Most people think they know huge games. They point at Starfield or The Witcher 3 and talk about "scale." Honestly? They’re usually wrong. If you want to talk about actual, brain-melting scale, you have to go back to 1996. Bethesda Softworks released The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall and basically broke the logic of how digital worlds should work. It wasn't just a sequel to Arena. It was a procedural experiment that grew so large it almost became unmanageable.
The game covers the provinces of High Rock and Hammerfell. We’re talking about an area roughly the size of Great Britain. It’s about 161,600 square kilometers. Compare that to Skyrim, which is roughly 37 square kilometers. It’s a joke. You can’t even wrap your head around it until you try to walk from one town to another and realize it’ll take you real-time hours of staring at low-res grass.
People often ask if the size actually matters. Most of it is procedurally generated, after all. But there’s a specific feeling you get in Daggerfall that no other modern RPG provides. It’s the feeling of being genuinely lost in a world that doesn't care about you. It's cold. It's buggy. It's brilliant.
The Procedural Magic of the Iliac Bay
Bethesda didn't hand-craft every inch of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall. They couldn't. Instead, Julian Lefay and the team at the time used algorithms to seed thousands of towns, graveyards, and dungeons across the map. There are over 15,000 locations. Think about that for a second.
You’ve got 750,000-plus non-player characters. Sure, most of them have the personality of a brick wall and will just tell you where the nearest temple is, but the sheer density creates a weirdly realistic sense of "place." You aren't the center of the universe here. You’re just a messenger for the Emperor sent to investigate a haunting in Daggerfall City and a missing letter.
The world operates on a calendar. Shops close at night. People go inside. If you’re caught loitering or breaking into a store, the guards don't just fine you; you actually go to court. You have to choose a plea. You can try to lie your way out of it based on your personality stats. It’s a level of simulation that Bethesda eventually stripped away in favor of more "cinematic" experiences in Morrowind and Oblivion. It’s a shame, really.
The Complexity of Character Creation
Modern RPGs have simplified things. You pick a class, maybe a few perks, and you’re off. In The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, the character creator is a game in itself. You can choose a pre-made class like a Mage or a Warrior, but the real pros use the custom class maker.
This is where things get wild. You can give yourself "Advantages" and "Disadvantages." Want to be immune to paralysis? Go for it. But you’ll have to balance it out. Maybe you make it so you can’t use leather armor or you take extra damage in holy places. This moves the "Difficulty Dagger"—a literal UI element—up and down. It dictates how fast you level up.
I once made a character who could only heal while submerged in water. It was a nightmare. I loved it. The game allows for total failure. You can build a character so fundamentally broken that they can't finish the first dungeon, Privateer’s Hold. That’s the kind of design philosophy that just doesn't exist in AAA gaming anymore. Developers are too afraid you’ll quit. Daggerfall doesn't care if you quit. It expects you to learn.
Why We Still Talk About "Daggerfall Unity"
If you try to play the original DOS version of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall today, you’re going to struggle. The controls are mapped to the arrow keys by default. The view-bobbing will make you sea-sick. And the bugs? They are legendary. You will fall through the floor of a dungeon into the "void" more times than you can count.
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That’s where Daggerfall Unity comes in. This is a fan-led project by Gavin "Interkarma" Clayton that took the original game's assets and rebuilt the entire engine in Unity. It’s a miracle of software engineering.
It fixes the bugs. It adds modern mouse-look. It introduces a "small dungeons" setting because, let's be honest, the original dungeons were too big. They were literal labyrinths where you could get lost for three hours just trying to find one quest item. Using Daggerfall Unity makes the game feel like a modern indie title rather than a dusty relic from the mid-90s.
The Narrative Stakes and Multiple Endings
The story isn't just "save the world." It’s a political thriller. You’re dealing with the ghost of King Lysandus, who is screaming "REVENGE" through the streets of Daggerfall every night. But you’re also dealing with the Numidium—a giant brass god-robot.
What makes the ending of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall so famous is the "Warp in the West." There are six different endings. You can give the Totem of Tiber Septim to the King of Worms, the Underking, the Gortwog of the Orcs, or several others. In most games, developers pick one "canon" ending for the sequel.
