Customer Reviews

Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion

5 star:		(74)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I mean, honestly. This game is so huge and vast that if someone were to sit down, play it, "beat it," and then go, gee I should review it, it would be time for the next one to come out. Instead, I'll write a review that I will hopefully update as I progress incase my opinion on the game changes. I've logged a few hours into it so far and right off the bat I know I'll like it.

To break it down succinctly before I ramble, if you've played Morrowind and enjoyed it, even a little, you are doing yourself a great disservice by not picking this up right now. If you were disappointed at Morrowind because it was too big that you felt listless and didn't know what to do, pick this game up. If you loved how open and free Morrowind was, pick it up right now. If you've never played Morrowind, well, read on.

Right away, most of the complaints of Morrowind are addressed. After spending a couple hours in the first dungeon/jail escape, you finally see the light of day and let me tell you, from then on, awe and excitement are around every corner. But, unlike Morrowind, in controlled and, if you want them to be, small pieces. Generally, there were two camps of people who played Morrowind: they loved it because it was so open/free that they could do anything they wanted; or, they hated it because they didn't know what to do because it was so open/free.

Oblivion takes the best of Morrowind (the openness) and makes it more accessible. If you want to focus on the main quest, right as soon as you leave the dungeon there's a red flag on your compass and on your map showing where you need to go. In fact, you can click on that town and instantly warp there, should you want to. In Morrowind, it took a bit for the main story to actually appear. In Oblivion you are thrust into the main story right from the beginning. And, if you want, the story can be started right away and has some pretty exciting moments right away.

If you want to, instead, explore the world a bit, well go right ahead. I did the second option, exploring a nearby fort that had catacombs filled with traps, skeletons and a ghost. Tried my hand at pick-pocketing sleeping guards with unfortunate success. Stumbled upon a bandit camp that didn't like me interrupting their probably nefarious deeds.

It's setup so that if you want to, you can very easily pursue the main quest, never get lost and know what you're doing. However, you can also just set out on your own, kingdom be damned and spend the next 100 hours seeing the sights, exploring the 200+ dungeons, and scaling all 17 or so square miles of the land. As an example, one of my friends immediately began the main quest. He's now a good chunk of quests ahead of me in the quests. I took the explorer route and spent the time looking around, finding the ruins and dungeons, joining the guilds etc. Two totally different approaches, both easy to get into and fun to mess around with.

Character creation is similar to Morrowind. There are a ton of races to choose from, about 21 classes (or you can create your own), 21 skill categories and a large handful of astral signs that give you bonuses. For those who've played Morrowind, there's not much difference here. Its all about choice. How do you want to play. Also included is a fantastic character editor where you can change different facets of your character to fit your desire. Really cool.

Choosing your "class" is important in that it will define how you want to play your character. You have 7 major skills that you can assign any of the 21 skills to. Each "kind" of character (melee, stealth, magic) have 7 skills to choose from. Whatever you put in your major skills determines your "class" and how you level, while the remaining 14 become minor skills that can be leveled up (at a slower rate) and don't contribute to your leveling. Races give bonuses to skills and attributes as does the sign you end up choosing.

As you can tell, the game is about openness. Do you want, be what you want. To a lesser extent, Fable tried this with mixed results. But not until this game have I seen so much openness and ability to do practically what you want.

NPCs are on a 24/7 clock. Each one of the 1,000 NPCs in the game have varying levels of needs, desires and goals. They will carry these out without regard to you. Guards will catch NPC criminals, people will go out and hunt. I've seen a guard attack a wolf that was bothering a passerby. It all feels natural and as realistic as any game right now. Mostly. There are some sore spots. The combat AI for any partners you have can be a joke. Sometimes, they will just barrel forward without regard for the other monsters around you. That can lead to very difficult situations as the AI guards round up more than they can handle, die, and then you have a messy situation on your hands.

Other sore spots include guards with ESP. Apparently, if a person wakes up while being killed or isn't killed in one hit, the guard seemingly knows that murder is being committed. And will rush right to where you are. This has caused me a lot of consternation when I'm trying to finish a quest with guards who know not only that I'm a murderer but also exactly where I am. And will continue to chase you forever.

