The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall is important for many reasons, for its pioneering place in a series that would include Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim for winning the game of the year in its own right. The thing is, the game is a 3D adventure from 1996, and trying to play it in 2022 sucks.
Not through my own fault! It’s just that the first 3D games didn’t have the same universal smoothness and ease of movement that we associate with more modern titles, so anyone who was more familiar with the later games in the series trying to play Daggerfall is now would expect to fight.
Or they would be if they tried to play the original 1996 release (above). What they could be doing is playing the wonderful Daggerfall Unity – GOG Cut, which has just arrived in Good Old Games. It’s not an official Bethesda release; rather, it’s the work of a team of modders who have packed it all up for launch in the store:
Play a reimagined version of the all-time classic RPG from The Elder Scrolls. Daggerfall Unity: GOG Cut offers this amazing experience to modern gamers. It has been made possible by a team of passionate creators working under the banner of Daggerfall Unity.
This ambitious project, launched more than a decade ago by Gavin “Interkarma” Clayton, aims to offer the unique experience of the classic open world role-playing game to a new generation of players. Thanks to the efforts of GamerZakh, a creator of game content with a love of classics, you can now enjoy a special GOG Cut of the Daggerfall Unity title.
All you have to do is download the game and just launch it. GOG Cut of Daggerfall Unity does not require any special action or upgrade on your behalf. With the settings and modifications selected by GamerZakh, you can explore the rich world of Daggerfall with improved visuals and gameplay.
Some of the specific features of this included game remastering are some high resolution images (completely redone in Unity, hence the name, although if it is an improvement is pending debate) with lighting new, much longer drawing distances, support. for modifications and, most importantly, a number of quality-of-life tweaks, including smoother first-person controls.
You can download the package for free and see the full list of modders involved on the GOG site.