Epic as Oblivion is, the more you play the more of an empty feeling the game creates.
The emperor is dead and evil is entering the world through magical gates. You must secure the heirs place on the thrown and close the gates, of Oblivion. Thats the main quests story, theres all kinds of other quests to do.
There is so much customization and things to do in the game, yet some of things seem incomplete and the problem is, as cool as your hero gets, no one can compliment how cool he/she is. You could have all the houses, but there isn't much to do in them, and you can't invite friends over.
However I must say, the sheer size of the game along with the fantastic visuals gives no excuse to any crappy looking game. This game is stunning, amazing textures and fast loading times, the forests and buildings all look seamless and gorgeous.
As good as the visuals are, animation could use some touching up. Very stiff movements, and when you jump he has this single jump stance that when in 3rd person looks retarded.
Combat is fun, swinging weapons shooting arrows and spells is pretty cool, blood effects and explosive magical effects are great too.
You'll want to fight in 1st person all the time, sometimes when walking around go into 3rd person and I really like that feature. The thing about all your freedom is, they could've thought some things over a little more. When stealing and committing murder, it doesn't matter if you get caught they always know you did it. Heres what I mean, you can sneak into someones house and kill them in their sleep, no guard was there, no one at all saw what you did. But as soon as a guard sees you after the crime, he knows you did it. You always are going to be punished, and it takes pretty much all the fun away with a justice system that good, yet they can't close a gate by themselves.
You are the only person with half a brain, able to close gates. I do like how sometimes guards come in with you to help, adds more realism to the game.
The music is good, very well produced but there is something strange about the voice acting. Its the same voice actor for every person in Cyrodil. They all sound alike, they got one male and one female voice actor to do everyone.
The towns all have a different look in architecture, but generally the same purpose as each other.
Another strange thing is, there are no children. Now they wouldn't be important I understand but what about the aesthetics of the virtual world?
Of course I'm reviewing this game, and I prefer to analyze games when reviewing and not just get all googley over them. I still love walking around slashing things and exploring dungeons which are fun. The only thing is if you do look into the game with a more deep analytical view, you'll notice the aesthetic obscurities. Lots to do and explore, I was able to pick up the game used for 30 bucks, of course theres the game of the year edition out now with the expansion, but I don't think you'll get through all the content in the original. You'd get too bored after a while.
This is one of the finer games ever made from top to bottom the development team has put a lot of effort into the game, I recommend anyone who can play it, get it.