Elder Scrolls Arena

[ScottishMartialArts]

So what's the Codex take on Arena? Seems like most of our Elder Scrolls-related discussions focus on later installments in the series. I'm playing Arena right now -- just entered Labrynthian -- and it seems pretty alright. The basic leveling/loot-gathering game is solid and relatively entertaining as always, and the dungeons seem quite long, challenging, and even scary. Of course, the NPC interaction is non-existant, the quests are few and simplistic, and the interface is a mess. Still though, I am having fun plowing through the mainquest, and my detours to explore the wilderness areas have generally been interesting and profitable -- the small agricultural settlements you come across are a nice touch.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Is it Arena or Daggerfall that has the contantly danger of falling into the blue void, I can never remember

in any case, save often

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

Daggerfall. Arena is relatively polished and bug-free in comparison.

 

[Sceptic]

If you get the latest patch (#6 I think) or the CD version, Arena is very stable.

Game's a bit shit to be honest. Some of the dungeons are fun and well designed but the game is too repetitive. Every staff piece follows exactly the same pattern and you always need to do 2 dungeons to get it. It's obvious Bethesda weren't really sure what they were doing (not surprising since the game design changed radically halfway through the project). It's an interesting game but far from the highlight of the series.

 

[hakuroshi]

The game was quite fun as I remember. Nothing really great though. It's more like a good starting point for the series (not that the series followed it in a right direction, DF aside). Would not recommend it for it's own value, it have not aged well, but still worth looking at for pre-Oblivion ES expirience.

I like two minor details in Arena - interiors descriptions and pools after the rain.

 

[mondblut]

Entering a large city in Arena for the first time was easily in the top five of jawdropping moments of the whole videogaming at the time of its release 15 years ago.

Too bad the main quest was cringe-inducing and the freeroaming was ruined by having very little to do.

 

[denizsi]

Deserves at least a few hours of play beyond the first dungeon, if only to see what the game is like.

It's amazing how they went from Arena to Daggerfall. Daggerfall is probably one of the best sequels ever in history of gaming.

 

[Data4]

Deserves at least a few hours of play beyond the first dungeon, if only to see what the game is like.

It's amazing how they went from Arena to Daggerfall. Daggerfall is probably one of the best sequels ever in history of gaming.

I'd write a pretty obvious followup to this statement, but well... I mean, it's pretty fucking obvious.

 

[Luzur]

it is good for what it is.

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

I absolutely loved it, although I played through only half of it, since I noticed in the misty woods maze it had become too easy for my character, who by then had pretty much all the best stuff and skills you could get and learn in the game, even though I had done only one non-mainquest dungeon (or was it a pair of dungeons again?).

I don't know why someone would complain about lack of intruding story in a dungeon crawler. Unlike in Daggerfall, in Arena you can literally jump from a well-designed and atmospheric main-quest dungeon to another to another until the game ends (somebody correct me if I'm wrong).

I didn't notice any bugs and the only problem was I had to occasionally adjust the game-speed on the fly, since it tended to be slower in the dungeons than in the cities, and sometimes it would slow down a bit more in some specific parts of a dungeon.

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

the dungeons seem quite long, challenging, and even scary.

The dungeons blew me away when I first played it a year ago. I hadn't played Daggerfall, and, so far as I know, very few games can even approach these two games in terms of Lovecraftian mad-dungeon survival quality.

 

[Luzur]

sometimes the enemy spawning can mess up and spawn enemies inside the walls, but other then that its it bug-free.

 

[DraQ]

Isn't Arena just a lore-less, DnD cloning TES prototype?

 

[Liberal]

Arena barely qualifies as an Elder Scrolls game, since it has no lore and an experience-based system.

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

Isn't Arena just a lore-less, DnD cloning TES prototype?

Just? It has dungeons far, far better than Morrowind or Oblivion, and it already has the good soundtrack that Daggerfall later stole. (I haven't played Daggerfall enough to judge, but I'd be surprised if it had better dungeons beyond their having a more three-dimensional architecture with oblique planes. In any case, it's the dungeons that matter in a dungeon crawler. Morrowind isn't even a TES-game anymore, except in terms of its lore. Arena and Daggerfall were dungeon-crawlers. Morrowind wasn't even close.)

