Ranking the Elder Scrolls games; from Arena to Skyrim

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7 mins read

So by now most of us have had a chance to properly digest The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It’s a good game, for certain, but the big question is: how does it stack up against the other games in Bethesda’s premier series?

For those who came to the series at Skyrim first, you might want to look back at some of the earlier games. Because if you enjoyed that game, you’re going to be over the moon about some of the others.

5. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Saying Oblivion is the weakest of the Elder Scrolls games is saying vanilla is the worst ice cream flavour; it’s still awesome, but you might be last in the lineup of choices.

Oblivion struggled a little with a less-than-compelling storyline, some technical issues above and beyond Skyrim as it was on (at the time) new consoles, and a silly levelling system that meant your opponents would become more powerful as you did; rendering experience somewhat redundant.

But still, a great game, and the first Elder Scrolls game that could genuinely be called “pretty.”

4. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

As I discussed in my review of Skyrim, there are some issues that hold this game back from being truly great. Bethesda’s inability to adjust the combat system to take into account the brilliance we’ve seen in the likes of Dark Souls, as well some of the nastiest bugs this side of Fallout New Vegas holds the game back from a technical perspective.

On the other hand, the game is one of breathtaking scope. Rare is the game where I can spend an hour, if not more, just reading the in-game books of lore that have come from the previous four games. Every time I came across a bookshelf I felt a need to read each and every tome, because this is a breathing world with a real sense of history about it.

It was also good to see Bethesda step back to the more open structure in Skyrim. Oblivion had me a bit worried the series was heading in a more linear direction.

3. Elder Scrolls I: Arena

The game that started it all. Arena was a massive game back in 1994 when it was released, with several hundred towns, dungeons and NPCs available to interact with. It was also merciless in difficulty, presenting a challenge that we haven’t seen in Elder Scrolls games since. Many love it for that, but newcomers beware.

Predictably, it looks terrible by modern standards too, making Arena the only game that we can’t really recommend to people to play now, unless you’ve got a strong fondness for retro RPG-visuals. There’s no way to fast travel, either, so you’ll be doing a lot of wandering through a rather ugly wilderness.

And yet, this is the game that started it all. Exploring the roots of the entire series, and experiencing some of the events you read about in books in later games helps give the entire series context, so it’s worth braving through the game just for that.

2. Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall

Daggerfall is perhaps still the largest game in the Elder Scrolls series in terms of raw content. Just to run you through some stats: There’s the equivalent of 487,000 square kilometres in this game; about twice the size of Great Britain. There’s 15,000 towns, cities, villages and dungeons to explore. There are 750,000 NPCs to interact with.

By comparison the sequel, Morrowind (roughly the same size as Oblivion and Skyrim), has 0.01 per cent of that amount of content. Of course, Daggerfall is a story of quantity over quality; about 749,900 of those NPCs fail to add much to the experience and you’ll only need to visit a tiny fraction of the game to finish it, but for people who like to simply explore, there’s a lot of generic environment to experience here.

Daggerfall deserves to be played for its sheer ambition. This is still the biggest RPG of all time, with a world that tries its hardest to be believable in a fantasy fashion. Does it always succeed? No, but this is a game you can lose yourself in like none other, nonetheless.

1. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

What The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is to the Zelda series, Morrowind is to the Elder Scrolls series; it’s the full realisation of everything the franchise had promised. It offered a deep, absorbing world, with a brilliant toolkit that allowed people to make some amazing mods; a compelling story that was not necessary to follow at all, and a visual style that, while primitive, was polygonal and aesthetically attractive.

It also has the finest soundtrack ever written, thanks to the brilliant Jeremy Soule. So good, in fact, that while Oblivion and Skyrim were also his work, and pull themes from the Morrowind score, they’ve failed to top it. Beautiful ambient music that perfectly suited the fantasy universe that people were playing in; Morrowind’s score is a brilliant example of how important music is to a game.

Morrowind was also the moment where the Elder Scrolls universe started to take a solid form of its own. The first two games introduced players to some of this history and the personalities of the universe, but Morrowind was the first game that felt like there was depth and a history that extended past the player’s own narrative.

