I've had Arena installed on my computer since it was released for free, but hadn't done much of anything with it other than dink around in the starting dungeon. Too many games to play kept this one on the backburner, but as I have played all of the other TES games, I really wanted to play this one too.

So finally I recreated my character Liril as an Altmer Knight and sent her forth!

After fully exploring the starter dungeon, she's now level 4, has nearly a full set of plate armor, an elven longsword, some sort of special sword that the mage's guild wants nearly 2000 gold to identify (couldn't afford that), an adamantine belt, and two marks with charges of stamina and shock.

Now she's at the beginning of a place called Stonekeep. Hope she's ready for it!

It didn't take me long to get into the game as it seems very similar to Daggerfall in many ways. I haven't played Daggerfall in a while though, so had forgotten just how atmospheric the sounds in the dungeons are in these older games. Much better and creepier in some respects than the newer, more graphical games. I can actually hear the scurrying and squeaking of rats, and the grunting of goblins...and I just *love* how the doors creak and slam shut.

Nice! I haven't tried Arena myself, but I have played Daggerfall and (surprisingly) quite enjoyed it.

That howling sound skeletons make in Daggerfall always has me on the edge of my seat...

Agreed! Every time I think of Daggerfall I remember that creaking sound...

I haven't heard the skeletons in Arena yet, but I hope they make that same howling sound as in Daggerfall.

Arena's really fun, in a 1990s sort of way. I like pretending it's 1994, and there's no Internet yet (at least, I didn't have Internet in 1994). When I get to word puzzles, I actually think about what their answer could be, instead of just cheating for the answer with UESP. So satisfying when you get it right. Right now my character's stuck in Labyrinthian. I'm not budging until I get the puzzle right.

On the other hand, there are some real imbalances with Arena, once you start getting deep into some levels. My character's got so much gold in this game, it's ridiculous. I kind of miss the days when loot was scarce, and it took awhile to actually find something worthwhile. It's getting to the point that there's too much 'good' loot in her game.

Still though, there's so many awesome things about TES 1, which cannot be found in the modern games I'm used to. Wall Removal spell is an example.

Interesting... Is Arena a free download like Daggerfall?

Yes, Arena is free. There is a link for it here on the Bethesda site: http://www.elderscrolls.com/arena/

UESP can be of help in getting it set up, including a link to a CD version that has the setup already done, but since it's technically not the legal version, I can't link that page here.

Liril is level 5 now and still at the point where she doesn't have enough gold to get all her blue stuff ID'ed, and still missing a pair of boots. I'm enjoying her being gold poor while it lasts.

Since she is a Knight class and cannot use any magic, it will be interesting having to use those skills solely through items. Even in Daggerfall, my Assassin character was able to use some magic despite having a low level of magicka. Of course, the armor choices will be much more fun on a Knight. I know I could have created some sort of custom build, but I typically like to choose one of the defaults and then see what I can do with it rather than creating something "optimal" from the get-go.

I haven't come across any of the puzzles yet, but may avoid the internet for those as well since I like to try to solve things on my own.

Is Arena like Daggerfall in the sense that the dungeons will fully respawn after leaving them, or is it possible to leave and come back and not need to redo the areas previously explored?

Ran into some skeletons at last and alas, they appear to be silent and do not have the same scary sounds they do in Daggerfall. I suppose that was one of Daggerfall's improvements to the environment.

Liril is now level 7 and still in Stonekeep. She still doesn't have any boot and apparently no pauldrons yet either. She does have a helm, but I've removed it for the picture:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y63/sabine_rak/The%20Elder%20Scrolls%20-%20Arena/Arena%20-%20Liril%20-%20Level%207%20-%20no%20helm_zps62wh2tq6.jpg

There's one area where she ran into some ghouls and she ended up with a disease and then was overwhelmed by them. I've decided to have her avoid the area for now since she has nothing at the moment that cures diseases.

Since your character can't use magic, I strongly recommend buying a supply of potions. At least try to keep a few Cure Disease and Cure Poison potions on hand for emergencies. Levitate will also come in handy for getting around in some of the dungeons.,

Well Liril got through Stonekeep and back to town and so took DInkum's advice about getting a few potions. Still quite a bit short on gold, she wasn't able to load up on them, but what she has should do in a real pinch. The ghouls in there were a pain since she never found anything inside to cure diseases, so if they hit her and she got diseased, then I ended up reloading.

Since I really want to get all the blue items identified, she's doing small tasks around town and is currently in some smaller dungeon-like place not too far from the entrance of Rihad just to see what's in there. As far as armor goes, she's now only missing a left pauldron and finally has her boots! Definitely will have her invest in a bit more strength next level up so she can carry more stuff as her nearly-full suit of plate armor takes up most of her inventory weight. Too bad carts haven't been invented yet.

If I remember right, either the hint book or the manual said that if you had a complete set of silver armor it would protect you from disease. I never bothered: to me, it was simpler to just carry some Cure Disease potions and chug-a-lug one when needed.

As far as money, I don't remember having a major problem with that in Arena. But I spent a lot of time running errands for people in town and exploring the dungeons and wilderness just outside the towns. I didn't focus just on beating the main quest, but spent a lot of time just exploring the game world and wandering around having adventures.

So far, I haven't seen even one piece of silver armor, so I agree the potions probably are the simplest solution.

After running some errands and exploring that place outside of Rihad, LIril had enough money to identify the rest of her items and buy a few more potions. She's in Fang Lair now, but I think once that's done, I'll have her do more errands and exploring.

Fang Lair sure is huge. Liril will probably be level 20 by the time she gets out of that place! Took me a while to figure out how to get back out of those mine shafts. Briefly, I'd wondered if Liril would need to go back to town and do errands/explore surroundings until she was able to get some sort of levitate item, but then I found places that allowed her to climb. So for now, she continues to press on!