14 DAY TRIAL // Bethesda, the company in charge of The Elder Scrolls franchise, is announcing that all those interested in playing or re-playing The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall can now go to the official website and download the title for free. On most modern computers, the game will need DOSBox to run and Bethesda has put together a guide that will help players get it running. Other than that, expect no technical support for this free release, which is timed to coincide with the 15th anniversary of The Elder Scrolls.
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall was initially released in 1996 and many consider it as the game that laid the basis for the evolution of the series later seen in Morrowind and in Oblivion. Daggerfall was a huge game, allowing players to move around on the world of Tamriel more than the sequels, which focused on creating richer and smaller experiences for the players.
Much of the game world was randomly generated and featured the array of choices regarding morality that the series has always focused on. In true role playing game tradition, Daggerfall featured a big number of side missions, some of them better designed than those required to finish it.
The release had six endings and they were so different that when Morrowind came out, Bethesda had to create a very complex explanation that could encompass them all and show how the world of Tamriel changed.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was one of the biggest successes for Bethesda, before the release of Fallout 3 and its plethora of downloadable content packs, and the developer is certainly working on a sequel, although no information related to it has been revealed. Players will likely want to see a more open game, with a wider explorable array of locations, like that found in Daggerfall.