A quick look back in history, maybe its interesting for some players here, especially those who didn't play the previous ES games.

Arena: 1994

I remember how the game was actually meant to be an Arena game with gladiatorial combat. You as a player were supposed to travel the world and challenge NPC´s to become the grand champion. During the development process they added side quest´s and RPG elements which later become more important than the actual Gladiator business so that this was discarded.

The game also shipped with a day & night cycle, which was quite revolutionary back then, as the shop keepers and NPC´s really went to bed so to speak. But also the game world was huge, bigger than at the newer ES games. As example, it took several hours to travel to "neighborhood" town or even days to a distant one.

That the game was still released as Arena was mainly due the fact that they already labeled the CD´s and boxes like that and it would had cost them too much to change that

The story itself was about Uriel who was kidnapped and to rescue him you had to find 8 magical pieces of a staff to challenge Jagar Tharn.

Game is F2P now, so those that are interested can download it and run it on Dosbox.


Daggerfall: 1996

Two years after Arena, Daggerfall came out.

It offered a great freedom to its players and everything you did had a real consequence including six different endings.
As for example, if you failed in your rescue attempt then you could meet the wife of the poor guy that died earlier and she would behave different than she would if you had rescued the guy. Some could think that with the guy out of the way, the women might fall for you - that however is a mystery I could never solve

I honestly have not seen something similar in an RPG before, something with such a depth and randomness, where every step matters.

The main quest itself involved uncovering the plot in regards of King Lysandus death as he was ghosting around at night. Daggerfall also offered a huge political system, so that you could become an evil assassin, some type of diplomat due the political system with factions, but also a vampire

The Char design was made by a questionnaire system, where you had to answer specific questions that then defined who you were. Also the quest system was quite unique, as you were able to do random quests, with again consequences as described above.

Besides that you had a spell craft system, where you could combine various spell effect´s into one single spell.

Last but not least, back in the days the weather effect´s like snow or rain were really a big step in the gaming world and the regions of Hammerfell and High Rock were even bigger than Arena before.

The game is now also F2P and can be downloaded at the Bethesda Homepage.


Morrowind: 2002

As the title suggests you played at Morrowind with the dark elves / Dunmer. As in the previous game you had several ways of playing and did not had to follow the main quest as protector of Morrowind.
As example you could become a sneaky thief or an Archmage and the basic char development was pretty free, based on what things you did. So you acquired more points in strength as example, by using swords.

The big thing about Morrowind was the Construction kit, which allowed active modding and bug fixing by the community, but also the jump in regards of the graphics. Especially inside buildings or the water / weather were great.

The game itself was now no longer random, but pre coded which resulted in a smaller world than the games before, where every item house was placed in advance so to speak. Elder Scrolls was now also no longer PC only and came out on Xbox as well.

I remember how proud the Devs were about the variety in the world that they created. You could pick up all those things like bread, drinking cups etc. while enjoying the beautiful sunrises that enhanced the gaming world. It was also possible to use Crossbows now, not that I ever used one... -> bow person.

It was considered a challenge to have a good standing with all factions, as some of them had opposite goals in Morrowind.

The Tribunal addon featured the dark brotherhood which tried to kill you, while Bloodmoon brought werewolf's back, including the ability to become one of them.


Oblivion: 2006

This played at Cyrodil and you had to strike down the invasion from Oblivion by the Deadra.

A huge jump was made in regards of the NPC AI and how you could interact with movable objects. I loved playing as a Thief there, robbing high decorated towns folk. or just chatting with everyone I came across (about 50 hours of voice acting)

The game itself was a lot easier than previous games, especially in comparison to Arena where most players died at least once in the first dungeon and some never made it out of there alive.

Not only the difficulty was lowered, but also the immersion. As example, your compass now showed points of interest and locations to quests.


Skyrim: 2011

For some players the best Elder Scrolls game after Daggerfall, especially with HD textures and mods a wonderful looking game, with a pretty open world and Dragons! Right from the start the player is confronted with the dragons and you slowly learn about what a Dragonborn is and that shouting is part of your story.

Snowy mountains, animals, random NPC´s, tons of quests and dungeons and an open class system based on perks are things that players usually remember about the game. I am ashamed to say, that I never finished the game myself or any of the DLC´s. But I can say that I loved the mods to this game, some modders even coded a whole new world and I believe one of them has gained a job in the gaming industry now.

One of the big features in my eyes was the companion system and the ability to have a whole family including same sex relationships. You could for instance adopt a child (DLC), marry your companion or random NPC towns folk and then move into a house with them.

Bethesda received big critiques by its gamers for the Steam support, as it required that you have an online connection if you wanted to play.