The Elder Scrolls: Arena

"An old game, but very good"

By today's standards, Arena is very outdated, however, there is a good amount of quality gameplay for people that enjoy RPGs that still exists within Arena.

Arena is the first of today's popular ''The Elder Scrolls'' series, and exhibits hundreds of hours of gameplay filled with tons of quests and artifacts that are yours for the discovering. There is a main plot to the game, which all game events are based upon, but there is also a whole other world to explore outside of that, which is what makes Arena so fun for those of us that enjoy total freedom.

In Arena, you can take on the game by making a character from a number of different classes. Each of these classes has unique advantages and disadvantages, which affect the difficulty of gameplay. This gives Arena a good range of replay value; you're not stuck having to use the same character every time you replay the game. Another nice thing is that no one game is completely the same. Sure, the main dungeons are always the same, but the randomly generated dungeons that you find when exploring outside the safety of the city gates are always different.

There are roughly 16 main quest dungeons that you must work your way through before being able to see the game's conclusion. This alone takes many hours of work, by leveling up and acquiring powerful artifacts to help make your way through the game. There are also a great many special artifacts that are totally unique that have superpower abilities waiting to be acquired through performing certain quests outside of the main quest.

The game world is massive - encompassing a total of 9 provinces, each with their own specific race that have special attributes. Hundreds of cities await your exploration and an additional countless number of dungeons.

Different character races allow you to pick from many different races, each having is own number of faces to allow customization in appearance.

Graphically, today Arena is nothing special to look at - it was made in 1994, so it's up to par with graphics made in that era. Don’t expect anything spectacular, however.

Sound Effects are lacking, though helpful. Monsters make sounds to give away their proximity to you, and things of that nature. There is in-game music, as well, but it's nothing special, granted... again, this was made in 1994.

Gameplay control is a bit awkward. Motion of your character is done completely by the mouse. This doesn't make for the best control system and sometimes makes things difficult to follow on screen. I personally had trouble playing the game over long periods of time due to this. It's a rather serious shortfall when you compare the game to some of the control systems now. But then again, this is an old game and its not something that's absolutely so annoying you CANT play the game.

The story is pretty interesting. You've been chosen to reclaim the eight pieces of the ''Staff of Chaos'' and defeat Jagar Tharn, an imposter who has taken the Emperor of Tamriel (that's the world's name) prisoner. There are a number of events that take you through the story, and it's fairly capturing. I found that it was more interesting, however, outside of the main-quest story wandering around looking for other quests.

Game Ratings:

Story: 9/10
Graphics: 6/10
Sound/Music: 6/10
Replay Value: 9/10
Gameplay Control: 5/10

Overall Rating: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/25/03