TES Chronicles.The Elder Scrolls Arena

Surely many people know the TES series, it is known mainly for its two games: TES 3 Morrowind and TES 4 Oblivion. Many people have heard about Daggerfall and even played it. But few people know how this series began. Have you thought about this at least once?? No? Then today I will talk about one game that is very distant, but at the same time close to my soul: The Elder Scrolls: Arena.

Let’s go back to the beginning, to 1993, when the little-known company Bethesda Softworks, which was still creating sports simulators and racing games, laid the foundation for one of the greatest series of all time: The Elder Scrolls. The first game in the line, called Arena, was initially conceived as an action game, a simulator of gladiator battles, but later the developers decided to radically change their plans and start from scratch. As a result, only the name remained from the previous game, and it itself was resurrected from the ashes by the largest role-playing game of that time.

The game had huge https://mr-jones-casino.net/login/ potential, huge opportunities. We were offered an open world, the size of which was amazing. Four hundred different cities, villages, hamlets, dungeons. Lots of NPCs that had lives of their own. The abundance and variety of all kinds of objects that were not just there for beauty, but that could actually be used.

The game was really non-linear. You could wander around the city and complete various quests, join guilds, communicate with NPCs, buy weapons and ammunition. The game had a very complex, even by our standards, role-playing system. By the way, let’s talk about her in a little more detail now. We were offered 18 classes to choose from, which essentially differed little from each other; these were the standard mage, warrior and thief, just slightly embellished with different capabilities and characteristics. Believe me, at that time, few people paid attention to this, but this is not even the end! We were offered several races to choose from, or rather, all of them that we know, but besides orcs, they, unfortunately, were only monsters, which, in principle, did not stop the developers from adding them to the following parts of the games. There was also a very interesting feature that was not introduced anywhere at that time, it was a special system for improving skills. Translating into simple language: what you hit is what pumps you up. Thanks to this system and all the above-mentioned features, starting the game over again each time, you ended up with a hero completely different from the previous character, which naturally increased the already considerable replayability.

I think we shouldn’t stop our conversation for long on the fact that in this game, like in any other average RPG of that time, the heroes had several basic characteristics (strength, endurance, speed, agility, intelligence, willpower, luck), as well as skills, such as one-handed blades or axes. Let’s better talk about the combat part of the game, which was practically no different from the combat in Daggerfall, although it would be more correct to say the opposite. Moving the mouse left and right we chopped up various monsters, the bestiary of which was quite extensive. Each of the creatures had their own unique abilities. Some were immune to magic, while others could not be killed with a simple sword, only an ebony or silver one. The original idea of ​​the developers to turn the Arena into gladiatorial battles still made itself felt. To my great regret, there were more battles with monsters here than anything else. Almost the entire game we ran through randomly generated dungeons and took out soulless monsters in batches. Although, how can I say in batches, even Ken Rolston, the chief designer of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, admitted that after starting the game twenty times, he got out of the dungeon only once. The game is truly very difficult, and completely merciless for a beginner. Therefore, I recommend playing it only for hardcore players seasoned with RPG experience.

The plot of the game was simple, but at the same time very interesting.

In the year 389 of the third era, Jagar Tharn, advisor to Emperor Uriel Septim VII, betrays his master and sends him to another dimension, using the power of a great artifact – the Staff of Chaos. The only witness to the betrayal – Riya Silman, a student of Tharn – is killed on the spot. The intelligent Tharn deprives the staff of its power, breaks it into eight parts and hides them throughout Tamriel. Taking the form of an emperor with the help of magic, he rules Tamriel for ten years and virtually leads the country into chaos. Civil wars break out throughout the Empire. It would seem that nothing could save the Empire from anarchy… If not for magic – before her death, Riya manages to cast a spell that allowed her to return to the world of the living in the form of a disembodied spirit. She appears in a dream to Talin’s son, thrown into a dungeon deep under the Imperial City, and tells him the whole truth. We, as heroes, had to save the Empire by collecting the pieces of the staff and defeat the insidious villain. That’s basically where the story ended.

To summarize my article, I would like to say that the game was great at that time, such huge opportunities and such small disadvantages attracted many players. As for today, few people dare to play, much less beat the game, which is already 17 years old. I tried it and didn’t regret it, even though now the game seems old and decrepit, but at heart it is still as young as it was seventeen years ago,