LGR - The Elder Scrolls Arena - DOS PC Game Review 

This video has aged... _quite_ poorly. My opinions have changed almost entirely and I feel Arena deserves more credit than I gave it!

Tips for playing Arena: Rule 1: Kill a rat, save the game. Rule 2: Before you open a door, save the game. Rule 3: Find goodies, save the game. Rule 4: Rest and recover on a raised platform, save the game.

It's weird seeing a video talking about Skyrim as a new game. It feels like an old classic already.

I miss text like that in games "you pick up the sword, it feels cold yet warm because of its magic blablablablajabjabjab"

I remember exiting the first dungeon to be greeted by a dire wolf several tens of levels above me. Good times.

"Tamriel is like an arena".... On the yellow team we have the aldmeri dominion! On the blue team, whats this? The nords and imperials are fighting each other? The show must go on... OPEN THE GATES!

"So just pick something and see how fast you die." Sounds like a game for me!

Currently on an LGR marathon please help me

When you said. "Screw it we're nerd, lets make a full blown RPG." I imagined one the employee at Bethesda sitting at his desk working on the game and yelling that out.

Man, it's kind of surreal to think that when you made this review TEN FREAKING YEARS AGO, Skyrim had just come out and Arena was 'only' around 15 years in the past. Now, it's Oblivion that's about 15 years in the past. Would love a retrospective about that! Also would love it if the next Elder Scrolls game would come out before another decade passes, but who am I kidding.

nice to see that buggy games by bethesda are a long standing tradition

Combat with no sense of contact where you just flail around? Some things never change

I was one of the original buyers of this game in 1994. The speed you are playing it at is in fact cpu related. Play it on a 486 as intended.

3:00 Even in the beginning, with different developers, Bethesda still re-released the same game several times.

I first watched this video when I was 14…now I’m 25. LGR is amazing…and Skyrim is 10 years old - and probably still selling good !

It's been 10 years and I still refer the emperor as Uterus Rectum and forgot it was from this video

"Hair Metal makes a comeback, complete with: Horny Demons, and Naked Dudes surrounded by fog." My mouse is slowly sliding towards the subscribe button.

Most people tend to give up before even leaving the first dungeon. The key to this game and Daggerfall is a.) spending about an hour or two with it getting used to the controls and b.) picking a class and some stats that don't make every fight with a rat or goblin a struggle. When I first fired this us I choose a Spellblade (or Nightblade, can't remember) and the game is just brutally in the beginning on any character that isn't a warrior. Being able to use all the weapons you find in the first dungeon and actually wear your armor is like night and day. Warrior classes will have it easiest in the beginning, followed by pure casters (since they can do more) and then any thief type, who are very limited early on. The class and stat selection (like most good CRPGs) is actually it's own difficulty slider. I got through the first dungeon on my jump in the water blindfolded Spell (or Night) Blade, but it took days and it was a real honest to god challenge to stay alive. I made a Ranger and pumped all his beginning stats into Strength and Endurance and I walked through the place like a god. Some classes are just better at certain things in games like this. Some are really only there for flavor or a challenge. But this game is actually very underrated once you get the hang of it, and I can see why it became a cult classic. Daggerfall is the true start of things shaping up, this is more of a template, but as a historical RPG artifact it's hard to beat Arena.

Lmao emperor urethra rectum is the greatest thing I've ever heard about an elder scrolls game character

"Emperor Uterus Rectum." Words cannot express how many shit's were lost that day.

*+5 INTERNETS*? *stares at fingers upon the keyboard* _"Such power..."_

I miss the days when Skyrim was new

A great reminder of how long LGR has been going now. May he continue on for decades to come.

Absolutely love the style of your reviewing ! You sir just gained another subscriber, awesome stuff.

The bad thing is if you download Arena off Bethesda (They made it free on their website), it won't come with the manual. So I was stuck on my laptop without wifi and without hope of ever getting past the Copyright Test.