The interface has been retooled. The journal and your inventory is now much much more user-friendly. Quests show up in a log and you can easily select which quest you want as your active quest. Doing so immediately pops up a red marker where you need to go. You won't get lost. I will say its sometimes a little disappointing when an arrow appears over a ruin that the quest says you need to find. Instead of following general directions, I know exactly where to find it. That's a bit disappointing in that it takes away from the exploring portion of it. Minor gripe, though.

The graphics also help promote this world. Terrific, they really make Oblivion come to life. From the trees in the background, to the tall weeds you pass through, everything is animated and created painstakingly beautifully. Its a real world come to life in virtual form. The physics are pretty decent. I've caused skeletons to explode, people flying backwards with a well cast fireball, rolling down hills. Sometimes, the close-ups of people are a little jarring because they don't look so realistic when you get up close and a lot of them look like they have uber-wrinkles or a skin problem. Aliasing is practically non-existent. When you get a horse, the very very very brief pauses in between loading the outworld area becomes a bit more noticeable because it seems to happen a bit more often. Its still not in anyway shape or form to the detriment of the game and is completely understandable given that the world is so huge, but its there and noticeable.

The sound is also terrific. The voice actors are pretty decent, the sound effects awesome and the music really well done. Traveling through a thunderstorm really makes you feel like its raining, lightning and thundering. The clash of steel on steel is exciting, sparks fly.

The game does stutter at times. In the first dungeon, when I brought out a torch, the game paused briefly as it changed the light levels. Not a huge problem by any means. Placing spells on your directional pad hotkey can become a pain as you ready each spell. Though, I love the fact I can wield a sword and a torch/shield AND cast spells at the same time. Love it. I guess there's some framerate issues, but I have barely noticed them at all. There are some pop-ups with the shrubs etc in the distance but really when the game is generating all of this on the fly, I can forgive some very very very minor quibbles.

Overall, if you are a fan of RPGs, I don't know why you wouldn't like this game. Whatever you bring to the table, it will match you. Whether you want to get lost in a virtual world, discover catacombs that really feel like they've never been found before, just go after the main quest, buy and sell houses, try and become a mercantile genius or even become a vampire, everything is up to you. You can do it all, or none of it.

I will say it's hard to be objective with a game that was seemingly crafted just for me. I am usually willing to overlook minor faults etc when the end product is amazing. Such is the case with Oblivion. Everything about it are things I love. I love the openness that is controlled in that I will never get lost. I can't think of many games that give you so much freedom, but in such a way that you won't lose your way. Absolutely terrific, there's nothing here that makes me not recommend it fully-heartedly for RPGers.

NOTE: I hesitate to even bring this up, but the game has been re-rated by the ESRB as of 3 May 2006. For some reason, they have decided the amount of blood in the game is more fitting of a rated "M for Mature (17+)" game. There is talk of a mod that will strip away the female character's top portion of the clothes. Please know that this does not affect the Xbox 360 version of the game. The mod is downloadable for the PC version, but not for the 360.

Well, to begin with this game is simply fantastic. I purchased an Xbox simply for this game. It was well worth it. Now I am a big fan of well made RPG's and the Elderscrolls titles are among the best out there. I'm not the quickest with learning the controls but once I do I find that I can fly through any menu with ease. I had heard many a review that had complained that the Xbox controls were a bit too 'touchy'. Well...yeah they are...but let's be smart shall we?....check the Options menu....oooo...look... a slider that controls vertical and horizontal sensitivity. (The default is well over to the over sensitive side) So...a little sliding down here and the problem is eliminated.
The other common complaint I have heard about this game is that the world levels with you. I can fix that too. Now some may be purists and not want to mess with it. But others (like myself) get a bit tired of wolves kicking my highly armored tush all around Tamriel. In the options menu there is another slider under gameplay. It's a Difficulty slider. Yeah...I admit it...I slid the thing down a few notches...but the difference was well worth it. Now, I face enemies EQUAL to my level...instead of two levels above. When I used to walk outside and face a pair of brown bears...I now find a couple of black bears. Still a good fight but one I can at least have a fair shot at winning. And one would imagine the loot would degrade as a result of my slippery slider....well it did change...it just got a little better.
So, I have found that making these two minor slides in the controls and difficulty settings have made this game a thousand times more enjoyable. And keep in mind that it only takes a little tweaking...you don't have to go all the way down to easy...just nudge it a bit that way and the difference is palpable. And I don't always keep it there...when I find that things are feeling too easy I nudge it back up to give me an extra challenge.
So give it a shot and see if it doesn't make all the difference in the world....Go ahead....I won't tell.

