Excellent game but rife with glitches
The water looks great and the trees look good but its not until you find yourself wandering through a seeminly endless forest, the floor covered with dense foliage, that the graphics really start to impress.
Town buildings and indoor enviroments also look great, with shelves covered in random objects and lamps hanging from walls throwing out nice lighitng effects.
All of the character models look good, with all the different races being instantly recognisable with the facial animations being reasonable although the mouthes sometimes fall out of sync with the voice acting.
Weapons look excellent. The detail on some of the blades and blunt weapons is breath taking, silver, daedric and glass being the main examples, but they soon become boring after many, many, many hours of play.
The sound in this game lends alot to bringing life to the huge expanses of Cyrodils forests and marshes, with the chirp of birds and the croak of frogs along with the whistle of the wind through the trees that surround you. Open areas however, such as patches of open grassland, seem completly devoid of life, with no sounds aprat from footsteps and maybe the wind. Towns also lack the sounds that would be expected, with them being practically devoid of sounds apart from random conversations that start up between NPC's.
The clang and clash of swords sound realistic but it seems to be the same SFX over and over.
The gameplay in this game is highly enjoyable and highly addictive. I had never really been interested in RPG games until I caught glimpses of Oblivion screenshots but there and then i decided i had to have this game. The first person view point works exceptionally well and lets you see the world around you in much more detail than the 3rd person perspective, which is also available, but in my opinion seems a last minute addition (why no crosshair?), but hold the right analouge stick in, and you can revolve 360degrees around you character and get a goot look at him/her.
The combat is great, with all methods being enjoyable depending on how you like to play. Magic feels desperatly weak compared to melee weapons but keep at it and soon devestating spells are at your disposal.
That brings me to the level up mechanics. Unlike other games i have played with a level up format, this game does not use XP points. If you want to become better in a certain skill, you use it. For example, if you want to be a master swords man, use the sword in every battle, or if you want to become a powerfull magician, use magic all the time. Its stupidly simple but works amazingly well.
Now we come to Glitches, and this game is basically rife with them. One of the most devestating being the game crashing while going through a long loading sequence which occurs when exiting or entering a town, causing you to restart and go through more loading screens.
Another is actually falling through the enviroment, this happened to me a couple of times but only while in Ayleid ruins, causing me to no longer be able to explore, thus resulting in loading the last save.
Yet another is with the sound. Many times while playing this game, the sound effects just cut out, and several times the voice acting cuts out. Also, in the pre-rendered cutscenes at the start and end of the game, the audio would stop for a second, then return, then stop, then return, then stop, then retrn. Although not devestating it was quite annoying, although the story is not imprtant anyway and greatly forgetable.
Anyway, these glitches, although annoying, do not detract anything from this game because it is basically amazing. With literally over 120 hours of gameplay, this is the longest i have ever played on any game, and it deserves it. There are 4 different guilds and each of these is a different game in their own right, with a story of their own and being a considerable length. Exploration will undoubtedly lend itself to hiking up the game hours but even after youve delved into your 30th-40th-50th cave, fortress or ancient ruin, you still want more.
If your a fan of RPG's, or just want a game that lasts longer than 10-12 hours, i highly recommend picking up Oblivion, and with it now being out for quite some time, you'll be able to get your hand on it for a reasonable price.