After 9 years in development, Daggerfall Unity has finally gone 1.0, bringing the impressive fanmade remaster of the classic Elder Scrolls game into its "post-release community support and maintenance" phase.
Originally released in 1996, Daggerfall instantly became legendary for two things: its ridiculously massive scope and its absurd number of bugs. It was bigger and buggier than any Elder Scrolls game released before or since, with over 15,000 cities, villages, and dungeons, over 750,000 NPCs spread across its procedurally generated world, and a whole lot of game-breaking issues to foil the efforts of anyone trying to explore that world. Never mind the dated interface, controls, and quest system.
Developer Gavin 'Interkarma' Clayton had been modding Daggerfall since the early 2000s, but in 2014 Clayton began developing Daggerfall Unity, an ambitious effort to rebuild the classic RPG in a modern game engine with improved graphics, widescreen support, better first-person controls, quality of life improvements, and - crucially - robust mod support.
#DaggerfallUnity 1.0.0 Release is now available! After several years in development, and the efforts of many people, Daggerfall Unity is finally considered complete. The project will now move into post-release community support and maintenance.https://t.co/A6MmlPCXQZ pic.twitter.com/XsN6gxfkCBDecember 30, 2023
Now, Daggerfall Unity is finally complete and its 1.0 version is up for download. It's a fairly simple install process that just requires you to point the modern installer to the original Daggerfall game files - which Bethesda released for free many years ago. The link above even includes a list of recommended mods that improve the game's art, add new quests, and revamp antiquated gameplay systems.
The mod scene for Daggerfall Unity is already pretty robust, since early versions of the remaster have been playable for some time. There's a dedicated Nexus Mods hub for the game, and a fully modded release called Daggerfall Unity - GOG Cut essentially served as a full-on remake back in 2022 - though that version is now very much out of date and no longer recommended by Clayton.
Going back to 1996 might be the best way to fill time until The Elder Scrolls 6.
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