Blowing your mind one quest at a time.
Oblivion is played best from a first person perspective. There is a third person view but it is the most awkward thing in the world. I only use the third person few to show off my slick gear. The control layout for Oblivion feels natural, but the menu selection can take awhile to get used to. There is a variety of swords, axes, maces, and daggers but none of them have a punch when you stick them through some enemies face. This makes swinging any weapon feel just like your swinging a stick. Bows on the other hand have a bit more punch and are very cheap because you can run backwards the same speed you run forwards making kiting people a popular choice for archers. Magic in the game makes sound but looks bland sure the fire blot might look like fire but it doesn't set anything on fire making it feel very unrealistic. If carrying that mighty mace made you feel very powerful because of its great swing Oblivion would have done better on the impact front.
The graphics are amazing for an open world game in 2006. Textures look bland for our HD age but the graphics are not a big letdown. Oblivion is slightly polished in the glitches front, but there still is many. Nothing game breaking but you fall through the games geometry; get stuck in a rock, towns people might just randomly break out in a fight (which is so funny to watch). Faces zoom up really close to people when you talk to them and it almost looks like they have a dead expression always. The glitches are distracting but it doesn't tamper the overall experience.
The Elder Scrolls Oblivion's game play breaks down into five parts, exploration, questing, killing, looting, and messing around. There is a whole world to explore in Oblivion full of tons of NPC that all have unique lines based on where they live or their race. You can explore tombs, underground fortresses full of booby traps, the wild, cities, mines, and ruins. Every city has its own building styles and themes that correspond to the type of people that are living there. The relationship between the atmosphere and the people add to the overall exploration of each place. With all the places you will go a quest is around every turn. The side quests in Oblivion do not add to the main plot but they are meaty and can take awhile to beat. After ever quest you will earn gold to buy things like a Horse, House, new sword, and so on. It takes lots of gold to buy good stuff so quest grinding has a common place here. I Oblivion you will find a boat load of things to swing your sword at whether it be a wolf to an ogre, there is no shortage of monsters in this epic fantasy. Every creature that you cut down will have random loot that you can sell for gold at any town so it new feels like killing is useless. There is lots to do in Oblivion just for fun like jump around a city, score head shoots on unsuspecting civilians with your bow, and take out a whole town.
Oblivion is a true RPG take this as a good thing or leave it at the front door. In Oblivion you start out by choosing a race and picking 7 major skills. Every time you level up 10 of those 7 major skills you gain a level. So leveling is designed around how you play. If you are a mage but you are using a sword you will not level up. This leveling system encourages you to play more to get stronger, it is very addicting.
A let down to the game is that the world feels very lifeless at times. Everybody has the same face and everybody has the same voice actor. I understand that a lot of care went into this game but some face polishing would have sealed the deal for me. You will find yourself sometimes pushing the skip button to pass the dialog so you don't have to stare at blank faces.
The Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion is almost a perfect game. You will find yourself playing it non-stop when you first pick it up. I give Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion 9 out of 10 because it is almost perfect. The things that could have Oblivion 10 out of 10 are less glitches and face polishing. There is a whole lot of game here, be prepared to invest a bunch of gaming hours. All future fantasy open world RPG's should look to the Elder Scrolls for inspiration and how to make a great game.