Daggerfall, much like the later two games in the Elder Scrolls series, revolves around a mysterious stranger who turns out to be important. In this case, you are sent by the Emperor to accomplish two things: find out what happened to a letter sent to a spy in Hammerfell, and put the ghost of King Lysandus to rest. Invariably, the player ends up being caught in a whirlwind of political intrigue and is forced to deal with multiple factions in a quest to simply do what was asked of him. Unlike later games, the story of Daggerfall is incredibly branching and even offers six distinctive endings, all of which, according to official lore, happened at once. Not many games pull it off like that!

Daggerfall's main claim to fame is the size of the game world. Many people looked at Oblivion's 16 square miles of wilderness and marveled at the sheer scope. Daggerfall puts that to shame with a landmass that is 3900x larger than Oblivion. That's right, 3900x. It's the size of great Britain! However, while there is an immense amount of things to do in Daggerfall, nothing is as detailed as it is in the later Elder Scrolls games. This is a result of the criticism that Daggerfall was not detailed enough. Rather, locations and NPCs were generic and forgettable (something later games suffered from as well, but to a lesser extent). Along with this, each location is randomly generated, even after you have visited it. This means that towns and dungeons can change upon multiple visits, and I don't mean change logically. This can be disorienting at times, especially to somebody who is used to the fixed nature of grand modern RPGs, but you'll become accustomed to it.

The gameplay of Daggerfall can be broken up into three sections: interactions (talking to NPCs, bartering), combat (spellcasting, melee), and character (skills, inventory). Each section plays into the other sections greatly, meaning that you will have to learn quickly. Daggerfall is not a very forgiving game. For example, within the first ten minutes of the game, you can meet an imp that is immune to physical attacks. Talk about steep learning curve! Much like Arena, if you can traverse through the first dungeon of Daggerfall, you have a good grasp on the game. If you can't... we don't blame you. It's tough!

The interaction you perform with other characters is just as important as beating them senseless. A variety of factors influence how the people of Daggerfall view and treat you. The most important is your title. For example, as a royal guard, you will be more influential with the political elite. As a lowly warrior, though, the common people will probably enjoy your company more. Along with the titles system, performing side-quests will also raise your standing with various groups as well as in general. Finally, you need to understand the people in order to talk to them well, which means raising your skills in language. All of these things, from faction standings to titles to language, contribute to how each NPC perceives you. And there's no dialogue minigame, Oblivion fans.

Combat in Daggerfall is incredibly unique. It takes a distinctly "motion sensing" feel. Swinging a sword is as simple as holding the right mouse button and dragging across the screen. Moving forward and backward is done by left clicking near the edge of the screen. Casting spells and shooting arrows is as simple as pointing where you want it to go and right clicking. However, for those used to modern control schemes (ones that use WASD), you will probably want to switch to the Free View mode and change up your keybindings. Perhaps the nicest aspect of the combat is that the game shows you important events (such as when you resist a magical attack) at the top of the screen for easy reading. Excellent!

Finally, one of the most important aspects comes to light. Character organization and maintenance is incredibly important in Daggerfall, as it ties the rest of the game to you and your progression. Much like later games, you gain levels by training up your primary skills through use. Whenever you sleep, skills you have used on a regular basis also have a chance to increase, along with the normal leveling-while-doing. Skills range from speaking orcish to hitting people with longswords, and Daggerfall has easily the largest skill list of the Elder Scrolls games. Skills give way to attributes, which are things like your race, hit points, stamina, strength, perception, and the like. Higher base attributes, such as endurance, naturally give you bonuses to your secondary attributes, such as hit points, and the screen displays which bonuses are given by which base attributes.

Alongside skills are the inventory and spellbook, which function very similar. The inventory is precisely what it says. An inventory. You carry stuff around inside it. You do have an encumbrance limit that is determined by your strength, although toting around a wagon drastically increases what you can hold. The spellbook functions much the same way. You can only keep so many spells, which are transcribed into your spellbook. You can learn spells from just about any source, from teachers to custom creation.

Did we mention how robust the custom creation system in Daggerfall is? Although you can't choose your body appearance and your head options are limited, Daggerfall has a massive amount of customization available to the player. At the start of the game, you can choose your name, race, background, class (custom or pre-made, with class determining primary skills), skill bonuses, and base attributes. In the game itself, you can determine how your skills progress through using them, buy houses and other elements of property, acquire a huge collection of clothing and such, and even create your own custom spells through the Mage's Guild. This is a game all about letting the player do what they want, and it shows.

Daggerfall is, without a doubt, an important and influential sandbox RPG. One of the first of its kind, it had a great impact on Bethesda, the nature of sandbox games, and RPGs in general. Without a doubt, it is a game that every PC gamer should play, despite its faults. You can download the game right here on Big Download, or through Bethesda's site. Make sure to read the install instructions in order to play.

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