The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Review (PC Version) by Gab
Introduction/General Comments
The Elder Scrolls series have always seen the player controlling a custom-made characterand roaming the lands around, that are called Tamriel. You can choose your profession, from Mining to Enchanting, and Spellmaking to Alchemy. You can take quests from people to earn some Sceptres (the currency used in Tamriel), andyou can even join a faction that hires assassins to kill people for money. The game is created by a company called Bethesda Softworks.
Players were expecting something incredible after the former game created: Morrowind, which was a big hit to the game industry. Oblivion itself won ‘Best RPG Of E3’.
I will list the different versions of Oblivion in progressive sections later on, but the fact that you can modify the PC version, sets it above the Xbox and PS3 versions.
Storyline
You playas a custom made character that has to save the world from the evil daedra. You must find the lost heir to the throne. As you progress through the storyline, you’ll find gates of Oblivion which, when you enter, you find yourself in the world of Oblivion. A daedric lord named Dagon is trying to open these gates to unleash hell on the world of Tamriel.
The storyline itself isn’t too bad considering it’s a free roaming RPG. It’s certainly better than the other games in this series.
6/10
Characters
Oblivion gives you the choice to create your own character; the variety of races gives this game a unique main character every time you replay it. As you progress through the game, you’ll find that there are thousands of NPC’s in buildings, cities and towns. However, only a handful of them contribute to the storyline, therefore, the character development is poor. At the start during the character creation, you can alter most of his/her face. Unfortunately you might get something unexpected:as you fiddle around with the sliders, some of them affect others, so it could take hours to fine-tune it to perfection. In the PC version, you can download mods that add races, hair, armour etc.
7/10
Gameplay
You can run, jump, attack, block, cast spells, and pretty much anything else you would expect to. The combat system isn’t the most advanced, but it works well. Depending on what you have equipped, you can block monsters attacks, hit back with a combination or power attack. Unfortunately, unlike its predecessor, Oblivion offers a smaller variety of weapon types; daggers, swords, bows, axes and a few others. You can even increase your acrobatics and athletics level to jump and run faster, thus improving the gameplay. Certain aspects of the battle system were fun, such as sneaking behind a victim and stabbing them or shooting them in the back. It’s a much-improved system than Morrowind if you prefer action rather than statistical fighting.
Another nifty addition was lockpicking doors manually. Unlike the previous game, you can actually pick the lock yourself. After a while, you’ll find a slight pattern that enables you to open most doors without trouble; they could have made it more taxing in my opinion. You could also pickpocket most NPC’s you see, but this is solely stat based.
Now we move onto the AI and stealth mechanics of the game. Now the AI of NPC’s was poor; if you commit a crime in one city, then quick travel to another, any guard you speak to, will arrest you. According to the manual, light affects the ability of NPC’s and monsters spotting you. However I haven’t noticed anything, whether it's night or day. In one of the quests (someonesets up a house in which he informs that there’s a stash of money in the house, and five people excluding you have to find it. You’re ordered to kill everyone in the house, without them suspecting you) you could dress up in the most conspicuous attire possible: a dark cloak and wielding an 8 ft sword, then kill someone and they wouldn’t suspect you.
The PC version of Oblivion comes with the ‘Construction Kit’ that allows you to modify or create anything in the game. You can download or create different combat systems from unofficial TES websites.
8/10
Controls
The controls for 99% of PC games can be changed to your liking. Oblivion is no different. Like most RPG’s on the PC, it just takes a little while to get used to the buttons.
10/10
Graphics
The graphics for the game were incredible for its time, but nearly three years on, it’s outclassed. However, the water effects, landscape, items and characters look stunning. If there were any faults in this category, I’d say that the nights weren’t dark enough and that the distant land lacked in detail. In the PC version, you must turn all the sliders that affect the graphics, to max: at the time of its release, you needed a rather powerful computer. The minimum requirements are as follows: 512 RAM, 2 GHZ Processor, 128 MB DirectX3D compatible. These components are cheap and won’t allow maximum enjoyment of the game. You’ll need at least a dual core processor, 2 GB of RAM and a 256/512 MB Video Card if you want max settings.
