It's been a long time coming, but the day has finally arrived: Daggerfall Unity, Bethesda's best open-world RPG in nearly 30 years of development, has reached version 1.0 and is considered "finished."

Everyone talks about Skyrim, Morrowind, and Fallout 4, but I would argue that none of them were as influential as Daggerfall, which set the course for 30 years of RPG history: huge, open, epic, and buggy, It was the hit that set Bethesda on the path it continues to follow today. Yet, it's hard to play these days. It looks rough (though the sound is as great as ever), of course, but more problematic is the interface, which hasn't aged well, as it was in the 90s.

Enter Daggerfall Unity, a fan-made, open source reworking of Daggerfall in the Unity engine, with WASD-based controls, improved graphics, lighting, support for widescreen displays, increased drawing distance and numerous other enhancements that make this game playable on modern PCs. Those who want to enjoy the old game can play in "retro mode," but Daggerfall Unity also supports "hundreds of great mods," which add everything from improved graphics and audio to new classes, quests, and geographic regions.

Another interesting but widely overlooked feature of Daggerfall Unity is the option to set up small dungeons. It may seem odd to want smaller dungeons in an open-world Bethesda RPG, but one must keep in mind that Daggerfall is huge, and random dungeons are huge: smaller dungeons will make random quests faster (hand-made dungeons are not affected by this not affected by the change).

To run this game, you will need the original Daggerfall, which is available for free on Steam, and the Daggerfall Unity itself, available from Github Unzip the Daggerfall Unity archive to its own folder and run the .exe, When prompted, point it towards your Steam installation. Set the resolution and quality as you like, and go ahead. If you encounter any trouble or are unsure, Github has detailed setup instructions.

This is a bit more work than what is required by Daggerfall Unity - GOG Cut, but a few weeks before the 1.0 release the Daggerfall Unity team encouraged players to stay away from GOG Cut.

"'GOG Cut' is buggy, slow, and completely changes the look and play of the game," wrote developer Interkarma. the Daggerfall Unity development team did not assemble the "GOG Cut" release, and Daggerfall Unity and does not endorse it for play.

If you have already installed GOG Cut, instructions for uninstalling it (without also deleting the save game) to start fresh with the latest release are up at dfworkshop.net. We also have detailed guides on setting up Daggerfall Unity and choosing the mods that will give you the best possible experience.