The main gameplay loop in The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall is the same as The Elder Scrolls: Arena, which is dungeon crawling. But unlike Arena, Daggerfall's loop can still be enjoyed, especially if you're using the Daggerfall Unity mod.

That said, the first dungeon is ruthless and requires either min-maxing at character creation or avoiding mobs altogether (there are imps that you literally can't damage with equipment you can find in said dungeon) which I thought was really weird.

The biggest issue of Daggerfall is that the randomly generated dungeons are many times broken. The first quest I took to go to a dungeon gave me a broken dungeon where I couldn't complete the quest, which I only found out after being there for hours and clearing it out completely. This can be very frustrating and I feel like this would've been a good game even to this day if the procedural generation was more robust. Which it isn't.

Its only a good game depending on what u want.
The good:
- Cool character build creating system which allows for higher replay ability and customization.
- More polished combat, stats, and spells/spell making compared to arena (no bartering system/worse dungeons suck though for daggerfall)
- Solid role playing elements like the stats, classes, adv/dis created for ur character in creation, joinable guilds.
- Modding support.
- Ridiculously massive world, there is always something to do (though extremely repetitive so why wud u)

The bad:
- There is pretty much no tutorial and you need to do ur own research/read manual before making a character to not make an abysmal character.

- Ridiculously massive world that feels dead even though its filled with filler npcs that are only used to ask for directions. Way too big many of the cities/towns look exactly the same so not much substance there.

- The quests from npcs are quests mostly revolving dungeon crawling or delivering items to npcs around the world. I felt like a dog doing errands for nobles, scholars, and peasants. It is quite strange how everyone is ok giving u quests even if u have a "bad reputation" among locals. Like why are u trusting me to deliver this item to some random person who even has bad rep lol.

The gain from quests (like barely any money and some reputation) is very little compared to the time spent so it doesnt feel good doing quests. Quests are extremely repetitive and boring this mainly includes side and guild quests. Guilds seem only relevant in what they provide and u do the same 5 repeatable quests in random locations around the world to gain access to other services with reputation gain (even though u cant actually see ur reputation so u cant know what other specific quests/actions impact ur reputation).

Although I havent gotten very far in the main quest, it seems very difficult to get into/motivated to do due to the dungeons (getting to it) and due to how convoluted, time consuming, and downright confusing it is. So there isnt much direction u get regarding the MQ and quest descriptions arent very detailed. U have to wait multiple in game days at a time to receive letters not to mention reputation and level requirements as well as some quests not being available if u did MQ in a different order. When I was going through the story there wud be usually a large delay between quests and I'd pretty much forget all about the whole MQ and think why am I even doing this. Its very difficult to really follow the story and understand the confusing politics of the world that u r thrown in between of and it makes more sense as u go on I imagine but I honestly didnt care for the quests due to the dungeons and how confusing it all was. Apparently it becomes even more confusing with different quest paths and 7 potential endings?

- Dungeons are fucking awful. They are even worse than the first game (arena's) dungeons and as some redditor described "like exploring someone's lower intestines". They are randomly generated and even if not are extremely long even with short dungeon option enabled and just an overall horrible experience. Each dungeon can take u like 2-3 hours at a time so it feels so draining to even do them for ur quests and u are barely rewarded after. Each one is a labyrinth and extremely frustrating to do, u visit the same places multiple times and it is a MUST to have some key spells like water breathing and recall to even navigate through dungeons even if u want to role a character who doesnt use any magic.

Overall the game can be fun for a person who is interested in elder scrolls lore even though its likely quite different compared to any of the newer titles, a person interested in the role playing elements and those who enjoy creating/testing different game builds. However due to my issues with quests in general and dungeons that are the main aspects to the game, it is difficult to recommend this game especially to a newer audience.

The Elder Scrolls II Daggerfall is a vast improvement over its predecessor, Daggerfall takes everything that worked in Arena and improves it. The towns of Daggerfall now feel like actual locations, with distinct landmarks and layouts that actually make a lick of sense, the map for these towns is also much more useful, with NPCs helping out to find locations in a less random manner. The main quest line is now a completely non-linear adventure with the plot being more about discovery than going through points A to B, this makes the game much more replayable than Arena by default. The world itself is now actually explorable, as the towns are all connected in one giant world, however, similarly to Arena, the (now not so) endless void between towns is entirely pointless and can be completely ignored by using fast travel.

The gameplay itself is also vastly improved upon, your movement options have expanded to allow better stealth mechanics, climbing, and more thought-out platforming/jumping. Alongside this the dungeons are completely overhauled, gone are the flat, layer-by-layer dungeons of Arena, now we have randomly generated sprawling dungeons with tunnels and paths intersecting layers, going up and down and all around at all times, huge open halls to explore and endless corridors of secrets to uncover. The only downside to this is some minor sidequests can lead to these gigantic dungeons, but in moderation, these dungeons are a blast.

The soundtrack for this game takes a lot of tracks from Arena, and remixes/expands upon them along with adding quite a few of its own original tracks, all of which set a great tone to the game, along with just sounding great.

For my playthrough I decided to be a Mage this time around, the default classes in Daggerfall leave a lot to be desired and do not particularly suit any playstyle so its best to simply create a custom class. The spells in Daggerfall are once again, great, with some more op spells removed, such as passwall. Rather than simply buying spells, you have the option to make your own, which is awesome, but also makes buying spells totally obsolete, as you can simply create all your spells to your liking. There is also now a better enchanting system, with passive enchants, use on enchants, etc. building off Arenas enchantments which were simply spells attached to items, this system is near game-breaking but is fun for late game. There is also an alchemy system, with ingredients you collect throughout the game, but I personally didn't even touch this mechanic as I had spells to cover me rather than potion effects.

The main issue I have seen discussed about Daggerfall, is the aforementioned giant dungeons, but also the unstableness/bugs of the original release, for that reason I opted to use the Unity remake of Daggerfall for my playthrough, and due to the apparent glitchy nature of the original, I would advise this version be the definitive version, as it is a feature complete remake, simply with more optimisation and options.

Daggerfall is a fantastic sequel and a great game, the seeds that were planted for the Elder Scrolls series in Arena are beginning to grow in Daggerfall and it was a pleasure to revisit this piece in Elder Scrolls history.

Unplayable nowadays.
Quest repeats
gameplay repeats
dungeon repeats
only plus is open world is LARGE even look today.

I hate this game with every fiber of my being. Its every bad decision to create an RPG, a near empty world, overly complicated and stupid dungeons, constant backtracking that adds nothing but pad out the overly short story if u cut out all the backtracking. Ever want to be a vampire or werewolf for fun? Well its a curse and not just something u can do for fun cus thats not option. I hate this game so much, if i can rate it a negative 5 i would. The game is also littered with bugs and glitches and terrible ingame map. Arena is a better experience (more monotonous) than this. Id rather play monotonous than constant suffering.