5 Best Bethesda Games Everyone Forgot

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Bethesda Softworks has been creating games for almost forty years, but they first became widely known with the success of The Elder Scrolls series. Over those decades, they’ve developed many games that have since been largely forgotten. Here are five of the best, though it’s worth remembering that Bethesda also publishes games made by other studios. This list includes a few published titles to showcase the full range of Bethesda’s impressive collection of games.

Here are Bethesda’s five best underrated games.

5) Gridiron!

Let’s be honest: Gridirion! isn’t a visually appealing game. Some might even call it plain or unattractive. It’s essentially a digital football playbook where you compete against a friend from an overhead view.

Though it’s not visually impressive, Bethesda’s first game excels at realistically simulating football. Players have complete control over their playbook, allowing for innovative strategies. While the graphics are dated, the overhead view clearly shows formations and plays, making it a useful way to learn the game.

The Amiga game Gridiron!, published by EA, was a huge success and laid some of the foundation for the popular Madden football series. You can see early versions of techniques and ideas that would later become central to the best-selling football simulation.

4) Protector

The Atari Jaguar game Protector didn’t sell well – only around 100 copies in its first year – which isn’t surprising considering how few Jaguar consoles were available. But despite the low sales numbers, Protector was still a well-made game by Bethesda.

Protector is a fast-paced shooting game similar to the classic Defender. You pilot the Starblade, battling endless waves of aliens across over 40 levels. While the Jaguar didn’t have a lot of great games, Protector stands out as potentially the best. If you’re interested in retro gaming and want something that improves on Defender 2000, Protector is definitely worth a look.

3) Brink

Unlike the other games, Brink was only published by Bethesda. Developed primarily by Splash Damage, it was a first-person shooter known for its emphasis on parkour. However, Brink received generally negative reviews, with critics describing it as unfinished, though they acknowledged its potential.

Despite its shortcomings, the game Brink found a dedicated audience and sold over 2.5 million copies. While it aimed to be a groundbreaking multiplayer shooter, it didn’t quite reach its full potential. The combination of parkour and shooting, inspired by Team Fortress 2, had a lot of promise, but ultimately the game was just good, rather than truly exceptional.

So, Splash Damage actually did the multiplayer for Gears of War 4 and 5 – they’re still making awesome multiplayer shooters! I’m not holding my breath for a Brink sequel, but honestly, you never say never, right?

2) The Evil Within 2

Tango Gameworks was founded in 2010 by Shinji Mikami, the renowned creator of Resident Evil. He quickly returned to the survival horror genre with The Evil Within, a game that received mixed reviews and had trouble maintaining a consistent quality.

For the sequel, Mikami moved away from directing and instead became an executive producer, with John Johanas taking the helm. This proved to be a successful change for the studio, as The Evil Within 2 addressed many of the problems with the original game, resulting in one of the best survival horror titles of the 2010s for publisher Bethesda.

Tango Gameworks experienced a remarkable comeback. After many doubted they’d make another game, they delivered a fantastic psychological horror title, proving their skill. Although Ghostwire: Tokyo didn’t fully meet expectations, Hi-Fi Rush became a huge and unexpected success in 2023. The studio faced a brief closure after its release, but was thankfully revived by Krafton in 2024.

1) The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall

Modern video game maps seem huge, but the world of Daggerfall is on another level. This second Elder Scrolls game features a map that covers 63,000 square miles – larger than most US states! Interestingly, it’s not even the biggest map in the series; the original Arena game technically has a map spanning a massive 6 million square miles, although much of that is created randomly.

As a huge fan, what really sets Daggerfall apart for me isn’t just how massive the world is. It’s how it changed the way we played! Forget about grinding for experience points – your skills actually get better the more you use them. And the character creation? Incredible! You don’t pick a class, you make one, letting you build exactly the hero you want. They even let you create your own spells! Talk about customization – it’s amazing how much freedom Daggerfall gave you.

Daggerfall won a lot of Game of the Year awards. While Arena initially established Bethesda as a key RPG developer, Daggerfall truly cemented their reputation. The biggest challenge for both Daggerfall and Arena today is that every Elder Scrolls game is groundbreaking. It’s difficult for players used to modern games like Skyrim to fully appreciate Daggerfall, given that Skyrim was also incredibly innovative.

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2025-12-08 03:13