上古卷轴 2：匕首雨 The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall p.220

我认为，《匕首雨》能融入这么多元素，真的很了不起。可不要忘了，变成吸血鬼、狼人，购置房产、买船等设定其实只是游戏的“彩蛋”而已。我们并没有将其添进游戏手册和预览简介。这些内容是为了奖励那些孜孜不倦、执着于探索游戏世界的忠实玩家。

I think it's pretty astonishing how many things actually did make it into Daggerfall. I mean, don't forget that turning into a vampire and a werewolf and buying boats and property and all that stuff were essentially ‘easter eggs’ in the game. We didn't mention any of that in the manual or in previews. They were just things to reward the player if he kept on playing.

Ted Peterson,
《匕首雨》首席设计师

Ted Peterson,
Daggerfall’s lead designer

随机触发的任务也值得一提。这些任务都由编剧精心设计，在丰富游戏角色形象、增添代入感上起到重要作用。举例而言，你会在路上碰见一位祭司，他可能会恳求你仗义出手，剿灭劫匪，保护神庙；也可能委托你跋山涉水，前往某个村寨，用恢复系法术治愈某个病人；也可能请求你去调查某处神迹背后的真相。虽然谈不上剧情复杂，但绝对比“击杀 5 头狼”等任务更具沉浸感。

此外，《匕首雨》有绝妙的游戏氛围（不妨在夜晚时分，去野外漫步，享受愉悦的 MIDI 音乐，时不时撞见一个大呼“血债血偿！！！！！”的先王亡魂）、海量法术、兼具增益效果与负面效果的法术研究及附魔系统、马匹骑乘系统、马车储物系统（地城中搜刮而来的战利品装得满满当当）、购房机制、购船机制、狼人系统、血族系统、银行系统、召唤魔神^[7] 交易古老的传奇道具、各式各样的怪物……

The random quests deserve a special mention as well. They were well-written and did a great job supporting different characters and role-playing. For example, a priest might ask you to protect his temple against thieves coming to rob it, or to travel to some village and cast an elaborate healing spell on a sick person or investigate divine manifestations. While not very complex, such quests were infinitely more engaging than “kill 5 wolves”.

In addition, Daggerfall had a superb atmosphere (just go out at night to enjoy delightful MIDI music, occasionally interrupted by the slain king's ghost screaming “Vengeaaaance!”), tons of spells, a detailed spell-making and enchantment system with advantages and disadvantages, horses to ride, carriages to haul all that loot after a busy week in a dungeon, houses and ships to buy, lycanthropy, vampirism, banking, Daedra princes to summon in exchange for legendary artefacts, a truckload of monsters, etc.

如今，有两款针对《匕首雨》的重制版游戏，DaggeXL 和 Daggerfall Unity。两者都采用全新引擎，旨在优化图像、功能，完善模组支持体系。

Currently there are two projects aiming to remake Daggerfall – DaggerXL and Daggerfall Unity. Both seek to port the game into a new engine, allowing better graphics, new features and greater mod support.

尽管存在瑕疵（主要是游戏漏洞，和程序化生成技术难免会带来的重复性），《匕首雨》在游戏设计和复杂度上让人叹为观止，足以与《黑暗纪元（Darklands）》、《创世纪：地下世界（Ultima Underworld）》、《阿卡尼亚王国（Realms of Arkania）》等同期知名神作相提并论，这些游戏都无与伦比。

鉴于以后的游戏可能再也达不到《匕首雨》的深度与复杂度，我建议各位拿出手里的 DOSBox，感受往昔岁月里那些顶级佳作的无穷魅力。

精品模组推荐：

古老幽魂版匕首雨（Ancestral Ghost’s Daggerfall Setup）：自动安装游戏、运行相关补丁及民间制作的任务包，增加游戏渲染距离，自动调整配置要求，以满足最佳运行体验。强力推荐！

魔落（Daedrafall）：这是一款有趣的模组，玩家扮演一只魔族生物，能击杀原作主角。

Despite its flaws (mainly, bugs and the inevitably repetitive nature of procedurally generated games), Daggerfall remains an impressive achievement in game design and complexity, standing next to the other notable and unsurpassed games of that era like Darklands, Ultima Underworld and Realms of Arkania.

Considering that a game of such depth and complexity will never be made again, I'd suggest you grab DOSBox and see what games were like in the olden days when giants were upon the earth.

Useful Files and Mods:

Ancestral Ghost's Daggerfall Setup: Installs the game, applies patches and fan-made quest packs, increases the game’s draw distance and configures DOSBox to best run the game. Highly recommended.

Daedrafall: An interesting mod that allows you to play as a Daedra who kills the game’s original hero.

__________

⁷ 译者注：魔神，Daedric Prince，又名魔族/迪德拉（Daedra）。迪德拉与圣灵/伊德拉（Aedra）相区分，分别为“非吾辈祖先”与“吾辈之祖先”。按照上古卷轴系列的创世神话，人们尊称那些牺牲自己、造化奈恩大陆的神灵为伊德拉，其余未参与创世的神灵为迪德拉（这是较为笼统的解释，存在例外）。此外，迪德拉是统称，既包括魔神，也包括一切生活在迪德拉位面的生物。所以，此魔族非彼魔族（后者包括恶魔、魔鬼等）。