The Elder Scrolls: Chapter II - Daggerfall
Description official descriptions
Daggerfall is a sequel to The Elder Scrolls: Arena; it is set in the same medieval fantasy world Tamriel - more specifically, in the homeland of the Breton race, known as High Rock, and the province Hammerfell, home of the Redguards. The game's title is derived from the name of High Rock's capital city.
The main protagonist travels to Daggerfall at the request of the emperor Uriel Septim. His mission involves freeing the ghost of the late King Lysandus. Apparently, a letter concerning the king and sent by the emperor to the court in Daggerfall contains information about a dangerous ancient power. It is now up to the hero to retrieve the letter, reveal the dark secret that has been preserved in the king's family, and eventually discover the key to the resurrection of an iron golem who wields immense power.
Like its predecessor, Daggerfall is an open-ended role-playing game, in which the main quest is but a small fraction of the various missions and assignments the player is able to undertake. The game is notable for breaking records concerning the size of its world (though much of it has been generated randomly). Interaction with hundreds of thousands of non-playable characters is possible. The player is free to join one of the many political and social organizations of Tamriel, as well as pursue a personal quest for power. The player is able to buy houses, ships, and horses, as well as become a werewolf, a vampire, or a wereboar.
Combat in Daggerfall is action-based: the player uses the mouse to determine the direction and the power of sword swings and shots from a ranged weapon. Character growth is handled somewhat similarly to that of Quest for Glory games: the more the player performs an action, the better the protagonist becomes at it. For example, swinging the sword will eventually increase the player character's attack power and skill with that weapon, etc. This extends to non-combat activities such as jumping, bartering, speaking foreign languages, etc. Leveling up occurs when several main and secondary skills have been raised sufficiently. During character generation the player is given the option to create and name his or her custom classes by combining attributes and skills.
Groups +
- 3D Engine: XnGine
- Animals: Cats
- Elder Scrolls series
- Fantasy creatures: Elves
- Fantasy creatures: Orcs
- Game feature: In-game screenshot capture
- Gameplay feature: Alchemy
- Gameplay feature: Character development - Repetition
- Gameplay feature: Day / night cycle
- Gameplay feature: Journal
- Gameplay feature: Paper doll inventory
- Gameplay feature: Pickpocketing
- Gameplay feature: Seasonal change
- Games with randomly generated environments
- Live action cut-scenes
- Nudity
- Protagonist: Female (option)
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Credits (DOS version)
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 81% (based on 26 ratings)
Players
Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 110 ratings with 8 reviews)
A classic that brings together the first person with RPG elements!
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.
DOS · by Perfil Falso (774) · 2012
If open ended gameplay is your thing, look no further
The Good
Daggerfall is without question the biggest game I have ever played (Yes, I have played Elite) in a lot of aspects. It contains a world, too big to describe, a main story that's long, intricate and very hard to complete (for many reasons). It also contains mounts, ships, houses, guilds, royalties, assassins, monsters, dungeons, crypts, magic, love, well, you name it. It's all in here. You can spend a year real time immersed in Daggerfall without ever even touching the main storyline. There's so much to do and to see it's almost overwhelming. Even though it came out in 1996 I am still playing it. I even got it to work on WIndows XP!
The Bad
The bugs. Unfortunately, Bethesda discontinued the support for this game in 1998, leaving it in a sad state. When in dungeons you'll want to save often because sooner or later you know you're gonna fall through the floor and die. The main story is so easily breakable it's almost funny. And whatever you do, don't take advantage of all the weaknesses found in the advancement system since it makes the game really boring, really fast.
The Bottom Line
Daggerfall is gigantic. It is also one of the best free form RPG's of all time. If it weren't for the horrendous bugs and the somewhat oversized dungeons this would have been my all time classic. (Which is Wasteland)
DOS · by Mattias Kreku (413) · 2003
The Good
...if you like non-linearity. That's the name of the game in Daggerfall, whose landscape is twice the size of the UK. Plenty of versatility: you can do almost anything imaginable and certainly just about anything you'd ever want to. Tamriel is a second home to many, and for good reason.
The character creation system is wonderful. So many options to choose from, you could literally spend hours tweaking your character until he was JUST right. Fortunately, for the most part creating a character goes much quicker than that. It's easy enough to quickly slap together a generic character with a pre-made class, but so much more fun to spend some time learning the nuances of the custom class generator.
The game itself plays out in the third-person perspective, using the mouse quite a bit, as you can move and look around with, as well as the all-important feature of swinging your weapon.
For those who LIKE that sort of thing, there is a storyline to follow, but for those who prefer to chart their own course, Daggerfall is very generous in that category. Become a warrior striving to uphold justice in the land; become a thief, preying on the rich merchants of the Illiac Bay; become an asassin, creeping stealthily behind your enemies to deliver a crippling blow. In Daggerfall, (just about) anything goes.
The Bad
Buggy, buggy, buggy! That CAN be gotten used to, though. However, if you're not using the latest patch (2.13), you're in for a rough time. The game overcomes this with all its other features, though, and redeems itself in the long run.
The Bottom Line
VERY non-linear! Excellent role-playing game, for those who like to experience life in another world. Not the tightest story, but that allows the player to create their own history as they adventure through Tamriel. A true world simulator, if there ever was one, wrapped up in a tasty CRPG package.
DOS · by Omniscia (38) · 2000
Discussion
Subject | By | Date |
---|---|---|
Do these (DOSBox-ed) as a free bonus count as a Windows release? | Cavalary (11445) | Dec 25, 2015 |
Daggerfall Soundtrack Remake | Pieces of 8-bit | Dec 3, 2015 |
It's FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE | Foxhack (32100) | Jul 18, 2009 |
Trivia
CompUSA release
In order to get Daggerfall carried in CompUSA stores, a special edition of the game was requested. The CompUSA version has 16 extra quests added to the game. A patch was later released that added these extra quests to the standard version of the game.
Freeware release
The game was offered as freeware on July 9, 2009 in celebration of fifteen years of Elder Scrolls.
Graphics
Daggerfall's creature art is an interesting mix of hand-drawn work and rendered material. All of the creatures, in fact, originally had 6 frames to every animation, but this had to be chopped down considerably to compress the size of the game which was already monstrously large for the time it was released.
The only remaining trace of these original detailed animations is in a "bestiary" video describing several of the creatures of Daggerfall.
Awards
- Computer Gaming World
- November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #8 Top Vaporware Title in Computer Game History
- May 1997 (Issue #154) – Role-Playing Game of the Year
Information also contributed by PolloDiablo.
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Related Sites +
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Daggerfall at Wikipedia
Information about The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall at Wikipedia -
Doug's Daggerfall Page
A Fansite dedicated to Daggerfall. -
TES: The Essential Site
A site for Daggerfall, featuring one of the largest surviving conclaves of fans. -
The Tamriel Compendium
The Tamriel Compendium has lots of info about Daggerfall (and a few files), including a bestiary with creature sounds. -
The UESP
The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages is one of the oldest sites about the Elder Scrolls series. It has huge amounts of information about Daggerfall.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Omniscia.
Windows Apps added by Plok. Windows added by Rik Hideto.
Additional contributors: Brian Hirt, ShadowShrike, Alaka, formercontrib, Yearman, Patrick Bregger.
Game added January 23, 2000. Last modified April 2, 2024.