Morrowind is a game that desperately deserves a HD remake. There’s still a lot of people that need to explore what is a honest contender for the greatest game of all time.


So, how many of the Elder Scrolls games have you played? Which is your favourite? Let us know in the comments!

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  • Morrowind was legendary, and really hooked me to TES Series. I would *LOVE* to see a re-make. It was brilliant. 

  • Morrowind was legendary, and really hooked me to TES Series. I would *LOVE* to see a re-make. It was brilliant. 

  • Nice list – one I can't really argue with as I never played the earlier titles – just Oblivion and Skyrim, and in my opinion Skyrim is the better.  I've heard nothing but great things about Morrowind of course.

    @Silver While I concur it would be excellent, and they would no doubt sell quiet a bit, I doubt it will ever happen.  The devs seem very minded toward making newer titles and not rehashing older ones

  • Nice list – one I can't really argue with as I never played the earlier titles – just Oblivion and Skyrim, and in my opinion Skyrim is the better.  I've heard nothing but great things about Morrowind of course.

    @Silver While I concur it would be excellent, and they would no doubt sell quiet a bit, I doubt it will ever happen.  The devs seem very minded toward making newer titles and not rehashing older ones

  • Morrowind was the game that got me into the series too – after playing it I immediately went back to Arena and Daggerfall, and played both Oblivion and Skyrim at launch. I love the series, as flawed as it often is 🙂

    Thanks for dropping by!

  • Morrowind was the game that got me into the series too – after playing it I immediately went back to Arena and Daggerfall, and played both Oblivion and Skyrim at launch. I love the series, as flawed as it often is 🙂

    Thanks for dropping by!

  • It's too bad the series keeps moving further from what originally set it apart and made it great.  Daggerfall was my first TES, and still probably my favorite from a nostalgic perspective.  Lot's of flaws, but so much freedom. Sure, the procedurally generated landscapes were bland, but being ripped from your fast travel in the middle of nowhere and being attacked by a werebear was truly frightening, as you couldn't just run for 30 seconds to the nearest town and have some guards fight it out for you.  Chances were good you were about to die.  And when you didn't, it felt rewarding.  Then you had the wonderful procedurally generated dungeons.  They did a great job with those.  Truly secret secret areas, massive chambers full of skeletal archers on a ledge you had no idea how to get on, likely death around every corner.  Morrowind was a refinement of the core ideas, though I did miss the massive scale and difficulty.  I wish Beth would hybrid the procedural generated and use static for the core storylines.  Offer players unlimited replayablity and a great story. 

    Skyrim has gone the route of handholding that is antithetical to where the games began, and while beatiful, I'm just not that impressed.  The perk system is interesting, but the core mechanics pretty much set you up to succeed no matter how you go about it.  Instead of the player having to adapt to new strategies to win, pretty much any strategy the player wants to use will succeed.  So I've got my super sneaky daedric plate wearing mage (which required going to a single mine to assemble the mats, and buying hearts from vendors).  There are no caveats in the system, no consequence for your actions.  Sure, the scripts look nice, but I assassinated the emperor, and the only change I've noticed in the game world is the occasional guard comment on it.  Master lock barring your way?  Just keep trying, there's no penalty for breaking off 40 lockpicks in the lock.  It's good for experience, and nearly every vendor stocks them.  The closest thing I've seen to consequence in this game is your choice of helping either Sven or Faendal win Camilla in Riverwood, permanently blocking you from recruiting the other as a follower.  Not exactly worth a second playthrough.  The old games required a modicum of problem solving, but not this one.  Just follow the arrow.  Magic abilities are limited, but what's in there looks cool at least.  Pity they are utterly worthless at the higher levels due to a lack of scaling.  Want to become leader of a group (guild is hardly a worthy term, as there aren't really much in the way of member services, or reasons to join at all past some free mediocre gear)?  Just find the group, and grind out 6 or 7 quests, and everyone should be licking your boots summarily.  And don't worry, there's no animus between factions that I've found past the weak Imperial vs Stormcloak subplot.  You should be able to lead them all.

