Before Skyrim, Oblivion, and Morrowind there was Daggerfall, the second entry in what has become a household name for fantasy RPGs. The original is available on Steam and GOG, though 23 years later we have a modern remake in the form of Daggerfall Unity which brings in modern graphics, controls, QoL improvements and mod support (as well as Linux and Mac support).
Just because the company has been scummy doesn't mean that unity stopped being one of the best free game engines available. I like godot but it's not even close, they just don't have the resources and man hours spent yet.
free game engine
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https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html
Obviously not FOSS or I would've said that, but there is objectively a free tier for anyone to use.
I never said it was GNU certified free as in freedom, libre software. Its free as in you can just fucking download it and use it without paying. You're being a pedantic asshole and people wonder why the FOSS community isn't more popular.
I just realised I made a mistake; I thought this was a different, Linux-specific community. I apologise.
Despite the best efforts of their former management Unity games are still playable!
True, but it's not like they were trying to get it added to get GNU project, it does still require the original closed-source game for assets anyway
I didn't really get into TES until Oblivion, has anyone played Daggerfall and/or have any opinions about it?
I've been messing around with it for a minute. It's dull and repetitive, honestly. And kind of obnoxious without a magic regen mod. All quests have timers, you see, and it takes about 8 hours of resting after each fight to heal to full and recover MP. The dungeons are way bigger than they need to be, and each and every one is a randomly generated labyrinth filled to bursting with monsters. You're playing find-the-needle-in-the-haystack and can probably afford to get into 10 fights before you fail the quest you're on.
All of the stuff i like best in daggerfall is iterated upon in later titles to be better - especially spell creation. I hear the story is interesting later on, though.
I really want to love it, but gameplay-wise it's got little in common with later TES games, and there's still plenty of things functionally broken about it. Probably my favourite gaming / let's play youtuber is Many A True Nerd, and even he gave up after three episodes. I think it's worth checking out that series for a decent overview.
