The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Pros:

• Huge and massive open world to explore
• Freedom to play whatever charecter you want and how you want
• Very high replay value
• Countless hours of gameplay
• Beautiful Soundtrack

Cons:

• Charcter Models are outdated and ugly
• Level Scaling enemies become INSANELY difficult at higher levels
• Too many copy-and-paste dungeons that have litte variety
• Dumb AI

The Elder Scrolls series has been around for quite some time now and considering that the developers of the series (Bethesda) have Skyrim coming out just around the corner, I thought it would be good to take one last look at Oblivion before Skyrim comes out in November.

Oblivion is the 4th game in the Elder Scrolls series, and it certainly feels like an Elder Scrolls game. To those of you who have never played an Elder Scrolls game and are wondering what all the hype is about, I will give you the rundown on the series. To start off the Elder Scrolls games are NOT directly related to each other in the series, so you don't have to worry about not having played the older games in the series, the storylines and world are totally different in each installment and none of the charecters appear in any of the others. So with that out of the way you are probably wondering what exactly is an Elder Scrolls game...

The Elder Scrolls games are MASSIVE open world RPG's that take place in various different provinces and lands throughout the Elder Scrolls universe. And while some aspects of the gameplay changes with each installment, the core gameplay remains the same, you start off and create ANY kind of charecter you want and choose whatever playstyle you want. From tough and mean Warriors to powerful wizards, sneaky assassins or a hybrid or anything you want. This is one of the things that attracts people compared to other RPG's out there, the Elder Scrolls let's you play your charecter YOUR way! And let's you create your charecter the way YOU want! If you want to have your warrior charecter use some magic skills that let you summon monsters, guess what you can! If you want your wizard to wear heavy armor and be skilled with an axe, you can. It's all up to you on how you create your charecter and how you want to play it, and this kind of freedom makes it even more fun to play!

The other aspect of the core gameplay of the Elder Scrolls games is it let's you loose in this MASSIVE open world that let's you decide how you explore and interact with it. You can choosse to run around and rob and kill people and sell thier belongings, or you can be a nobel warrior who fights bandits and monsters in caves, or perhaps be an assassin who kills people for money and lives in a hideout, or be a hunter who picks plants in the woods and makes poitions and poisons out of them, or be a powerful mage who summons monsters and can turn invisible, whatever YOU want to do in this world is up to you. However you choose to play and interact with it is what makes it beautiful.

Another unique aspect about the core gameplay of the Elder Scrolls games is how you level up your skills and your charecter. For instance if you want to level up say your marksman skill in Oblivion, you just keep shooting and practicing with your bow. The more you use it the better your charcter get's with it, and after you level up the skill enough you get to level your charecter by resting and choosing what attributes you want to increase, for instance if your charecter levels his Destruction sklll (Offensive Magic like fireballs, Lightning ect.. ) then when your charecter goes to level up you gain more bonuses to your willpower attribute which affects how fast your magic regenerates. Conversely if your to say level up your sword skill, then when you go to level up your charecter you get more bonuses in the Strength attribute. It's this kind of skill leveling that makes the game unique and it sort of feels natural in a way, just like in real life the more you do something the better you get.

Now if your wondering what makes your charecter unique with this sort of level system, well here is the answer. Depending on what skills you choose to specialise in at the beginning of the game, those skills will level up faster and be more efficent with your charecter than the others. For instance if you chose the skill "Heavy Armor" as a major skill for your charecter, then your charecters "Heavy Armor" skill will level up faster and your charcter will be more efficent with it than someone who doesn't take that skill. That other charecter can still level up his "Heavy Armor" skill, but he will have a harder time doing it and he will never be as efficent at that skill as you will be. This makes your charecter feel unique but yet at the same time you have complete control over your charecter, if you want to level up a skill that isn't one of your majors you can choose to. The end result is something that makes this game system very deep and engaging....

And the other fun aspect of the Elder Scrolls is the exploration, it's a HUGE world to explore and there are so many different things to see and discover. If you a deep forest on the hillside and you wonder what's in it, then feel free to take off and see. Who knows what you'll find? Mabey you might find a small and secluded village, or mabey a lost and forgotten cave, or mabey a secret cult. Mabey something else? That's the beauty of it, you are always wondering what's over there? Or over there? Or where does this river go? What's behind that mountain? All these things add countless hours of gameplay and make it very engaging.

Now Oblivion is the 4th installment of the series and it still is one of the best games on the market, even after all this time. Basically you start this game (in the Elder Scrolls Tradition) as a prisoner, it never explains why you are in prision, but that's for you to make up in your own head. It is here you get to choose your race, your clas/major skills, and just get a general feelof the kind of charecter you want to play. And before they let you loose in the world, they let you get another chance to remake your charecter and try out different races and play styles to find one you enjoy.

So what happens next is that the Emporer of Cyrodil (the province where Oblivion takes place) is being chased by assassins, and in order to escape he has to go through an ancient escape route out of the city that goes, by chance (or fate), directly through your prison cell...The emporer decides to let you tag along with him during the escape because he senses you can be of help to stopping the "gates of Oblivon" from opening. But the escape for the emporer is in vain because he get's assassinated despite the efforts to save him, in the Emporers dying words he gives you the "Amulet of Kings" and tells you to go find his lost son who is the hier to the thrown (all of the other Emporer's family members have been assassinated aswell). So after that off you go...

