Title: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Date: 03.30.2006

Genre: RPG

Platform: PC

Developer: Bethesda Softworks

Publisher: 2K Games

Oblivion was easily one of the most anticipated RPGs for this generation of gaming. After all, it takes everything Morrowind was good at and tones it up a notch. It then looked to everything Morrowind was missing and added them. With amazing graphical achievements, in-depth combat, an epic musical score, and a living, breathing world that shouts for exploration, it's no wonder that this fourth installment of the Elder Scrolls series is one of the immersing role-playing experiences in gaming history.

Graphics
The graphics in this game are one of the biggest eye-catchers for the title. With the ability to play the game in HDR, you'll have one of the most visually pleasing games out. Plant life is vibrant and lushly colored. Entire countrysides are filled with grass and flowers that blow in the wind. The tree leaves cast soft shadows that gently sway with the breeze. The icy tundras of mountains glow a bright white under the distant sun. Your weapons look deadly, your spells look menacing, and your armor reacts with the lighting perfectly. If you shoot a fireball through a dimly-lit corridor, you'll see the orange-red of the flames cast a light around the walls and floor as it flies to its target. The draw-distance in this game is also phenomenal. There is no "fog of war" effect that limits how much of the landscape you can see. From the Imperial City, right in the middle of the country, you'll be able to view mountains on the edge of the game's world; from those very mountains you'll be able to see the giant tower of the Imperial City in the distance. The graphics are not without fault, however. The game can be especially jaggy when it comes to some weapons and scenery. Girl characters still don't get armor that makes them look feminine enough; a female character's plate mail looks more or less identical to a male's.

As well, Oblivion suffers from one aspect of Morrowind that hasn't been totally eradicated: character faces. Many of the NPCs in the world have poorly-shaped faces. As a player, you get an in-depth face-creator that lets you custom-suit your as you please. There're dozens and dozens of variables. Instead of giving you something, such as "Chin", and listing possible chins to use, it'll give you several sliders to choose from including how much you want it to jut out, how broad you want it to be, how close from your lips it should be, how far from your neck it should be, etc. Every single feature, from eyebrows to mouth, has many variables to toy with and color tones to choose from. Additionally you get a good dozen or so hair styles to choose from for most races and a RBG slider to choose the color of it. There's an age slider which ranges from old teens/early twenties to middle-aged, and old. As well, there's a Complexion slider to determine if you're tan and lean or pale with baby-fat. Choice is good, of course, but with so much to choose from you'll be hard-pressed to blend the variables together to make a decent-looking character. You can of course; it's just going to be more difficult than choosing a hairstyle, face, and your gender. The game's graphical requirements are quite high, though, so you really need to keep that in mind for the PC version of the game. These short-comings are more just little things, and won't really get in the way of enjoying the game.

Audio
The music in this game fits very well. It has an epic, orchestrated feel to it, and usually conveys the mood as well as possible. Traveling alongside the hills and valleys will give you a pleasant tune, while braving the hellish gates of Oblivion will give a grim, dreadful piece. There's nothing exceptionally memorable except maybe the main theme, but in-game it won't disappoint. The voice-acting is top-notch, with well-known actors in quite a few roles, such as Sean Bean (The actor of Boromir in Fellowship of the Ring), who voices one of the most prominent characters in the game.

Atmosphere
As this is a role-playing game, an atmosphere that can suck you in and hold you gripped can make the difference between loving it and hating it. The world is vibrant and feels like a real countryside. The visuals are extremely aesthetically pleasing and get your mood set perfectly. Green meadows, colorful flowers, and occasional red-leaved tree amongst all the green give off a pleasant mood and perhaps a wanderlust to tour the whole countryside. Murky caves give a dark, damp feel that makes you want to keep your torch out for comfort. The gruesome, Diablo-esque planes of Oblivion are filled with grotesque imagery (instead of treasure-chests, for instance, you'll have hanged bodies and contorted containers that resemble human hearts), a theme of fire and brimstone, and huge Gothic towers that look like they came straight from the pits of Mordor. Each city has its own unique flavor, be it cold icy frontier town, a country's capital, a port city, a sacred temple-fortress, or an isolated, serene town with a stream and flower meadow showcased in the center. Most engulfing of all, however, is the Artificial Intelligence.

The game uses Radiant AI, adding an extra layer of depth to the way NPCs think. Every NPC in the game has a voice; every line they speak will have audio output to it. You'll see them walk around the city and talk to each other with non-scripted conversations (they'll engage in topics ranging from the Nerevarine of Morrowind to discussions of local tradesmen). In any populated area you'll probably have three or four groups of NPCs talking to each other at any given point. They go to their homes at night and lock the doors. They'll have their own routine and a thought process that goes something like "I'm hungry. I should walk to the tavern and get something to eat for a while. After that I'll go to the store. Then I might go home and read my favorite book. What's this? Someone stole my favorite book?" So even when you're not paying attention to them, they'll still be doing their own thing. As you gain fame you'll have people recognize you. If you're sneaking around in someone's store and they spot you, they might leave their counter and follow you to make sure you're not doing something suspicious. A beautiful world filled with interesting people, in a continent 16 square miles large.

