Great review as always. I've been eyeing Daggerfall for a long time, but never realised it was procedurally generated to that extent. Despite many a horror tale of Daggerfall dungeons and wereboars, for some reason I always thought it would be a step up from Arena in terms of (handcrafted) side content. Now I'll probably give another try to Arena first. Looking forward to your Morrowind review, it's still one of my favourite games of all time.
By the way, I've noticed a bit of inaccuracy. "Interestingly, for Morrowind the entire «identify your enemy through its typical sound» mechanic would be completely removed, as enemies would only emit specific battle grunts while fighting you, never before that"
While not all enemies (I think?) have them, and most only emit them occasionally, save from a few notorious noisemakers like cliff racers and scribs, non-combat sounds are very much in the game. Although with the overall redesign of the exploration-combat loop, they've been reemployed for atmospheric rather than combat purposes.
Hmm, I think that most of the creatures roaming around the surface are usually silent (or, at least, very quiet) until they engage you in combat (at least, that's the way it goes in the version I'm playing right now). Inside the various crypts and sanctuaries it's a bit different, but still, keeping your ears sharp is nowhere near as important in Morrowind as it is in Arena (and, to a lesser extent, in Daggerfall).
Thanks! I actually do not have any problem with the recycled assets either; it is precisely the new assets about which I feel that they fail to match the magic of the original ones, especially everything sound-related in the game.
The problem is that, want it or not, the absolute majority of the game is spent in the dungeons (any side quest that did not involve going into the dungeons once more was automatically so much more welcome in my playthrough). This is just one of the many things they must have realized was wrong about the game, so they corrected it with Morrowind. Just as they did with the side quests, where the added human touch feels so much more pleasant than the rigid procedural generation of Daggerfall.
Great review as always. I've been eyeing Daggerfall for a long time, but never realised it was procedurally generated to that extent. Despite many a horror tale of Daggerfall dungeons and wereboars, for some reason I always thought it would be a step up from Arena in terms of (handcrafted) side content. Now I'll probably give another try to Arena first. Looking forward to your Morrowind review, it's still one of my favourite games of all time.
I can certainly tell by your nickname!
Book reading in Morrowind is a BIG step up from Daggerfall as well.
By the way, I've noticed a bit of inaccuracy. "Interestingly, for Morrowind the entire «identify your enemy through its typical sound» mechanic would be completely removed, as enemies would only emit specific battle grunts while fighting you, never before that"
While not all enemies (I think?) have them, and most only emit them occasionally, save from a few notorious noisemakers like cliff racers and scribs, non-combat sounds are very much in the game. Although with the overall redesign of the exploration-combat loop, they've been reemployed for atmospheric rather than combat purposes.
Hmm, I think that most of the creatures roaming around the surface are usually silent (or, at least, very quiet) until they engage you in combat (at least, that's the way it goes in the version I'm playing right now). Inside the various crypts and sanctuaries it's a bit different, but still, keeping your ears sharp is nowhere near as important in Morrowind as it is in Arena (and, to a lesser extent, in Daggerfall).
Thanks! I actually do not have any problem with the recycled assets either; it is precisely the new assets about which I feel that they fail to match the magic of the original ones, especially everything sound-related in the game.
The problem is that, want it or not, the absolute majority of the game is spent in the dungeons (any side quest that did not involve going into the dungeons once more was automatically so much more welcome in my playthrough). This is just one of the many things they must have realized was wrong about the game, so they corrected it with Morrowind. Just as they did with the side quests, where the added human touch feels so much more pleasant than the rigid procedural generation of Daggerfall.