The Elder Scrollsis by far one of the oldest and most expansive game franchises of all time. The sheer popularity of the series just goes to show the high quality standard in which Bethesda has set over the years when developing a new entry.The Elder Scrolls: Arenais Bethesda’s first entry into the RPG genre, andThe Elder Scrollsseries as a whole and was a landmark in ingenuity. Many features and gameplay mechanics introduced in its first RPG have since influenced many future RPGs from other developers, which only goes to show how deserved Bethesda is to be where it is now.
Bethesda/ZeniMax Media and all of its subsidiaries includingBethesda Softworks was acquired by Microsoft for $7.5 billion. Despite this record sale, Bethesda is still on track for the development ofThe Elder Scrolls 6andStarfield, the latter having been shown off at E3 earlier this month and confirmed for a late 2022 release. With how strong of a presenceThe Elder Scrollsseries has had, one has to wonder if it is worth taking a look back at what started it all.
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The Elder Scrolls Legacy
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimmight be the most popular entry intoThe Elder Scrollsseries, as it has stood the test of time longer than its predecessorsMorrowindandOblivion.Skyrim, having originally released in 2011, has received current console ports, with a VR iteration, and evenSkyrim: Very Special Editionon Amazon’s Alexa.Despite its massive popularity, the olderElder Scrollstitles can still stand the test of time if given enough patience. That’s because in its hay day, each title was regarded as a great game in its own right, but by today’s standards would leave a lot to the imagination.
The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowindcame out in 2002, and was a huge leap in visual scope compared to its predecessor,The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall.Morrowindhad a more robust combat and skill system that helped flesh out its large 3D open world at the time, with a larger emphasis on exploring the world rather than a main plot.The Elder Scrolls 4:Oblivioncame out four years laterin 2006, and expanded on whatMorrowindhad accomplished by creating a larger world with more dungeons for players to explore.
The Elder Scrolls: 2Daggerfallpreceded the 3D open-world standardthatMorrowindhad set.Daggerfallplayed a lot likeElder Scrolls: Arena, as both games were released during a time where 3D PC games were still in infancy. Because those first two titles weren’t held back by hardware limitations, the game could get away with telling a broader story over a vast game world. The game worlds inDaggerfallandArenawere so vast that games today still haven’t achieved anything close. World size isn’t everything, as those olderElder Scrollstitles used procedural generation to fill in a lot of the gaps, making many areas quite bland compared to many games today.
How Does The Elder Scrolls: Arena Compare Today?
The Elder Scrolls: Arenais a testament to what Bethesda is about when it comes to game design.Arenatakes place in the entirety of Tamriel, the continent that many of theprovinces featured in otherElder Scrollsgames are contained within.Though it uses procedural generation to fill in the blocks between major points, it’s not required for players to travel all over Tamriel to finish the main quest. In fact,Elder Scrolls: Arenaglitches out causing an infinite loop when traveling on foot for too long between settlements.
Elder Scrolls: Arena’sopeninghas the player select a class or have one presented to them based on a number of hypothetical questions. Then the player can distribute starting stats, select their face and they are on their way. Before the player can move, they are given some context about the state of Tamriel by the ghost of Ria Silmane, an apprentice mage. She tells the player that Emperor Uriel Septim VII and his general, Talin Warhaft, have been locked away in another dimension by an Imperial Battlemage named Jagar Tharn. Tharn has disguised himself as the Emperor and it is up to the player to retrieve the remnants of the Staff of Chaos to save the Emperor.
Of course, the player starts locked up and has to find their way out, much like manyElder Scrollsgames later in the series.Elder Scrolls: Arenaplays a lot like the dungeon crawlers of old, where movement is similar to tank controls fromResident Evil, only in first person.Arenahas a point-and-click system similar toShadowgate,only with a larger narrative and a much larger world to explore.Arenadefinitely has that old-school charm, if players have the patience and endurance to experience something truly unique. Bethesda has made bothElder Scrolls: ArenaandDaggerfallfree on their websiteif any fans of more recentElder Scrollstitles are interested.
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What Will Future Elder Scrolls Look Like?
It’s been almost 10 years sinceThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrimhas come out, whileElder Scrolls 6still in development.Bethesda has a way of designing their games so that players can play however they want. This is proven with bothSkyrimandFallout 4, in that no matter how a player decides to play, they are rewarded for their efforts. If a player decides to playSkyrimas someone using Alchemy, they are rewarded with Alchemy ingredients everywhere they go. Similarly, if someone wants to playSkyrimas a brutish warrior who eats food to heal, they will be equally rewarded as such with food presented to them just as frequently as ingredients.
This approach is a small example on a larger scale of just how far Bethesda has come when giving players a truly free world to make their own. With each new entry in theFalloutorElder Scrollsseries, Bethesda comes up with more seamless ways of immersing the player in the worlds they build, all while refining the processes introduced before. With this in mind,The Elder Scrolls6should be just as impactful of an RPGentry asSkyrimwas when it came out in 2011. As forThe Elder Scrolls: Arena, that is arguably a masterpiece in its own right long before Bethesda’s current success.
The Elder Scrolls: Arenais available now on PC.
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