Finally, we get to play another chapter of the famous Elder Scrolls RPG series! Yes, we all love and remember Morrowind. And before that, Daggerfall. And before Daggerfall, Arena. All great games! So does the fourth Elder Scrolls game deliver… definitely!
The first thing you see when you play The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, is the main menu. You get the usual options: Continue, New, Load, Options, Credits and of course Exit. In the background, there is a looping video of the map of Cyrodiil. Nothing special, but looks good enough. The special thing is the soundtrack that's playing in the menu. It is the TES:IV title theme and it will blow your mind. I can't say the music in-game is anywhere near as awesome as this, but I guess it is enough.
Click the "New" button, and you will start a new game. After a short but satisfying intro, you will have to go through the Character Creation process. This is the fun part! You can choose from various races, some human-like and some more unique (like the Argonian, an awesome lizard-like race or the Khajiit, a cat-like rogue style race). For every race there are, obviously, two sexes - male and female. Once you choose a race, you can choose your eye colour, hairstyle, age and customize the tone and shape of your character's face. You'd think that the races would only be different in appearance, but you've got to remember that this is a Role-Playing Game. Every race gains a specific power (some more useful than the others) and varies in abilities.
Once you are done with creating your character, the gameplay starts. You are in your cell, in the Imperial City Prison. In the cell opposite to yours, there is a Dark Elf. He will taunt you and say stuff about you for a while. The stuff he says will depend on the race of your character, but if you have chosen a male character, he will most probably say something about your wife. Eventually, you will hear a group of guards coming along with a special guest… the Emperor of Tamriel! All of his sons have been assassinated and he knows he will be next. He and his guards go through your cell to use a secret passage to run from the assassins. They take you along!
The next hour of gameplay is the part where you have to get out of the sewers with the guards and the Emperor. During that period of time, you will have to choose a birth sign (which grants you a special power or gives a bonus to your attributes) and a class which will define what your specialization is (Combat, Stealth or Magic) and what your major skills are. There are many classes to choose from but the best choice is creating your own. Eventually you will get out of the sewers but the Emperor and two of the guards get killed by assassins on the way. Before his death, the Emperor gives you the Amulet of Kings, tells you to find his lost heir and "Close shut the jaws of Oblivion!"
Now this all does sound a bit cheesy but it really isn't… it's really because of my poor skills of storytelling. Anyway, so once you are out of those stinking sewers, the REAL game starts. Now you know all of the basics after the tutorial in the sewers and you can now choose… actually, you don't have to choose anything, you just do whatever the hell you wanna do. You can start killing guards, random civilians, brake into people's homes at night, pickpocket nobles, start completing side quests or just follow the main quest and see how the story unveils. Yes, there is lots of freedom in Oblivion.
There is of course a levelling system, like in any other Role-Playing Game. But here, you gain no experience from completing quests. You can develop your skills by practising them, training or using them. By doing so, you progress further to the next level. How this will work for you is absolutely up to you. Some people just complete the main quest and "finish" the game on level 1. But some prefer to explore, train and seek adventure. Those people who work really hard can reach level 10 within one day of gameplay.
There is a HUGE world to explore in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. 10,000 unique NPC's to talk to, over 100 quests to complete, 9 main towns to visit (each with unique architecture and characters), small villages lost in the wilderness, loads of caves and ancient ruins to explore, vast woodlands to travel through, snow-covered peaks to climb, forgotten inns to stop by during your adventures, shrines of the demon-gods to worship and loads more.
Wherever you go, you will find a side quest. If not, then a huge place to explore and many chests to loot. The main quest in Oblivion is fantastic, taking many unexpected turns and taking you through some amazing scenery and great adventures. Most of the side quests tend to be quite interesting and there's so much choice. This game sounds amazing so far, doesn't it? But it does have its flaws so be prepared to read through those in the later part of this review.
Now that we have covered most of the mind-blowing stuff about Oblivion, I have only got two things left to cover: the combat system and I will go in depth with the side quests. Then we will move onto the flaws of Oblivion.
