Posted on: July 30, 2023
Fake-Smarts
Verified ownerGames: 37 Reviews: 25
Still Fun for Newcomers
As someone new to CRPGs, Arena was a decent introduction to both the genre and its franchise for me. Several aspects of the game have aged like cheap goat milk, yet it is playable and enjoyable enough to see through to the end. The open world and dungeon designs are impressive and complex. It is clear that the development team had some sophisticated generative tools at their disposal to create both hand-crafted and randomized maps. This complexity prompts the player to take full advantage of the included guides. The township environments lack depth but are often charming. The gameplay remains a passable first-person dungeon crawl. The combat system is underwhelming, as it is rarely satisfying to dispatch foes. The game also places a signficant bias on Mage-based classes, such as the Sorcerer. It seems best to max a character to earn one-hit kills and overpowered shields early in the game. There also remain several game-breaking bugs in the latest version. The graphics are a mixed bag. One moment there can be scenic backdrops of townships and arial views of forboding dungeons. Next there can be enemy designs that look like cheap Halloween costumes and wall textures that look like fresh garbage. The cutscenes are often just looped animations with voiced text. The story itself is barebones but suffices to motivate the player to have a full tour of Tamriel and pace out its main dungeons. The soundtrack has a few memorable tracks, specifically the daytime town themes and dungeon ambiance. Some annoying songs are present, such as the music played at town inns. In terms of sound design, the game fares rather poorly. Sound is often uninformative and almost absent during combat. There are also sound mixing issues, especially during cutscenes. Given that Arena is free and very playable on DOSBox, I recommend it to those interested in the series' roots or the underlying tech that made the franchise successful.
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