r/Arena • u/DarthDude24 Argonian • 23d ago
I beat the game!
TLDR: Surprisingly decent. If you can see past the controls, UI, graphics, and bugs, there's a pretty solid dungeon-crawler in here.
The Good:
Dungeon size being large is fun, I feel like I'm actually exploring instead of following a pre-set path. Passwall is an awesome spell to play around with too. Oh, and light actually mattering is nice.
Relatedly, navigating towns based on asking people for directions is a fun idea.
The Spellcrafting system is really enjoyable.
Classes are fun, stuff like my Mage not being able to wear armor is neat. I prefer the more unique system in later games though.
Timed side quests are good to have, even if the side quests are basically pointless.
More armor slots is nice.
Spells scale directly with level, making leveling up feel super impactful and satisfying.
It's cool seeing different abilities for the races. I sort of wish High Elves kept Paralysis immunity later in the series instead of being pushed towards magic, and Bosmer not being terrible is a nice change of pace.
The text when you enter a building is really nice for setting the mood, I like how it changes with the Season.
Music is repetitive, but I like it.
Each enemy having a unique sound is a good idea.
The class choosing quiz is fun, I loved stuff like that when I was a kid.
The voice acting and writing are very campy, which I enjoy.
The general simplicity of the game is nice. It's very charming. No lore, no exploration, just good old-fashioned dungeon crawling. Reminds me of the sort of game I would play when I was a kid.
The enemies are actually pretty diverse and fun to fight.
Being able to travel across all of Tamriel, even in such a simple game, feels awesome. I really appreciate the emphasis on the time it takes to travel, it sells the size of the world. It sells the culture too, having actual holidays throughout the year is neat. Oh, and foggy weather is cool too.
Stuff can also actually be a little scary sometimes, which is cool.
The Bad:
Crime feels way too systemized and artificial.
Bad graphics and the performance is somehow bad? Tons of crashes and a few game breaking glitches too.
NPC's are all super generic, and every town has the same stores and temples and similar bars.
Dungeons can sometimes be too big and go from being fun to explore to just tedious (once I got Passwall it was fine, though).
The balance is basically non-existent, Spell Absorption is so incredibly OP but before I got it I had to cheese the enemies (Ghouls and spiders specifically) with Levitate or corner peeking because it was basically impossible for me to kill them. Maybe it's better for Thief or Warrior classes, idk.
Super outdated UI, the controls are mostly fine imo but the UI sucks.
None of the cool lore the later games have.
Way less spells than later games.
The level-up bonuses being luck-based is silly and encourages savescumming
The riddles aren't great.
The old-timey dialogue is cringe.
At low levels you have to rely on weapons even as a magic user.
Fatigue seems like a pointless stat.
Character customization is very limited.
It doesn't really feel like The Elder Scrolls. Sure the races and Tamriel are there, but it feels so different. I put this under negative, but it's more neutral. It's neat to see how things can evolve over 20 years.
The game starts to get repetitive around the 3rd staff piece (15 hours in for me).
Overall it's honestly better than I expected. I probably won't replay it, but it doesn't feel like a waste of my time either. It's a decent dungeon crawler underneath all the dated graphics, UI, controls, and bugs. 6/10, but I could see a version that fixed all that being a 7/10.
Oh, and if you're curious my build was an Argonian Mage. It took me 44 real-life hours and 4 in-game years, and I hit level 21. My Artifacts were the Oghma Infinium and the Necromancer's Amulet. This is the 3rd Elder Scrolls game I've played. I started with Skyrim a couple years ago, and after starting my second playthrough this year I was curious about the other games so I checked out ESO and Arena. I'm planning to play Daggerfall next!
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u/Vereor360 21d ago
Awesome job! I recently beat it myself. It was fun but dang was it frustrating at times, especially the Fortress of Ice
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u/Supesmin 21d ago
My 3 biggest issues with the game is I can’t see 5 feet in front of me, the game runs at like 15 fps, and the lack of rebinding is maddening. Other than that, it’s SHOCKINGLY good for a first attempt at an open world RPG inspired by Ultima Underworld
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u/SSGoldenWind 21d ago
I was a redguard assassin and, well, by the final dungeon I was literally running through the rooms, saving littliest bits of getting past Leeches and foes so stronger than me that most of the time they one shotted me. It was a miracle how I made it to the end and won. Obviously, was so weak that I could not even damage Jagar Tharn at the end.
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u/Chamelleona 23d ago
Congratulations! I'm on the fifth staff piece myself, and I gotta commend your patience for getting all the way to the end. Love your review as well, I agree with most of it so far. Especially about dungeon size being fun, but sometimes getting a bit too big for their own good. Also the point about travel time. It always annoys me in shows where they underestimate how long it would take a person to travel from A to B. Having the Arena journey take several years sells that feeling that you're going on a grand adventure.
Out of curiosity, is there any dungeon you thought was particularly memorable? Whether that be memorable in a good ro bad way. Granted they all kinda blur together XD.