    Like I said, just not that impressed.  Too many design decisions made so that the game would run on 7 year old consoles (tracking pauldrons and greaves was apparently too much, as was having cities part of the world map, thereby barring the TES classic, levitate, and of course, the UI).  I do think there is a great game in there somewhere, but it's going to take some heavy modding to make it shine as a proper Elder Scrolls adventure.  Eventually this console port could become a great PC RPG.

  • It's too bad the series keeps moving further from what originally set it apart and made it great.  Daggerfall was my first TES, and still probably my favorite from a nostalgic perspective.  Lot's of flaws, but so much freedom. Sure, the procedurally generated landscapes were bland, but being ripped from your fast travel in the middle of nowhere and being attacked by a werebear was truly frightening, as you couldn't just run for 30 seconds to the nearest town and have some guards fight it out for you.  Chances were good you were about to die.  And when you didn't, it felt rewarding.  Then you had the wonderful procedurally generated dungeons.  They did a great job with those.  Truly secret secret areas, massive chambers full of skeletal archers on a ledge you had no idea how to get on, likely death around every corner.  Morrowind was a refinement of the core ideas, though I did miss the massive scale and difficulty.  I wish Beth would hybrid the procedural generated and use static for the core storylines.  Offer players unlimited replayablity and a great story. 

    Skyrim has gone the route of handholding that is antithetical to where the games began, and while beatiful, I'm just not that impressed.  The perk system is interesting, but the core mechanics pretty much set you up to succeed no matter how you go about it.  Instead of the player having to adapt to new strategies to win, pretty much any strategy the player wants to use will succeed.  So I've got my super sneaky daedric plate wearing mage (which required going to a single mine to assemble the mats, and buying hearts from vendors).  There are no caveats in the system, no consequence for your actions.  Sure, the scripts look nice, but I assassinated the emperor, and the only change I've noticed in the game world is the occasional guard comment on it.  Master lock barring your way?  Just keep trying, there's no penalty for breaking off 40 lockpicks in the lock.  It's good for experience, and nearly every vendor stocks them.  The closest thing I've seen to consequence in this game is your choice of helping either Sven or Faendal win Camilla in Riverwood, permanently blocking you from recruiting the other as a follower.  Not exactly worth a second playthrough.  The old games required a modicum of problem solving, but not this one.  Just follow the arrow.  Magic abilities are limited, but what's in there looks cool at least.  Pity they are utterly worthless at the higher levels due to a lack of scaling.  Want to become leader of a group (guild is hardly a worthy term, as there aren't really much in the way of member services, or reasons to join at all past some free mediocre gear)?  Just find the group, and grind out 6 or 7 quests, and everyone should be licking your boots summarily.  And don't worry, there's no animus between factions that I've found past the weak Imperial vs Stormcloak subplot.  You should be able to lead them all.

    Like I said, just not that impressed.  Too many design decisions made so that the game would run on 7 year old consoles (tracking pauldrons and greaves was apparently too much, as was having cities part of the world map, thereby barring the TES classic, levitate, and of course, the UI).  I do think there is a great game in there somewhere, but it's going to take some heavy modding to make it shine as a proper Elder Scrolls adventure.  Eventually this console port could become a great PC RPG.

  • Hi Jesse,

    Thank you for that insight – a very well written argument. I agree with a lot of what you said. Skyrim in many ways has felt like a concession to the kinds of gamers that like to have their hands held throughout the experience.

    Here is another franchise that has become important enough for the business folk to mandate massive sales. As such it is in Bethesda's interest to provide an experience that appeals to the broadest possible audience, and in fairness to them, that's exactly what they've done. It's just a pity that the historic fans of the series get left a little behind as a result.

    I said the exact same thing about Dark Souls, mind, by far the softest From Software "King's Field and spiritual sequels" game to date. There's just too much budget involved, and too much pressure of the devs to sell a billion copies for these previously niche franchises.

