Bethesda is among the most beloved gaming companies, both as a developer and as a publisher. Its trademark sandbox RPGs are truly unique, and are celebrated for providing hundreds of potential hours across multiple playthroughs. Some of the best games ever made have seen involvement from Bethesda, but it can be difficult to know where to start if you’ve never played one before. Such vaunted games can be intimidating, so we’ve curated a list of five potential starting points below.
Considering Bethesda’s modern development oeuvre consists mainly of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, we’ve taken the company’s publishing ventures into consideration for these suggestions. Bethesda Game Studios is the branch responsible for what is typically thought of when someone says “Bethesda games,” but Bethesda Softworks – the publishing arm – oversees a number of other acclaimed, storied development houses.
Indiana Jones And The Great Circle
MachineGames, 2024
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a great place to start with Bethesda’s catalog because it’s a licensed game – Indy is an icon, and if you like any of the movies, the franchise’s most recent game adaptation will be easy to get into. When it was first revealed that MachineGames was developing an Indiana Jones game, there was a worry that it would be very similar to Uncharted, which is itself heavily inspired by the Spielberg films.
But Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a delight, and it takes a novel approach to gamifying Indy’s unrealistic archaeology. In many ways, it’s a modern interpretation of the classic Indiana Jones point-and-click adventures. You spend a lot of time investigating dig sites, searching for artifacts, and sneaking around Nazi camps, but there’s no shortage of excellently scored action set pieces. It’s really quite astounding how authentically the game captures the atmosphere and tone of the movies, even down to Troy Baker’s impeccable Harrison Ford impression.
Releasing late in 2024, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is one of the more recent feathers in Bethesda’s fedora. It received story DLC, The Order of Giants, less than a year later, in September 2025, and is making its way to the Switch 2 this year. It’s cinematic and story-heavy with some really wonderful character writing, which makes it easy to broadly recommend, but it’s also very cleverly designed with a much more relaxed pace than many of its triple-A blockbuster peers.
DOOM
id Software, 2016
The DOOM series is foundational to the entire shooter genre, but Bethesda wasn’t behind the publishing of the 1993 original. Developer id Software has been at the development helm since the beginning, though, and its 2016 soft reboot of the same name is the perfect place to hop into both the series and Bethesda’s slate. It should go without saying that DOOM (2016) has more modern sensibilities than its iconic predecessors, and is one of the more notable single-player shooters of the last decade.
2016’s DOOM is a refinement of the series’ classic gameplay. It’s fast-paced, contains very engaging platforming amid its frenetic combat, and is exceptionally violent. It’s an easy game to get into, because the appeal is immediately obvious, but there’s also a high skill ceiling, which makes it engaging in the long-run. Eviscerating demons on Mars was a blast when DOOM first broke onto the scene, and it’s still a recipe for the series’ success over three decades later.
A huge bonus to DOOM being an entry point to Bethesda games is its two sequels, DOOM Eternal and DOOM: The Dark Ages. The latter is technically a prequel, narratively speaking, but it’s a fascinating trilogy from a design standpoint. Eternal takes the movement tech introduced by its predecessor to the extreme, while The Dark Ages is an unexpected exercise in more stalwart shooter gameplay. There’s a lot of variation to sink your teeth into if you start your Bethesda journey with id Software’s 2016 DOOM.
Dishonored
Arkane Studios, 2012
Immersive sims don’t necessarily have broad appeal, but Dishonored is so good that it’s easy to recommend to anyone that has a passing interest in action or stealth games. Its setting is inspired by the Industrial Revolution in the British Isles, and subtle decisions you make throughout the game will affect the fate of the city of Dunwall. Half the fun is exploring the world and learning about its history, denizens, and connections to the supernatural.
Dishonored was Arkane Studios’ breakout release, and in the larger context of Bethesda’s offerings, is almost like a half-step between the publisher’s sandbox RPGs and more straightforward action games. Self-contained levels and a comparatively limited skill tree make Dishonored more constrained, but there’s so much freedom in choice that it feels right at home as an introductory Bethesda game. Each level is meticulously crafted, with numerous ways to approach every objective.
If immersive sims happen to click with you, then Arkane’s other games have you covered for Dishonored follow-ups. Dishonored 2 is arguably even better, Prey is criminally underappreciated, and Deathloop is an interesting twist on the genre that incorporates some roguelike elements. Arkane Studios is one of the crown jewels of the Bethesda family, and Microsoft’s closure of the Arkane Austin branch in 2024 was devastating.
Fallout 3
Bethesda Game Studios, 2008
Fallout 3 is not just a great introduction to Bethesda’s games, but also a perfect inroad to the Fallout franchise. Prior to Bethesda acquiring the property, Fallout was an isometric CRPG series, and an iconic one at that. Fallout 3 was the first in the series developed by Bethesda, and it introduces a radical transformation, turning them into first- and third-person RPGs. Fallout has essentially become the sci-fi equivalent to The Elder Scrolls‘ fantasy, but that homogenization hasn’t detracted from either series.
As a major turning point in the series, Fallout 3 is a great place for newcomers to jump in. Bethesda even left the original games’ West Coast settings intact, moving its new take to the Eastern seaboard of post-nuclear apocalypse America. Taking place in a ruined Washington D.C., Fallout 3 is – like the rest of the series – jam-packed with satire of Americana. The loot-heavy game will have you scavenging for money in the form of bottle caps while eclectic side quests task you with defusing (or detonating) nuclear warheads and conversing with a guy who turned into a tree.
It’s also easy to recommend Fallout 4 as a starting point, simply because it’s a little less clunky with its moment-to-moment gameplay, but Fallout 3 still holds up well enough that it’s worth it to start from the beginning of Bethesda’s tenure. For a similar reason, I recommend playing Fallout 3 before Obsidian Entertainment’s Fallout: New Vegas, which is arguably the better game. If the Fallout 3 remake rumors turn out to be true, it may be easier than ever to play it and get into Bethesda games.
Bethesda Game Studios, 2011
Almost the exact opposite argument can be made in favor of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. The franchise is a Bethesda invention, but its original release, from 1994, is much too dated to be a good introduction to the studio. Longtime fans may also recommend the third and fourth games, Morrowind and Oblivion respectively, but Skyrim, the series’ latest, easily has the most broad appeal. It has remained consistently popular since it came out in 2011, and can be considered the quintessential Elder Scrolls experience.
Playing Skyrim as your first Bethesda game will also immediately reveal the appeal of the studio’s games. Its introductory sequence is satisfyingly exciting, but short enough that you quickly get into what Skyrim really excels at: nearly aimless adventuring. Whether you chat with NPCs for some direction, or start exploring just for fun, pulling on threads and getting lost in the game world is what makes Skyrim so special.
It’s an exceptional roleplaying game, with enough build variety, storytelling, choices, and emergent gameplay to make it feel like you’ve stepped into the titular province. Skyrim is often made fun of for being rereleased on practically every possible platform, but it’s unsurprising that Bethesda keeps going back to the same well when it’s so universally popular. Skyrim is perhaps the best possible first Bethesda game you could choose.
- Date Founded
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June 28, 1986
- CEO
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Todd Howard
- Parent Company
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Microsoft
