Oblivion: Reloaded. Addictive gameplay, stunning graphics. Truly an immersive fantasy role-playing experience.

User Rating: 9.3 | The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles PC
By shade1978x | Review Date:
Shivering Isles is an expansion worthy of the Elder Scrolls 4 title. The same addictive first-person swords and sorcery action is still in play here, but it's the fresh change in environment that makes playing SI such a treat. Once you've installed the expansion and load up Oblivion, your character discovers a strange gateway that's appeared in on an island in the middle of Niben Bay. Upon entering it, you're transported to a small, dark room where a thin, gaunt man invites you to sit down and talk. He explains that he's a servant of his master, the one who rules the realm you've entered: Sheogorath. After accepting the mysterious servant's proposition that you aid Sheogorath in defending his world from destruction, the servant leaves the room, only for its cramped walls to explodes into a storm of butterflies. You're now standing in the middle of the Shivering Isles.

Veteran players of Oblivion will find this alien plane a delight to explore. The denizens of the Isles exist in one of two planes, Mania and Dementia, and all share one trait: madness. Most of the citizens you'll encounter will sprout gibberish, send you on ridiculously random quests that reward you with valuable armor, weapons, spells and other assorted loot. The free roaming game-play style allows you to play at your own pace and this makes the main linear storyline feel less restrictive seeing as that you can complete it at your discretion. The game forces you to make choices that affect the very world of the Shivering Isles and once you've made certain decisions, the world and its people will respond to you accordingly.

The learning curve is very quick and is identical to Oblivion. Typically 30 minutes to an hour, I'd figure, for most gamers. There isn't a sense of grind and no matter how long you play, if you explore long enough, you're bound to find more that previously went undiscovered.

I played Oblivion for easily over a hundred hours and have played Shivering Isles for probably fifty hours and there's still more to do. Simply put, for $30, it's a must-buy for adventure-lovin', RPG gamers. Instead of picking up the latest MMO grindfest, pick up Oblivion and Shivering Isles. You won't be disappointed.

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