Bethesda didn't do that. They decided that all the endings happened simultaneously through a massive temporal paradox. This "Dragon Break" is now a cornerstone of Elder Scrolls lore. It’s a brilliant way to respect player choice while keeping the timeline intact. It shows a level of narrative bravery that we rarely see. They leaned into the weirdness of their world rather than trying to make it a generic Tolkien clone.
Living the Life of a High Rock Citizen
Beyond the main quest, the game is a life sim. You can buy houses. You can buy a boat—which acts as a mobile home and a way to avoid the expensive tavern fees. You can join various guilds, and unlike Skyrim, you can’t just be the leader of everything without putting in the work.
The guilds have requirements. If you want to rise in the Mages Guild, you actually need to be good at magic. Your skills have to meet a certain threshold. It forces you to roleplay. If you're a knight, you act like a knight. You don't just become the Arch-Mage because you found a cool staff.
- Bank Loans: You can go to a bank in Wayrest, take out a massive loan, buy a house, and then just... never go back to that region. The guards will come for you if you return, though.
- Vampirism and Lycanthropy: Getting turned into a werewolf or a vampire isn't just a stat boost. It changes the game. You have to kill innocents to survive. You’re hunted. It feels dangerous.
- Political Reputation: Doing a quest for one noble might make another one hate you. The reputation system is regional. You might be a hero in Daggerfall but a wanted criminal in Sentinel.
It’s these layers of systems that make The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall feel alive. It’s janky, sure. The sprites are 2D and the buildings are blocks. But the "math" underneath the world is more complex than almost anything on the market today.
Misconceptions About the "Empty" World
A common criticism is that Daggerfall is "wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle." I disagree. The depth isn't in the hand-placed clutter or the environmental storytelling you see in Fallout. The depth is in the mechanics.
It’s in the spell-making altar where you can create a spell that leeches health from enemies while giving you the ability to jump thirty feet in the air. It’s in the way the language skills—like Orcish or Dragonish—actually allow you to talk your way out of fights with monsters. Most players never even touch those skills, but they’re there.
The emptiness is actually a feature. It provides a sense of isolation. When you’re trekking through a blizzard in the Dragontail Mountains and you see the flickering lights of a tavern in the distance, it feels like a genuine relief. You don't get that in modern games where there’s an "interest point" every thirty seconds. Daggerfall allows for boredom, which in turn makes the moments of discovery feel earned.
How to Actually Play It Today
If you’re looking to dive in, don't just download the free version on Steam and hope for the best. The Steam version is notoriously poorly packaged.
Instead, go to the GOG version or download the files directly to use with Daggerfall Unity. Look for the "GOG Cut" if you want a one-click install, though some purists prefer a clean install with specific mods. There are mods that add 3D models, improved lighting, and even new quests.
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You should also read the manual. I’m serious. The game came with a thick booklet for a reason. Understanding how the attributes like Agility and Luck actually affect your hit chance will save you a lot of frustration. In this game, your "swing" of the sword is controlled by moving the mouse across the screen. It’s tactile. It’s weird. It works.
Actionable Steps for New Players
If you’re ready to lose a few hundred hours of your life to the Iliac Bay, here is how you should approach it:
1. Install Daggerfall Unity immediately. Do not pass go. Do not try to struggle with the 1996 DOS box unless you really want that "authentic" suffering.
2. Focus on "Long Blade" and "Restoration." These are the bread and butter of survival. Being able to heal yourself and hit things reliably is the only way you'll survive the first three levels.
3. Use the "Recall" spell. Buy it as soon as you can. Set an anchor at the dungeon entrance. Dungeons in The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall are massive. You will get lost. Without a teleport back to the start, you might never find the exit.
4. Join the Mages Guild for the services. Even if you aren't a pure mage, the ability to buy soul gems and make magic items is essential for late-game play.
5. Don't be afraid to fail quests. Most quests have timers. If you don't make it to the town in 14 days, you fail. Your reputation drops. The world moves on. That’s okay. It’s part of the story.
The legacy of this game isn't just that it was big. It’s that it was brave. It tried to simulate a whole world before the technology was really there to support it. Even thirty years later, we’re still trying to catch up to the ambition of The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall. Give it a chance, and you'll see why the fans refuse to let it die.