The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
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 Is Too Much Ever Enough? |
| Review Date: January 15, 2008 |
| Reviewer: A. Dent, Minas Anor, GD |
| Oblivion is EXACTLY how I imagined an RPG should be like back in the 80's, while playing Ultimas on Commodore 64s and Atari STs.
Oblivion has weather. While there is no wind other than a constant, gentle breeze, you do get rain/thunderstorms, fog, snow (no blizzards though, because there's not much wind). You don't slip and fall on ice but the sound of your steps is different whether you walk on the road, on grass, on snow or on ice. The world of Cyrodill is not exactly continent-size, maybe some 20-30 miles in any direction from downtown Imperial City but... what a world this is. Cities, settlements, camps, estates, roadside inns, ruins, caves, dungeons, mines, shrines. The landscape is made up of plains, hard-to-climb mountains, rivers, swamps, waterfalls, seas. You can travel on foot or you can ride a horse. You can fight your way into fame and fortune while doing good or you can sneak into other people's houses or pickpocket the unsuspecting. The guards will chase you and throw you in jail if you do illegal things but, if they like you enough, maybe they will look the other way sometimes. Powerful gods or humble people will ask you do 'little things' for them and, if you can make them happy, they will reward you according to their abilities. You can raise to the top of your profession, as a fighter, as a mage, as a thief or as an assassin or you can assemble your own little gang of dreamy crusaders so that you can fight evil and recover the relics of a legendary knight. Or you can do them all and become all, in sequence or make progress in all paths more or less simultaneously while moonlighting as a gladiator as well and, if still bored, how about helping a lady take care of the rats in her basement (that's NOT what you think) or some drunk guy at the inn get rid of the Trolls that took over his daddy's country estate? Oh and, I forgot, there's a world to save or... wait... there's TWO worlds, thanks to the Shivering Isles extension. This game is so huge, I can't see how you could really 'finish' it. After more than 2 months of almost daily playing, I am maybe 75-80% into the main quest, half a way through the Knights of the Nine, only started the Shivering Isles adventures. I did become the realm's Chief Mage (and the titles earns me no respect from the scholar mages) and the grand master at the Fighters league, got myself 350,000 gold coins in my pocket, 2 comfortable houses and 2 nice offices, completed close to 100 quests, slaughtered 2000 creatures and hundreds of humans, murdered 4 or 5 and all but one by mistake (friendly fire), didn't even come close to the Thieves guild and, foolishly, made it impossible for me to ever join the Dark Brotherhood (these are the assassins). Also, I've never been a vampire and didn't yet start my career as a professional gladiator. I did massacre the peaceful dwellers of a small village but I did that under the influence of some drugs that made them look to me like bloody Orcs - that was the price to pay for infiltrating and destroying the source of that scourge. Oh, and while briefly in the land of Dementia - or was it Mania? - I did, willingly, push buttons that caused a few careless adventurers to go insane and I watched as they were becoming so. I humiliated a lovely princess - or was it a duchess? - and I killed so many fearsome monsters, I lost count myself but the game does keep a count so it's easy to know. In fact, the game keeps track of so many things... I could easily find out how many jokes I told, how many potions I made, how many horses I've stolen (one), how many hours I slept or how many books I read. Well...? What do you think? On the 'not so good' side, the game does slow down when you are fighting 4-5 monsters at the same time or when there are other things that keep the PS3 busy while you are fighting the baddies - like a fire burning. Loading/saving times are a bit too long but, while this is happening, you do get to read some randomly selected good advice on the screen. The other thing that saddens me is that I don't believe the good people at Bethesda are working on the next chapter yet. I do hope that, as soon as they are done with Fallout-3, they are going to get busy with another adventure in Cyrodill or thereabouts. My other problem is that I am now fighting with my kids over time on the PS3. We have a bunch of other games but, since Oblivion came into our house, I would say that 95%+ of our PS3 time was on Oblivion. |
| A whole new world! |
| Review Date: October 16, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Howard D. Fisher, Ohio, United States |
| Simply put: this game is incredible. I've played RPGs for years, but I've never had a more seamless experience than I've had playing this game.
