Daggerfall Unity and OpenMW are both free, actively developed, modern engine ports of classic Elder Scrolls games. Daggerfall is procedurally generated at a scale no other RPG matches; Morrowind is smaller but entirely hand-crafted, with a much larger mod ecosystem. Neither costs anything, since both require only the freely available original game data.
Two Elder Scrolls games, six years and one engine generation apart. Daggerfall (Unity) is a procedurally-generated continent the size of a real country; Morrowind (OpenMW) is a much smaller, hand-crafted island. The choice is really about scale versus craftsmanship.
| The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall | The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind | |
|---|---|---|
| Engine used here | Daggerfall Unity | OpenMW |
| World generation | Procedural — a landmass roughly the size of Great Britain | Entirely hand-placed, much smaller |
| Download size | ~500 MB | ~2.5 GB |
| Quest design | Procedurally generated, repeats over time | Hand-written, unique per quest |
| Combat | Classic, simpler swing-based | More developed skill and stat system |
| Mod scene | Large, engine-focused (DFU is open-source) | One of gaming's largest, decades deep |
| Best first pick | If scale and emergent stories excite you | If you want a tighter, more authored world |
You want an almost incomprehensibly large world, are fine with procedurally-repeating quests, and like the idea of a truly open, dated-but-charming RPG.
You want a smaller, denser world where every quest and location was hand-placed, and you want access to the biggest fantasy mod scene there is.
Daggerfall is one of our favorite examples of a game that was wildly ahead of its time, and the Unity version makes it much easier to appreciate why. The original is enormous, weird, uncompromising, and full of systems that modern RPGs still struggle to replicate. With Daggerfall Unity, this legendary RPG feels less like an archaeological dig and more like a genuinely playable adventure.
Morrowind clears the PlayBound Bar: an unparalleled open-world roleplaying masterpiece, fully revitalized on modern hardware by the open-source OpenMW engine, offering hundreds of hours of unguided fantasy exploration with unmatched atmosphere and depth.
Daggerfall Unity and OpenMW are both free, actively developed, modern engine ports of classic Elder Scrolls games. Daggerfall is procedurally generated at a scale no other RPG matches; Morrowind is smaller but entirely hand-crafted, with a much larger mod ecosystem. Neither costs anything, since both require only the freely available original game data.
You want an almost incomprehensibly large world, are fine with procedurally-repeating quests, and like the idea of a truly open, dated-but-charming RPG.
You want a smaller, denser world where every quest and location was hand-placed, and you want access to the biggest fantasy mod scene there is.
Yes. The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall is released under Freeware (original data free from Bethesda) · Open Source (Daggerfall Unity) and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind under Commercial. Both are entirely free with no trials, paid tiers or in-game purchases.