  • There most certainly was a way to fast travel in Arena. In fact, you weren't expected *not* to use fast travel. It's not like you'd find any randomly place dungeons when traveling. I mean, yes, all the dungeons that weren't on the main quest were randomly generated inside, but you could only find them when they were put on your map by the quest-giver.

    I've played the first 4 main Elder Scrolls games (not Battlespire or the mobile games), although I never beat Arena or Daggerfall. Arena was just too punishingly hard and Daggerfall had bugs that I didn't know there were patches for until years later. The first one I actually beat was Morrowind. I actually just got back in to Oblivion while waiting for Christmas to get my copy of Skyrim–I owned but had never played the expansion which is actually pretty interesting.

  • There most certainly was a way to fast travel in Arena. In fact, you weren't expected *not* to use fast travel. It's not like you'd find any randomly place dungeons when traveling. I mean, yes, all the dungeons that weren't on the main quest were randomly generated inside, but you could only find them when they were put on your map by the quest-giver.

    I've played the first 4 main Elder Scrolls games (not Battlespire or the mobile games), although I never beat Arena or Daggerfall. Arena was just too punishingly hard and Daggerfall had bugs that I didn't know there were patches for until years later. The first one I actually beat was Morrowind. I actually just got back in to Oblivion while waiting for Christmas to get my copy of Skyrim–I owned but had never played the expansion which is actually pretty interesting.

  • Wow, I really don't remember the fast travel in Arena. It's been years since I played that game. My bad! Thanks for clarifying!

  • Wow, I really don't remember the fast travel in Arena. It's been years since I played that game. My bad! Thanks for clarifying!

  • Morrowind has, in effect, been remade and up-dated to hear HD-quality,  Google "Morrowind Overhaul" and you'll find it.  It's an impressive facelift for the best title in the series.  I'm replaying it alongside Skryim, and enjoying the comparison:  each has its own strengths, though Morrowind remains a few notices above Skyrim.  I disagree with "Jesse"–perhaps he hasn't played deeply enough into Skyrim to notice that some things you do have consequences.  If you kill an old woman in a hut near Riverwood, for example (who turns out to be a witch), her sister, also a witch, will hunt you down with mercenaries.  If you leave her alone, that won't happen.  Your actions DO have consequences throughout the game in large and small ways; choosing the rebels over the imperials in the civil war for example, or vice-versa, leads to entirely different quest lines.  And in each quest line (Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, etc.) there are "radiant" quests that vary according to choices made.  While Skyrim is by no means as "open" as Morrowind, it makes use of the radiant technology in a much more complex and sophisticated way than Oblivion did.  You simply have to play the game long enough to see consequences unfolding.

  • I hated Arena and Daggerfall, personally. Couldn't get into Morrowind or Oblivion either, but at least I didn't hate them. Skyrim, on the otherhand, is fantastic. I dunno if the other games get this good once you're really into them, but at least they aren't off-putting like the others.

  • I think the key here is that Skyrim is the most accessible of the Elder Scrolls games to date. Once you get beneath that surface, it is in many important ways an inferior game to the more complex (but yes, unweildy), earlier games. 

  • Perhaps, but accessibility is what I look for in Western RPGs. Except for Ultima, which is a simple enough game anyways, I really can't get into a game that doesn't engage me within the first few hours the way Skyrim does. Ah well.

  • Perhaps, but accessibility is what I look for in Western RPGs. Except for Ultima, which is a simple enough game anyways, I really can't get into a game that doesn't engage me within the first few hours the way Skyrim does. Ah well.

  • Sure, and being approachable for the broadest range of gamers is exactly why Skyrim has sold better than all the other Elder Scrolls games. Can't hold that against Bethesda at all. Well done to them 🙂

    I still maintain the only game it's better than is Oblivion though. It's like saying the guy who came 4th in the Olympics only beat the guy that came 5th, though. It's still a great game. 

  • Sure, and being approachable for the broadest range of gamers is exactly why Skyrim has sold better than all the other Elder Scrolls games. Can't hold that against Bethesda at all. Well done to them 🙂

    I still maintain the only game it's better than is Oblivion though. It's like saying the guy who came 4th in the Olympics only beat the guy that came 5th, though. It's still a great game. 

