeons in search of unrecognizably pixellated artifacts for some pot-bellied pixellated merchants? How thrilling.

Oh, solving the quest? Well, then, spare me those stupid encounters with stupid beasties, fought with stupid weapons that refuse to move when you mouse them about, spare me those hideously pixellated graphics, and let's have an old text adventure instead. How about "Colossal Cave", uh?

The Bottom Line
I have seen Arcatera described as an "insult to gamers' intelligence". Daggerfall qualifies, too.

The Good
Daggerfall follows the design philosophy pioneered by its predecessor, dropping you into a gigantic world in which you can role-play to your heart's content. In this installment they refined and expanded the ideas of the original, which resulted in a deeper, more immersive game that many fans still consider the apex of the series.

Daggerfall prides itself on having one of the largest worlds ever created for a game. Indeed, its vastness is absolutely mind-boggling. At first sight the world appears smaller than the one of Arena, containing only two provinces instead of the entire Tamriel. However, such calculation is misleading: each province has many more points of interest, so the overall impression is that of an even bigger and certainly busier environment. There are more than a dozen of fiefdoms in the province, each with dozens of towns, dungeons, and other specified locations. Words can't even begin to describe how huge the whole thing is.

The role-playing system that comes with this world is much deeper and more flexible than the fairly basic rules of Arena. In the beginning you are treated to an elaborate character creation, which includes the awesome possibility of customizing your chartacter's class. You can combine various attributes and skills together and create whatever you feel your protagonist should be like. I spent a long time trying to make the perfect character, and even restarted the game after having completed the first dungeon.

The game introduces what later become the staple of the series: the skill system. Rather than leveling up in the old-fashioned way, by gathering experience points (like in Arena), you become stronger by repeatedly executing the same action. This system might not be to everyone's taste, but it is certainly more absorbing than the one of its predecessor, and very addictive. Seeing how every action has a direct impact on your character's growth is exhilarating; which Elder Scrolls player hasn't made his protagonist merrily hop through vast landscape and slash the air with a short sword, patiently waiting for the magic words "your skill has increased" to appear?

Much of the world in Daggerfall is randomized, just like in Arena; however, the game conceals this randomness better. Part of this comes courtesy of the graphics, which are noticeably more varied and do a more convincing job at creating an illusion of a living, breathing world. This is particularly evident in dungeon design; the starting location of Daggerfall grabbed me right away with its ominous atmosphere, while in Arena I had to first get out of the imperial prison in order to become really interested in the game. The dungeons are very complex and hard to navigate, but the emotional reward you receive for completing them only adds to the game's addictiveness. The immersion is complimented by excellent sound effects and the optional, but highly recommended mouse-look exploration mode.

Tamriel of Arena was a mishmash of fantasy elements put together with little coherence. In Daggerfall, this world is a much more detailed, individualized environment, with its own background and lore, racial, political, and social dynamics, etc. The leap in quality is instantly noticeable and constitutes perhaps the main reason for the game's improvement over its predecessor. Well-written books are scattered all over the world, providing enjoyable reading that surpasses the randomized in-game dialogue. Rummaging through dungeon loot or public libraries in search of the third volume of a pseudo-historical pulp novel with sexual overtones is just one of those many little goals that can engross so much in this game.

The higher level of detail in the world is more than just a cosmetic choice; plenty of gameplay mechanics have been added to the core formula to enhance and deepen the experience. There are many more types of quests, and you can now join various guilds and ascend in their ranks. You earn reputation which is affected by your actions. You can become involved in the politics of High Rock and Hammerfell, siding with various organizations. Time passes by, just like in Arena, but this time you also get timed quests, and your reputation depends on how often you visit a particular guild and accept quests from it. Add to this the ability of making your own magic spells, the possibility to contract a disease and become a vampire, a werewolf, or a wereboar (each with its own set of rules, advantages, and disadvantages), and you'll begin to see how varied and involving the game can become despite its generally repetitive nature.

On top of that, the main quest of Daggerfall is by far more interesting than the generic "gather eight pieces of something to defeat the bad guy" we've seen in Arena. Not only is the main story ripe with conspiracies and hidden agendas, it is also branching: you can choose between several different characters and organizations to support, each with its own goals, as well as influence the game's ending and the fate of Tamriel through your decisions.

