A million years ago, we talked about the difference between the start of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. Specifically: how Fallout 3 made me feel like I was inhabiting my character and, when I stepped out into the world to start playing the game, it made me feel like I knew who I was from the start.
New Vegas, a much better game, didn’t have me feel like I inhabited the character until after I had gone up a dozen levels or so.
A game I ought to have mentioned as being downright amazing when it comes to character creation is the Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall game.
Now, before I get into what it does so awesomely, I need to point out that GOG.com has Daggerfall: Unity for *FREE*. Like, you can download this and play it and see the character creation for yourself.
After telling you to pick your race and gender, it asks you an important question:
Would you like to choose your class (or make a custom one)?
or
WOULD YOU LIKE TO TAKE A QUIZ?!?!?!?
Let’s take the quiz! It’s a bunch of little questions that ask, in a nutshell, “you have a moral dilemma of a sort… do you pick the warrior’s way, the wizard’s way, or the thief’s way?”
There is a pool of dozens of questions but the game only asks you 10. At the end, it looks at your answers and the balance between warrior/wizard/thief answers and gives you a class… a lot of warrior/thief answers gets you the suggestion of Ranger, a lot of thief/wizard gets you the suggestion of nightblade, and so on.
The questions don’t end when you pick your class, though. The next big question is:
Do you want to fast start your background?
or
DO YOU WANT TO TAKE THE LONG WAY AND ANSWER A BUNCH MORE QUESTIONS?!?!?!?!?
And the questions are interesting. It asks you stuff about your past. Like, what was your nickname as a kid? You’ve kept something since your childhood… what is it?
Choose a name, choose a face, and then roll up your stats, place your points in your skills, and then start the game.
And the game then asks you “do you want to run through the tutorial?”
Now you’re off to the races. Let’s check out our items…
hey! There’s that cuirass I’ve had since childhood! And there’s that ebony dagger that the emperor gave me!
And now the game begins proper.
I know exactly who I am. I know what my childhood nickname was. And now I’m ready to run around in Daggerfall.
Seriously, this might be one the best ways to generate a character I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing.
So… what are you playing?
(Featured image is a screenshot of the home province selection screen from Daggerfall. All screenshots taken by the author.)
