World size isn't everything, as those older Elder Scrolls titles used procedural generation to fill in a lot of the gaps, making many areas quite bland compared to many games today. Because those first two titles weren't held back by hardware limitations, the game could get away with telling a broader story over a vast game world. The game worlds in Daggerfall and Arena were so vast that games today still haven't achieved anything close.
Daggerfall played a lot like Elder Scrolls: Arena, as both games were released during a time where 3D PC games were still in infancy. The Elder Scrolls: 2 Daggerfall preceded the 3D open-world standard that Morrowind had set. The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion came out four years later in 2006, and expanded on what Morrowind had accomplished by creating a larger world with more dungeons for players to explore. Morrowind had a more robust combat and skill system that helped flesh out its large 3D open world at the time, with a larger emphasis on exploring the world rather than a main plot. The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind came out in 2002, and was a huge leap in visual scope compared to its predecessor, The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall. That's because in its hay day, each title was regarded as a great game in its own right, but by today's standards would leave a lot to the imagination. Despite its massive popularity, the older Elder Scrolls titles can still stand the test of time if given enough patience. Skyrim, having originally released in 2011, has received current console ports, with a VR iteration, and even Skyrim: Very Special Edition on Amazon's Alexa. The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim might be the most popular entry into The Elder Scrolls series, as it has stood the test of time longer than its predecessors Morrowind and Oblivion. RELATED: What The Elder Scrolls 6's Rumored Setting Looks Like In The Fourth Era
With how strong of a presence The Elder Scrolls series has had, one has to wonder if it is worth taking a look back at what started it all. Despite this record sale, Bethesda is still on track for the development of The Elder Scrolls 6 and Starfield, the latter having been shown off at E3 earlier this month and confirmed for a late 2022 release. Many features and gameplay mechanics introduced in its first RPG have since influenced many future RPGs from other developers, which only goes to show how deserved Bethesda is to be where it is now.īethesda/ZeniMax Media and all of its subsidiaries including Bethesda Softworks was acquired by Microsoft for $7.5 billion. The Elder Scrolls: Arena is Bethesda's first entry into the RPG genre, and The Elder Scrolls series as a whole and was a landmark in ingenuity. The sheer popularity of the series just goes to show the high quality standard in which Bethesda has set over the years when developing a new entry.
The Elder Scrolls is by far one of the oldest and most expansive game franchises of all time.
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