Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Review from AJ and AJ - Tuesday, 18 April 2006 @ 12:00am

It is usually good practice to not review a movie until after you have watched the credits roll. No matter how bad the film is, it is integral for an objective reviewer to sit through the entire two hours. Even if the movie is a complete turkey, or was directed by Uwe Boll, no review is complete unless you've seen the entire thing. As a rule of thumb, the same goes for video games.

There are a couple of exceptions to this rule that make reviewing some games difficult. The first exception is games which do not actually have an ending. How long do you play a never ending game like Tetris or Yoshi: Touch and Go before you feel you've got a good handle on the game? Level 2 of Tetris is pretty much the same thing as Level 1 but that isn't to say that you can just play that one level and feel you've got a good grasp of the finer aspects of the game. The second exception to the rule are games which do actually have an end, but that the game is so large or detailed that an effort to experience the whole game is as futile as trying to channel surf past the late, late movie on SBS....it just can't be done.

---

For the average late night gamer, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, is a huge game. I'm not talking about just a couple of weeks of play time either. There is well over 200 hours of gameplay, and that is assuming you?re questing from start to finish. Of course that isn?t to say that you can?t complete the game in shorter time if you have the attention span of a goldfish. If you wanted to just complete the main storyline you could hurtle through the game over a weekend and come out the other end feeling fairly good about it. But bragging to your friends that you completed Oblivion in a weekend is like bragging to the ladies that you?re ?quick? in bed. It?s not really the objective. However, unlike sex and games like Fable, you don?t really need to put a great deal of effort into NOT finishing this game quickly. Oblivion has more than enough quests, stories and extra-curricular pursuits to keep you busy until the next decent 360 game comes out.

Leaving the bedroom analogy behind, Oblivion doesn?t ever leave you feeling like you don?t know what to do next, or have you wondering where to find the next mission. Unlike Morrowind, Oblivion drops you straight into the main storyline, and from there it is up to you whether you choose to follow the main quest to completion, or to diverge into the many other sub-plots that exist in the game. Oblivion has an excellent quest log which acts like a shopping list of things to do. Select the quest you wish to carry out, and it becomes your active waypoint, complete with handy red arrow (if it isn?t in your current region) or green arrow (if you?re in danger of tripping over it). Of course, if you get sick of that task, you can switch to another one at any time. This is great for the pacing of the game, as you can easily jump in and out of the main story arc to participate in the many side quests that can be found throughout the game.

Mostly, finding quests is an easy pursuit. Just join one of the four guilds available (Mages, Fighters, Thieves or the Dark Brotherhood) or strike up a conversation with one of the locals to involve yourself in their intricately woven tales of greed, guilt, suspicion and intrigue. The greatest thing about these quests is that they are rarely fetch and return quests. There is always an interesting story to keep you engaged, and you would be amazed at some of the things that the denizens of Cyrodiil get up to! The most amazing thing about all of the people that you meet is that they are all fully voice acted. According to the ?making of?, about half of the game?s DVD is taken up with voice alone. The larger story arcs can be found via the guilds which provide a great source of inspiration for levelling up and trying to get hold of that next great weapon or spell. Of course, don?t forget that you?re supposed to be saving Tamriel from a fate worse than?.. umm? the last three games.

---

Of great interest to those with ADHD is the addition of fast travel in Cyrodiil. This isn?t a teleport however, as game time still passes; but it saves you a bucket load of your own time when you find yourself in the Imperial City facing a 2 day trek to the west coast. Or, if you?re a traditionalist with a short amount of time, you can always buy yourself a horse (be sure to try a horse-jacking?always good fun). Travelling across Cyrodiil isn?t exactly an unpleasant experience, and not something that I recommend avoiding by any means. There are plenty of landmarks and towns, plenty of hidden locations to find and amazing sights to see which you would miss out on if you rely too heavily on the fast travel system. Of course, like all good things, there is a catch. You can only fast travel to major cities or to places that you have previously visited. So that first trip to see the sun set over the west coast of Cyrodiil will have to be done on foot?sorry about that.