The Bad
In many ways Daggerfall was ahead of its time, and it is clear that technology is to be blamed for most of the flaws found in this outstanding virtual world. It was obviously impossible to hand-craft such a massive environment with the 3D capabilities of the time. Daggerfall hides its randomness better than Arena, and has much more personality; but after playing for a while, cracks begin to show in the magnificent edifice that is its world.

There is no true continuous world in the game in the same sense as in, for example, Ultima VI. The world outdoors has no real locations; it consists of randomly generated, identically-looking terrain that stretches without end. Theoretically you can physically explore it and discover towns and dungeons on your own; in practice, this is a very boring activity, since there are no landmarks at all in this world, not even roads or anything else to distinguish one place from another. A convenient fast travel opinion is provided, which unfortunately takes away from the joy of exploration.

Towns and dungeons are perfectly functional and acceptable for whatever gameplay they offer; but visually, they are repetitive and lack coherence. There are huge towns in this world, but they lack planning, clearly displaying random elements. Buildings are positioned without much logic, and it is hard to get attached to a particular town when you know there are hundreds of others that look more or less the same. In a strange way, it contributes to the game's impartiality: you choose "your" town, "your" guild, "your" quest etc. out of many similar ones and individualize it with your choice. But lack of original features in towns and other locations eventually make the playing process tiresome and nearly depressing.

The game's dungeons are twisted monstrosities that make those of Phantasy Star II look like linear pathways. The 3D map is, frankly, almost completely useless and confuses more than it helps. I loved the dungeon crawling in the game, but I was nearly physically exhausted after having spent several hours in a devilish maze before almost accidentally stumbling on the life-saving exit symbol.

The game's main quest can be easily broken, so if you intend to follow it, don't deviate from its prescribed path. Having to fulfill level requirements for triggering the next stage of the quest can get annoying. Even though the story is interesting, don't expect interaction with fascinating characters or anything of the sort. The NPCs in the game are random, and as such have absolutely no personality, unless your fantasy complements their lack of such by deliberately singling them out, treating them in particular ways, etc. It is the same as with towns: the quantity is overwhelming, but there is hardly any quality to speak of.

The Bottom Line
No amount of problems can change the fact that Daggerfall is an immersive, deeply addictive game, astounding in its vision, flexibility of gameplay, and sheer size. This game won't satisfy those who play RPGs only to encounter interesting people and read cleverly written dialogues; it appeals much more to the type of player that finds joy in complete, head-spinning freedom. For what it's worth, Daggerfall is a huge, awe-inspiring virtual playground that surpasses in scope everything that was done before or after it.

The Good
For some time now, big softwarehouses are offering old titles for free, just for the fans. This is the case of Elder Scrolls 2, an epic game that mixes elements of first person with the essence of RPG in a masterly way. The game's release date of August 31, 1996, so the essential elements, such as graphics, sound and gameplay are relevant to their time.

The game has all the elements of style taken very seriously, combining all the first person in an environment very similar to the classics of the era, such as Doom. Initially, you can choose the origin of your character, your class, attributes, physical characteristics and appearance, and many other data. Finally, you can start the tutorial with some tips for you to do well during the game.

Within the in-game tutorial, you learn your basic commands that can be modified or accessed at any time through its main menu, accessed by the button click Esc Interestingly, even the commands for changing the current standard of games in the first person with the keys W, a, S and D moving the character. The movements are performed with weapons with the mouse, which should be moved in different directions while the right button is pressed. So you can strike blows at their opponents, eliminating them more easily.

As in any good RPG, it is important to always focus on the scenario and all he can offer to help you. Scour every detail within the phases seeking new items and possibilities. In addition, larger opponents generally have many interesting objects for you to collect and better equipped for battle.

Freedom is a feature that is always present when one hears about Elder Scrolls. In Daggerfall is no different, and your character can travel across the continent in the game, facing challenges in various locations.

There are even cities full of people, the (in)famous NPCs, willing to help you or not, depending on their conduct within the game. Talk to everyone and find new challenges within the game, which makes it even more fun. There are six different endings, depending on your actions within the game.

The Bad
The game has graphics, sound and gameplay for its time (1996), so do not expect the same technical level of today's games. If you want to play this fantastic game today, unfortunately it is necessary to install DOSBox, a free software that emulates the archaic MS-DOS.

The Bottom Line
The Elder Scrolls series is one of the most renowned of the genre, mixing with mastery, elements in the first person RPGs with the famous classic, full of possibilities for development and evolution.

In Daggerfall, you will experience one of the classics of his time, a very well designed game, you must create your character, taking him to the most unusual challenges and feared by a vast continent.