The Elder Scrolls Two: Daggerfall

I wonder how many of you actually remember Daggerfall. After all, it was released in 1996, which is more than 10 years ago. At that time, the graphics (see below) were actually good for a computer game. We still didn't have the high resolutions available today, and 256 colours with 320x200 screens was the norm for computer games. Unless you wanted higher resolution of 640x480, which meant suffering 16 colours...


What was special about Daggerfall is that it was probably the first computer role-playing game that had an open plot. Of course, like games of the time, in which AI is still rudimentary, there was a Main Quest that you can solve. But the good thing about Daggerfall is that you don't have to solve the Main Quest. You can actually do what you like, without working on the Main Quest itself.

So you can actually join the Fighters' Guild, take up quests there (clear up vermins, hunt for people, go dungeon crawling), or you can visit the many graveyards and dungeons scattered all over the land to fight creatures and find treasure. You can even buy yourself a house, or even a ship, which allows you to store your items in them, so that you are not bogged down by extra equipment that you don't need at the moment.

Character creation allowed you to customise your character, much more than other games. While there are classes to choose from, you can also create your own class, choosing from a list of skills to make up the primary and secondary skills of your class. A background generator also gave you options to create a simple background for your character, and may give your character bonuses in certain skills and attributes too.

Items are varied, and you can mix and match armour to fit on various parts of the body. There are even layers, so you can actually wear something on top of another item already taking up that body slot. There are many types of weapons available too, so you can choose from what to use (they have different effect on different monsters) and improve your skills in them accordingly.
Daggerfall is an extensive game way ahead of its time. The freedom it gave could never be replicated in subsequent games from "The Elder Scrolls" series. Where else can you choose to live the life of an honourable knight? Or a mercenary fighter? Or wander the lands as a vagabond mage? Or steal from stores in the middle of the night?

The skills advancement system is also different. While you can train your skills, the system allows you to train your skills only to a certain level. After which you will have to use your skills to actually improve them. And depending on what are the primary skills of your class, you improve in level when those skills get better.

Daggerfall is a DOS game, which worked in Windows 95, but you will have challenges getting it to work in Windows XP and Vista. DOSBox, however, solves the problem, and you can read more about getting Daggerfall to work under DOSBox here, or check the official forums.

The official Daggerfall site
The official forums for The Elder Scrolls
The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (UESP)
Daggerfall in the UESP
Daggerfall files area in UESP
The Daggerfall Embassy
Beginner's Guide to Daggerfall