  • Ok.. I've played a bit of Arena now (filling in time between Skyrim patches.. a fact that doesn't help it in my own personal rankings lol..), and I have to say, it's quite average..

    I am no graphics hussy, nor am I oblivious to quality art direction (Oblivion reference intentional), but I think I had to play Arena in it's prime to appreciate it.. it's just to clunk for me to like/love (and I wanted to, for sure).  I have only just gotten out of the first dungeon and shiver me timbers, I feel like i've been gnawing at my own arm to get away it's been that frustrating.  I do however, really rate Daggerfall – I think a 2012 version of Daggerfall (with the scope/slightly more mature vibe/originality) would be KILLER.  As it stands, the original vanilla is still playable and incredibly fun, and I can appreciate it's qualities – definately a massive step up from Arena.

    Oblivion was my first Elder Scrolls, and, at the time, I loved it.. but I fear it was a case of 'the virgin falling in love with his first lay' haha.. no base of comparison does wonders for a game like Oblivion – so i'll let it rest knowing I loved it when I played it.  Saying that, after playing Morrowind (my 2nd TES game) and Skyrim most recently (159 hours in, hardly touched the main quest, not sure what i've been doing to be honest, but i've been loving it) – and when comparing Oblivion with the two big boys (what I call them), there really is no comparison. 

    I rate Skyrim #1 thanks to the sheer fun playing on Master as a Battlemage.. and the story is good, (as good as massive open world games get without a controlled narrative) and there quests/artifacts/lore around the land are as good as it gets in a sandbox RPG.  Morrowind nearly edged it out (played MW/BM/TR last year on PC with only minimal mods to keep it original as possible  – except for better bodies, mandatory..).  It does get a bit dull at times, and I fear it's the popamole in me hating on the downtime (being so used to the Mass Effects / Dragon Ages / Witchers etc), but regardless it's a great game – albeit a bit broken (after 9 years you think all the bugs would be worked out..haha).

    So, little rant over – my ratings : Skyrim / Morrowind / Daggerfall / Oblivion / Arena –
    Good Hunting.

  • Ok.. I've played a bit of Arena now (filling in time between Skyrim patches.. a fact that doesn't help it in my own personal rankings lol..), and I have to say, it's quite average..

    I am no graphics hussy, nor am I oblivious to quality art direction (Oblivion reference intentional), but I think I had to play Arena in it's prime to appreciate it.. it's just to clunk for me to like/love (and I wanted to, for sure).  I have only just gotten out of the first dungeon and shiver me timbers, I feel like i've been gnawing at my own arm to get away it's been that frustrating.  I do however, really rate Daggerfall – I think a 2012 version of Daggerfall (with the scope/slightly more mature vibe/originality) would be KILLER.  As it stands, the original vanilla is still playable and incredibly fun, and I can appreciate it's qualities – definately a massive step up from Arena.

    Oblivion was my first Elder Scrolls, and, at the time, I loved it.. but I fear it was a case of 'the virgin falling in love with his first lay' haha.. no base of comparison does wonders for a game like Oblivion – so i'll let it rest knowing I loved it when I played it.  Saying that, after playing Morrowind (my 2nd TES game) and Skyrim most recently (159 hours in, hardly touched the main quest, not sure what i've been doing to be honest, but i've been loving it) – and when comparing Oblivion with the two big boys (what I call them), there really is no comparison. 

    I rate Skyrim #1 thanks to the sheer fun playing on Master as a Battlemage.. and the story is good, (as good as massive open world games get without a controlled narrative) and there quests/artifacts/lore around the land are as good as it gets in a sandbox RPG.  Morrowind nearly edged it out (played MW/BM/TR last year on PC with only minimal mods to keep it original as possible  – except for better bodies, mandatory..).  It does get a bit dull at times, and I fear it's the popamole in me hating on the downtime (being so used to the Mass Effects / Dragon Ages / Witchers etc), but regardless it's a great game – albeit a bit broken (after 9 years you think all the bugs would be worked out..haha).

