The Elder Scrolls: Ranking Every Game From Worst To Best

Which is Dragonborn, and which took an arrow to the knee?

The Elder Scrolls
Bethesda

The Elder Scrolls is, and probably always will be, Bethesda’s crown jewel.

Although the games in the franchise are far from perfect, what they offer in through RPG mechanics, deep lore and massively expansive worlds is pretty much unparalleled.

Although Bethesda are infamous for their games being extremely glitchy, this is an unfortunate side-effect of their games being so ambitiously huge. Even with this problem, The Elder Scrolls always comes out on top.

Practically every single game in the franchise has been received well by increasing numbers of fans, expanding and refining various aspects of the series over time to a point where there hasn't been a particularly "bad" title to its name. This makes it extremely hard to rank these titles overall, as there simply isn't a game that stands out as being the abject worst or best.

Still, here's hoping Bethesda can somehow manage to top our number one pick and make a future sequel that truly makes the most out of what the series is capable of.

7. The Elder Scrolls: Arena

The Elder Scrolls
Bethesda

Even if it ended up creating one of gaming's greatest franchises, Arena just hasn't aged well at all.

It almost seems unfair to put The Elder Scrolls: Arena up against the rest of the series, considering it originally debuted in 1994. Comparing it to the pedigree of the rest of series is like comparing a calculator to a supercomputer.

There are areas where Arena excels, specifically the combat and RPG mechanics. Although it doesn't compare to any games nowadays, the world of Arena is actually pretty large and in-depth, which is especially impressive when you consider how old the game actually is.

All of the positives in the world wouldn't change the fact that Arena feels extremely outdated and sluggish, as well as being the least user-friendly Elder Scrolls game. The fact that Bethesda's infamous lack of development care applies even to one of their oldest games is actually pretty funny when you think about it.

No matter where it appeared on this list, Arena will always be special for beginning the great series we have now.

Contributor
Contributor

Jumping through portals, swinging through cities, destroying beings made of darkness and occasionally shooting a gun or two. I also write about games.