The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard

Redguard is not the Elder Scrolls game you think you know. Strip away the open-world sandbox that defines the mainline series and what you get is a tightly scoped, character-driven action-RPG built around a single protagonist - Cyrus, a Redguard mercenary who arrives on the island of Stros M'Kai looking for his missing sister and ends up scrapping with the Septim Empire. It is a linear, story-forward adventure with real-time sword combat, environmental puzzles, and a surprising amount of lore that would later become canonical across Tamriel. For Elder Scrolls lore-heads, it is basically required reading. For everyone else, the pitch gets harder. The combat is the first thing that will test your patience. Cyrus swings a sword in a way that felt cutting-edge in 1998 and feels deeply clunky today. There is a parry system, some ability to use potions and a pistol, but the mechanical depth stops well short of anything you would call satisfying in 2024. Enemy variety is thin, and the level geometry has a habit of making fights feel like you are wrestling the camera as much as the opponent. If you come in expecting Souls-lite swordplay or even the rudimentary RPG layering of Morrowind, you will be disappointed. What actually holds up is the writing and worldbuilding. The dialogue trees are not deep by CRPG standards - there are no branching moral choices, no build-defining skill checks - but the voice acting is earnest and the story has genuine stakes. Cyrus is one of the few fully characterised protagonists Bethesda has ever written, with a personality and a backstory that the mainline games almost never attempt. Stros M'Kai as a setting is compact but flavourful, packed with backstory about the aftermath of Tiber Septim's conquest of Hammerfell. If you have ever wanted to know why the Redguards distrust the Empire, this is where a lot of that history lives. The re-release on PC in 2022 makes it technically accessible, but do not expect a remaster. You get a preserved version of the original, which means mid-90s interface conventions, no modern control remapping out of the box, and resolution options that will feel spartan. The mixed Steam reviews reflect exactly this divide - lore enthusiasts rating it as a fascinating artifact, everyone else bouncing off the dated controls within the first hour. There is no character build system worth mentioning, no meaningful gear progression, and the game clocks in short enough that calling it an RPG feels generous - it plays more like an action-adventure with light RPG trimmings. My honest read: if you are a Morrowind-era Elder Scrolls obsessive who wants to fill in Cyrus's story and understand the Hammerfell political history before it shows up in ESO or any future mainline game, this is worth the time. The total playtime is short, the lore payoff is real, and Cyrus deserves better than his current obscurity. If you want a functioning RPG with choices that matter or combat that feels good, look elsewhere. This is a museum piece with a pulse, not a game that competes with anything made in the last fifteen years.

Monika · Scout Team

RPGs

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