    So, little rant over – my ratings : Skyrim / Morrowind / Daggerfall / Oblivion / Arena –
    Good Hunting.

  • Good ordering, maybe would have switched Oblivion and Skyrim around, don't know.

    By the way, you make it sound like Daggerfall and Morrowind had bad graphics in their time, altough it's almost exactly opposite. Very few games were able to top them.

  • Good ordering, maybe would have switched Oblivion and Skyrim around, don't know.

    By the way, you make it sound like Daggerfall and Morrowind had bad graphics in their time, altough it's almost exactly opposite. Very few games were able to top them.

  • I think it really has a lot more to do with when you entered the series. I have only played Oblivion and Skyrim; I have heard endlessly about Morrowind however I love Skyrim and Oblivion and feel I wouldn't like the others as much because Oblivion was my first exposure to this wonderful breath taking world. In my heart Oblivion will always be best because in my mind it was the "sentimental original". Each game has their own unique qualities. I probably will go back and play Morrowind sometime, but I do agree an HD remake would make me much more tempted.

  • I think it really has a lot more to do with when you entered the series. I have only played Oblivion and Skyrim; I have heard endlessly about Morrowind however I love Skyrim and Oblivion and feel I wouldn't like the others as much because Oblivion was my first exposure to this wonderful breath taking world. In my heart Oblivion will always be best because in my mind it was the "sentimental original". Each game has their own unique qualities. I probably will go back and play Morrowind sometime, but I do agree an HD remake would make me much more tempted.

  • Thanks for the detail ranking but my problem is that Ocarina of Time ruined Zelda for me and started steering away from what I fell in love with from Zelda!

  • Thanks for the detail ranking but my problem is that Ocarina of Time ruined Zelda for me and started steering away from what I fell in love with from Zelda!

  • Yes it was, and it really needed mentioning. I had bugs that made the main quest non-progressable, and to say that was a downer after 100+ hours play is an understatement.

    That said… It was actually my favourite. I never played Arena, but all the games since Daggerfall have simply been too easy IMO, and while the richness of the worlds and visuals have definitely improved in leaps and bounds… The sheer danger and challenge of Daggerfall engaged me every bit as much as all of Skryim's audio-visual wonder has.

  • I agree quite surprisingly…..hate Skyrim and Oblivion with a passion, haven't played the older ones, but Morrowind will always have a spot in me heart. So much more freedom then the newer games, and a hell of a lot better then the older ones, it's right at that perfect balance of form and function. Somewhat disagree on the Zelda analogy though, A Link to the Past is just sooo much better then OoT.

  • strange..i started with morrowind..got bored after sum time. didnt lay my hand on oblivion either coz of that. i was a hardcore FPS/RTS gamer at those times..didnt fancy RPGs..but after i started skyrim…i cant stop it!!..i play like hours and hours everyday!!…

  • Arena is the game that started it. Despite having played all of the games (except Redguard) and loved them all, when I think back and try to put myself into the time period where TES meant "mystique", it is always that first year I spent playing Arena. Still playing it when Daggerfall came out in fact. Well that and Doom shareware, lol.

    Arena IS The Elder Scrolls for me and will always be.

  • I think Skyrim could be placed above Arena, but I understand the point. Everything you said about Morrowind…100% true. The game can be daunting to someone fresh into video games of this magnitude (like I was during my intro years ago), but it's absolutely epic in scale and content, more so than Skyrim and Oblivion I believe. An HD remake? I'd kill for one! It is truly one of the greatest games of all time.