One other note on the AI.
I have a very interesting story about it. I was sneaking about in one of the many ruined forts littered about the land. The one I was currently in had a bandit infestation. I am a stealth player mostly so I snuck around the top tier until I could peer down to a large opening below that had 5 Bad Guys hanging about. Well from my dark and hidden perch far above I decided to see if I could take out a baddie or two before being spotted. I chose my mark..(the guy in robes, gotta get those casters first) and shot. I hit with the first arrow, and before I could get off another shot the injured mage started yelling and running about and began attacking his own men (he attacked the two archer bandits...he must have thought one of them shot him) This of course led to the other bandits joining in the fray until everyone was dead....except oddly enough the mage I began with. I then jumped down from my perch and took him out with my blade. But to watch the whole fight happen from above....that was priceless.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion- Circa 2006

GOOD:
- This game literally has a huge world (and you can explore every inch of it), it rivals that of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (GTA: SA's entire world not just one city). For Example, if you went into the woods in the game and did not use a map you world get just as lost as you would in a real-world forest with no map.
- Hundreds of quests (really big and really small) to perform you can skip any you want or do them all, plus you deicide the outcome weather it be good or bad.
- Interact with NPC's, there are literally hundreds of them and they are all voiced acted and display emotions on there faces.
- A very life like world in which Police chase thieves, wives nag husbands and wolves prowl the woods looking for prey.
- Do just about anything you can think of like steal (anything), save people form gangs, fight in arena's, hunt animals, sail ships, become a vampire (pretty cool) or just hang back and do almost nothing the choice is yours.

BAD:
- This game may be way to hard for most casual gamers.
- The loading in this game is can get annoying, this game will load often and some loads (not all) take a long time. The hard drive cuts down on some loading, but it's still a pain.
- Some of the character animations especially those of your character are a little sloppy (but in 1st person you cannot see your own animations so it's not so much a problem)
- The Hit Detection (or hit boxes) sometimes doesn't work well.
- While the world is huge it's also mostly wooded forest area, which can be a little bland after a while.
- Morality seem to play little in the game in terms of your characters development, you can do evil/good act but will not really be considered evil/good in the same way that you see in Fable or Jade Empire. In the end it's more realistic but a little underwhelming.

IF IT FITS YOUR TASTE:
- A first person Swords and Sorcery RPG (Click in the left thumb stick to toggle third person mode).
- The games theme is very much close to that of the Lord of the Rings books or movie trilogy, by Peter Jackson, other similarities are found in the tabletop RPG Dungeons and Dragons.
- This is a do as you please type of RPG (like Fable or Jade Empire), this not anything like Final Fantasy, you pick [...] and you choose the outcome, that said there is little to no character identity outside of your deeds and don't expect a party of other characters who tag a long like in most other RPG's (like Final Fantasy).