 

[Sceptic]

The main quest dungeons in Arena were all hand-crafted and it shows. Some of them are excellent (Crystal Tower is one of faves), others not so much. The problem with Daggerfall is that even the hand-crafted MQ dungeons followed similar pattern to the procedurally-generated ones (the mating squids). Daggerfall is clearly the superior game because of everything else it does right (story, faction system, quests, skill system, etc) but the dungeon crawling is where Arena is a good competitor. In any case there's no comparing Arena dungeons to those in Morrowind or Oblivion.

I still found Arena's dungeons to be too repetitive by the end, a problem I didn't have with Daggerfall. Arena is also even more unbalanced than Daggerfall. Magic is stupidly overpowered.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Arena is also even more unbalanced than Daggerfall. Magic is stupidly overpowered.

Shouldn't it be? The Scary mage stops being scary if any loon trained in swordfighting can fight him toe to toe

 

[JarlFrank]

Arena wasn't anything special, but it was okay. Mind you, I played it only after Morrowind and Daggerfall, so it did feel kinda primitive. Good for its time, though. It was a solid first-person dungeon crawler with challenging encounters, but it became repetitive later on and there wasn't really anything to do beside the mainquest.

I did kinda like the riddles at the end of each mainquest-dungeon, though.

 

[denizsi]

Deserves at least a few hours of play beyond the first dungeon, if only to see what the game is like.

It's amazing how they went from Arena to Daggerfall. Daggerfall is probably one of the best sequels ever in history of gaming.

I'd write a pretty obvious followup to this statement, but well... I mean, it's pretty fucking obvious.

I'm not sure I get it, so don't let that stop you.

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

Arena wasn't anything special

Name three first-person adventure games (a wide, wide category, including all first-person RPGs) with dungeons that were better or as good as Arena's, and I'll believe you when you say that Arena isn't still nearly unique.

 

[JarlFrank]

As I said, I played it only after Daggerfall, which was better in my opinion, so I didn't feel impressed. I enjoyed Ultima Underworld (both parts) more, too.

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

I forgot about Ultima Underworld, and I haven't tried the sequel. Still, belittling a game that has so few worthy competitors is just kind of weak.

Or maybe my impression was super-enhanced thanks to my virginity, kind of what I suspect happened with MM6, which had some pretty cool dungeons but not really comparable to Arena's.

 

[denizsi]

Isn't Arena just a lore-less, DnD cloning TES prototype?

Just? It has dungeons far, far better than Morrowind or Oblivion, and it already has the good soundtrack that Daggerfall later stole. (I haven't played Daggerfall enough to judge, but I'd be surprised if it had better dungeons beyond their having a more three-dimensional architecture with oblique planes. In any case, it's the dungeons that matter in a dungeon crawler. Morrowind isn't even a TES-game anymore, except in terms of its lore. Arena and Daggerfall were dungeon-crawlers. Morrowind wasn't even close.)

Like how George Lucas kept stealing music from the previous Star Wars episode for the next one, that filthy thief, right? FFS.

Dungeons in Daggerfall are a real mindfuck and a real investment to go in, not a ride in the theme park. Arena is too simplistically labyrinthine, but Arena leaves more place for imagination because of the featureless flat surfaces. It's possible to ignore that many dungeons are alike due to primitiveness.

Daggerfall, having gone "more" 3D, packs more character due to relatively rich geometry coupled by lots of sprites everywhere, but because there are few variations to the tile sets, you can't escape feeling extreme repetition even though there is a good amount of irregular sets like big caves, big spaces, halls and rooms with signs of specialized use (kitchens, dining halls, quarters, torture rooms, etc.).

Wilderness in Arena was incredible, as opposed to Daggerfall's procedurally generated polygons of shit.

Still, I'll take Daggerfall anyday.

 

[mondblut]

Name three first-person adventure games (a wide, wide category, including all first-person RPGs) with dungeons that were better or as good as Arena's, and I'll believe you when you say that Arena isn't still nearly unique.

Ultima Underworld
Ultima Underworld 2
Arx Fatalis

 

[Sceptic]

Battlespire? Level design was much better than Arena and Daggerfall combined.