Wow, I am genuinely mystified by its horror factor. After installing it, and dying 3 times to the first rat, due to lack of knowledge on how to use the combat system. I killed it and ran into a giant bat, I was startled. I killed that as well, ran into an imp and tried to hit it. To my dismay, my weapon was uneffective. I ran so far I found an orc which killed me. I love this game.

Daggerfall is a very frightening game - it's very hard to explain why, it just is. Spelunking through a dark endless labyrinth of hallways only to have the silence broken by some inhuman scream. Something is after you, but you don't know what - or where. Other times, doors will creak open - doors not opened by you. Yet other times still, you will be the one opening the door, but your heart will race as it creaks open and you grimly await to see who - or what awaits you on the other side.

There's just this sheer "panic" factor to Daggerfall that subsequent TES games have failed to create. I've even jumped a few times when exploring brightly-lit, cheerily-decorated palaces, just because a quest monster I wasn't expecting may pop up in my face. I'm glad you are enjoying this game.

Think that startled ya? Let me give you a hint. After you get out of that place, go to your map and go to Daggerfall (the tutorial tells you to do this anyway) and join a guild or look for work. Also, at night is when things get spooky in the Daggerfall town.

There is more where that came from, believe me. Ah good ole time of my first time playing this and got afraid by slaughterfishes.

VENGEANCE.
That scared the hell out of me.
The skeletons have pretty scary screams when you first hear them, because you're expecting the sound to come from something much scarier than a skeleton.

yeah,im never going outside in daggerfall at night after i heard VENGEANCE.

The sound effects and music is the reason why the game is scary. Also, I DEFINITELY heard a daggerfall sound file being played in a movie. Or vice versa.

I heard the horse whinnie the other day on TV....i shuddered...

There are alot of old games that seem really scary....maybe it has to do with the MIDI style sounds :shrug:

Lots of Daggerfall's sounds are stock effects. Just to name several I've heard before:

• The dungeon door squeak. It was used in Ed, Edd, n' Eddy a few times.
  
• The shrieking sounds skeletons make. Heard it in a few YouTube videos I've since forgotten.
  
• The spider "purring". Something similar is used in a Quest for Glory game.
  
• The metal clanging when an enemy human blocks your weapon is used in Warcraft I.
  
• The magical sounds all can be heard in other fantasy games such as Warcraft III.

There was a dissucion of the sound effects a while back(I believe the name even of said company came up), it turns out there is(was?) a company that sells licences for these sound effects(Daggerfall's sound effects are mostly from this company). Though the vengence line I would assume gamesas recorded themselves.

The skeleton sound shows up in this YouTube clip somebody made from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAKQon4Qy7I. Why I decided to search that show I will never know.

That sound still bothers me.

Yep where I work I have access to large audio libraries and while browsing, I was surprised to hear Daggerfall's Tiger classified as a "Big Monster" and the giant spiders classified as "Cat Purr" in the libraries.

The squeaky metal door opening sound is used in countless medieval movies.



But, now about horror elements. The game has a plenty. I believe it is also because of how "serious" the ambiance looks like. The graphic style is not cartoony like Oblivion and not neutral like Morrowind, but is darker. This helps with the general atmosphere of the whole game.

In dungeons, not every monster will make themselves heard before you see them. And some will randomly scream when they see you. This happened to me once, and it literraly froze me.

I was in your usual dungeon, and I was exploring parts I had already passed by. So I was running and getting around quickly, without fear of danger as I passed by plentiful of bodies of fallen opponents. Then I turn a corner and a Vampire Ancient ambushes me and unleashes his terrifying scream as I stopped moving my character, paralyzed by what just happened.

I can assure you I DIDN'T turn that corner again upon loading my previous save.

The greatest thing about Daggerfall is that if you don't man up and conquer your fears (the most legitimate one being the ancient vampire), you will most likely never finish the game since the way some of the main quest dungeons are set up, an encounter with at least one ancient vampire is pretty much mandatory. You have to return to one such dungeon several times throughout the MQ, even. What's more are powerful spellcasters like liches who can kill you easily regardless of your level. That is, unless you're playing some munchkin high elf superdude.

I'd also consider this a rather crude childproof for the game, as when I first played Daggerfall I was no older than 8, played melee warrior-type classes almost exclusively, had no clue that potions even existed in the game, and used a steel claymore against harpies. I didn't get far. The boobies were cool, though.

ahaha, this explains, why I don't get frightened that much by them

for me the most terrifying things are overpowered enemies which can kill you within one strike of their sword. and more terrifying when they are also faster than you. this does not exclusively applies to daggerfall (for example morrowind with difficulty 100 does have the same effect). but indeed, on low levels, I shrieked more than one time on exploring dungeons, running away from zombies and giants.

the obligatory VENGEANCE did frighten me too the first time I visited daggerfall at night, because I thought it was some of this generic sound of monsters in the near and I ran as fast as I could to the next tavern. the second time I was frightened was when I heard the VENGEANCE, thought, this is only some global sound which has the job of making nights in daggerfall more frightening and I run in one of those ghosts which can barely be seen and not be hurt by my sword. the second time I ran in panic to the next tavern...

