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The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall
1996

The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall (Bethesda Softworks, 1996) was the follow up to the well-received Arena RPG game released 2 years earlier and expanded upon many of the things that made it a popular game. Daggerfall was one of the most advanced RPGs of its era and remains one of the largest open worlds seen in an RPG game on PC to date. There is plenty of replay value here and even people pampered by the graphics of current RPGs will find something in the engrossing story and iconic world presented in Daggerfall.

Fans of TES series will already be familiar with the various races, classes and characters in the world, and you will be prompted to either juggle stats or answer a short questionnaire to determine your starting skills. The first thing you will notice after you have chosen your particular avatar is how incredibly vast the world is. The map is absolutely gigantic, and there are countless hours to be had exploring every dungeon, temple and city and it is quite mercifully that Bethesda included a fast-travel system. Unfortunately this is both one of the most appealing aspects of the game – the reason it remains a not only passable but impressive RPG option today – and one of the few downfalls, as some dungeons can get very similar. This is partly down to the limited number of enemies (though there are an impressive number, the problem lies more in the number of dungeons!) and partly due to the limited graphics and textures that mean several dungeons will have a familiar look and layout.

The other hook in this game, aside from the massive and immersive world and its inhabitants, is the in-depth storyline. The premise is that you have been called by the current Emperor to perform a kind of exorcism and this evolves into an engrossing storyline throughout the main questline. Surprisingly, though, you will probably find yourself returning to start the bulk of the main quest once you’re at least level 20. There are many side-stories and quests that are equally enthralling and you really have supreme choice over which quests you follow, what guild you join, your career path, whether you want to become a vampire or were-beast, and many more. Your character weaves a complex network of storylines and adventures with a multitude of endings. The player choices here in a world that carries on around you – with or without your input – really are vast even by modern RPG standards.

Also of note is the difficulty of the game. It might have just been me but I actually struggled to get out of the starter dungeon – Privateer’s Hold. Burning several save slots, having to search for better weaponry and stopping to strategise punctuated my “tutorial” level. This may be down to the combat mechanic in which you use the mouse swipes to ‘swing’ your sword or other weapon as it took some getting used to, but even once sufficiently mastered it can be a little unintuitive at times. Once you’re out in the world the difficulty is less apparent as you can level up at your own pace and only tackle which dungeons you want to. Some may even wish to circumvent major confrontations almost entirely and strike from the shadows with a bow while hiding out in the houses and ships you can buy. Either way eventually you’re going to have to take the steel to someone and when that time comes make sure you have your wits about you, because you have to keep track of not only your health but your equally-important stamina/fatigue and your weapon condition. Being an old game there are similarly reports of various bugs and idiosyncrasies that may ruin an individual’s experience, but I experienced them rarely if at all.

The overlying politics, guilds, religions and even an event calendar all add to the atmosphere of the game and allow you to get immersed despite the now dated graphics. I have heard about complaints that the sprawling cities are too large and navigating them to find the right merchant or bank is tedious, but I feel it keeps the feeling of the world intact. I actually found myself lost after completing the starting dungeon before I discovered that you could fast-travel, but instead of getting frustrated at this it really put the size of the world in perspective and gain an appreciation for the world I was playing in. This is a game that rewards thinking outside the box and customizing your character. Explore dungeons, join guilds, bring glory to your chosen deity, or amass a pile of riches – I recommend sitting back with an abundance of snacks and just seeing where the world of Daggerfall takes you!

Note: Like the previous Elder Scrolls game, Arena, Daggerfall is available free from Bethesda Softworks from their website, here:

http://cms.elderscrolls.com/sites/de.../DFInstall.zip

Legends of Valour
1992

Legends of Valour (1992), officially known as "Legends of Valour: Volume I - The Dawning" is a point-and-click, 3D RPG game set in a fantasy world. Fans of the Elder Scrolls series such as myself will instantly feel at home with the game. In addition to the 3D, first-person perspective that it shares with the legendary RPG series, you have the capacity to starve, fail to get enough sleep or get drunk much like TES games, and you can be arrested for illegal or disorderly conduct.

The usual array of high fantasy characters are here for the player to choose from, including humans, elves and dwarves. Each has various boons and penalties but I found they were quite minor and mostly affected politics/reputation in the game. The city that you start in, Mitteldorf, is nicely detailed and sufficiently large to keep you interested. The buildings of Mitteldorf are complimented by a series of underground caves (dungeons) for further exploring and questing.

Having played out most of the Elder Scrolls games I was constantly experiencing deja vu in this game and it came as no surprise after some research that the developers of TES at Bethesda cited Legends of Valour as an inspiration for their own famous series. As you align with various factions, guilds and temples to expand you character and unlock additional missions the immediate comparison is made with those games. Even down to the possibility of your character becoming a vampire or a werewolf (Lycanthropes in TES) shows how much mutual inspiration this shared with the Bethesda series.

However, a dated 3D engine and comparisons to a great series do not ensure this game is good. My experience with it unveiled some annoying bugs and the game is probably better off as a stepping stone and inspiration for better games than a standalone great. For the time I am sure it was fresh and revolutionary, but it lacks the subtleties of other RPGs that make them appealing. For a start the game did lack atmosphere, especially with extensive dungeon levels and being stuck in the one city - even though the city itself is huge. Atmosphere is a must in any RPG as it really draws you in to the game world.

You will find yourself spending most of your time traipsing through the city putting together the pieces of the storyline and the cave/dungeon levels are even more repetitive. There is little sense of purpose or accomplishment. Too much effort was put on details like night and day cycling and the whole game comes across as too ambitious for the time - leaving it a little unpolished or incomplete.

However, the game is worth a single quick playthrough just for the nostalgia of TES fans and the novelty of playing an open-world, 3D RPG from 1992! I wish I would have played this game when it was released, but it doesn't hold a light to modern RPGs or indeed many other retro RPG games.