The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall
The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall is a PC role-playing game developed by Bethesda Softworks. It centers on area exploration, combat and party setup, and character progression, with controls and information arranged around keyboard and mouse, with a controller where the game supports one.
- AI score · out of 10
- 7.9 / 10
About this game
The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall is a PC role-playing game centered on area exploration, combat and party setup, and character progression. Story beats, exploration, and progression resources support a longer campaign, with progress divided into stages, tasks, matches, or growth milestones that make immediate goals understandable. Its value depends on whether these rules continue to create judgment and room for mastery rather than on length, sales, or series recognition. Short campaigns are judged by repeat-challenge value, while longer ones are judged by variety, pacing, and recovery after failure. Characters, world building, environments, and music carry most of the atmosphere, while resolution, graphics settings, frame rate, aspect ratio, audio, text scaling, and hardware performance need to preserve action, state, and text readability together. The genre-specific limitation is that dense text, menu layers, repeated battles, loading, or language dependence can slow progress. Platform conditions also include OS and hardware requirements, installation media, patches, drivers, DRM and launchers, key binding and controller support, save locations, mod compatibility, servers, and era-specific OS compatibility affect the current release. This description covers only this platform release and does not import features or conveniences from remasters, emulators, or other console editions.
Collected in series
The Elder Scrolls invites you to make your own way through Tamriel, choosing how to fight, which quests to follow and where to wander next. Its fantasy RPGs pair character development with discoveries across different lands, while an online branch opens the world to shared adventures.
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AI review
AI reviews are subjective assessments, not player ratings. See each review for its evidence and limitations.Published date:
Vast role-playing freedom with real original-build instability.
Daggerfall on original PC hardware offered an unusual degree of role-playing freedom in 1996. Its contemporary PC review describes eighteen preset classes plus custom creation, intertwined stories, guild relationships and an enormous collection of places, books and equipment. Players can follow scheduled leads carefully or wander into their own adventure. That breadth supports personal stories for months, but it can overwhelm anyone who expects a clear path through a tightly directed campaign. Writing and character-building possibilities matter more here than visual spectacle. The original release also has substantial technical rough edges: the review documents getting trapped in geometry and occasional crashes, making frequent saves prudent. This rating concerns the 1996 PC game, not Daggerfall Unity or a modern compatibility wrapper, so later fixes are not credited to it. Patient RPG enthusiasts willing to read systems and keep notes are its natural audience; newcomers seeking a reliable, streamlined adventure may struggle.
Strengths
- Flexible roles and immense exploratory scope.
Weaknesses
- Overwhelming scope, clipping and crashes.
Who it is for: Patient classic-PC RPG explorers.
Play notes: Original 1996 release; Unity fixes excluded.
View scoring basis
| Dimension | Review state | Score | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dimension Huge scope can overwhelm. | Reviewed | 8.9 / 10 | Not provided |
| Dimension Exceptional freedom demands patience. | Reviewed | 8.3 / 10 | Not provided |
| Dimension Writing supports an older look. | Reviewed | 7.6 / 10 | Not provided |
| Dimension Original build has serious rough edges. | Reviewed | 5.6 / 10 | Not provided |
Review sources
Not provided
Core information
- Developer
- Bethesda Softworks
- Publisher
- Bethesda Softworks
- Release date
- 1996
- Platforms
- Windows PC
- Content kind
- Game
- Release state
- Released
- Region
- Worldwide
- Official website
- Not provided
- Offline minimum players
- Not provided
- Offline maximum players
- Not provided
- Online minimum players
- Not provided
- Online maximum players
- Not provided
- Categories
- Role-Playing · Primary genre
- Tags
- ExplorationTurn-based CombatSolo-friendlyStory-drivenLong-term ProgressionLevel Progression3D GraphicsFantasyMain Story 20–50 HoursThird Person
- Supported game languages
- Not provided
- Requires base game
- Not provided
- Standalone
- Not provided
- Age ratings
- Not provided
- Play modes
- Not provided
- Perspectives
- Not provided
Release editions
- Windows PCWorldwide1996
Game gallery
Sources
Not provided