Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

This review will be written in several parts because I really don’t want to rush through a game of this size that is this much fun and time consuming for the sake of reviewing it.

It’s not too often a game comes along that can work it’s way into my mind and heart the way Oblivion has. I’m sure a lot of gamers know what I’m talking about when I say I have a hard time putting this game down and when I do, I go to sleep and dream about playing it. The next day at work I keep thinking about getting home and playing some more. The world of Cyrodiil in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a living breathing world so deep and fascinating that I can loose myself there for hours and hours at a time and that’s a beautiful thing.

The first hour or so of the game is spent dungeon crawling and you may not realize it at the time but the game is watching you and keeping track of your every move. Don’t get paranoid, the game is only noting how you handle different situations so it can help you through the process of building a character and choosing your race, birth sign and attributes based on your style of play. The process works perfectly because when it came time to make those choices the game suggested exactly what I had decided from the start, that my character would be a Nord, specialize in melee weapons and brute strength and have the Warrior birth sign.

After building my avatar and escaping the dungeon I stepped outside and had an OMFG moment that I will probably never forget. This is the part of the review where I’m supposed to rave about how great the graphics are but after seeing the world of Cyrodiil I honestly don’t know if the words I’ve always used to describe a game will work any more. What I can say is that the people who built this world obviously loved it very much. This isn’t just great graphics, this is art. This is a kind of beauty that doesn’t happen when people make a game, it happens when they take on a labor of love.

Before I get all weepy let me tell you that there is a lot more going on here than beautiful graphics. The gameplay in Oblivion is so addictive and so perfectly balanced that compared to other games I have played in the past it’s in a league of its own. It is a true gamer’s game and at the same time a game for novices. If you play hard core it will throw hard core challenges at you and if you play like a tourist you can sight-see all day and never be forced to face an enemy that you can’t handle because the game will adjust as you play for whatever your skill level is.

Free game saves and a difficulty setting which can be adjusted on the fly (even in the middle of heated combat) are two features in Oblivion that are such no-brainers that you have to wonder why every game doesn’t incorporate them. You can save your progress before you take on a dangerous opponent and if the battle gets out of hand just pause the game and lower the difficulty a little. It’s a tactic most hard cores would never use but the option is there for those who choose it.

So far the only problems I have with Oblivion are a few glitches that range from minor annoyances to major issues and they mostly seem to revolve around one of the ground breaking features of the game. The NPCs all have lives of there own with jobs to go to, homes to live in, bars to drink at and other things to do so if your on a quest and part of that quest is to track down Joe Bloe it might be a little tricky because if Joe Bloe isn’t home and he’s not at “Joe Bloe’s Sword Emporium” then you have a problem because he could be just about anywhere. One quest had me tracking down a guy to retrieve a weapon and return it to its rightful owner. It sounded easy enough but when I returned with the weapon the owner wasn’t home. Not being the type to hang around wasting time waiting for her I went and did another quest. When I returned later she was home but I could not get her to accept the weapon and it had duplicated in my inventory. Now I have two copies of the same weapon in my inventory and I can’t even drop or sell them because they are “quest related” and I have an active quest in my log that I can not close out and I’m convinced it’s all because the bitch wasn’t home when I went the first time to return the weapon.

Also, you use the same action button to initiate conversation that you use to pick up items so, for example, you may be trying to talk to a bartender but accidentally pick up a cup from the bar and since that cup did not belong to you he yells “stop, thief!” and puts the guards on your ass. Now you get thrown in the pokey and all you wanted to do was talk to the guy. The smartest thing you can do is save your game a lot so when it does happen you can load your last save and not loose too much time.

The load screens are frequent and range from mercifully short to s l o w d e a t h, keep the game booklet handy, it will give you something to read. While the glitches and load screens may be annoying they are in no way even close to being deal breakers and so far this is still one of the best games I’ve ever played. Maybe even the best. I’ll know more when I write part II and so will you.

So far I’m giving Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion a 9.9
In0x NYC

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