The World of Madness is a really great time to spend some time off the land of Cyrodiil, and will keep you in for hours.
Shivering Isles is just a perfect example what an RPG expansive pack should be, and this little add on is no little at all. Since the makers have been tormenting the players of Cyrodiil for some time, now everyone has a chance to play the game. It's hard to think about what the game can have since all the reacting have to be preformed, and maybe most of us though that the voice acting would be cheesy, but it's not. Many problems have been solved, and the World of madness is not a waste of thirty dollars. Be surprise that this expasive pack should have been the game.
The story is just perfect, and the expansive pack is just so great that sometimes I wish as a reviewer that the story was based on the main quest because the characters, storyline, and conflict was all in it. With Sheograth being the silly old man was just a perfect act, and with his tiresome servent, Haskill, is always tired of his artifices and underage acts. Anyways, the story starts out as you go into the world of Shivering Isles, and as the character, you can make the story into little different parts you want to be. The Greymarch is coming, and you, as the Champion of Cyrodiil are you, and you must stop Jyggalag, or the half part of the madness god Sheograth, and save the realm and its people. It's funny, it's perfect, and its a very good time.
The gameplay is really the same as the original Oblivion. The same hack and slash ordeal with the perfect blend of stealth slash mage. Shivering Isles is the same thing, but adds some new elements into play. Enemies will feature a more realistic fighting sequence before the months, and more armor and weapons have been added. The new part is making the armor by finding ores and matrices. Two types of ores will make light or heavy armor types, Amber (Light) and Madness (Heavy). It's fun, but the real fun is making the matrices to make it enchanted. The acting is also anothe huge improvment, with new personalities filling the screen in SI rather than boring same old Cyrodiil's. The graphics seemed to be more colorful in Shivering Isles area than in Cyrodiils, however it is smaller than the land. If Shivering Isles would have been a lot bigger, I would honestly stay in it forever. The game's graphics is so beautiful, that it will reclarify the views like seen in last year's March. New models look great and so far updated, however the NPC's still look the same since they are still the same races. With only a one city area, the sides of Mania and Dementia are colorful and dead like. Mania is like a colorful paradise, and Dementia is like Deadwood from Fable. It's a good improvement for a game that is one year old for the graphics section.
The sound is maybe the worst part in this section. It's quite disapointing that Soule doesn't compose any new pieces into the game. Since there is no new music, there is no point to listen the same music, so put on the Guide's music. The voice acting is great, and this is why this section of elements is may not be the worst part to suffer. Characters will allow more hilarious lines in, like the autistic argonian that always say ni ni ni... alot. Perfect, but sometimes the music doesn't add up in the storyline. Since there is only two types of music, dungeon and outside music, in the pack, it doesn't sound right like hearing the Halo music during battles and peaceful times.
At the end of the story, the game is sort of short, making it an easy game to get the extra 250 achievement points. It's barely worth the money, and it will make you play for an additional thirty or more hours, but there won't be an everlasting flare for fun. With countless (not less maybe) quest, and a new main quest, Shivering Isles will hold you and and will not let you go until you create your own Gatekeeper and stop the Greymarch.