Well, I finally did a complete play through of Arena and enjoyed it immensely with a dark elf ranger, then proceeded to Daggerfall. It is not quite as difficult as I remembered, I think because Arena refamiliarized me with the mechanics and controls. Some of the highlights up to this point (aside from escaping Privateer's Hold with a full hide) have been shooting a bear in mid-air for a quest, who promptly disappeared (fortunately I saved first), another glitch which caused a skeleton to back into me instead of facing me, which allowed me to backstab him, and a not so fun glitch which crashed the game when I tried to save it after handing my bow off for repair in the fighters guild. Still, a fun experience which I look forward to completing.

PS: Now I remember why I was so afraid of dungeons in TES before Morrowind. Lol.