The combat system is innovative. A new way of casting spells is introduced and proves to be a great success in my opinion. Combat will be greatly affected by your character's attributes and skills. Some of them will grant you new attacks or spells. Combat is also affected by the weapons you use, the armour you wear and if your character is mage, rogue or a warrior type. There are loads of weapons in Oblivion, some unique, some not. Same goes for Armour. If you prefer to sneak up on your enemies, then be prepared because if you use torches in dark areas, they will spot you. If you are wearing heavy boots, they will hear you. And obviously, if you walk right in front of them, they will see you. Mages are not as over-powered in this game as in some other well-known RPG's but they still get their fair share of action.
In the gigantic world of Oblivion, you can join factions which will make others like you or dislike you if you join a faction such as the Dark Brotherhood. These guilds will unlock new side quests for you to complete which are linked to helping that specific faction. I really liked this idea and I've also heard that some people who didn't like the main quest got really hooked into those interesting stories. There are MANY more quests to complete which aren't associated with any faction or guild. These will most probably earn you money or specific rewards just like any quest in this game.
Now, I've went through most of the good stuff you need to hear about, lets move on to the bad stuff. This is the part where you will read about all the flaws of this game so get a tissue in case you are going to cry so you don't wet your keyboard.
I'm going to start with the music. The music in TES IV is simply average. Like I said before, the title theme is amazing. But the music that you will hear while exploring the wilderness or visiting the cities is good too… then why is it average you ask? Because there's probably only about 20 soundtracks for the WHOLE GAME. Most of those get very repetitive and you just end up wanting to hear more varied and more atmospheric music from games like Dragon Age Origins or The Witcher. I'd say the best soundtracks for Oblivion are the ones you will hear while exploring the dungeons. They seem to be the least repetitive and they are really atmospheric. But that also depends on one's taste.
Next up is the AI. Most of the time, the AI of NPC's is good, quite intelligent to be honest. But when you've killed a lot of people in a city and you are already wanted by the law, if a single guard walks by, its pretty stupid that he goes up to a body just to say that it is still cold and then goes running around, looting the other bodies for useful objects instead of trying to fight you first. Sure, it was a great idea, this is the first video game with stuff like this but I think it could have been introduced in a much better way.
Now we move on to the bugs and glitches. Yes, there are loads of these. Whether they are graphical hitches or countless crashes when saving a game or at any other time. And yes, you will encounter crashes in this game quite often. Most of those problems are either or already fixed by patches or can be avoided but still they are a "force to be reckoned with".
I understand that the X-Box 360 version has a bit less of those problems, while the PS3 version nearly doesn't suffer from crashes at all, so you could say that the console versions of Oblivion are superior but you have to remember that you can get mods on the PC version only so I'd still recommend this one.
Ah, yes, mods. What are they? They are modifications which can alter the game or add new content. They are created by the players of Oblivion, using The Elder Scrolls Construction Set tool which makes modding possible. Mods can make nearly everything happen but they can also screw up your game if you don't know how to install them properly. Playing around with the toolset and creating your own mods is also quite a lot of fun.
To sum up everything I wrote in this review, I will say only this: Oblivion is a great game, a must-have… BUT, it is not free from bugs and problems. It is like a flawed diamond, you could say. It is beautiful but it has flaws. Eventually, you might end up spending over 300 hours playing Oblivion. If you have the patience and the PC that can run it, get this game - you should enjoy it but I can't guarantee that you will. If you already own it, go back and play it to remind yourself of just how awesome it can be.
Pros:
+ Addictive and innovative Action RPG gameplay
+ Interesting side quests
+ A massive world to explore with lots of things to do
+ Beautiful visuals
Cons:
- A.I. that is sometimes really dumb
- Bugs, glitches and graphical hiccups
- Repetitive soundtracks which get old fast
- Annoying guards
OVERALL RATING – 8.5/10 (Great)
NEW GS RATING – 8/10