This is one Oblivion gate you probably won’t want to close.
Shivering Isles takes place in another Oblivion realm, this time rules by the Madgod himself, Sheogorath. I’ll start off by saying that I think the graphics engine has been optimized for this game. After the install, the game redetected my settings and was able to boost them up a bit without any noticeable issues. While the graphics stayed the same, the art style is worlds different and simply amazing at times. The creatures that roam this dimension are far from the typical medieval fare and are instead giant insects, wood creatures, various lizards and undead. This is the direction Oblivion should have gone with in the first place the game is simply stunningly alien.
The sound is a lot of the same. The voice acting for the original characters is well acted, the sounds of the new beasts are good and the music is still moving. I have to admit, I did like the dialogue of Sheogorath himself. It was done in such a loud and silly accent that it perfectly fit what a crazy God should sound like.
I would have to place the main storyline higher than Oblivion’s main storyline but not as high as the Dark Brotherhood’s plot mainly because the storyline in Shivering Isles dealt with a lot of fetching. That’s not to say all of the quests were that mundane, some of them were very interesting. I also believe the developers tried to remedy the complaint that there was no reason to explore in Oblivion other than Nirnroots. Shivering Isles has a few quests that have you looking for items for a museum, reagents for this lady’s catalogue, creatures for her beastiary and matrixes for new magical armor types. Being stocked with improvements and additions that add another 20-30 hours to an already long game is very well worth the price of admission. This is one Oblivion gate you probably won’t want to close.