The Elder Scrolls: Arena

The Elder Scrolls: Arena is a computer role-playing game of the U.S. development studio Bethesda Softworks and the first title of the RPG series The Elder Scrolls. He was released in 1994 for MS- DOS

Action

The Imperial Battlemage Jagar Tharn usurped the throne of the kingdom and abducted Emperor Uriel Septim VII in an Oblivion plane, where he held him captive. But he can not on his side and kill them, therefore his pupil Ria Silmane. Silmane However, it is possible for the time being, continue to act as a spiritual phenomenon and to entrust the player character with the liberation of the emperor. After leaving the first dungeon, it communicates to continue in the dream with him and help him in the search for the eight individual pieces of the Staff of Chaos, with the player character Tharn finally able to defeat in battle.

Gameplay

The game is presented from the first-person view. Arena is also distinguished by its huge game world, generated from given elements randomly. The combat system offers a choice between melee and magic attacks. When melee determines the position of the mouse pointer, which is executed by eight attacks.

Development

Bethesda has been in the development of the titles Darklands, Ultima Underworld, Legends of Valour and influenced the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game rules. Arena planned as a 3D gladiator game: The Elder Scrolls originally was. From this concept, only the title, the content, but also refers to the dimension of " Mundus ", referred to in the game as an arena remained. Meet here and "evil" from Oblivion and " good" from Aetherius as in an arena again and fight each other.

Reception

The game proved to be unexpectedly successful. Shortly before publication, the developer responsible nor feared to have driven the company into bankruptcy. For since Bethesda had changed the original concept strong due to delays in the development process missed the important Christmas business arena and could only publish in March, they went internally from a failure. Accordingly, the extremely low number of just 3000 copies was delivered at the beginning. But through word of mouth, the game sold very well over a long period and proved to be less a sales hit.

Matt Barton raised retrospect forth the comprehensive simulation of the world, in addition to day-night changes also took into account the seasons and the players offered much more freedom than other contemporary games.

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the series gave Bethesda Arena on the series website for free download.