Number 10 of all time? Daggerfall? By the codex hivemind?
I guess I should elaborate or why I think its not, an opinion for those who never touched it as well and why they should avoid it like the plague.
First of all it is quite fucking ugly, and it is not just a case of bad art direction. Ultima Underworld had a better presentation. This isnt a graphic whore whine, the pixilation is unbearable for the time it was released in and for the graphic style. So terrible presentation overall. If only this was the game's only problem.
It is too easy to exploit the game in every level, be it by simply resting in the "wilderness" and killing weak enemy npcs over and over for levelling, resting in a shop in the first city a couple of times and collecting the best gear available in the game, or using similar holes to raise money. This is not a balance issue or a couple of loopholes that were left in. The whole system is beyond redemption.
Oh and you will want to exploit the fuck out of this little gem too.
This is not a case of exploiting being a temptation that only powergamers take for example, there is absolutely nothing that justifies going back and forth in this poor excuse of gameworld without taking any shortcuts, hell the best is to simply quit the game but I am getting ahead of myself.
Of course you can try to find some sort of pleasure in collecting loot if you can find it or levelling your character and so on. You can try to give it a chance and go through the motions, adjust and try to play the game as it was supposed to be "played".
You can do so by entering say 5 "epic" randomized dungeons ( then you have essentially explored all of them).
By doing 5 basic fedex quests ( cross the mostly empty gameworld filled with a few scenario props, vast expanses of nothing, 3 different styles of housing, and beckoning randomized dungeon gates.)
You could try to get some immersion by speaking with the filler peasant npcs ( You have to experience this for yourself. its pretty sad really.)
You could try to get some interesting dialog from what supposedly are the more important NPCs ( pretty damn fucking sad indeed.)
And to top it off you can do a couple of guard quests for a temple or shop or guild ( pretty much like resting in the wilderness and waiting for the bad thingies to come and get well...you.
....did I forget anything?.....I think not...no wait, you can ride a horse. This is such a joy and an oustanding feature in daggerfall you have to experience it for yourself.
So do try to find this old gem, load it up with the latest patch (rofl) , go through these steps and THERE you essentially experienced the whole game!
A game were hundreds and hundreds of hours of gameplay are POSSIBLE ( I wouldnt wish it on my worst enemy), and man isnt it a sad excuse for a piece of shit, at least I suppose it can be considered an ambicious piece of shit, but that hardly excuses anything.
If you never played daggerfall and wish to give it a go to see if I am right, well...with some luck you will realize all I have stated is the plain sad truth short of 15-20 hours of total playtime or sooner. You will lose some time sadly, the "game" is FREAKIN HUGE
You can then proceed by taking a huge shit in this lovely "sandbox world" and try to get a justification for the time wasted by solving the main quest....just dont expect any pleasant surprises.....dont worry it wont take that long unless you are dumb enough to get to the necessary level by exploring the "dungeons".
(Note: the main quest involves another daggerfallish dungeon. You have been warned.)
So my veridict: It is bland, it is shallow and it gets even more bland, I assume those who thought the NPCs you can converse with, the various "towns" and "provinces" you can visit are interesting...well they surely were willing to fill alot of blanks with their imaginations.
The main quest? A chore for me. I did finish it once, it is shameful.
And the well....."core" of the game.... The randomly designed dungeons.
They werent challenging, they werent immersive, they were just a random criss-cross of bland looking halls and corridors generated by rules created by chimps on crack, and I am willing to wager alot of people felt relieved when one of the numerous bugs kicked in, or they fell through the entire dungeon into ....oblivion or something.
Im curious to hear what daggerfall fans have to say of course, I played it long ago, maybe my low IQ or unfamiliarity with the awesome TES universe rendered me unable to appreciate the awesome RPG that is Daggerfall.
Im normally not this vocal about an old game I didnt like, but I have some very bad memories.
Ultimately the best definition for Daggerfall is describing it as an interesting character generator program coupled with the most poorly developed, bland and repetitive "sandbox" gameworld, and a poor excuse for an rpg game overall.
There. My two cents.
