Arena - The Evolution of The Elder Scrolls @ PC Gamer

HiddenX

HiddenX

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Jody Macgregor (PC Gamer) tells the history/evolution of the Elder Scrolls series:

The evolution of The Elder Scrolls

There’s a theory that no one ever loves one of Bethesda’s open-world games as much as they love their first. Whichever of the Elder Scrolls games was your introduction to the format will be the one that sticks with you forever, the theory goes, and none of the others will measure up. But although there certainly is a format shared by all the single-player RPGs in the Elder Scrolls series, there isn’t a formula–each new game makes significant changes, and many of those changes seem like responses to common criticisms of the previous one. It feels like Bethesda pays attention to the things people complain about and use mods to fix, though the company rarely gets credit for it. It’s especially noticeable when you put all five central games in the series—ignoring the spin-offs—side by side to see how they’ve evolved, and how different they are. We'll follow that path now, starting with The Elder Scrolls: Arena. [...]
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For me the first one, Arena, was jaw-dropping in that I had not seen anything like that before. Then Daggerfall was at first jaw-dropping until I realized that they were copy-pasting the same areas and it became monotonous for me, though still fun for a while.

Pretty much every game has been better for me than the last, they are learning as they go.
 
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Daggerfall - procuderally generated
Morrowind - hand crafted
Oblivion - Radiant AI
Skyrim - I got this arrow in my knee….

I prefer hand crafted worlds..
 
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For me, Oblivion > Morrowind > Skyrim. But they all have great elements in their own way.
 
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"There’s a theory that no one ever loves one of Bethesda’s open-world games as much as they love their first." That describes exactly how I feel about tES ! For me Arena was almost like a revelation. Almost because I experienced UO a few years before but still, it was the game that made me realize how far cRPGs could potentially go to flesh out the thoughts I had while reading Tolkien books.
 
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I don't remember a ton about Arena beyond that it had left a big enough impression on me that I was excited for Daggerfall, bugs and all. That and Morrowind were the peak for me. Not that I didn't enjoy Oblivion or Skyrim, but the advent of level scaling sucked some of the fun out of the experience for me.
 
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NFLed said:
For me the first one, Arena, was jaw-dropping in that I had not seen anything like that before. Then Daggerfall was at first jaw-dropping until I realized that they were copy-pasting the same areas and it became monotonous for me, though still fun for a while.

Pretty much every game has been better for me than the last, they are learning as they go.
Click to expand...

I wasn't as impressed. Ultima Underworld had came out before and it seemed like Bethesda was just rushing to do something in a similar vein. As you said, it became monotonous after a while where UU never felt that way.
 
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Mosaic said:
I don't remember a ton about Arena beyond that it had left a big enough impression on me that I was excited for Daggerfall, bugs and all. That and Morrowind were the peak for me. Not that I didn't enjoy Oblivion or Skyrim, but the advent of level scaling sucked some of the fun out of the experience for me.
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I felt the same way. I adored Daggerfall for a couple of weeks but gave up when the bugginess and weird dungeons was simply to much. I loved Morrowwind when it came, loved it even more when I replayed it a couple of years later with the expansions. Was psyched like hell for Oblivion, and really really liked the first couple of hours, maybe even the first dozen of hours. Then the Level scaling mechanism dawned on me. I finished it but never looked back (or actually, I did try with mods a couple of years ago, but it still felt lacking).

Skyrim? It felt great for an hour, then you kill the first dragon. That was the first low point. Others were the level scaling that made it so that nothing was ever to challenging, and the just as bad if not even worse item scaling? HELL no. STILL played it through and enjoyed it, but no, not my favourite by far. Still number two on my list though, but WAY behind Morrowind in terms of enjoyment.
 
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ARENA was the best of Elder Scrolls, until Skyrim came along. Its just that good.
 
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I always used to think the Elder Scrolls was one of those continental european companies. I'm serious!
 
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Caddy said:
I have insider information on the next Elder Scrolls game… You start out as a prisoner…
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... and cant remember anything :D
 
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Played all of the Elder Scrolls titles (Battlespire and Redguard included). I still love Morrowind with a burning passion. I disliked Skyrim for making the dragons seem like chickens. A dragon fight should be epic, not some mundane fight. Hell, with the right gear and skills, no dragon can't even damage you in the mid-late game.
 
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