Gameplay
Morrowind's sequel brushes up on everything that its predecessor was rusty with. Combat flows a lot better now. You have the ability to manually block attacks with any weapon or shield. You can either do fast, normal attacks, or charge up a powerful attack that drains a large amount of your fatigue, which determines how effective you are in combat. Attacks no longer just go through your enemy; if you visually hit them, then they'll take damage. Unlike Morrowind, you can cast spells with your weapon out, making things much more convenient for mages and spellswords alike. Mana now regenerates naturally, like fatigue. In Morrowind, you had 7 Major Skills to invest in and 7 Minor skills to invest in; everything else was more-or-less useless to you. Now, however, you are given 7 Major skills, and everything else is a minor skill. Some Morrowind skills were merged; instead of short blades and long blades as separate skills, they became fused into one "Blades" skill. The same goes for axes and maces, which are in a "Blunt" weapons category.

Instead of Light, Medium, and Heavy armor there are now only Light and Heavy, with former Medium armors spread between them. Hand-to-Hand combat is more powerful now, draining both Fatigue and Hit Points with attacks. Magic categories aren't much different from the last game and still are split up into several schools. Stealth is vastly improved from Morrowind, to the point that playing a Thief will be an almost entirely unique experience from any other class. You can enter a Sneak Mode, where you move at a slightly decreased pace. Your crosshair is replaced by an eye. When the eye is dim, it means no one has spotted you. When it lights up it means someone can see you. Sneaking has a major purpose in combat, as well. A successful attack in Sneak mode will give you Critical Damage against an enemy.

With a bow you can do 3x your normal damage; with a two-handed weapon you do about 2x your normal damage, and with a single-handed weapon attack or a hand-to-hand strike you get a whopping 6x damage multiplier. Skills now get special abilities when you reach a certain level of proficiency with them. For example, with many weapons you will be able to disarm, knock down, or paralyze your opponent when you become more skilled in that discipline. An expert of archery can zoom in with his bow, and a master of acrobatics can dodge around in combat and jump on water. Two skills get their own minigames: Speechcraft and Security. With Speechcraft, to gain or lose the favor of an NPC you get a small pie-chart with certain gestures to perform (such as telling a joke, boasting, admiring, and taunting). Different people will like/dislike certain gestures, and you have to choose what order to perform each in; a certain scale shows how much effect one gesture may have at one time, but would change after another gesture. In conclusion you need to choose gestures that they don't respond well to when said gesture doesn't affect their disposition towards you much, and choose gestures that please them a lot when said gesture is most effective. Security, on the other hand, is the art of opening locks (Traps function differently from Morrowind, so this skill does not involve disarming snares).

With Security, you get 4 "tumblers" to unlock. Using a lockpick, you must push a tumbler up into its nook and unlock it before the tumbler falls back down and crushes your lockpick. With an easy lock you may only have to disarm one tumbler, but with a hard lock you may need to unlock all four. Your skill in security determines how slow tumblers fall and how many tumblers will reset themselves if you fail to unlock the door. You get a good variety of races you can choose from, such as the humanoid Imperials, Bretons, Nords, and Redguards, the elven Dunmer (Dark Elves), Altmer (Gold Elves), and Bosmer (Wood Elves), the grim Orcs, and the beastlike Argonians and Kahjit. There are some pre-defined classes to choose from (such as Knight, Bard, Sorcerer, Thief, Assassin, Monk, and Spellsword), but you can also make your own custom-tailored class with abilities as you please. There are also Horses in this game which you can ride for increased speed. Horses are the only mounts in the game, and you must get off of them to engage in combat. They come in a variety of colors and speeds, and have their own stats in combat. The game uses the Havoc Physics Engine, which is really top-notch. A fireball can send enemies flying, and the corpse of a monster may begin to slump over and roll down a hill after you kill it.

Plot
Morrowind was notorious for having a laid back plot that didn't seem to care about stirring any emotions in you or giving you any incentive to continue the main storyline. Oblivion's main quest, however, has a much more traditional fantasy-style storyline, intent on making you care about everything that goes on in it. You start off the game as you always start off Elder Scrolls games: In jail. During the tutorial dungeon you'll meet up with Uriel Septim, the Emperor, fleeing for his life. He promptly gets assassinated in said tutorial dungeon, but not before telling you to deliver his royal Amulet of Kings to his illegitimate son, the only living heir to the Empire, and setting you free. After this point, gates to the hellish Oblivion begin opening up, threatening to toss the country into chaos with the introduction of the evil, demonic Daedra foes.

Your role in the game revolves around closing the gates of Oblivion and ensuring the safety of the last Heir. Of course, that information is all given to you very early into the storyline. This one gives you more of a sense of urgency than Morrowind's plot, although really you can feel free to take time with it if you want to. There are also several Factions you can join, each with their own chain of quests and storyline, ranging from the Thieves/Fighters/Mages Guilds to the honorable Blades, to the gladiator Arena, to the Dark Brotherhood Assassins. Of course, the game's also littered with sub-quests, caves, and ruins to explore.

Replay
The game's huge. Really, really huge. There are tons of factions to play, extremely different character classes to try out, and no two runs through the game will be the same. I can see this game lasting a very, very long time.

Overall
Oblivion is a masterpiece of gaming. Beautiful graphics, excellent voice-acting, in-depth gameplay, an intriguing plot, and a living, breathing world place Oblivion a good notch and a half above Morrowind, which was already a notch above most games. You don't just play Oblivion, you live it.

Game Score

9.1

Reviewed By: Contributed