  • there technically is one, since theres a mod that does a near full overhaul of morrowinds graphics, putting them on nearly the same level if not a higher level than oblivions. pc gameing ftw

  • never played one or two but loved three over them all myself, no fast travel-infinite training-and you could never be leader of everything, so you had to make some hard choices
    skyrim is my 2nd for the content, killing dragons and just seems more fun than oblivion

  • i recon oblivion is the greatest game in the elder scrolls series i have played it for 200 hours and still cant get enough of it i have played every other elder scrolls including redgaurd battlespire and all but i thought that oblivion was the best

  • I totally agree with Morrowind being #1 but not so much the others. Never played Arena though.
    Without including Arena, I would probably rate in terms of play-ability and fun:1: Morrowind 2: Skyrim3: Daggerfall4. Oblivion

  • Morrowind is the best, bought it twice for Xbox and once for PC. I would love to have it on a PSP or something though. An HD remake with Skyrim's engine would be boss.

  • I know this is completely off topic, but your avatar is awesome. Platypus FTW! 🙂

    Thanks for the input, and taking the time to say hi!

  • Perry, is that you!?

    On topic:
    Probably missed this post in my near 5 month absence from the scene. I have never played an Elder Scrolls game for more than 5-10 minutes, and only one at that. I had many friends that loved the one on the original Xbox, Morrowind I think, and talked a lot about it. One liked it so much, that he didn't trade the game off, and instead gave me his copy, which is still around here somewhere…I think!

  • I agree with Morrowind being #1 because it was my starting point for the Elder scrolls series and it just made the rest of the games more enjoyable. What made Oblivion more enjoyable is that there were references to Morrowind that just made me love it even more. Sure Skyrim has good graphics but I feel like in the other games you bonded more with the NPCS that help you along the way. Although I still think they all have their good points I just fell in love with morrowind and Oblivion. >.< Maybe it's just me.

  • I have to agree that Morrowind is probably the most achieved in the series. 

    I have to add that Arena did have fast-travel even if this article says otherwise. The only one who didn't was Morrowind and that might be one of the things that made it so special.

    I started with Arena and played it over and over, never finishing it so it's still on my to do list since 1994! Same with Daggerfall, it always crashed before the end with corrupt saves and all!

    IMO they were all good. I agree to put Oblivion in last place, but I would bump Skyrim up a little bit, maybe even before Arena because of the lack of bugs in the vanilla version (Arena was unfinishable just like daggerfall).

    Anyways, I wish they redid all those old ones with Skyrim graphics!

  • You can actually fast travel in Arena, I just started playing it a few days ago. The quick key is shift+M though, so it's kinda hidden away.

  • I came in at TES III: Morrowind. I didn't really know or care about the others until I heard my classmates in fifth grade talk about Skyrim, then I began researching the whole series. I thought that the background and history of Tamriel was amazing. It was nice to know that they included Morrowind, Skyrim, and Hammerfell in the first elder scrolls game. This is probably my favorite RPG series ever, but I'd have to think about which game is best. They took things out of Oblivion to make Skyrim (like a spell-sword) but the others were really good. I think my two favorites are Morrowind and Skyrim.

  • dude u are smokin so much crack if u think morrowind is better then skyrim. die hard fan of elder scrolls since arena. oblivion and skyrim are neck and neck! morrowind sucked compared to most of the games.

  • Yep, you said it all.
    Bought the game on launch date, it was so bad that i couldnt play it for more than a couple hours. Three days ago, i was browsing the steam workshop and saw some pretty interesting stuff. Reinstalled the game, subscribed to more then 60 mods and now i am enjoying this once-shitty, now-awesome, game.

  • Not strange at all, as you said you're not a fan of RPG's…Skyrim is TES dumbed down, so…yeah enjoy Bethesda's Call of Duty…
    The game can be fun, but 100 hours in, even with all the mods, i dare say that Skyrim is the worse game of the franchise.

  • No…Just…No. Morrowind>Oblivion>?>Skyrim. Theres Elder Scrolls fans and Skyrim fans (Milk Drinkers, hehe), you aint a diehard fan if you think Skyrim is better than Morrowind.

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    Ranking the Elder Scrolls games; from Arena to Skyrim

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    So by now most of us have had a chance to properly digest The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It’s a good game, for certain, but the big question is: how does it stack up against the other games in Bethesda’s premier series?

    For those who came to the series at Skyrim first, you might want to look back at some of the earlier games. Because if you enjoyed that game, you’re going to be over the moon about some of the others.