GAME ITS MOST ASSOCATED TOO:
- Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
- Fable: The Lost Chapters
- Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
- Thief III: Deadly Shadow

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- There is downloadable content missions/quests and areas for this game out on PC and Xbox-Live. Examples being horse Armor, Spell Tomes, The Wizard's Tower, The Thieves Den, Vile Lair, The Knights of the Nine, and The Shivering Isles just to name a few.
- The Special Limited Edition (Xbox-360) comes with a bonus disc, which has a lengthy behind the scenes documentary, also on the disc you can view concept art work for the game, plus the limited edition comes with a small book on the history and people of the Elder Scrolls world and you get a real-to-life coin from this games world.
- The world in the game if measured in real-world miles would be about 16 miles not including underground areas like caves, crypts, basements, and bunkers, also most areas in the alternate-dimension of Oblivion are immeasurable due to the fact that they are randomly generated and huge.
- All Elder Scrolls games are first Person (the other Elder Scrolls games besides Elder Scrolls III where on the PC).
- In the game (at the main city) you will see a poster for a gladiator type of fighting arena called Arena, the poster is the same picture found on the box art for Elder Scrolls first game called Elder Scrolls: Arena.
- More lots more information go to this link [...]

I bought Oblivion a few days after I got my Xbox 360 and I was blown away. Im kinda disappointed I bought the game as early as I did because now it shames the graphics and storylines of all the other games I own.

The minute I got into the game, after I finshed making my own unique character, I was already astounded by the graphics, The details of the jail cell you are in when you start the game are very precise. I loved the way the chain swung when you used the left bumper to pick the cuff up. After you meet the Emperor you must navigate a large dungen filled with amazing creatures and features.

After you complete the introduction you are thrown into a world where you can do practically anything you want. If you want to fight, go to the Imperial Arena or venture out into the wilderness. If you want to explore, there are an appreciable number of dungens, mines, caverns and ruins to explore, though after exploring a few their layouts start to repeat.

So far I have put in atleast 150 hours and I have still not fully explored the world of oblivion, nor have I completed every side quest. There are atleast 100 side quests that let you do all kinds of things. From fighting elves in the Imperial Arena, to stealing an Elder Scroll from the heart of the Imperial Tower, this awesome game is bound to amaze both serious gamer and nongamer alike. You really get what you paid for, and this is the best RPG of all time.

If you want an overview of the game, look in one of the other reviews, i'll just highlight the good and bad.

Graphics: Best i've seen so far. You can see the trees in the mountains far in the distance, you've got weather, great landscapes, and everything you'd expect from the game.

Gameplay: Very fun. Although i've heard of a few people on forums having trouble with the game freezing (perhaps PC only?), I've had no problems on 360. Players of morrowind will recognize the system, with improvements for quick switching between weapons and spells.

One key change: As you level up your major skills, you gain levels. So do the enemies, so as you level up, the game always stays hard. This means you can complete the main quest at only level 8, or you can be level 30 and have the same (if not more) difficulty wherever you go. This prevents you from leveling to make the end-game easier or make yourself overpowered above anyone in the game. Good thing about this: It keeps you focused on your quest.

Replayability: Very high. Once you beat the game, you can easily create another character that is entirely different, making the game feel completely new.

Overall: Very fun game, and a must-have for any 360 library. Bethesda did not disappoint.

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is one of those games that comes along once in a lifetime and is so overwhelming that household plants die, relationships are destroyed, pets starve, and you don't care because you're inside an oblivion gate trying to close it, and that's just one tiny aspect of the game.

So far I've had two characters. One was a large, sword-weilding, Imperial and the second one is a thieving Nord. The original character, my Imperial, was my test character, and I spent over ten hours in the game not even touching the main quest. I did thieves guild quests and some side quests, some dungeon and cave exploring, and in general, stole a whole lot of stuff, became a vampire, and had an awesome time. With my Nord character I'm taking on the main quest and am loving every minute of it. The storyline is detailed, interesting, and in general, amazing just like the rest of the game.

