🚀 go-pugleaf

gt2...@prism.gatech.edu (WildCard) writes:

>Mark Andrew Bradburn (m-br...@nimr.mrc.ac.uk) wrote:
>: 	This is hands down an average rpg. After getting about the fifth staff piece i
>: was bored solid.The only good thing about the game is the spellmaker.The game is
>: too repetitive, and too easy. I would rather play nahlakh than this, or even an
>: old Gold Box SSI game like champions of krynn...;-)

>I am tempted to agree with Mark here, but then, I was utterly disgusted
>with the game after a few days of playing it.  Repetitiveness is one of
>the worst things possible in a game whose world is as huge as Arena's. 
>ICK.  and I agree with what he says about the damn combat.  It is so
>simple that it isnt even funny.  You just end up hacking away without even
>thinking twice about your wounds or anything very much.  Every place after
>a while seems to be the same, and you know it by hand eventually.  
>All together, a decent try, but it majorly falls short.

>---WildCard

I also thought ARENA became very repetitive and boring once I stopped 
oogling over the graphics.  The game had the potential of being the 
greatest RPG ever created because of it's game engine.  The first-person 
perspective took up 85% of the screen.  The world had dozens and dozens 
of cities and towns with their own races.  Each region of the world had 
it's own particular climate.  Time was based on a monthly calendar with 
special holidays that affected certain towns.  Light-source shading and 
other special effects made this world seem like a living world.  I liked 
the fact that non-helpful NPCs were walking around aimlessly, because it 
was eye candy.  It made the cities look populated, not deserted.  So 
many details, but Bethesda dropped the ball when it came to the 
storyline.  Every true RPGer hates linear gameplay, because you do not 
have any control of your destiny.  Though the open endedness is apparent in 
ARENA, Bethesda did not give the player more options than just finding 
some new artifact in a dungeon, delivering goods, or just running amok 
across the country side killing everything.  Anyway, Bethesda claims to 
have learned from their mistakes, and promises a new graphics engine, NPC 
interaction, involving story line with multiple sub-plots and quests, all 
with the same open-endedness.  Hope this is true - many other companies 
have seen the impact the graphics of ARENA have made.  Of course, Ultima 
Underworld is still king of the 3-D, first person, games.  

Remember, this is only my opinion.  No flames, please.  Thanks!

Dave T.