First, the training mission. I didn't even realize it was a training mission because the events happening around me were directly related to the overall plot of the game. The only notion I had that the game was actually training me was the occasional on-screen message to press this or that button, but those messages didn't appear until I really wanted to do the action they taught me. Second, the graphics. This world is gorgeous. I've found mysef just wandering through fields looking at the sights because of the level of detail and beauty -- the EFFORT -- that was put into the game. The sun rises and sets, the clouds pass by overhead, birds and animals react to my presence. It's a joy just taking it all in. Finally, however, the gameplay. This game is fun. I can advance in whatever skill set I want simply based on whatever I use. If I want to become skilled at using a bow, then I just use the bow all the time, and I get better at it. If I want to be a powerful mage, I just keep casting magic, and I'll get better at it. The NPCs lead their own lives, talking and wandering around whether I interact with them or not. I can just stand around in a pub and listen in on the conversations around me, and I'll learn so much about what's going on in the realm. This game raises RPGs to a whole new level -- a level that, as an old-school D&D player, I've been waiting to experience within a computer game for years. |
| Outstanding, well deserved GOTY categorization |
| Review Date: January 5, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Charlie, Michigan USA |
| Oblivion most certainly lives up to its reputation as a Game of the Year for 2006/2007.
The interface is very easy to manipulate. The combat system is intuitive, and I found the regeneration of fatigue and magicka/mana to be quite unique to the RPG environment. I often found myself lugging around potions for regenerating mana and hitpoints in other games. This is not the case with Oblivion! My dark elf character regenerated fatique and magicka, while it was extremely easy to cast spells that restored health. The game crashed to desktop only a handful of times out of the dozen or so days I spent playing, so I'd say it was above average in terms of reliability. The game runs smoothly at 800x600 with a P4 3.0 GHz CPU and an ATI Radeon X1950 GT 256MB AGP video card. The most noteworthy aspect of this game is the sheer number of quests and the "sandbox" aspect of exploration and character development. I did not have to stick with the main quest, but I often found myself sidetracked with various quests that lead to additional quests! It is not uncommon to have a dozen or more active quests in your log! The second most intriguing component of this game is the ability to manufacture potions, spells, and enchantments for your items. This is quite a unique feature! No longer is the player restricted to cookie cutter items and equipment. You can enchant armor to provide chameleon (invisibility), while you can enchant weapons to suck the life out of your opponents with each strike. One "mini-quest" even allows you to play as a vampire, whom must feed on sleeping victims or else you begin to lose hitpoints under the sun (complete with smoke rising off your skin). I must say that Oblivion is one of THE most innovative games I have played in the recent years. This special GOTY edition includes Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles expansion, providing months upon months of playability. I have spent over 50 hours and have not even started the main quest. Pros: Intuitive interface for exploration, enchanting items, and making spells. The combat interface is exceptional for a RPG. I recall the days of text-based RPGs and RPGs like Final Fantasy II for the SNES where you were always forced to take damage during turns. Oblivion is a mix of a first-person shooter and RPG. Godfather fans will probably see quite a resemblance, with the exception that Oblivion is far more fleshed out and involved than Godfather. The GOTY edition includes the latest patch and I have not run into any problems with the quests that were previously found in earlier versions. Cons: The voice acting gets repetitious since they keep recycling voice actors for the minor NPC's. This is also a pro because this allows for a bigger budget in developing the game itself. I find myself reading the text more than listening to the NPC's whining that someone stole their ring, or they need some special wine. I found that not being able to fast travel to marked locations was annoying. Fast travel is useful because you can go from one location to another without being forced to ride a horse or run on foot. Unfortunately, fast travel only works if you have explored the region and found the location. In addition, fast travel only works if there aren't enemies attacking and if you are outside in an open area. You can't fast travel from the inside of a cave or inside of a building. This can be get rather boring at times. While you can develop your character by improving his or her skills, there isn't much development in character interaction. For example, when you join the Dark Brotherhood, almost everyone is open and receptive. It felt like this was the friendliest faction. Antoinetta Marie seemed to have more than a friendly disposition towards your character, but it never developed any further than typical banter with NPCs. I feel this is a major flaw in many of the games today, but it is most likely a technical limitation more than anything. Bottom line: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition gets a 10/10 rating from me based on being an overall excellent game. Very rarely does a game get almost everything right, and still be able to run smoothly on budget PC hardware. There is simply so much to accomplish in this game. |
- Live another life in a whole new world -- gamers can create and play any Character they can imagine, from the noble warrior to the sinister assassin to the wizened sorcerer
- First-person melee and magic systems bring first person role-playing to a new level of intensity
- The groundbreaking new Radiant AI system gives Oblivion's characters full 24/7 schedules and the ability to make their own choices based on the world around them
- Features over 1,000 non-player characters who come to life like never before -- facial animations, lip-synching, full speech, even unscripted conversations with each other
- The enormous world of Oblivion is open, giving you short challenges and open-ended gameplay -- everything from fighting bandits to mixing potions
