The Elder Scrolls: Chapter II -- Daggerfall (PC, 1997)

Someone has finally returned to the RPGs of the old school and created an adventure that will take even the most experienced gamer months to unravel. From start to finish, Daggerfall shows itself to be an epic product that surpasses the time-crunching power of even the legendary RPGs of old. At its core, Daggerfall is a well-written adventure game with solid role-playing systems plopped into what is basically an action engine. Players design their character using a creation routine that is second to none, choosing from one of 18 classes that includes knight, warrior, healer, assassin, and sorcerer, or design their own with a specialized sub-creation system. From here, as if actually transported to another realm, players are free to do whatever they wish, with computer response mirroring that of the real world. Although Daggerfall does sport an absorbing storyline, it's the potential for adventure outside of the standard plot that is so exciting. No longer forced to play the way The Man wants, we are now free to ignore the pleadings of the princess, wander off, and get involved in other complex tales that change and evolve in response to our actions! Here lies the greatest strength and weakness of Daggerfall. Those who are looking for an adventure that follows a straight path, that they can sit down and solve, are bound to be terrified by the entropic nature of this game. The sheer size of this product is staggering, and even the most open-minded player is certain to be overwhelmed at times by the thousands of people to talk to, the scores of weapons and spells to keep up with, the hundreds of books to read, and the vast amount of landscape to cover in the game. To play Daggerfall successfully requires one of two mind-sets: to remain ever-vigilant, taking notes and going exactly when and where you're told; or to relax and let life take you where it will. For those willing to exercise a little patience with its quirks, Daggerfall will deliver some of the most entertaining and absorbing adventures available. Those who are even the slightest bit put off by subtle storylines or RPG statistics, however, will probably find the game totally unbearable. The bottom line is this: RPGs have always attracted a fanatical core group, and this title was designed with those hard-core gamers in mind.

Daggerfall, show it to hardcore gamers these days and they'll mention how crap the graphics look- are graphics everything? Daggerfall certainly proves it isn't! Now when you tell that person who hates daggerfall about the 15,000+ cities and dungeons, they'll prbably start thinking. Then along with the fact that you can buy ships!, houses!, hundreds of weapons and armour pieces, they'll run off straight away to buy it. I've personally just bought the game and whilst writing this review I am expecting it to be delivered. Don't worry, I have played it before so I'm not writing this from the top of my head. Also I have windows vista which nobody has confirmed will install properly but like XP, vista is fully backwards compatible and should work. the one operating system that it almost didn't work on was 2000, this being because it wasn't fully backwards compatible. Its worth that $60 it normally goes for still and it always will be, its still the biggest non online game out there and something tells me it probably still will be for at least a few more years!

loved playing this game nearly twenty years ago and am glad i get to play it again. now i can fill my very rare free time with some good old escapism.