Daggerfall is frightening for a simple reason, the ambient/monster sounds are FANTASTIC, the scariest I've ever heard from any game.

http://img691.imageshack.us/i/motivator15bf550c14f10c.jpg/ http://g.imageshack.us/img691/motivator15bf550c14f10c.jpg/1/





yep.

Indeed. I find, in Daggerfall, I will often wait until a clear night before attempting to break into a shop, or, in the case of larger dungeons, I will absolutely refuse to enter them unless it's still light outside (here in the real world). Daggerfall's scenarios are often very foreboding and intimidating - all the more realistic, all the more thrilling. I cannot think of a single other game in which I have actually had second thoughts about entering a dungeon because my wit wasn't feeling sharp enough at the time. Oh, but in Daggerfall, I will settle for nothing less - I need to have my wits about me and be fully alert if I am to survive the complex labyrinthine challenges before me.

Daggerfall's ambience plays a major part in it - the primitive CGI and heavily pixellated corridors which endlessly run off into darkness can be very haunting.

To this day I think lots of older games are scarier than new ones, nostalgia aside. Something about the graphical/engine limitations makes everything less familiar - and more alien. This leaves our imaginations (something I never have to use in games like Oblivion because the graphics are so realistic, at least compared to Daggerfall and even a heavily-modded Morrowind) to inflict their worst on us.


I have never taken immunity or resistance to anything as a character advantage. It's just too easy then.

Daggerfall is one of the scariest games I've played.

I think it's a combination of the old sound effects, pixelated walls and corridors, and the overall primitive graphics that make it scary as hell. another example of this is DOOM:

playing the newer ones, I'm barely scared. yeah, a few cheap squeals rounding a corner, but no biggy.

then i play DOOM 1.

there were skidmarks all over the place after beating that. that was the summer our washing machine died...

Doom 1 never scared me,

TES Arena and Daggerfall on the other hand did because of all the random occurances.

I dont have sound on daggerfall for some reason, i should probably find a way to fix that so i can hear "VEEENNGGEEAANNCE"" or whatever.



I find in general the games that try the hardest to be scary are the least scary, Doom 3, F.E.A.R., Resident evil have never scared me. However the Half Life Series continues to scare the [censored] out of me because some of the stuff that goes on in that game is just so bizarre.

Are you kidding? Doom is the definition of terror - running around in dark pixellated mazes as you hear the groans of Demons lurking somewhere in the darkness. Entering an empty room only to hear a Baron of Hell howl from somewhere behind you, or to open a door and to be face-to-face with a Cacodemon. There is definitely something about pixellated graphics that adds to the unsafe feel of these older games.

this.

In Doom, I really freaked out in those dark areas. Some had lights that flashed only every few seconds, and without Light Amplification Visors, it was terrifying not knowing if a monster was right in front of you

Not to be super cheesey and say what everyone else was saying, but I would have to consider Daggerfall one of the scarier games I've played. And like someone said earlier, it is difficult to explain why. I was trying to tell my wife what it was like turning a corner when *BAM* SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER :ahhh: , a skeleton bashes your f*cking face in... And countless other examples that have been posted.

Touching Doom really quickly that game startled me from time to time but it never horrified me like Daggerfall. :shrug:

Alright, I believe I have developed a theory as to why Daggerfall is scarier than New Generation games that try to be. "People need a straight line to walk, even if it's not obvious or they make it themselves, everyone walks some kind of line. And without this line, you are left with chaos, and all that evokes." Relevant Translation./ = In new games like "F.E.A.R.", "Doom 3", "Dead Space", "Resident Evil", and many others, bad things are scripted to, planned to, and obviously expected to happen. Certain parts are garunteed to "be scary". When you take a game with a good sense of realism(or just didn't have the tech to try and be cheesy), Nothing is expected, you don't know what is going to happen, what's around that corner, how deep will the dungeon go, what the hell woke you up? This game, is random, and you have no way of knowing how things are going to happen when you enter a dungeon. And nothing scares people more than something they don't know.

If this is already obvious to everyone then, Idonno, apologies , but this is why I think a 15 year old game is scarier than games today that have a 15 million dollar budget to "try" and be scary.

That's true. Because Daggerfall has a lot of random elements, it's difficult to predict. Sometimes I'll burst into a room spells blasting and weapons swinging because I was pretty sure there was going to be a monster in there, just to find I had blown up a perfectly fine and empty room.

...then I'll waltz down the corridor thinking the area must be empty and get slashed up by some hideous thing that had been hiding nearby,


Also, that the dungeon music has random ambient noises tossed into it that may or may not signal the presence of a monster is really unnerving, Basically, you never feel safe, especially at low level, which is why low level characters are always the best to play

I really appreciated the unpredictability in Daggerfall, it made me nervous. The player is all too often incharge of their game's surroundings. To know Bethesda is capable of making the player feel very small, even scared, gives me some hope they'll do it again.

Doom 3 was the scariest thing I've experienced on any media. I wasn't playing and I was scared. Doom's devs are part of the zenimax fam, maybe dungeon design should be handed to them