Even though I'm a console gamer & pretty happy being one, sometimes these classic old PC games get my attension & I wish I would have played them in the past. For instanse these First Person RPGs are really interesting for me as an fan of different Fantasy RPGs. I love watching LPs & reviews of these games, because there's just something magical in them, that gives me enjoyment. Thank you for giving this old fantasy nerd some happy fun time. :)

My girlfriend just got me the Elder Scrolls box set for Xmas, thanks for letting me know what I was in for. Great Review! :D

This game had the BEST spell ever. You could use it in dungeons and it let you dissolve walls. Dissolve walls. It didn’t work on all of them but most of the dungeon, with the help of the spell, you could just make your own route through. It was loads of fun.

I was born in March of 1994 and in the state of Maryland! I don't live that far away from Rockville either.

I had a much different experience with Arena. For starters, the game crashed only twice on me, and the enemies moved at an acceptable speed. And the main questline, its basically ask where dungeon X is->go to continent where dungeon is and ask again->go to town near dungeon and do quest to receive dungeon location-> repeat. Now that I finished Arena, I admit I am having a rough transition to Daggerfall. Will take some getting used to.

anyone else digging their old logo? i like it.

"this game has so much potential" basically every bethesda game

Did you know? Minecraft strongholds are inspired from The Elder Scrolls games.

The chick on the box looks like something right out of Heavy Metal. Man, I miss games with fat manuals & maps you can pin to the wall. Call me nuts, but the entire time I was playing Skyrim, I wanted to stop & play modded Morrowind instead. I didn't dislike Skyrim or anything. It's just that the nostalgia part of my brain is a nag that never shuts up.

I remember my aunt getting this in 94. I didn't understand the point of playing a broken game. She must have installed 50 times in a vane attempt to stop the crashing and speed issue. Then in 96 she got Daggerfall and I loved it... Now look at Bethesda. Fallout 4 no brightness setting or FOV slider, a bunch of bugs. But at least it doesn't run at 4x speed and i have not had a CTD.

I walked across the map in Daggerfall, it took me 69 hours. I want to walk across the map in Arena too but unfortunately that's impossible.

I dont think these reviews are lazy at all. Theyre really funny and helpful. Subbed.

At 4:49...Emperor Urethra Septim The Fourth.This video is pure gold.

Every second of your commentary on the games intro is gold

Watching this in 2020 for the first time, I'm sorry but this is absolutely hilarious, all of the different references you mentioned during the intro of the game had me in tears. 10/10, thanks LGR.

lmao! They ask you for the CD key AFTER you beat the first dungeon! That's great! I can only imagine how many frustrated nerds this created who pirated the game lol.

the thing is you can explore all of tamriel

Don’t know how I didn’t discover your channel sooner. I really enjoy the videos, and the content is great. Keep up the good work. 👍

loved your version of the back story, there was much laughter and merry making for me

Visually still very charming. I would love to see a "HD remake" with updated controls, etc..

"What is the cost of Heal?" "boob" : D

This is my all time favorite video of yours LGR, it's so full of small witty jokes I love it.

Long time fan of your content. Not sure how I never saw this video before but ty for all the content you make.

And at long last, LGR has done his Skyrim video.

Hey Clint, have you tried Arena Remapped and Intuitive UI from ModDB? Because they make the game a breeze to play, and it is really fun with those simple fixes applied. I suggest you replay the game with those, it's a game changer

I love how you paraphrased the beginning. At first I wasn't sure if you were then I was rolling with laughter.

You start off in a prison cell.. With a key to open the door to the cell? I'm sold.

Nice to know that even in the 90 Bethesda was keeping true to their nature of releasing the same game 3-4 times before the next installment

I guess I have _+5 Internets_ now.

