The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard

About The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard

The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard (1998) is Bethesda's third-person action-adventure in which the mercenary Cyrus searches the island of Stros M'Kai for his missing sister amid rebellion and necromancy.

The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard in Depth

During the Tiber Wars, Tiber Septim's Third Empire has occupied Hammerfell after its king's death sparked a civil war between the Crowns and the Forebears. Septim backed the Forebears and drove Prince A'tor's Crowns back to the island of Stros M'Kai, where Admiral Richton and the mercenary dragon Nafaalilargus crushed them and A'tor apparently died from a poisoned arrow. Richton now rules the island ruthlessly. Cyrus, a Redguard mercenary working for a Khajiit crime boss, receives a letter from his mentor Tobias: his sister Iszara has vanished on Stros M'Kai. He uncovers that she was A'tor's lover and a member of the pirate Restless League, that A'tor's soul is trapped in a soul gem, and that the Sload necromancer N'Gasta has sent her soul to the daedric prince Clavicus Vile.

It is the only Elder Scrolls game with a predetermined character and a forced third-person view, a free-roaming action-adventure in which Cyrus has a set name, race and skills. Inspired by Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia and Ultima, it combines keyword conversations with characters, item puzzles and an epic story with dungeons, sword fights and chasms. The team focused its art on detailed real-time 3D environments of the island and its town using the XnGine, and Bethesda's subsidiary XL Translab created over thirty minutes of animation.

Making The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard

Bethesda Softworks developed and published it as the second of three projects following Daggerfall, released for MS-DOS in November 1998. It received favourable reviews; Next Generation said that "even with the faults... Redguard is an impressive addition to the Elder Scrolls series and deserves any true adventure fan's attention", and GameSpot and PC Gamer US nominated it as the year's best adventure, the latter noting its exploration and story despite action that might put off traditional adventure fans. Like Battlespire, though, it was a commercial flop, and Todd Howard later said it "didn't do well for the company", contributing to Bethesda's difficult years until 2000.