"A world, yours to explore..."
“A world, yours to explore…”
The world of Oblivion is amazing. It is one of the biggest games I have ever played. 8 major cities each with its unique architecture makes Oblivion rich in stories and culture. There are so many adventures in this game you will not be putting this one down anytime soon.
The story is not one of Oblivion’s shining points. It starts off strong but after a while it becomes more of a chore until the ending. The ending is great even though you don’t do much fighting on the last level. What makes Oblivion shine is the sheer quantity of side quests there are. Instead of going and closing the Oblivion gates, I went and joined guilds, helped fishermen, and went troll-hunting in caves. You will not complete the main quest in a month, not due to the length of it, but due to the distractions along the way.
The only irritation that made me want to finish the main quest was the Oblivion gates. You’re riding on a path, moving off to a distant city, not wanting any distractions on the way until the sky turns red, and you hear the music for an enemy is near by. Then you see the Oblivion gate, it is very freaky indeed. It reminds me of Sauron’s eye from the Lord of the Rings. There are so many Oblivion gates scattered it becomes an irritant.
The voice acting shines yet it doesn’t. First of all, some of the best voice acting I have ever seen takes place on the main quest story line. But other than that you’ll find that most species sound the same. This becomes annoying listening to the same voice again, and again…
The game play is quite simple, basically hack-n-slash. You get a sword and press the right trigger until your opponent falls. When you level up it does get a little more complicated, such as you hold the trigger for a power blow. Yet it doesn’t get more complicated than that. This is a disappointment in my opinion, but nothing to take away from the game.
Graphically, it will be one of the most astonishing games you shall ever see. Landscapes that seem to come from a professional artist’s mind as far as your eye can see. Every city has beautiful architecture that invites you to explore, and yet there are downfalls. The faces of characters look quite ridiculous, and once you explore one cave, you’ve explored them all.
One of the main attractions is making your own character, which is fun to some extent. Yet you shall never make a pretty character, all of them will look butt ugly… and I’m not joking. The whole “Birth-star” and class is fun, you can specialize your character and even make your own class, so no two replays will be the same.
Then there is downloadable content, which deserve reviews of their own. The Knights of the Nine expansion has an awesome storyline, much better than the main quest in my opinion, and the armor you get is probably the coolest in all the land. Charging into battle looking like a crusader is pretty tight. Then there are the Shivering Isles, which is a huge expansion, with new armors, cities, and monsters. Plus the environment is much different than the original Oblivion which is a breath of new air.
Oblivion is a game worth $60, it lasted me about 6 months. Even though its from 2006, the graphics are better than some games out there today plus the downloadable content makes the possibilities endless.
"Mind you, I wrote this way back so there may be some indifferences."
-Death Unicorn
Bibliography for Pictures
-http://www.cnet.com.au/i/r/2006/Games/PS2/22057401/sc001.jpg
http://actualgameplay.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/the-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion-3.jpg