Before you get to enjoy any sunsets or sunrises, however, you will have to spring yourself from prison. In the beginning of the game, you will find yourself in a cell having to do a little inner gazing. At this point you go through the very detailed character creation process. Choose your race, your look, your name and prepare yourself for some spelunking! As you make your way out of the prison and the sewers beneath it, you will be introduced to the various skills available to your character, the classes and the star signs which govern your character. Be very careful here, as it is entirely possible to permanently hobble your character! Whilst theoretically every choice of skill set and class is useful, some are far more useful than others. Certain abilities you can raise through regular use, and others you can?t. Skills like ?illusion? and ?agility? can be raised by casting spells and jumping around a lot. It makes little sense to utilize resources at the character creation stage to develop these skills when prancing around like a acid-tripping fairy casting ?glow? spells will do it more effectively?..even if it does get you some odd looks from the locals.

Towards the end of the character creation levels, you will run into a guard who supposedly has been taken an interest in your activities and will suggest a class for you based on how you handled yourself through the introduction level. If you used your sword a lot, he will suggest a fighter. If you used magic a lot, he suggest a mage. If you danced and sang a lot he will suggest a Bard. I?m not sure how good a job it does, but you are more than free to ignore his advice anyway. Just be sure to save you game before you go to leave the sewer?once you?re out you?re stuck with your choices.

---

Once you get out into the real world, it won?t be too long before you get yourself killed. Inevitably in a game like this you think you can take on the world, even at Level 1. Not much past your first death-by-wolf you will discover how important it is to save regularly. It is pretty hard to judge the skill of your opponent, and unfortunately battling multiple opponents is very much a hit and miss affair? and if you?re into ranged combat; it?ll be mostly miss. A word to the wise: fight out in the open wherever possible. If you find yourself cornered by two skeletons in a cave, you may find yourself joining their ranks quicker than you think. The action is pretty decent for a first person hack and slash, and the hotkey setup works reasonably well but is a little under baked. Of the hundreds of items you could possibly want to assign a hotkey to, you?ll only be able to choose eight. This results in a lot of prioritising and reorganising of your d-pad, which can be frustrating. There is nothing worse than reaching for a fireball and pulling out an ?open easy lock? spell instead!

Although Oblivion features a lot of little annoyances like the hotkey system, they are few and far between. There have been reports of a few major bugs in the game, but this reviewer has yet to come across any. Any issues with the game are generally graphics related. As is often the way, a game that is so beautiful and so big, things that appear ?wrong? appear very wrong. Scenery pop-in is definitely noticeable, and the low quality textures in the distance also detract from the beauty. If you?re fool enough to play the game in third person you will see all sorts of strange animation issues. If you don?t believe me, park your horse off the side of a bridge and watch as the horse calmly hangs on with its back legs at a 45 degree angle. In a lesser game these issues would go unnoticed, but when everything else in the game is so well executed these things stand out like white balls on a black dog. All up Oblivion is very much bug free and is simply stunning to look at and play.

---

It would be remiss of me to not mention the Oblivion gates that are sprinkled throughout the land. When this reviewer first stumbled upon a gate to Oblivion while still at Level 1 and found it teeming with angry, flame throwing, mini demons and the sky turned blood red while everything that was green mysteriously become black, it could be said that the first words were not, ?Wow, isn?t that pretty?, but more along the lines of ?GET ME OUTTA HERE!?. You will crap your daks, turn tail and run. I promise you.

The reason anyone reads these reviews is to know whether a game is worth buying or whether they should at least tell their mates they are retarded for having wasted the ?hard earned? on it. In Australia we felt well and truly ripped that we didn?t get the Xbox 360 in November, but take heart, the Yanks got JACK worth buying at launch. We are very fortunate to be blessed with Ghost Recon AND Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. If you own a 360, you MUST get this game. And if you own a PC, good luck with the bank loan for the new video card! Oblivion has everything that you would expect from a top quality title: Awesome graphics, fantastic sound, huge value for money, superb story and most of all, it is simply fun to play. If, like me, you are concerned that you won?t have time to devote to Oblivion, have no fear, relationships and employment cease to exist once you step through your first gate to Oblivion.

Summary

Forget any fool who tells you the 360 isn?t next gen or that the PC version craps all over the 360 version. Sit them down in front of your HDTV, slap in Oblivion and if after 10 minutes they aren?t completely satisfied, strangle them with your play & charge cable and dispose of their body over the balcony.

Pros

Amazing living cities, hugely detailed landscapes, more game time than Fable and 20 of its sequels, in-depth story that sucks you in from the word go.

Cons

Slows down occasionally in the outdoors, 3rd person view is a joke, hotkey system needs work, charging real money for horse armour?? WTF?