Oblivion does much to entertain and wow the senses. But is it RPG of the year material? Let's find out...
Gameplay: The gamespolay was top notch for me. I never felt bored and the action flowed nicel as the story progressed. I especially enjoyed killing the enemy agent in the wine cellar after my fellow Blade lured him down. The control setup and interface are all very intuitive and it doesn't take much to get into the game and just go. The opening "quest" if you will is a great opener; far better than that of Morrowind; and does a solid job of training you for the rest of the game. Everything from sword swinging to spell slinging is easy anf fun. The enhanced mode of combat where you can control the direction of you blade is excellent and made for some awesome brawls. The quest system is well executed and far more easily managed than Morrowind. All in all I give it a 9 simply due to that while amazing there are times where I wondered about the logic of some things. For example I tried killing all the thieves guild reps at the secret meeting in Imperial City with no one but them around. Yet every guard in the city seemed to know, even though no one had witnessed it. It was somewhat of a jarring letdown. Also the NPCs should be set as to not freak out and yell "THIEF!" when you pick up an object; just manipulate it, not add it to your inventory. The physics engine was made for this, why not use it. So despite this, gamneplay is still great. 9/10
Graphics: Amazing and dissapointing. The environment; the cities, forestsd, villages, mountains, all of it are spectacular. To a certain distance, while I realize that it's neccessarry in order to allow the game to function even when set to the max the grass and other amazing looking objects in the world cease, it's strange to see the grass go on and on only to just stop and become a bland textured piece of ground. Still that said, the world is an incredible place to explore. You can spend hours just going everywhere and there are a huge number of places to go. And while the interiors of most structures are similar they have worked very hard to vary them a bit and give them their own feel, I never felt bored or like I'd "been there done that" as far as the environs are concerned. I'll be honest I was on the fence as far as the graphics were concerened until I was up in the northern mountains when suddenly at small turn in the road I could look out over the empire and see everything, including the Imperial City right in the middle of Cryodil. It was awe inspiring and kicked me off the fence. The graphics are wow... simply wow. 9/10
Sound: Perfect, everything fromt he excelent voice acting to the epic score to the little sounds of crickets are all perfect. Never did anything sound off. Witht the exception of horse hooves on stone... sounded the same as if they were on grass... oh well. But that being the only thing I noticed is a credit to the sound of this game. I can't stop humming the main theme to Oblivion, the music is superb. There was only one other problem aside from the hooves and that was surround sound, or lack thereof. As many of us probably have surround sound capable cards why this was not supported baffles me a bit. Unless it's becuase the 360 version (which is identical) dragged it down a bit in terms of technical standards. Regardless the sound is excellent. 10/10
Value: This was a bit of a mixed bag for me. On the one hand the game feels like it's worth every penny, but the lack of any sort of multiplayer kinda bothers me. On the one hand though it is an excellent value you definetely get you r moneys worth in terms of single player content, those who are MMO die hards on the other hand might feel a little left out. Still it sets new standards in terms of AI and environment and that to me gives it a great value; it is definetely worth the money spent. 9/10
Tilt: I will go back to Tamriel over and over. That's all that needs to be said, there is so much to do and see and while I've traveled a grerat deal I know I've only dented the surface. This is truly the immersive world we wanted; and I know many of us will keep going back for more and more. 10/10
There you have it. My review, take it with a grain of salt becuase in the end it only matters if you like it. This is truly what all RPGs should be, huge, immersive and absolutly amazing. The lack of some sort of Co-Op is dissapointing, but they were open from the start about how this was a single player only title and I have to credit them for that. I am also glad the folks at Bethesda didn't change their minds about it and try to tack on some afterthought of a multiplayer feature. They did release the construction set and just like the Multi-Theft Auto mod I wouldn't be suprised if someone does the same for this. Becuase this is truly a game I would get lost in and if I had to pay a fee to do it; it would be worth every cent. See you in Tamriel.