You start out in Oblivion as a prisoner with luck on his side. However, when the Emperor is killed, you may change your mind about the whole luck thing, because you have just been tasked with finding his lost heir, an illigitimate son, and closing the gates to Oblivion (a hell-like dimension, ruled over by 16 different lords). You spend about twenty minutes traveling through sewer and catacombes, collecting weapons, learning about skills, and for someone that has played Morrowind, everything is very, very similar. Then, when you get out of the sewer you realize why Oblivion is so different. You exit overlooking a beautiful lake, in the shadow of the Imperial City and it's looming walls. Across the lake their lies the ruins of an old structure, gleaming in the midday sunlight that glints of the water of the lake. Clouds move across the sky, tree leaves shudder in the slight breeze, and you spend ten minutes just standing there and taking it all in, and you haven't even stepped off the sewer exit. So, let me break it down a little for you:

Pros:
Beautiful graphics, it really maxamizes the 360s power and is just amazing, everything is detailed to the smallest knot in a tree and the fletchings on an arrow.
The system of travel in Oblivion allows you to fast travel (immediatly go from point A to point B) or purchase a horse (in the main quest you are given the most inexpensive horse but it gets the job done). Anyone that played Morrowind knows how borring traveling for hours got, and you don't get that in Oblivion.
Characters speak, which means you don't have to read an entire novel to discover the storyline.
The game progresses as you do. Starting out as a level one, the creatures you encounter are not impossibly difficult. But as you level up, so do they, so the game is always challenging, but never overwhelmingly difficult. They do have a difficulty slider, however, just in case you aren't getting enough of a butt-kicking.
The journal system is awesome, arranging your quests in terms of completed, active, and avaliable, and you can switch active quests if you want to do something new.

Pro and Con:
The map markers are a blessing for some, a curse for others. I like them, Morrowind was almost impossibly hard at times because they sent you out into the middle of nowehere saying, look for the rock, and all around you, rocks, but now you know exactly where to go. Some people find this too easy though, take it as you will.

Cons:
Sometimes the game screen graphics have glitches that make them pop and shift unnaturally, it's like little black pops on your screen basically, when something goes wrong.
Also, this game has frozen on me three different times, in 15+ hours of gameplay mind you, but still, with the 360s power, it shouldn't do that. This is the only reason why I'm giving it four stars instead of five.

I have been playing this game for well over 300 hours, with a multitude of characters spanning from the frail but uber-powerful mage, to the dumb-as-a-door-nail warrior, and everything in between. Couple this with Morrowind, and I have logged more than 900 hours in the Elder Scrolls Universe. Oblivion is hands down the better game, graphically, interface wise, and even the combat system. Everything is crisper, and neater. The game is so expansive, that every time I play, I still find new things. You will ind yourself running along, trying to do a quest for some guy, and you will rise a hill, and be stopped by the amazing veiw of the landscape in front of you. You will be sidetracked by the beauty of the things around you. I myslef have, on mopre than one occasion been running along, and find myself just stopped to watch and follow a butterfly, or chase after a deer for the heck of it. It is such an immense world, and there are constantly new things happening around you, that you will never become bored with playing.

I was an avid player of Morrowind, and liked that a lot... but that just doesn't compare to EDS: IV.

First of all, in Morrowind, I had a tendency to get lost a lot and not know where my quest was. The initial storyline was introduced late too. I played about 20 hours before I even reached ''Ghostfence''.

In Oblivion, the quest was hit off right from the start. As soon as I got out of the sewers, I was thrown instantly into the overrun city of Kvatch. And also, thank God, I was no longer losing myself in the amazingly huge denizens of the province of Cyrodiil.

Another point about Morrowind was that the assassins guild was not very well developped. They were not so much stealthy assassinations as they were 'march in and beat em' down' missions. Also, in Morrowind, the whole point of being an assassin was lost, because your executions were all legal. Therefore, even if you screwed up, were not stealthy at all, and killed your target in front of twenty people, it wouldn't matter. The Oblivion approach is much better. The Dark Brotherhood are inndependant contractors that are definitely illegal and a bit fanatic. There was no uniform either, and although that isn't really important, it's kinda cool.

Although there are less weapon options, each option; bow, dagger, sword, hammer, axe, hand-2-hand and your block, they are better developped. Arrows fly, fall, stick, skip and bounce realisticly. Weapons glance off shields and other weapons when the player blocks, and the enemy recoils.

The scenery is breathtaking and I choked from disbelief at the intricacy of the landscape the first time I stepped outside out of the sewer.

