The Elder Scrolls: Arena review

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Elder Scrolls, we're publishing our original reviews of each main game in the series from our archives. This review first ran in PC Gamer UK issue 6, back in April 1994.

Reading the review now, it's clear just how many of the core pillars of The Elder Scrolls series first appeared in Arena. That you can essentially ignore the main quest in favour of your own fun is still one of the primary joys of the series. Here it even elicits a word of caution for certain types of players—«because you're given so much freedom, you may find it all a bit pointless,» Andy warns. «Arena is a game that lets you decide what to do—it never forces you down any path.»

Developer Bethesda Softworks
Minimum system 25 Mhz, 386, VGA & 4Mb RAM
Recommended 486DX, 8Mb RAM
Sound support All major cards
Release date March 25, 1994

Virtually all computer RPGs fall down when you compare them to their paper and pencil counterparts. Whether you play a scheming rogue or a heroic knight, you end up having to do much the same things and acting in much the same way, because there's no room to stray from the preprogrammed plot. Not only does this limit the game's potential, it somewhat defeats the point of a role-playing game in the first place. With The Elder Scrolls: Arena, however, Bethesda Softworks is attempting to surmount this obstacle—the game gives you a huge world to play with, and in it you can do pretty much as you wish. Although there's a main plot (the Emperor has been betrayed and imprisoned in an alien dimension by Jagar Tharn, his Imperial Battle Mage, and you must find the eight pieces of the Staff Of Chaos that are scattered across the lands of Tamriel in order to rescue him), there's nothing holding you to it. You can sneak around cities at night, break into people's houses (and then avoid the City Guard), sell your services to local rulers (and undertake missions and quests for them), or just wander around the place, discovering forgotten tombs