9/10
Sound
The voice acting in this game was fairly mediocre to say the least, but they didn’t have enough actors performing, so you’ll hear the same voice for multiple races: all in all, I’d say there wereten voice actors, if that. The soundtrack was rather repetitive, especially the battle tune. Fortunately you could add your own tracks to the PC version, which broke the monotonous tracks. The sound effects in general were damn good: the sound of the weapons is realistic and cries of the monsters soundedas they should. The sound effects of Magic were a definite improvement over Morrowind: at least when you cast a spell, it sounds like the element used – before, if you used a flame spell, it was like an explosion.
6/10
Landscape/World
In this section I’m comparing it to other RPG’s of this style. The world of Oblivion is as one might expect from an RPG: Forests, Caves, Cities/Towns, Fields and Mountains. However, excluding the graphics, the world is rather bleak and lifeless in terms of the places you could actually visit. It’s like the second installment again -too much repetitiveness. Nearly every are you enter is identical to the rest.In Morrowind, there was a sense of exploration and excitement when you actually find a new location…Oblivion has lost that touch. It feels smaller than the worlds of Fable and Morrowind, possibly because of the newly introduced quick travel.
7/10
Unique/Extra Features
Since I’m writing about the PC version, I’ll go into detail about the Oblivion Construction Kit. This tool allows you to modify the game in any way, shape or form. Quite a number of PC games come with a form of this. If you can write html scripts, you can even change the function of any item and the battle system. I, myself have created items, quests and landscapes using this tool. If you’re lazy and can’t be bothered with it, there are a number of websites, which offer modifiers for the game. Without mods, I don’t think this game would be that great.
You could also turn into a vampire by allowing yourself to be bitten by oneand not curing it. As a vampire you can feed off other people. If you walked out in daylight, you die rather quickly according to how long you haven’t fed for. From then on, the game is quite different – you can only come out at night, you can no longer buy anything from shops, and you’re much stronger. Though it sounds interesting at first, the game will get boring, fast. You can get vampire mods that give quests and improve the lifestyle a vampire has, but nevertheless, it’s not advisable.
10/10 (Mainly due to the Construction Kit)
Replay Value
With the amount of quests and exploration to do, there isn’t much point in starting the game again especially since you can create more quests if you feel the need to. The storyline isn’t worthwhile either. But this is a game you’ll pick up and play again after while, even through all the flaws of the game, the repetitiveness and mediocre storyline, it does have its shine that makes it unique.
8/10.
Overall Score: 8/10
Introduction/General Comments
The Elder Scrolls series have always seen the player controlling a custom-made characterand roaming the lands around, that are called Tamriel. You can choose your profession, from Mining to Enchanting, and Spellmaking to Alchemy. You can take quests from people to earn some Sceptres (the currency used in Tamriel), andyou can even join a faction that hires assassins to kill people for money. The game is created by a company called Bethesda Softworks.
Players were expecting something incredible after the former game created: Morrowind, which was a big hit to the game industry. Oblivion itself won ‘Best RPG Of E3’.
I will list the different versions of Oblivion in progressive sections later on, but the fact that you can modify the PC version, sets it above the Xbox and PS3 versions.
Storyline
You playas a custom made character that has to save the world from the evil daedra. You must find the lost heir to the throne. As you progress through the storyline, you’ll find gates of Oblivion which, when you enter, you find yourself in the world of Oblivion. A daedric lord named Dagon is trying to open these gates to unleash hell on the world of Tamriel.
The storyline itself isn’t too bad considering it’s a free roaming RPG. It’s certainly better than the other games in this series.
6/10
Characters
Oblivion gives you the choice to create your own character; the variety of races gives this game a unique main character every time you replay it. As you progress through the game, you’ll find that there are thousands of NPC’s in buildings, cities and towns. However, only a handful of them contribute to the storyline, therefore, the character development is poor. At the start during the character creation, you can alter most of his/her face. Unfortunately you might get something unexpected:as you fiddle around with the sliders, some of them affect others, so it could take hours to fine-tune it to perfection. In the PC version, you can download mods that add races, hair, armour etc.
7/10
Gameplay
You can run, jump, attack, block, cast spells, and pretty much anything else you would expect to. The combat system isn’t the most advanced, but it works well. Depending on what you have equipped, you can block monsters attacks, hit back with a combination or power attack. Unfortunately, unlike its predecessor, Oblivion offers a smaller variety of weapon types; daggers, swords, bows, axes and a few others. You can even increase your acrobatics and athletics level to jump and run faster, thus improving the gameplay. Certain aspects of the battle system were fun, such as sneaking behind a victim and stabbing them or shooting them in the back. It’s a much-improved system than Morrowind if you prefer action rather than statistical fighting.
