In this review, I’ll take a look at what is, in my opinion, one of the best games of all time.
Oblivion is a first person action RPG available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. My review is based on the Xbox 360 version, although gameplay is fundamentally the same on all systems.
The fourth game in the Elder Scrolls series is huge, with hundreds of potential gameplay hours, tons of customization, around 200 quests, over 350 locations to explore, and nearly limitless possibilities. This game can be, if you let it, a second life.
The beauty of Oblivion is that it has all this depth, all this content, but the game itself is not complicated or difficult to understand and play.
You start by choosing from a list of 10 races, 13 birth signs, 8 attributes, and 21 abilities, all contributing to your character’s stats and abilities. When you’ve made your way through the Imperial sewers at the start of the game and have chosen all of your stats, you’ll exit through a tunnel into the open world.
It is at this point that you realize how vast and open this land really is. The green hills stretch for great distances, the forest stretches out before you, the mountains pierce the periwinkle sky on the horizon. Nothing in this scenario is a background; all the places you can see are accessible. This complete openness makes exploration somewhat exhilarating.
There are nine main cities you can visit, complete with houses, shops, cathedrals, guild halls, citizens. It is in these cities that most of your quests will be found, through conversations and events you will meet along the way. If you’re not in the mood for quests or conversations, try exploring the countryside. There are more than 300 forts, caves, ruins, castles, dungeons, shrines, all waiting to be explored. Lots of loot to be found here, and also plenty of dangerous encounters, but the game can be saved at any time, so there’s not much to worry about if you save often. When fully looted, these caves, dungeons, etc. will randomly spawn the enemy into loot within a few in-game days, creating limitless possibilities.
The main goal in Oblivion is to level up using your main skills and complete quests and explore as many places as possible. There are so many different things to do in Cyrodil to achieve these goals, things never get old. When you’re tired of looting dungeons or searching, go shopping, maybe try alchemy, forge some enchanted weapons, or create your own magical spells. Own and equip your house, buy a horse, work for guilds, fight in the arena. It’s hard to run out of things to do.
The game also accommodates many different playstyles. The action is largely in first person, you can zoom out to third person mode, but the combat is very difficult from this point of view. You can use war hammers and maces, add some finesse with a sword, or take out enemies from afar with a bow and arrow. If you wish, you can leave the weapons behind and focus solely on magic. Any combination of these four combat types is also possible.
Another notable thing about this game is its beauty. The landscape is beautiful. The bright, lush colors of the forests and fields contrast well with the dark tones of the dungeons and the blacks and reds of Oblivion’s own realm. The buildings and the cobbled streets of the cities are also very aesthetic.
While Oblivion’s setting is beautiful, there’s a pretty significant part of the game’s visual presentation that’s missing. People. The characters in the game are downright ugly. Their faces are misshapen and strangely colored, and their hairstyles are often strange. However, this is something the player will get used to over time and will really find it a source of fun. There’s something irresistibly hilarious about the randomly generated mess that’s the face of a guard demanding you give up and go to jail.
I’ve wasted a lot of words praising this game, but I can’t ignore the minor flaws it has. Being such a large and detailed game, there tends to be glitches in the scenery and physics from time to time. These glitches are mostly harmless, but they do tend to detract from the overall experience that Oblivion tries to deliver.
Something really cool about the game: there is an incredible amount of spoken text in the game, and every word is performed by a voice actor or actress. The only problem is that there are only a few actors/actresses covering the countless residents of Cyrodil. This leads to redundancy, another minor issue, but I think I need to address it.
In short, Oblivion’s pros far outweigh the cons. The beautiful environment, extensive customization, abundance of activities, limitless possibilities, and sheer addictiveness of the game will have you hooked.
If you have a PS3, Xbox 360 or PC, buy this game. If you don’t, buy one of them just for the game!
9.8/10.
