An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire

In 1997, most games were released on Windows 95+. Not Battlespire. TES Legends: Battlespire promised 3dfx accelerated graphics using the TES: Daggerfall engine. Neither 3dfx acceleration (due to memory limitations of the Voodoo1 series) nor Win95 support were part of Battlespire. Instead, a "focused" action RPG with strange dialogue choices was the result. The environments were relatively gorgeous for the time; however, the gameplay was clunky and downright frustrating. After many, many failed attempts at this game I used a walkthrough guide and was able to complete it amazingly enough. I'm reluctant to recommend it to anyone. If you are a fan of Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, etc. I would encourage exploring Daggerfall and trust that experience to be superior to what Battlespire has to offer. Battlespire (and Redguard) was at a time in Bethesda's history when the emerging technologies promised new opportunities and the development studio was not ready to abandon the success brought by Daggerfall and the antique technology driving it. Stick with Morrowind and the Elder Scrolls titles after it. Battlespire is a curious detour and not worth the time nor money.

I may be in the minority, but Battlespire is my absolute favorite Elder Scrolls game, period. The lore, the silly dialogue, the beautiful-ugly mid-to-late 90s graphics, it's far and away worth it to pick up!

For the most part it plays like the original. I only have two issues. 1. the old cheat (yes I said cheat) during character creation of buying potions for 60 points, save class, exit game, load class and sell potions pack for 600 points no longer works. 2. playing on a laptop my F1-12 keys are dual function so casting mapped spells is challenging wish they had coded a remap option of the F keys to the number row for the sake of the laptop gamer that did not exist during this games original release.

What do you do when you just released the successor to an epic open world RPG and the next installment is still quite far away? Right - you create a cheap and quickly programed spin-off, slap the IP "Elder Scrolls" on it and that's how you get garbage like Boredomspire- uh I mean Battlespire. No open world, just one dungeon. Normally that is good (I love a good dungeon crawler), but this one actually sucks - proven by mediocre to poor reviews and being a commercial failure when it came out. So when this came out in '98, it was already was outdated on a technical level. Of course it came with a buttload of bugs - it wouldn't be a Bethesda if it didn't feature bugs, now would it?! and extremely braindead enemy AI. Enemies clip through walls and ignore you, you'd think Bethesda would have learned after Buggerfall. Well, they didn't. The only positive aspects this game has to offer are some good puzzles and the detailed character creation. But that's not enough to save this from oblivion - where it belongs!

Like Redguard, I've always wanted to play Battlespire since I first became a fan of The Elder Scrolls. I knew that neither game were considered top-tier in this series but I still wanted to give them a try. Redguard has technical issues but is a great game otherwise. On the other hand, Battlespire runs really well but lacks depth. Battlespire is what happens when you take Daggerfall's amazing dungeon crawling and made a whole game around that. Make no mistake, the game does have open level design but this is a dungeon crawler RPG at its heart: the emphasis is on exploring dungeons and building up your character. This is the sort of game that a person might buy if they wanted the dungeon experience present in Daggerfall but without the overwhelmingly large open world and sandbox gameplay. In traditional Bethesda fashion, this game has its fair share of bugs but nothing too crazy. It's an enjoyable game regardless of the bugs. The gameplay is extremely similar to Daggerfall, but obviously, combat saw an overhaul since that's the focus of this one. Swinging a sword or firing a bow feels a lot more in line with 2002's Morrowind (which was a significant improvement over Daggerfall). Story-wise, this game is pretty light but there is one there. The game is more interested in building atmosphere than story. As a result, the dungeons of the Battlespire academy are impeccably creepy and enjoyable to explore. The art style does a great job of capturing the essence of what this game is all about. I haven't finished the game yet and probably won't for some time but I've played it enough to know that if you enjoyed Daggerfall's dungeon crawling and can't get enough of it, this game might be worth the purchase. However, if you're expecting a smaller version of a traditional Elder Scrolls experience, you'd probably be better off just sticking with the main games or maybe the mobile game, The Elder Scrolls: Blades.