Originally intended as an expansion to The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, the action RPG An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire was released as a standalone game by Bethesda Softworks in 1997. Version 1.5 made its way to GOG in 2015 and Steam in 2022. Notoriously buggy from the moment of its release, and with a combat system where the words "fair" and "balanced" are nowhere to be seen, Battlespire is considered a challenge for Elder Scrolls fans to this day.

You play the part of a student entering the Battlespire for a test to become an Imperial Battlemage only to find that the tower has been overrun by demons. Now your focus is on locating your friend and fellow student (who entered before you and is kind enough to leave you helpful notes) and getting out alive. This involves fighting off hordes of monsters, looting their bodies (not just for armor and weapons, but for important clues and key items that are not always immediately apparent), solving puzzles, managing your limited inventory, and leveling up as you advance through each floor of the tower to reach the top. There are side-plots and lore to be encountered along the way through scrolls found on corpses as well as through deals made with Daedra.

Customizing  Characters for Competence

The game begins with character creation, where you use points to buy your starting stats and equipment. There is plenty of customization available since you can fully edit any premade class or make your own from scratch, taking on disadvantages to gain more points. Players tend to emphasize the importance of starting with the right build, and it can certainly make a difference in game experience. However, since skills are leveled in-game by using them and saving is possible at any moment, the game can be completed by any class – you may just end up spending a lot of time saving and reloading in combat or jumping as you walk through corridors to prepare yourself for platforming.

Regardless of character optimization, the game can be tough, particularly at the start. It was created this way on purpose to give you the feeling of a novice thrown into a dire situation. There is no resting, there are no stores, and there strong enemies. There are some decent puzzles, but sometimes your only option is to search absolutely everything. You can expect many a death before you make progression and some of them will be completely idiotic. Persevere and you can level up into a competent hero.

Limited  Assets but Decent Atmosphere

One of the things I love in this and previous games of the same series are the controls for attacking. Attacks are performed by holding the right mouse button and moving your mouse. Your attack will change based on your movement (e.g. a strike from above, a slash, a thrust). This gives a hands-on feel to the combat without the use of motion sensor controls.

Although the graphics are low-resolution by today's standards, and many of the assets are repeated throughout the game (which gets particularly annoying when your inventory is filled with different potions that all look the same), the design of the levels give each one its own feel and the dialogue screens show more detail for each NPC encountered. If you enjoy female nudity, the game has that too. The default is to have it enabled, but if you'd prefer the ladies to cover their assets, you can disable it by turning on the Childguard options.

The game also has a decent atmospheric soundtrack with some nice, ominous music. Though on the other side of things audio-wise, the game has a somewhat grating sound it plays whenever loading a save file and it's easy to grow tired of all your character's grunts of exertion and the sounds of enemy blows. The fully voiced dialogue of the NPCs is enjoyable if you like camp, and the humor of the developers really comes through. It adds a bit of zaniness to the game experience and, since you can attempt to talk with all the enemies in the game (and nearly all will respond on repeat attempts), there's a considerable number of conversations to be had for a game that consists almost entirely of a single dungeon.

Teeming  with Bugs

If you enjoy games with glitches, this one's got 'em! Some can be fun or helpful, such as when enemies get stuck on assets or you swim through a wall and end up in the void under the main part of the dungeon. Some can be more troublesome, such as being stuck and unable to move after jumping or being thrown, or when the room is suddenly flooded upon loading a save. Shooting, platforming, and even walking can be complicated at times because movement won't always be in the direction you think it is – sometimes you also move to the side when you are aiming straight ahead.

The gamebreaker, however, is dying on level 5. It can and will corrupt your save files if you aren't careful. This is a glitch I experienced as early as level 2 when playing version 1.2 of the game, but in version 1.5 it only happens on level 5 (if the keywords "island" and "hunt" seem significant for the level you're on – that's level 5 – keep an eye on your saves). When you load up a save file after dying on level 5, the next time you save your game, it will spawn random objects in the save file, increasing its size. After it happens too many times, the file will become too big and the game will crash when trying to load it, saying "unable to allocate object memory." This can be prevented by loading a save before you die or by loading a throwaway save after you've died and resaving it before loading the save you want to continue.

If you go into this game knowing what you're getting yourself into, it can be very fun, but it isn't one to pick up casually and expect to enjoy.

Quick  Reference:

An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire is an action RPG released by Bethesda Softworks in 1997.

Best played with patience, a strong sense of determination, and the knowledge of how to back up your save files.

Optional nudity.

Strengths:

• Highly customizable character builds.

• Complex dungeons.

• Comedic NPC interactions.

Weaknesses:

• Plenty of bugs, including one that can wreck your save files.

• Combat that can seem tedious or unfair.

• Items can be difficult to differentiate.