The Elder Scrolls: Arena review

Bethesda Softworks, entering the market in 1986 with "Gridiron!" and continuing with hockey games (and licensed Terminator games, along with home alone and Where's Waldo?) until they entered the fantasy RPG industry in 1994 with a new series: The Elder Scrolls, beginning with Arena. Although that would seem unusual given their video game history they were successful enough to make 4 squeals and 2 spin-offs. But I'm here to talk about Arena.

Out of all the games under the Elder Scrolls title, Arena was by far the biggest. The main storyline spanning across the entire continent of Tamriel. And as all the landscape was randomly generated, there was essentially unlimited space available to you (you could be walking in the same direction for hours and never come out of the city you were in), so you could only travel to other locations by fast-travelling. And as all NPCs and quests are also randomly generated, you could find work almost anywhere.

Being released just a few months after DOOM, you could say it was among the first games to use first-person 3D graphics (Although nothing was rendered in 3D, it was simulated by scaling, skewing and distorting textures to make it look 3D. A method known as pseudo-3D or 2.5D)

Combat in Arena is used by holding the left mouse button and dragging in the direction you want to swing your sword (using swords as an example) so it is very difficult to use with a laptop's trackpad, as the keyboard needs to be used too. However it is a very nice system and allows you to swing in any direction you want (but there is only basic swing attacks) and certain creatures can only be hit by swinging in the correct direction.

When you begin Arena, you have the choice of your race and class. Your race is determined by which province you select as your home, as a result of this there are no Orcs (Choose high rock and you will be a Breton) and the create-class system is non-existent this early in the series. Once all the is done, you are given a briefing by the ghost of Ria Silmane, an apprentice of Jagar Tharn, an Imperial Battlemage of the Empire who betrays the emperor, trapping him in an alternate dimension, so Tharn can take the place of Emperor of Tamriel. Once the briefing is over, you begin in a minimum-security prison cell, which has the key in the corner of it. just outside the cell in a tutorial dungeon, with a small amount of loot just outside the door to the cell and an abundance of rats and goblins. At the end of the dungeon is the Shift Gate, which will take you out of the dungeon and transport you to your home province. When you leave the dungeon, it is your quest to find the eight pieces of the Staff of Chaos used to trap the Emperor in the said alternate dimension. The eight peices are scattered all across Tamriel, the location of each piece will be revealed to you by Ria's ghost when you sleep. However she will not tell you the province, it is up to you to ask around town and get the information you need.

All-in-all, The Elder Scrolls: Arena was a great game for its time, and is a necessity for any Elder Scrolls Fan and a classic for anyone else. It's available free from the Elder Scrolls site, however being as old as it is, a DOS emulator will be required to play it.

Thank you, goodnight

Pixie