How Big is The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall‘s Map and Is This 1996 Classic Still Worth Playing?

When it released in 1996, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall utterly dwarfed most other games in terms of open world size. Daggerfall‘s map is estimated to cover an immense 62,000 square miles (161,000 square km), around the same size as Great Britain. Even 25+ years later, few games can match this scope. Let‘s dive into why Daggerfall‘s sprawling map was so ambitious and how it still impresses today.

Key Locations Scattered Across Daggerfall‘s Massive Map

Daggerfall‘s vast open world was filled with a staggering number of locations for players to uncover, including:

• Over 15,000 towns and cities like Daggerfall, Wayrest, and Reich Gradkeep
• Around 750,000 NPCs could be found throughout the land
• Dozens of sweeping wilderness regions like the Wrothgarian Mountains
• Over 500 unique dungeons such as mines, ruins, tombs, and labyrinths
• Nearly 200,000 inns, taverns, shops, temples, and houses

With such scale, the developers populated the map through partially procedural techniques, but still hand-crafted hours of quests and content.

How Daggerfall‘s Map Size Compares to Other Elder Scrolls Games

As shown above, no other Elder Scrolls game comes close to matching the sheer size of Daggerfall‘s map. It makes even Arena‘s world seem tiny in comparison.

How Does Daggerfall‘s Map Measure Up to Modern Open World Games?

While many modern open world games have highly detailed environments, few match the scope of Daggerfall‘s continuous open world, even 25+ years later. For example:

• The Witcher 3: 136 square km
• Elden Ring: 104 square km
• Red Dead Redemption 2: 81 square km
• Horizon: Zero Dawn: 75 square km

Daggerfall‘s technical achievement stands the test of time. As game developer Todd Howard remarked, "It’s technically still our largest game. You can literally walk across the entire game in a week."

The Upsides and Downsides to Such a Massive Open World

Creating an open world map the size of Great Britain brought obvious advantages but also key drawbacks:

Pros:

• Unmatched sense of freedom and exploration for the time
• Reward of uncovering new towns and dungeons over the horizon
• A fully continuous open world without borders or loading

Cons:

• Much of the wilderness could feel repetitive and sparse
• Not as much hand-crafted detail as smaller, focused maps
• Long travel times between points of interest

Estimating How Long It Would Take to Fully Explore Daggerfall‘s Map

With a world the size of Great Britain, actually walking across all of Daggerfall‘s map would take weeks in real life. Even in-game, traversing the entire map is an epic undertaking.

Some estimates on how long it can take include:

• 69+ hours to walk across the entire map on foot
• Over 200 hours+ to discover most of the major cities and dungeons
• 400-500+ hours to complete most quests and content

Of course, using fast travel, teleportation, ships, and horses can shorten travel times. But the scale remains mind-boggling.

Was Such a Huge Open World a Good Idea for Daggerfall?

For 1996, building a game world equal to Great Britain was tremendously ambitious. While perhaps excessive, even by today‘s standards, the vast scope and freedom was groundbreaking. It realized an open-ended experience few other games could rival for years after.

However, a smaller map may have allowed for richer world building and design. As game writer Julian LeFay reflected, "I now think content density and finesse is more important than size." Still, Daggerfall‘s map remains a remarkable achievement.

Daggerfall Set a New Bar for Open World Maps That Still Impresses Today

Despite some repetitiveness, exploring a game world as immense as Daggerfall‘s was a joy. As game designer Todd Howard reflected: "I just remember how awesome it felt…to just wander and it seemed endless." For 1996, Daggerfall‘s boundary-shattering map represented a watershed moment for open world freedom and immersion. It realized an audacious vision of open-ended adventure that raised expectations for RPGs forever after.