The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall

[Dark0ne]

Originally titled Mournhold and set in the land of Morrowind, the game was eventually moved to the provinces High Rock and Hammerfell, with the events centered on the city of Daggerfall. With this second game, the role-playing experience would get even deeper. Gone was Arena's experience-points-based leveling system that rewarded you for simply killing things, and in its place was a new skill-based system that rewarded you for actually role-playing your character.

 

Daggerfall featured one of the first true 3D worlds on a massive scale, with a game world the size of Great Britain. The game had twice as many features as Arena, a deeper role-playing system, and helped usher in an RPG renaissance in 1996.

[ThetaOrionis01]

Daggerfall is probably the most disappointing game I've ever played, or attempted to play - I gave up due to sheer boredom.

 

The gameworld may be huge, but every town looks just like every other town - once you've seen one you've seen them all. A fast travel system allows you to travel from one identikit town to any other - there is little incentive to go exploring.

 

The dungeons are huge and complex, and completely pointless - so pointless that there's even a cheat system in place which lets you teleport through all the 'important' areas. Again, they appear to be randomly generated from standard dungeon building blocks, and slogging through them gets boring very quickly, because you soon figure out that there's nothing much to discover - just another skeleton to kill and a couple of coins to pick up.

 

The NPCs are generic, and very annoying. If you thought Morrowind was bad for bland, no-personality NPCs all telling you the same thing Daggerfall will have you gnawing on your desk in frustration. They are awful.

 

If all that wasn't bad enough, there are the randomly generated faction quests..... you basically get the same quest over and over again, with different names and locations substituted in, along the lines of 'go to the <location> and kill <type of monster> for <NPC>' or 'go to <location> and speak to <NPC> for information about <other NPC>'. Plus, being spoonfed clues took even the most miniscule challenge out of the quests.

If you like boring, repetitive tasks you'll be in your element. I find doing the family laundry more fulfilling.

 

The only redeeming feature I came across in Daggerfall were the in-game books.

 

What makes this game even more disppointing is the hype surrounding it - 'it's far better than Morrowind'. Well... 'bigger' doesn't mean 'better', and I think that quality has been sacrificed for quantity in Daggerfall.

 

Games should be fun. Daggerfall was a chore, and definitely not my idea of fun.

[Dark0ne]

This game is certainly hyped even now, but I think one should play the game in the present day with a pinch of salt -- it's now 9 years old. In light of it's age, and the sort of games that were around at the time, would you not say it was ground-breaking, despite the fact much better options are available now?

 

I think it's safe to say that there wouldn't have been a Morrowind without a Daggerfall. But I agree with you, bigger definately doesn't mean better, just like the original isn't always better than the sequel.

 

(Sort of like the "This music stemmed from the 70s/80s, therefore the 70s/80s were better argument).

[ThetaOrionis01]

Perhaps the graphics were groundbreaking at the time - graphics are not as important to me as gameplay, and as far as gameplay is concerned, the standard I am measuring Daggerfall against is Ultima VII...

 

You're probably right that Morrowind wouldn't exist if it hadn't been for Daggerfall - in a way Morrowind addresses many of the gripes I have with Daggerfall. The gameworld, while far smaller, is infinitely nicer and more detailed, and in Morrowind the different towns and areas have a distinctive character. NPCs, while still not great, are a huge improvement, and the quality of the quests has also improved.

 

Let's hope that this trend continues with Oblivion!

[CrazyGilbert]

yeah, the morrowind we have today would be much different if it wernt for daggerfall. The problem with dagg was that everything was too random and almost nothing was set to be exept for the main quest and even that changed so much. The graphics were okay at the time but I would hate to play it today.

 

i also hated that every fighters guild quest was THE same seriously. Go kill a spider or get a tiger to come out by ringing a bell.