The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (X360) - Review
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High: There is so much good to say about this game, lets see if I can fit it all; Great graphics, wonderful gameplay, unlimited amount of customizations to make a character to play in the game. List Goes on
Low: Not allot bad to say, I guess we wish it was longer, but can play though again with another character. The open-endedness of the game is just earth shattering.
As I put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, my journey is complete; the Great Gate has been destroyed and the land of Cyrodiil is once more safe from the invasion from Oblivion. Bethesda Softworks' latest masterpiece is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion; an open-ended role-playing game of truly epic proportions, and quite possibly the game of the year. It is everything we were hoping for and what a great time to release such a wonderful peace of work.
As with any good role-playing title players are greeted at the start of their adventure with a character creation screen, and Oblivion has one that is so advanced you could conceivably pick millions of different creations for your alter ego. Players can pick from ten extremely different races and then play around to their hearts content adjusting the face, hair, eyes, complexion and shape of the face to create the fantasy character of their dreams.
Choose from Nord, Imperial, Breton, Redguard, Wood Elf, High Elf, Dark Elf, Khajiit, Argonian or Orc races – but choose wisely as each has a very different range of statistics and appearance and therefore will play out your adventure a completely different way. Once you have named your would-be hero or heroine and are happy with the appearance of your character you start the game in the Imperial Prison - jail being a favorite spot to start from Bethesda’s adventures. The game starts as the Emperor is shepherded out of Imperial City by his guards through a secret passage from your jail cell, this will be his last journey. As the guards order you to stand back; he stops to look at you and he seems to recognize you. So starts your adventure, you have a way out of your cell – albeit into the sewer system. But it will be here where you start to shape your character and by the time you escape the sewer you will have selected one of twenty-one predefined classes and picked your birth sign and specialization; each affecting your character statistics.
Once you escape you enter into the huge game world that Oblivion offers, you will physically gasp and the beauty and scale of the land that awaits you. It is not long before you learn of the threat to the land – gates from Oblivion have opened up in the land of Cyrodiil – can you help close them and snap them shut? The dying Emperor seems to think so…
As with Morrowind, Bethesda’s last role-playing title, Oblivion is open-ended; meaning you can choose to follow the main story or just have some fun exploring at you own pace. The way to get the best out of Oblivion is a mixture of both, follow the main quest for a while and then set off and join the guilds and perform tasks for the other characters in the game. This will give you access to items, spells, weapons and armour that make tackling the main quest little easier. Joining the Fighters and Mages guild are fairly simple enough, but you might have to use a bit of detective work to find the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood. Joining the guilds will also allow you to get contracts; missions in which you will be awarded with gold, items, rank and fame. All of which will make you life living in Cyrodiil a little easier. Once of the first things players should aim for is to buy a house and then kit it out to their liking. By purchasing a storage area you can then store all you loot away safely, as leaving it lying around is not safe, and like us you might well come back to find your hard-earned items have disappeared.
Each of the cities and main towns in the game has a house to buy, the cheapest being the shack in Imperial city. This is a fairly basic structure, but it is in Imperial City – a good central place to start your journeys. However there is a cheap mansion for sale at the city of Anvil – but surely at that price there must be a catch…
Its impossible for me to predict how your time in Oblivion will play out – my best advice to you is just to enjoy it – try and join as many guilds as you can and also by competing missions for the good people of Cyrodiil you will soon find can be very rewarding. As well as towns and cities Oblivion has numerous caves, dungeons, forts and ruins to explore all brimming with loots and full of many types of monsters and foes guarding it, and then there are the gates to Oblivion. These terrifying portals are spring up all over the game world and once you step in you are instantly transported to one of the planes of Oblivion. Think of hell and you will be in the right place. These reddish landscapes are bathed in lava and are home to Daedra – monsters from your worst nightmares. Your job is to close the gates, and the secret to that lies at the top of the main tower…
All this greatness does come with a small price, the game does have a few glitches and bugs that were not ironed out in development; many will not affect your progress throughout the game, and actuality some can make it a bit easier. However some will affect you and prevent you from completing some key missions. Save often so you can load a previous save to try and avoid some problems. For instance, to join the mages guild in one of the towns – Cheydinhal you have to perform the small task of jumping down a well to look for a magic ring. A dead body with the ring of burden is what you should find, but we did not – no body and no bloody ring. This meant there was no way to join the mages guild; so we were forced to load back a much earlier game save, and behold the body and ring were there. As we said, save often to avoid the odd problem and glitch like this. Another gripe is the third-person perspective – it just feels unfinished and floaty, but apart from riding a horse your probably won’t spend too much time using it. These small bugs are usually only minor annoyances and will not in anyway spoil you enjoyment of this epic title.
