The Elder Scrolls: Chapter II: Daggerfall

"Daggerfall: The epitome of expansive and open-ended."

Oooh,man this game is great.I can't remember the last time I played such an engrossing RPG.And guess what?The next chapter in the series (Daggerfall being the second and Arena being the first) is coming to an X-Box near you!Woo!I've seen some screens of this game and it looks to be just as good,if not better than this one.I only hope that the X-Box version will be able to handle the hundreds of cities (yes! hundreds!)that Daggerfall had in it,and I hope are placed in the third game.I remember the first time I played Daggerfall.It was the demo and came with some gaming magazine.I was blown away by the demo,and even more so by the full game when I purchased it a while later.

Gameplay/Plot (8/10)

I gotta admit,I can't tell you much about the plot because well,this game is HUGE and your never rushed into doing anything.So needless to say,I've never made it that far.You have to investigate,find and search out clues all by yourself with little scraps of information as you go along.The plot at the begining is decent though,your the friend of a person of high power and he sends you to investigate the ghost of a king that's been causing trouble in Daggerfall and as a side quest,you have to find a letter and destroy all evidence of it.I never came close to doing either,but hell,I had a lot of fun trying.The world of Daggerfall is immense.There are at least ten different kingdoms and each of those has an astounding amount of cities and dungeons.There are litterally hundreds of cities alone for you to explore.Some of them are huge,sprawling capitols while others are backwater dumps.Exploration and getting around is done really easily,as is casting spells and attacking,all done with your mouse and keyboard.In Daggerfall,your character gains stats as they use the appropriate skill,making getting better at what you do a fun experiance.For example,a thief cant become a better thief by killing an orc,right?Nope.He's gotta pick locks and steal to get better.See what im getting at?Gotta go with what your talents are.And on that light,you CAN rob people.Break into houses and stores at night,rifle through thier things and whatever you want.You can even get busted and thrown in jail.The realism and action in Daggerfall still remains unmatched today.The only bad part is the massive amount of bugs that come with the game.The patches fix most of these,but it's still a bit annoying.Though I can understand,with a game as huge as this one,it's hard to not make a mistake.

Sound/Music (9/10)

Pretty sweet.The music matches the time period and atmosphere of the areas that your in.The sounds are great as well,the sword swings and clashes as well as the spell effects and the sounds of monsters down the hall are great.The monsters are especially well done,it adds that bit of tension to exploring a dark dungeon.You KNOW that demon is around that next corner,but where exactly?Hm,well,I've nothing more to add.The sound is great.

Upside: Amazing game.Possibly the best RPG ever.

Downside: Bugs! Gah!

Reviewers Score: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/02/01, Updated 11/02/01