Instant classic
This is my first review for a game, and i think its a worth first start. 4 years i have been waiting for this game, 4 years. And boy was it worth it. Never in my life have i ever played a single player roleplaying game as detailed, as deep and as fun as this.
So when you first start the game, you are in a prison cell, and this is where you hear the first of the great voice acting, Patrick Stuewet. He plays the emperor Uriel Septim. He comes up to you and talks about how he predicts his death, and the future ahead of you. I wont go in to all that detail now, since its a pretty big part and i don't wanna spoil anything. After all the convo, one of the guards that was with Uriel opens up a secret door that was in your cell, surprise, surprise. So your freedom awaits you.
Here is where the game introduces you into all of its game mechanics. Basically the first time you pickup a lock pick, a touch, a bow or a weapon, a little tool tip pops up which tells you how to do it and gives you a little goal to do with what ever item you have just picked up. This is totally optional, so you experienced players of the game who are on their 4th or 5th character can just skip it and breeze on through. This first section of game you will be fighting rats and trolls and undead, which don't really pose much of a challenge but this is intentional of course. The designers don't want to throw you into a really hard zone right away.
Also during this first dungeon crawl is where you will pick star sign and your character class. You can pick from pregenarted character classes with there own preset major and minor skills. Or you can create your class and give him or her 7 major skills of your choice. Basically with this system you can create any kind of character you want. After this, you have come to the end of the dungeon you will come to a gate that leads outside. Upon entering the gate you are giving the option to change any aspect of your chacter. The apearence, the class and your star sign.
This is something i have not really gone into detail with, the character creation process. Basically you can change a bunch of options, from cheeks, to jaw to ears to skin tone. Within each of these categories there are 5 sliders that you can move either left or right to adjust any part of that spcific body part. The character creation is so deep you can spend your first few hours just making your character look exactly how you want him or her to.
After you have finished the dungeon and gone through the gate, you will come outside. Here is where your jaw drops and the graphics really shine through. The view you get is amazing, you will see huge mountains with trees right in front of you, and a ruin right across a gorgeous lake with a dock. Which you can venture into right away. It is here where the game opens up and you are free to roam where ever your feet want to go. North, east, south or west you can go where ever you like with no restrictions blocking your way.
You can do anything from this point on, you can go out and gather herbs and make your own potions, you can go out and find and venture into every single dungeon and cave and ruin. You can go out and speak to locals and learn about everything, go into libras and read books and learn about the history of the world. Join guilds and rise to the top of them. Each one having there own story lines with twists and turns. You can roam around town and steal things from shops and sell them to the theives guild. Buy a horse and just thavel the world, discoving new towns, settlements, landmarks, and if you can believe it, much, much more.
Combat in this game is also one of its strong points, which is a good thing considering the amount of combat that goes on this game. The combat is no long based on die rolls, hit or miss. This time, when you hit an enemy, you hit an enemy. Your stats intervene this tine just to the point where its how much damage you are doing and what moves you are doing on the enemy. Blocking and magic is all combined into one system, so you no longer have to switch between magic and melee like in previous elder scroll games. Blocking is also completely under your control. left trigger being block and right trigger being attack, this is really does put you in the drivers seat of the combat. It is completely under your control.
Sound in oblivion is also really incredible. It is composed by Germoy Soul who is responsible for many musical scores in other roleplaying games. The main theme in this game is particular memorable. When outside in the countryside you can hear birds whistling away, the wind blowing through the trees. The leaves rattling in the breeze. Rain, snow, thunder all sound amazingly realistic. Light rain can feel relaxing, where as heavy rain will make you want to stay indoors. NPCS also have full dialogue, as oppose to text like in previous games. Bethesda Softworks have recorded over 50 hours of dialogue which is a hell of alot.
one thing i haven't really gone into detail about is the NPCS. You have never seen npcs like this before. There are over a thousand npcs and each one has their own schedule and jobs. Though its not just them they follow, if you steal their food they will do what ever it takes to get some food. Be it, grow it or steal it or buy it. NPCS react to every single thing you do in the game. They also have dynamic conversations with one another, whether you are to whitness it or not. It is incredible. Raident A.I (The name of the system this is all used on) really makes Cyrodill come alive.
Graphics in this game are amazing. The draw distance is just absolutely incredible, you can see for miles. Buildings look realisctly textured and character models are incredibly lifelike. There are some pop ups when roaming the world, especially when on horseback. But these things don't distract you from the game. There also some loading issues, but theses only happen for a split second. The only real long loading times are when you first start game or when you enter buildings or cites.
This game could last you weeks, months or even longer. It certainly has done me and still feel like i have barely seen anything. Even though i have completed the main quest. There is still so much for me to see and do.
Now if you excuse me, I'm off to play this amazing game. In short... Buy it. You wont regret it.