The graphics in Oblivion are some of the best you will have ever seen in a computer game; the landscapes are stunning, alive and full of detail – both above and below the ground. As with life, this beauty changes with the seasons, weather and as the sun sets stars and huge planets are visible in the night’s sky. Spell effects and other characters also help to bring this game alive like no other. Needless to say the game looks absolutely stunning on a high definition television. The sound in Oblivion is as epic as ever, from the huge voice talent of the likes of Patrick Stewart, Sean Bean and Terrence Stamp to the epic music the plays and changes throughout the game. All the characters you meet in the game have hour and hours of dialogue to spout to you, all weighted and measured perfectly.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion offers players the chance to live another life in a fantasy world, working for guilds, other characters, collecting ingredients for making potions, learning spells and enchanting items – all can be done as you see fit – it is a world of complete freedom, and a world that you will happily spend a lot of you time in. Simply put – Oblivion is the greatest role-playing title yet seen and one of the most ambitious games you are likely to play for many a year. A true masterpiece.
Reviewed By:EG Admin Reviewed On: Sat, 22 April 2006 20:22:18
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Game Space | Review | Preview | Trailers | Interviews | Cheats
Release Date:
ESRB: Rating Pending
Genre: RPG
Platform: Xbox 360
Multiplayer: N/A
Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Game Studios
ESRB: Rating Pending
Genre: RPG
Platform: Xbox 360
Multiplayer: N/A
Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Game Studios
Score:
Graphics: 100
Audio: 90
Gameplay: 90
Replay: 90
Overall: 95
Graphics: 100
Audio: 90
Gameplay: 90
Replay: 90
Overall: 95
High: There is so much good to say about this game, lets see if I can fit it all; Great graphics, wonderful gameplay, unlimited amount of customizations to make a character to play in the game. List Goes on
Low: Not allot bad to say, I guess we wish it was longer, but can play though again with another character. The open-endedness of the game is just earth shattering.
As I put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, my journey is complete; the Great Gate has been destroyed and the land of Cyrodiil is once more safe from the invasion from Oblivion. Bethesda Softworks' latest masterpiece is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion; an open-ended role-playing game of truly epic proportions, and quite possibly the game of the year. It is everything we were hoping for and what a great time to release such a wonderful peace of work.
As with any good role-playing title players are greeted at the start of their adventure with a character creation screen, and Oblivion has one that is so advanced you could conceivably pick millions of different creations for your alter ego. Players can pick from ten extremely different races and then play around to their hearts content adjusting the face, hair, eyes, complexion and shape of the face to create the fantasy character of their dreams.
Choose from Nord, Imperial, Breton, Redguard, Wood Elf, High Elf, Dark Elf, Khajiit, Argonian or Orc races – but choose wisely as each has a very different range of statistics and appearance and therefore will play out your adventure a completely different way. Once you have named your would-be hero or heroine and are happy with the appearance of your character you start the game in the Imperial Prison - jail being a favorite spot to start from Bethesda’s adventures. The game starts as the Emperor is shepherded out of Imperial City by his guards through a secret passage from your jail cell, this will be his last journey. As the guards order you to stand back; he stops to look at you and he seems to recognize you. So starts your adventure, you have a way out of your cell – albeit into the sewer system. But it will be here where you start to shape your character and by the time you escape the sewer you will have selected one of twenty-one predefined classes and picked your birth sign and specialization; each affecting your character statistics.
