Every Iconic Bethesda Game Ranked From Worst To Best

7. The Elder Scrolls: Arena

Not originally intended to be an RPG at all, the first Elder Scrolls, like its title suggests, was supposed to be focused on tournament combat, without any of the exploration, side missions or role-playing the franchise would later become known for.

This was eventually changed of course, but the sudden evolution of the game's direction led to an end product that was a muddled, if ambitious, attempt at a first-person fantasy RPG.

Like most first attempts, you can see the strands of DNA that would eventually lead Bethesda to create something epic and world-changing, but the fully-formed idea of what The Elder Scrolls would later turn out to be isn't quite there in this release.

Be it because of the limitations of the technology of the time or simply from the lack of a strong enough focus on the mechanics the developers wanted to explore, Arena is a promising title that, unlike later games in the series, doesn't really hold up today.