The Shivering Isles provides great new content that will make your Oblivion experience be even longer and more enjoyable
In Shivering Isles, you will take your character through the land of the paranoid, demented and insane, otherwise known as the Shivering Isles. You will soon discover that the Isles are in need of your aid and you will have to work for the king of the land himself, Sheogorath. This new character is actually quite funny and actually, pretty much all the dialogue is very well written and pretty funny. The gameplay is pretty much the same as the core game of Oblivion. The new land of the Shivering Isles is pretty big and offers a few new dungeons as well as a few new, unique quests and cool fighting sequences.
The dungeons themselves are pretty well done and are pretty big compared to the ones you see in the core game and there are some cool scripted events, which aren't usually seen in the core game either.
The quests are pretty cool and will actually be a lot longer, and more multi-tiered than in the core game. For example, the second mission tasks you with entering a huge dungeon which you must explore and hunt down 3 seperate baddies in, then go to various execution chambers and decide how to deal with pesky adventurers trying to steal an artifact hidden deep inside the dungeon. This sort of thing is very cool and it's a welcome addition.
Finally, the combat is pretty good, but it has some flaws. Unlike the core game, a lot of fights will be against multiple enemies at one time. This can either be pretty fun or a bit too challenging and once you throw in allies that you can accidentally kill, it can become frustrating.
My biggest problem with the gameplay is that there aren't any really good side quests, like guilds or arenas, instead you just run favors for people and these side-quests are just not as detailed as the ones you'd find in the core game.
But all in all, the expansion is very well done and will be enjoyable for any fans of the core game.
The graphics are the same old same old technologically, but what makes them even better than the core game is the artistic style introduced exclusively in the Shivering Isles. The world is much more stylized and they'll accurately match the land's two sections, Mania and Dementia. Dementia will be dark and there will be lots of contorted plants and buildings, while Mania will be brighter and cheerier. Both places are definately a welcome departure from the normal Lord of The Rings-esque fantasy enviornments. But the problems with the load times and the technical quality of the characters models are still unimproved.
The sound is as well done as ever too. The music is still good, but they coud've put in some new tracks that would be more fitting of the enviornment. But, the new voice overs are great and the sound effects are still good too.
Shivering Isles will be a pretty long game, maybe 15-20 hours and there will be quite a few side quests, and new dungeons worth exploring, as well as the expansive new land in general. But, it's still nothing compared to the expansiveness of the core game, and the fact that there are no guilds is pretty disappointing.
The new campaign, enviornments and voice overs are done extremely well, and the improvement in artistic style was a great (and much needed) change. But, the side quests are pretty disappointing and there not being a guild type quest chain is disappointing as well and there aren't any new musical tracks. But still, if you're a fan of the game, Shivering Isles is a must-buy.