The Elder Scrolls: Arena is the first game I ever purchased on CD; I bought it in the Fall of 1995 to use on my brand new Pentium 90… wow. This game has everything a great CRPG should have: cool weapons, varied enemies, diverse locations, large areas to explore, secrets to discover, and a sense of actually accomplishing something. The sounds are haunting, the music is appropriate, and the combat system is easy and involving.
You start by creating your character, you can either answer questions and, based on your answers, take the games recommendation as to what you should be or you can just pick a class.
There are several "races" from which to choose and where you're from affects your statistics and abilities – certain areas produce people with more physical prowess while others are more prone to magic-user abilities. You also get to customize your appearance which is not crucial to the game, I know, but it helps to create a character with which you identify.
Be warned, this game is massive! The ability to travel by using a map helps but it still takes a while to move around from town to town and, if you've a mind to, you can walk the whole way from place to place. Each region has it's own flavor; cities look different, weather patterns are different, the people dress differently. Speaking
of weather, it rains, snows, it gets dark, the whole world is crafted with amazing attention to detail.
The dungeons are what you're really interested in , right? Well there are plenty of them and inside each is more than enough challenge to keep you busy for a very long time. The monsters are numerous and varied and the treasures are well worth the fights.
The whole idea of the game is to find clues to find locations to find the eight parts of a staff. Simple, no? Well, no… not even a little. There are monsters that will mop the floor with you, there are spells that will make you as amazed as they will make you dead but don't worry, there are plenty of unique items, weapons, armors, spells, etc. to keep you in the fight.
The game is all mouse driven and attacks are performed by holding down the left mouse button and moving the mouse to swing your weapon… very effective and, IMHO, pretty fun too.
There are caveats to this game, few though they may be: Bugs, bugs, buggy-bugs. This game crashes more often that a car with no steering wheel, often while trying to save the game before doing something you know will probably cause a crash. The graphics are also dated but to be expected from a game this old.
Despite the things I DIDN'T like I will always come back to Arena. This game gives the player full immersion into a world rich and vast. You don't PLAY the character, you BECOME the character. I've never played a game for so long or with such intensity... I started playing it in 1994 when it was the first CD based game I'd ever purchased and now, ten years later, I'm within reach of the final staff piece. No matter what game has come out, I always go back to Arena... even later Elder Scrolls games take a back seat to the graphically inferior, but better in all other regards, original. Do yourself a favor and buy this game!