Essentials for playing Arena: F4 - toggles pixellation. Meaning, you'll get those info boxes instantly instead of having them fading in and out. Notes on map: useful for reminding yourself where those shops are that have the best gear (which is not random but fixed for all eternity and is the same in all games) Right-click on the doors of shops/mages guilds/temples/inns: auto-inscribes the names of those places on the map. Useful for those gofer-missions. Also, I always used the arrow keys to move. Found that much easier than mousing all over the place. I also never had the game crash on me for any reason. One of the most stable games I've ever played, both on my 486 back in the day as well as modern rigs (with Dosbox). This is also the only Elder Scrolls game I have actually finished. AND - and this is important to me personally - this is the only game in the Elder Scroll series which has changing seasons. Well, maybe Daggerfall did, too, I don't know. But Arena also let you explore all of tamriel, and different regions have different climates. Entirely cosmetic, of course, but it adds to the atmosphere to see the effect of the calendar year - and to see people dressing appropriately for the season.

I enjoy your voice, narration and sense of humor very, very much. Wonderful content, Sir.

This is still my number one, all-time favorite CRPG.

"You have a kindly face, dark elf, and I need a friend."

Love the light hearted humor! Great review, very insightful as well.

The description of the intro just made my day.

One day they said:"Screw it we're nerds!" No shit

I believe the design of this place was a result of Sheagorath after Molag Bal ordered him to build a deadly arena.

The rain effect was cool. You can see the building's reflections in the puddles. The snow looked COLD.

I remember using multiple floppy disks to install a game. Crazy. I was thinking about replaying Elder Scrolls Arena. Thank you for making this video!

5:59 spice girls reference

So Elder Scrolls games have been re-released since the beginning?

Just stumbled upon your channel, and you have quickly earned a sub!

I love your reviews! Subscribed!

0:43 The guy on the left is Ritchie Blackmore

Ah, this game! I remember obsessively re-creating all my spells every time I leveled in order to take maximum advantage of the rounding errors produced by the caster level and intelligence based spell cost and spell effect formulas. Good times! Also: Watching my experience like a hawk so that I could save right before killing an enemy that would make me level up and then re-load my game again and again until I finally got 6 stat points and a good HP bonus roll. Good times! :p

"a text box will ask you to do something, like deliver a piece of paper to a text box on the other side of town." This is why I love your channel. Glad I found you!

This is about the eighth time I've watched this review. Still love it.

13:04 "Main quest and side quests" mouse movements... lol

Emperor Uterus Rectum will be my new pseudo name.

I gotta say this review doesn't seem too lazy, i think you did a great job

You managed to incorporate 2 of my obsessions into one video: Elder Scrolls and MBTI. Have my thumbs up.

when will you review morrowind?

So it's better than Elder Scrools online then?

The video intro starts out with my Favourite game in the centre of the shot, this is going to be a good video! Love oddworld.

Most awesome review you have done :D

I remember being confused by the name of the game and kept passing up buying it. Eventually, one of my friends bought it and lent me his floppies. It was good but not as good as the SSI gold box games.

Holy shit :O skyrim is almost 7 years old

I remember watching this when it was new. Man, it's been a while! 2017 and still awesome

Also gotta love that level up sound

Do daggerfall Next!

Bethesda gives arena for free on their site I think but u need a dos thingy. For an original might bea lot

What Will Be Thy Name, Spellsword? Peenus Weenus

I liked how you pointed out the Main Quest and Side Quest 😋

Copy protection question: "What is the cost of Heal?" LGR: "boob." LMAO

Aladdin on SNES was pretty good.

one of my favorite RU-vid videos

another great video presentation

I walked across the map of The Elder Scrolls: Arena. It was impossible.

Jagermeister LOL

Great videos keep them up!

These are all amazing reviews,

Best way to get this game is the Elder Scrolls Anthology for the PC. Comes with all 5 games, and all the addons, and is only like...$40 at Wal-Mart now days, so for less than the price of Skyrim's DLC on XBox, you can have ALL the games.

haha "choose your reproductive organs"

I love your interpretation of the backstory

This deserves so much more views.