Environment Research: The Elder Scrolls

The next series which is absolutely brilliant and stunningly beautiful to play, and gets even better and the series goes on as the games get even better. To begin with the first game that they brought out was The Elder Scrolls: Arena which was a very basic looking 3D exploration action-adventure RPG but this was only due to the fact that it was brought out in 1994, so for when it was made it is actually very advanced. This game was all about fighting in different locations to become 'grand champion' in the Imperial City. The games graphics may not be that good, but for a game made in the early 90s it does show potential as being interesting to explore and the environments are vast and do offer room for exploration; by including details like houses, trees and rocks.

Next in the series came The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, 1996, again like is an action-adventure RPG in which players follow quests from the Emperor in Breton, homeland of High Rock. Like most of the Elder Scrolls games the game play changes on different decisions made by the player themselves and Daggerfall has 6 different endings depending on how the player plays the game. Like the first game in the series, as it only came out 2 years later, the graphics are still very basic, but insides of buildings have been added in along with other content that the players can interact with. The environment itself is also bigger and there is a larger map to explore and there is also a lot more detail in the environments themselves.

The next installment of the series is The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, 2002 is again based around doing quests around Vvardenfell which is part of the Dunmer province of Morrowind. Like the previous games this is again an action-adventure RPG with combat and quests to be completed which again like in Daggerfall the outcome of the game is changed by how the game is played and the players decisions. Unlike the other two game this one definitely has an improvement in graphics and is when the series really started to fly forward in terms of being popular and well known. The environments are now in smoother 3D quality and rendered out even better with smoother edges to building and objects in the environments and everything about the game has been improved better than the last.

The next game in the series is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, 2006 which again is a big improvement since the last one. This game is set in Cyrodiil, a province of Tamriel, the continent where all of the games are based. Again, like the other games it is an action-adventure RPG that follows the players decisions in a quest based game play. In this game the graphics have again been improved further offering and even better gaming experience as players are able to explore much more land and in a higher quality as well, due to the advancement in technology.

The last and newest installment in the series is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, 2011, which in my opinion is the best one in the series. It again like the other is an action-adventure RPG that follows the players decisions during different quests, but there are much more skills that can be improved and there are many more choices to be taken and the character creation has been improved on a greater scale. The environments that have been created are hard to beat in any new game at the moment due to how utterly beautiful they are and how well they have been designed. As again the game is set in continent Tamriel the settings are very similar to that of Oblivion and the others in a way that it is mostly woodland, fields and cities but this game also introduces the mountains and more snowy locations with harsh weathers and obviously the possibility of a dragon attack at any minute.