Now this is where the real fun begins, you do NOT have to do the main quest, infact you don't even have to touch it. Your free to wonder around and do whatever you want, explore lost ruins, live in the forest as a hunter, be a murder/assassin/, breake into peoples homes and rob them, or just be an asshole or whatver else you can think of. It's all up to you to decide.

If you do go through the main quest you find out that the assassins who killed the emporer were part of a cult who are tyring to bring forth "Oblivion Gates", basically giant red doors that spew forth monsters and demons and other dangerous enemies that go and destroy towns and villages. And it is up to you to go into these Oblivion gates and close them, or just ignore them and carry on. If you do decide to go into an Oblvion Gate you are greeted by a reddish and demonic deminsion where EVERYTHING is out to kill you, even the plants, seriously. It's basically like going into hell and closing the Gate to it, which if you do you get pretty good loot and some special gems you can enchant your weapons/armor with.

Some of these Oblvion Gates are scripted, others are completely random and can appear in odd places like a giant field out in the middle of nowhere with no towns or villages in site. Again you arn't forced to go into any of them if you don't want to. Infact you can play the whole game without ever seein one Oblivion Gate if you don't want to touch the main quest. Which is very easy to do with all the insane amount of side quests and various clans/guilds you can join. There are hundreds of side quests that the AI can give you, and there is a wide variety of different guilds that cater to different specialties that give you unique gameplay types. For instance if you murder an civilian in the game you get contacted by the sinister "Black Hand", a deadly group of assassins that most people only think are a rumore and a myth. They give you stealth based missions that range from killing everyone at a party, to dropping a moose head to make it look like an accident so their son can inherit the families fortune, to sneaking and breaking INTO a heavily guarded prison to assassinate a prisioner, plus MORE! And that's only the tip of ice berg, there is a guild for fighters who act as mercnaries and fight in various battles, a mages guild that is concerned about illegal Necromancy corrupting it's guild, an Arena where you can either bet on fights or join them yourself and kill the oppostion.....and these are only a few of the guilds, there are ALOT more!

On top of all this the game has a beautiful orchestral soundtrack. It's very well done and you can tell that Jeremy Soule (the composer) really worked hard on this and it makes the gameplay even better. It's really cool to be wandering the forest in the late evening and coming across a lake as a beautiful orchestra plays in the background, it's amazing!

Of course no game is perfect and Oblvion certainly has it's faults like any other. For one thing the charecter models are really out dated and it shows, now I know that looks are subjective and down to personal taste, but come on! These charecter models look rediculous, like good luck trying to give your charecter any facial hair of any kind. All you can do is either make part of your face slighlty darker than the other parts in order to make it "look like" facial hair, it doesn't work and just ends up looking silly....

Another issue that I personally have (although some people like this system) is the level scaling system. Basically everytime you level up and get stronger, so does the AI. Not just the enemy AI either but even the peasants and beggers aswell, now some people think this is good because it always means the game is a challenge. I however think it's annoying and sort of means that your charecter doesn't ever really "get stronger" in a way. Yes you do gain more skill perks and new armor and weapons ect...But I don't think a normal town guard should be able to take 50 arrows to the chest before he dies, that's just rediculous. And at later levels the guards become like super god-like men that can run faster than a bolt of lighting! I find it to be annoying after awhile and I would prefer if the developers just had different regions that had stronger enemies and some that had weaker ones, that way you can avoid the harder regions at lower levels, but go to the harder ones at higher ones if you want a challenge and better loot ect... There is a difficulty slider that let's you adjust the difficulty from super easy to super hard, so you do have some control over it. But I still think the level scaling is annoying and I am glad they are getting rid of it in Skyrim....

There is also a problem with the dungeon variety in Obivion, especialy compared to how many types of different dungeons that were in the last installment of the Elder Scrolls "Morrwind". There are basically only about 4 or 5 different dungeon types (if you count the Oblvion Gates as being dungeons, I do), and unfortunately these don't have much of a unique look to them. Sure they have different layouts and different enemies ect...but the overall look of them is the same, if you've been in one dungeon fort you have essentially been in all of them. There are other types of dungeons like Ancient Ruins, Hidden Caves ect... but again the lack of variety is the same between all types. The dungeons though do provide plenty of good challenge with the different enemy types and different loot ect... and some have traps and puzzels and some boss enemies. So while they are fun to explore and are challenging, the lack of different dungeon types and unique feel that the previous installment of the series "Morrowind" had is a little dissapointing.

Also the AI is pretty dumb aswell, and sometimes they seem psychic at times. But they do provide a good challenge in fights and each enemy fights differently, for instance warriors will charge you and bash you with thier shield, while archers and mages will run away if you get too close ect... Some enemies will use posions to attack, some will turn invisble on you, and some will summon demons to aid them and they even heal themselves too plus more! Even the many different creature types fight differently aswell and each one has a different strategy to learn that works best on defeating them.

Final Verdict:

Overall though these are minor complaints and the positives FAR outwiegh the few small flaws in this game. Oblivion gives you SO much content and value for your money that I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of RPG's or Open World games. And Oblivion is easily still one the best games that thas ever come out, and the experience is amazing! It will give you endless hours of enjoyment and I highly recommend it!

The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion get's a 5/5!