One of the most all-encompassing RPGs ever created didn't succeed commercially due to hefty hardware requirements for its time. Nine man years in the making, Arena heralds a new level of RPGs: 3D gameworld with realistic weather effects, cool spellcasting system where you can create thousands of spells,and best of all -- 8 million kilometers of terrain to explore on your quest to find the Staff of Chaos.
You can ignore the main plot and just do what you want, e.g. steal from houses at night and take on side quests. A truly "epic" game that deserves to be on every RPGer's shelves, despite repetitive dialogues, awkward interface, and tough battles.
Review By HOTUD
English 
Comments and reviews
The game set a milestone but maybe a year too soon for the world that technically hadn't been ready for it yet. Great technical achievement.
MS DOS Dark souls lol
Can Someone Tell Me How To Fix The Lag ?
My Dosbox Is Freezing
does the game save if i play it in the browser?
This Khajiit has been try to play on mobile any advice?
Have you heard of the high elves?
Loved this when it came out, though I never managed to make much progress beyond running around and killing rats.
Unfortunately, I'm getting a 404 error when I try to play online.
Thanks. Love the website.
Restored the game files
How are Arena and Daggerfall not abandonware anymore? Bethesda released them as freeware years ago.
the game f***ing freezes after that ghost woman talks to you at the beggining... sh**!!!
the game does look awesome though... it probs my terrible computer.
internet version c drive is not mounted
It is the best game ohhhhhhh yeeeeeaaaaa
I like it.
the good old bugger scrolls....
if you can get past the terrible bugs, the fact that sometimes you'll have to let go some quests you can't finish, then this is a great game. honestly, do the main quest, and that'll be okay. less pain in the ass....
dosbox says i need a floppy disk
and,hey, you, andre, it doint work without the sound really, but it sstill fun to play without any of that sound (uyou dsoint need it)!
amazing hoiw i just so hapopened to be plaing that old game againand then i wander into here this here abandonware site and it the best ! what a coinidents!!
This is my favorite game in the whole series, and I wish that TES V was more like it.
One of the best games I've ever played!!!!!!!
mr SHAITAN start the game in dosbox by "arena.bat". with this sound works.
MR.EL fighting is after combat mode: press a, now you can move mouse after press right button.
First non turn-based CRPG game I ever enjoyed, and played it for hours. Sound effects were excellent, first time I encountered a vampire I nearly jumped out of my seat before I even saw it. IMO rendered nearly unplayable in contrast to Daggerfall which was far better, despite the slightly smaller scope of the game and prevalent bugs. Limited continuity in the huge scope of the world (pretty sure it is impossible to walk from one town to the next etc) limited immersion, honestly I think it was simply too ambitious for it's time. Other then that, an awesome dungeon crawler, and amazing what they were able to do without a real 3-D engine.
If you want to play this game, I suggest you go to this download:
http://wiwiki.wiwiland.net/?title=Arena_:_ArenaSetup_EN
It contains all the patches (including the Special Edition), fixes the sound problem and as soon as you are done installing it, you can play right away.
FYI: By left-clicking and moving the mouse, you swing your sword and the arrow keys move your character.
I cant figure out the controls!! mainly how to attack. help?
I found the install file, but now I am having GEN123's problem.
Which file do I run? This is the first game of this type that I have ever tried, and the dosbox tutorial I read said to read the documentation that came with the game, but the readme i found in the zip didn't have the information.
Any other games like this? Undercroft is Somewhat similar, but the story is tiny compared to Arena.
I got a sound problem : I can't hear any sound or music in this game. does anyone knows How I can fix it ?
every time i attempt to install it says "can only install from floppy disk". help i really want to play this
Skyrim sucks in comparison to the rest of the series of TES. Simple as that. (IMO!)
@Mmike If you're using DOSBox, turn your CPU cycles up. That should fix the lag problem.
Awesome, perhaps even revolutional game, but after "few" (perhaps 40) gaming hours you will find that the big computer generated world is stereotypical, so the number of fun is not adequate to the game space. The game was hard to run even on the old computers in his time... but still it has been one of the best games.
Anyone having lag issues?
Awesome game!
this game is awesome rpg in its time but skyrim hit gaming history
The first in a long line of greatness.
The awesome great great great granddaddy of Skyrim.
the character in the screenshots look like chuck norris. hehe. too bad I didn't had this game as a kid
;]
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.