The Elder Scrolls: Arena

Game review

The Elder Scrolls: Arena, released in 1994 for DOS, is the first title in what would become one of the most revered and successful RPG franchises in gaming history. While many modern gamers are familiar with the expansive world of Skyrim, fewer realize that Arena boasts the largest game world in the entire Elder Scrolls series. The developers crafted an immense world, with the rendered size of the game's universe reaching an astounding 120 million square kilometers, a scale that is almost beyond comprehension.

Emperor Uriel Septim VII was imprisoned by the traitorous Imperial "Battlemage" Jagar Tharn. The only way to free the emperor is to find all eight pieces of the Staff of Chaos. Only then can the hero challenge Jagar Tharn to a duel. The player (and protagonist) will be guided towards this goal by Ria Silmane, who was an apprentice of Tharn - until Tharn seized the throne. Because Silmane disapproved of her master's actions, Thran killed her. However, she kept her spiritual essence so that she could lead the player out of the imperial prison and guide him - she speaks to him in his dreams - to all eight pieces of the staff.

Arena, the first Elder Scrolls game, was originally supposed to be a completely different game. But in the end, we got a classic dungeon with the vast world of Tamriel, inspired not only by the game Ultima Underworld. Unlike previous games, Arena contained a complete continent - the player could visit all provinces of Tamriel. Although you couldn't travel from city to city on your own like in later games. But the world was made up of some kind of closed maps. Arena didn't yet have a complex system, it only came with Daggerfall, its system was a kind of derivation from the AD&D games. However, it laid the foundation for a later very popular series.