>The dungeons were also procedurally generated, and so labyrinthine that you could literally spend hours exploring a single dungeon. This is something that some people hated
This right here is actually probably what I liked most about daggerfall. One of the things i've found most disappointing about both oblivion and skyrim was their dungeons. Almsot all of then are just a straight path through, i'm not sure if i've ever found an item worth finding and then, especially skyrim, they all seem to have a convenient escape back door that brings you back to the beginning of the dungeon.
I've always felt exploring large winding, mazelike dungeons full of traps, monsters, puzzles and weird things to be one of the staples of a good RPG. Tabletop or computer. Daggerfall's dungeons feel more like the scope of a tabletop RPG dungeon.
I've always felt dungeons should almost be little mini adventures on their own. They should be dangerous and tough to explore, there should be things worth finding, it should feel like you need to explore, like it's a dangerous place few save monsters and brave adventurers have tried to go through and by then end you should feel like you've accomplished something, whether you're more powerful or you've found some kind of cool treasure. There should be some kind of sense of accomplishment and reward for completing them.
I never really felt that way after the later elder scrolls dungeons. They were just places to go to complete a story objective or side quest, get to the end, get a cut scene or some item worse than something I can probably craft already, take the back door back to the beginning then move on to the next one.
I have to admit the 3d fallout games had slightly better 'dungeons' than the elder scrolls games, mostly because they tended to be kind of unique and kind of winding sometimes and there was usually at least useful things to find.
But i'd still like to see a modern open world RPG that focuses more on creating a good dungeon crawling experience to go along with it.
This right here is actually probably what I liked most about daggerfall. One of the things i've found most disappointing about both oblivion and skyrim was their dungeons. Almsot all of then are just a straight path through, i'm not sure if i've ever found an item worth finding and then, especially skyrim, they all seem to have a convenient escape back door that brings you back to the beginning of the dungeon.
I've always felt exploring large winding, mazelike dungeons full of traps, monsters, puzzles and weird things to be one of the staples of a good RPG. Tabletop or computer. Daggerfall's dungeons feel more like the scope of a tabletop RPG dungeon.
I've always felt dungeons should almost be little mini adventures on their own. They should be dangerous and tough to explore, there should be things worth finding, it should feel like you need to explore, like it's a dangerous place few save monsters and brave adventurers have tried to go through and by then end you should feel like you've accomplished something, whether you're more powerful or you've found some kind of cool treasure. There should be some kind of sense of accomplishment and reward for completing them.
I never really felt that way after the later elder scrolls dungeons. They were just places to go to complete a story objective or side quest, get to the end, get a cut scene or some item worse than something I can probably craft already, take the back door back to the beginning then move on to the next one.
I have to admit the 3d fallout games had slightly better 'dungeons' than the elder scrolls games, mostly because they tended to be kind of unique and kind of winding sometimes and there was usually at least useful things to find.
But i'd still like to see a modern open world RPG that focuses more on creating a good dungeon crawling experience to go along with it.