    5. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

    Saying Oblivion is the weakest of the Elder Scrolls games is saying vanilla is the worst ice cream flavour; it’s still awesome, but you might be last in the lineup of choices.

    Oblivion struggled a little with a less-than-compelling storyline, some technical issues above and beyond Skyrim as it was on (at the time) new consoles, and a silly levelling system that meant your opponents would become more powerful as you did; rendering experience somewhat redundant.

    But still, a great game, and the first Elder Scrolls game that could genuinely be called “pretty.”

    4. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

    As I discussed in my review of Skyrim, there are some issues that hold this game back from being truly great. Bethesda’s inability to adjust the combat system to take into account the brilliance we’ve seen in the likes of Dark Souls, as well some of the nastiest bugs this side of Fallout New Vegas holds the game back from a technical perspective.

    On the other hand, the game is one of breathtaking scope. Rare is the game where I can spend an hour, if not more, just reading the in-game books of lore that have come from the previous four games. Every time I came across a bookshelf I felt a need to read each and every tome, because this is a breathing world with a real sense of history about it.

    It was also good to see Bethesda step back to the more open structure in Skyrim. Oblivion had me a bit worried the series was heading in a more linear direction.

    3. Elder Scrolls I: Arena

    The game that started it all. Arena was a massive game back in 1994 when it was released, with several hundred towns, dungeons and NPCs available to interact with. It was also merciless in difficulty, presenting a challenge that we haven’t seen in Elder Scrolls games since. Many love it for that, but newcomers beware.

    Predictably, it looks terrible by modern standards too, making Arena the only game that we can’t really recommend to people to play now, unless you’ve got a strong fondness for retro RPG-visuals. There’s no way to fast travel, either, so you’ll be doing a lot of wandering through a rather ugly wilderness.

    And yet, this is the game that started it all. Exploring the roots of the entire series, and experiencing some of the events you read about in books in later games helps give the entire series context, so it’s worth braving through the game just for that.

    2. Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall

    Daggerfall is perhaps still the largest game in the Elder Scrolls series in terms of raw content. Just to run you through some stats: There’s the equivalent of 487,000 square kilometres in this game; about twice the size of Great Britain. There’s 15,000 towns, cities, villages and dungeons to explore. There are 750,000 NPCs to interact with.

    By comparison the sequel, Morrowind (roughly the same size as Oblivion and Skyrim), has 0.01 per cent of that amount of content. Of course, Daggerfall is a story of quantity over quality; about 749,900 of those NPCs fail to add much to the experience and you’ll only need to visit a tiny fraction of the game to finish it, but for people who like to simply explore, there’s a lot of generic environment to experience here.

    Daggerfall deserves to be played for its sheer ambition. This is still the biggest RPG of all time, with a world that tries its hardest to be believable in a fantasy fashion. Does it always succeed? No, but this is a game you can lose yourself in like none other, nonetheless.

    1. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

    What The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is to the Zelda series, Morrowind is to the Elder Scrolls series; it’s the full realisation of everything the franchise had promised. It offered a deep, absorbing world, with a brilliant toolkit that allowed people to make some amazing mods; a compelling story that was not necessary to follow at all, and a visual style that, while primitive, was polygonal and aesthetically attractive.

    It also has the finest soundtrack ever written, thanks to the brilliant Jeremy Soule. So good, in fact, that while Oblivion and Skyrim were also his work, and pull themes from the Morrowind score, they’ve failed to top it. Beautiful ambient music that perfectly suited the fantasy universe that people were playing in; Morrowind’s score is a brilliant example of how important music is to a game.

    Morrowind was also the moment where the Elder Scrolls universe started to take a solid form of its own. The first two games introduced players to some of this history and the personalities of the universe, but Morrowind was the first game that felt like there was depth and a history that extended past the player’s own narrative.

    Morrowind is a game that desperately deserves a HD remake. There’s still a lot of people that need to explore what is a honest contender for the greatest game of all time.


    So, how many of the Elder Scrolls games have you played? Which is your favourite? Let us know in the comments!

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