Its not often that Im swept up in the hype of a game based on the fact that it’s the “cool thing to do”. I must admit though that Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion hooked me through sheer hype. A few screenshots with shiny armor and good graphics, a few good reviews and endless message board posts about how great it is and I caved. And let me say how glad I am that I did cave because this game has single handedly restored my like for single player RPG’s. On to the early review!
Anyone familiar with any of the other Elder Scrolls games knows the set up. The game is set in the magical mystical realm of Tamrael that is pretty much just like Middle Earth, Azeroth, Norrath or any other host of fantasy worlds. The big difference here, which you see immediately, is that this game, looks much better then just about anything that has come before it. From the first character you see (which happens to be a guard decked out in some sweet looking armor) to the first time you step out into the wide open world the graphics are just pure eye candy. I have a decent, middle of the road computer; nothing too fancy and I run the game at 1024x768 at medium graphic settings at 30 FPS rock solid. I don’t know what the developers did but they have some of the most consistent frame rates I have ever seen. In town with very little stuff going on: 30 FPS; outside in the heat of battle: 30 FPS. Very nice if you ask me. You can tell that this graphics engine uses all the typical tricks of modern videos: bump mapping, normal mapping, high-resolution textures, facial mapping etc. Some objects in the game look so good you stop and stare at them just to marvel at how great they look. The armor of some of the knights you pass on the roads are a good example of this. The metal of the armor looks so real you can almost feel the dents and dings pounded into it from combat. The other thing which really jumps out at you is the terrain. When a game has well designed terrain, I often stop just to stare. This is a game where you have the feeling that around every corner you will find a view like this. The best one Ive found so far is while I was traveling on a quest. I was riding my horse up a narrow winding path through the woods. As I climbed higher off to the right in the far distance I could see Imperial City (the capital city in the game) with its high walls massive towers. It was made all the more impressive in that as the path twisted around I would catch glimpses of it through the trees before losing it in dense foliage. The effect has to be seen to be believed.
Like most modern RPG’s you get to make a completely customizable character including picking your race, designing your look and picking your skills/class. The game has 10 “races” available to select. I say “races” because four of the 10 are variations of humans (Nords, Bretons, Redguards and Imperials) and three other “races” are variations of Elves (Dark, High, and Wood). That means there are actually only 5 truly unique looking races even though the 4 human and 3 elf races look slightly different and have different stats and skills. The other races include orc, lizard people and cat people. No dwarves or gnomes which I found somewhat disappointing though that might just be because I played WoW so much. The character customization is probably one of the most in-depth systems I have ever seen. Your avatars face can be designed exactly how you want it. You can adjust the size, position, shape, color, features and angle of the entire face. I loved the amount of customization options for the face although I must admit with all the customizing you can do I still found most of the characters I created still look they have huge noses. Still if you cant make a character that looks just like you want then you’re not trying hard enough. After you pick your race, design your face and pick your name you are thrust into the tutorial that introduces the story line. I started a Wood Elf who I planned on making a stealth-based archer who I envisioned sneaking around and picking off bad guys sniper style. In the tutorial you get to try out different modes of playing. You get a bow to shoot stuff, a sword to bash stuff; you are set into encounters that encourage you to sneak around stuff or cast spells to blow things up. At the end of the tutorial the game recommends a pre-made “class” based on how you played the tutorial. However the “class” is just a pre-made collection of skills and attributes and you can completely make up your own if you wish. I custom made the Stealth-Bow class although it’s the same as the assassin class I think. When you create a custom class you pick 7 major skills (I picked: Marksmanship, Sneaking, Light Armor, Acrobatics, Security, Blades, and Athletics) and then you pick two major attributes (I picked: Agility and Speed). In addition you pick a birth sign that grants you bonuses or special skills (and sometimes weakness’ too though). I picked the sign of the thief that lets me turn invisible for 60 seconds once per game day. By this time you are finished with the tutorial and are let out into the game world.
Once out in the game world there is a main story line quest you can follow. However the game actively encourages you to get out and explore the world around you. Scattered around the map are things to fight, tons of quests to pick up, things to see, and people to interact with. One complaint I have in exploring the game is the pace of traveling. The game features instant travel which allows you to instantly warp to any city on the map which is great if you want to hop around to finish quests. For those of us who like to explore and hoof it the game is somewhat slow. You can walk, run, or ride a horse, which can walk or run. The default walk speed is SO SLOW I don’t see any use for it at all for traveling. The run speed gets you around cities and towns and to outlying areas fairly quick but running from town to town on foot can take a long time. Once you get a horse the travel on foot time is reduced while running but the horse is so painfully slow when walking I cant figure out why they even put an option to walk in the game. The main storyline is very interesting and well designed. The game branches at various points off the main quest line so you can do other various large side quests. Then of course there are dozens of smaller side quests, which range from very fun to filler material. Perhaps one of the things I like best is the real time factor. The game runs on a game schedule that all characters in game follow. Go into a village during the day and all the farmers are out working. Go to the same village at night and those same people are in their houses sleeping. During the day they have quests to give; at night you can break into their houses and rob them (and/or kill them) if you so choose. Of course at night bandits, vampires and thieves come out so you run into an interesting mix of characters along the way if your out after midnight.
As far as the basic game play goes it is set up like just about any typical first person shooter. The default view is set from a first person perspective complete with targeting reticule. The action plays much like an FPS but you your shooting spells and arrows or swinging swords and axes instead of blasting with rocket launchers. As an archer the game plays very much like an FPS. You pull back arrows and let them loose on enemies with the bad guy looking like a pin cushion when your done with them. If you use the sneak ability successfully when you fire an arrow you get a 3x damage bonus which makes it fun to one shot some of the things you come across. When enemies get to close you can quickly switch to a sword and shield (or 2 handed weapon, no dual wielding sadly) and fight toe to toe. If using a shield you get the ability to block using the right mouse button making the combat very “twitchy”. Other then spamming one healing spell I have not messed around too much with the magic system although it seems very extensive. Every character in game can use every skill but your skill determines how well. Skills improve as you use them and major skills level much faster then minor skills. Major skills determine what level you are, every 10 skill points earned level you up. Shoot your bow a whole bunch and your marksmanship goes through the roof, sneak around and sneaking goes up. Each skill is ranked as Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert and Master and as you gain each new rank you gain new abilities for that skill. For example a Novice marksman loses fatigue while drawing his bow, an Apprentice doesn’t lose fatigue and a Journeyman gets a zoom ability for those sniper style shots.
Overall Oblivion is an amazing game so far. Graphically I think it may be the best game Ive seen so far on my PC. Its simply amazing and its making me want to buy a better graphics card. Gameplay wise its very fun and gives you lots of things to do. Ive heard the main quest is about 20 hours long. If its 20 hours using instant travel I would imagine it would take you 30+ hours to finish by going on foot everywhere. If its 20 hours on foot then I would guess the game can be finished in closer to 10 hours. In addition the extra side content potentially could take hundreds of hours to finish (Buy a house, running a shop, all the side quests, exploring). I don’t think Ill be putting Oblivion down for a long time.