Once you escape you enter into the huge game world that Oblivion offers, you will physically gasp and the beauty and scale of the land that awaits you. It is not long before you learn of the threat to the land – gates from Oblivion have opened up in the land of Cyrodiil – can you help close them and snap them shut? The dying Emperor seems to think so…
As with Morrowind, Bethesda’s last role-playing title, Oblivion is open-ended; meaning you can choose to follow the main story or just have some fun exploring at you own pace. The way to get the best out of Oblivion is a mixture of both, follow the main quest for a while and then set off and join the guilds and perform tasks for the other characters in the game. This will give you access to items, spells, weapons and armour that make tackling the main quest little easier. Joining the Fighters and Mages guild are fairly simple enough, but you might have to use a bit of detective work to find the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood. Joining the guilds will also allow you to get contracts; missions in which you will be awarded with gold, items, rank and fame. All of which will make you life living in Cyrodiil a little easier. Once of the first things players should aim for is to buy a house and then kit it out to their liking. By purchasing a storage area you can then store all you loot away safely, as leaving it lying around is not safe, and like us you might well come back to find your hard-earned items have disappeared.
Each of the cities and main towns in the game has a house to buy, the cheapest being the shack in Imperial city. This is a fairly basic structure, but it is in Imperial City – a good central place to start your journeys. However there is a cheap mansion for sale at the city of Anvil – but surely at that price there must be a catch…
Its impossible for me to predict how your time in Oblivion will play out – my best advice to you is just to enjoy it – try and join as many guilds as you can and also by competing missions for the good people of Cyrodiil you will soon find can be very rewarding. As well as towns and cities Oblivion has numerous caves, dungeons, forts and ruins to explore all brimming with loots and full of many types of monsters and foes guarding it, and then there are the gates to Oblivion. These terrifying portals are spring up all over the game world and once you step in you are instantly transported to one of the planes of Oblivion. Think of hell and you will be in the right place. These reddish landscapes are bathed in lava and are home to Daedra – monsters from your worst nightmares. Your job is to close the gates, and the secret to that lies at the top of the main tower…
All this greatness does come with a small price, the game does have a few glitches and bugs that were not ironed out in development; many will not affect your progress throughout the game, and actuality some can make it a bit easier. However some will affect you and prevent you from completing some key missions. Save often so you can load a previous save to try and avoid some problems. For instance, to join the mages guild in one of the towns – Cheydinhal you have to perform the small task of jumping down a well to look for a magic ring. A dead body with the ring of burden is what you should find, but we did not – no body and no bloody ring. This meant there was no way to join the mages guild; so we were forced to load back a much earlier game save, and behold the body and ring were there. As we said, save often to avoid the odd problem and glitch like this. Another gripe is the third-person perspective – it just feels unfinished and floaty, but apart from riding a horse your probably won’t spend too much time using it. These small bugs are usually only minor annoyances and will not in anyway spoil you enjoyment of this epic title.
The graphics in Oblivion are some of the best you will have ever seen in a computer game; the landscapes are stunning, alive and full of detail – both above and below the ground. As with life, this beauty changes with the seasons, weather and as the sun sets stars and huge planets are visible in the night’s sky. Spell effects and other characters also help to bring this game alive like no other. Needless to say the game looks absolutely stunning on a high definition television. The sound in Oblivion is as epic as ever, from the huge voice talent of the likes of Patrick Stewart, Sean Bean and Terrence Stamp to the epic music the plays and changes throughout the game. All the characters you meet in the game have hour and hours of dialogue to spout to you, all weighted and measured perfectly.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion offers players the chance to live another life in a fantasy world, working for guilds, other characters, collecting ingredients for making potions, learning spells and enchanting items – all can be done as you see fit – it is a world of complete freedom, and a world that you will happily spend a lot of you time in. Simply put – Oblivion is the greatest role-playing title yet seen and one of the most ambitious games you are likely to play for many a year. A true masterpiece.
Reviewed By:EG Admin Reviewed On: Sat, 22 April 2006 20:22:18
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