In short; I can't wait to play more and I highly recommend it to everyone!

I'm not exagerating when I say that this game is one of the best ever. It's purely amazing! The graphics are the best I've ever seen in a video game, the storline is fantastic, and the quests are unforgetable. If you're a fantasy and rpg nut, you defintily need to buy this game. You'll get at least 100 hours of actual gameplay out of this puppy. It's one of those games that you get more game for your money.

Even if you're not a huge rpg fan, you still have to play this game. It will blow you away!

I have been into games for a long time-started playing on the PC and when my PC got to elderly to play current gen games I decided to get into consoles (it just seemed easier and cheaper then constantly upgrading a pc); I have a PS2, XBOX and now a 360 and a large library of games, all the major releases really EXCEPT, i have never been much interested in RPG's. (I do have Fable, but many of my gaming friends say while that is a very good game, and an RPG, it is not on the order of, say, Everquest or similar titles). After I got my 360 though, I was going through the game reviews on here to find some 360 games I might think of purchasing, and became very interested in this game after reading the (mostly) positive reviews. I purchased the "collector's edition" (which is evidently even more of a collector's edition because I happened to get a copy that was still rated "T" instead of "M)."

Anyway I loaded the disk, turned on my controller, and sat down to play, with an open mind; I figured if i didn't like it, I could always trade it back for a good exchange. Well, was I suprised that, the next time I looked up, SEVEN HOURS had passed by!

The graphics of the world are amazing. For those that don't know yet, you start out in a prison cell, (this is where you create your character, including gender, and main attributes), and are pulled into the main story as some guaruds loyal to the Emperor are trying to smuggle him out of the area to prevent his assasination. This part of the game serves a a tutorial, walking you through moving around, using your inventory, picking things up, and so forth, then a bit later you choose your "class," I guess the term is (I picked knight), till finally you get to an exit, here the game gives you a chance to change your character, then it autosaves and you exit into the world.

At this point, if you followed the tutorial, you have various items and a few well worn weapons to get you started. What is so awesome about this game is you can, even more so than GTA or whatever, do exactly and totall what you want. You can start right on the main quest here, or start out like I did, walk to the nearest town and just start exploring it (I came out of the sewers at night time, so there weren't many people around save for guards). If you want, you can NEVER finish the main quest, or never even start it. You can go about on your own, join guilds, form factions, help people out, be evil, (once you can beat them in combat I guess), kill whoever you want, buy items, buy property, and on and on and on. I can't even list or think of everything. I walked around for at least an hour just looking at stuff, lol. Next I found a shop, and while the shop keepers back was turned I stole everything on the shelves behind him, hee hee.

Just for the tiny bit I have done so far, I can see that this game can indeed provide hundreds and hundreds of hours of game play; in fact, one tip I have heard from some people is, keep that first autosave; go back to it, start all over with a whole new class, etc. This could keep you playing for years!

Right now, I'm still trying to decide whether to be really evil or not. It's easy to be a sneak theif, but from what I've seen, not a killer. Probably it's because I haven't leveled up yet, and everyone I tried to attack (yes I tried to kill the shop keeper and he kicked my *** and called the guard :( ) is five or six levels above me, lol. And it is totally futile, at least at my level of development, to fight with anyone, especially guards. So, hmmm maybe I'll do some quests, and be a shoplifter. Seriously this game is so much fun, it's hard to describe. After getting out of jail for attacking the shop keeper (:P) i spent what turned out to be a few more hours of wandering around. I did encounter a highwayman, decided not to give up my few bits of gold, and fought him, I won,(by pure luck I guess, but was almost dead--thanks to the tutorial though I knew to use my little "heal yourself's wounds" spell). Now, defending yourself, of course, is not a crime, in fact, if there are guards around when you are being attacked they will come over and defend you (and probably kill the threat for you since they all seem to be like level 15 or so). Sweet! If you have a 360, and don't have this game yet, get it. Even if you're not into RPG (I sure wasn't) you will be hooked!

Thanks everyone for all the good advice!