Another nifty addition was lockpicking doors manually. Unlike the previous game, you can actually pick the lock yourself. After a while, you’ll find a slight pattern that enables you to open most doors without trouble; they could have made it more taxing in my opinion. You could also pickpocket most NPC’s you see, but this is solely stat based.
Now we move onto the AI and stealth mechanics of the game. Now the AI of NPC’s was poor; if you commit a crime in one city, then quick travel to another, any guard you speak to, will arrest you. According to the manual, light affects the ability of NPC’s and monsters spotting you. However I haven’t noticed anything, whether it's night or day. In one of the quests (someonesets up a house in which he informs that there’s a stash of money in the house, and five people excluding you have to find it. You’re ordered to kill everyone in the house, without them suspecting you) you could dress up in the most conspicuous attire possible: a dark cloak and wielding an 8 ft sword, then kill someone and they wouldn’t suspect you.
The PC version of Oblivion comes with the ‘Construction Kit’ that allows you to modify or create anything in the game. You can download or create different combat systems from unofficial TES websites.
8/10
Controls
The controls for 99% of PC games can be changed to your liking. Oblivion is no different. Like most RPG’s on the PC, it just takes a little while to get used to the buttons.
10/10
Graphics
The graphics for the game were incredible for its time, but nearly three years on, it’s outclassed. However, the water effects, landscape, items and characters look stunning. If there were any faults in this category, I’d say that the nights weren’t dark enough and that the distant land lacked in detail. In the PC version, you must turn all the sliders that affect the graphics, to max: at the time of its release, you needed a rather powerful computer. The minimum requirements are as follows: 512 RAM, 2 GHZ Processor, 128 MB DirectX3D compatible. These components are cheap and won’t allow maximum enjoyment of the game. You’ll need at least a dual core processor, 2 GB of RAM and a 256/512 MB Video Card if you want max settings.
9/10
Sound
The voice acting in this game was fairly mediocre to say the least, but they didn’t have enough actors performing, so you’ll hear the same voice for multiple races: all in all, I’d say there wereten voice actors, if that. The soundtrack was rather repetitive, especially the battle tune. Fortunately you could add your own tracks to the PC version, which broke the monotonous tracks. The sound effects in general were damn good: the sound of the weapons is realistic and cries of the monsters soundedas they should. The sound effects of Magic were a definite improvement over Morrowind: at least when you cast a spell, it sounds like the element used – before, if you used a flame spell, it was like an explosion.
6/10
Landscape/World
In this section I’m comparing it to other RPG’s of this style. The world of Oblivion is as one might expect from an RPG: Forests, Caves, Cities/Towns, Fields and Mountains. However, excluding the graphics, the world is rather bleak and lifeless in terms of the places you could actually visit. It’s like the second installment again -too much repetitiveness. Nearly every are you enter is identical to the rest.In Morrowind, there was a sense of exploration and excitement when you actually find a new location…Oblivion has lost that touch. It feels smaller than the worlds of Fable and Morrowind, possibly because of the newly introduced quick travel.
7/10
Unique/Extra Features
Since I’m writing about the PC version, I’ll go into detail about the Oblivion Construction Kit. This tool allows you to modify the game in any way, shape or form. Quite a number of PC games come with a form of this. If you can write html scripts, you can even change the function of any item and the battle system. I, myself have created items, quests and landscapes using this tool. If you’re lazy and can’t be bothered with it, there are a number of websites, which offer modifiers for the game. Without mods, I don’t think this game would be that great.
You could also turn into a vampire by allowing yourself to be bitten by oneand not curing it. As a vampire you can feed off other people. If you walked out in daylight, you die rather quickly according to how long you haven’t fed for. From then on, the game is quite different – you can only come out at night, you can no longer buy anything from shops, and you’re much stronger. Though it sounds interesting at first, the game will get boring, fast. You can get vampire mods that give quests and improve the lifestyle a vampire has, but nevertheless, it’s not advisable.
10/10 (Mainly due to the Construction Kit)
Replay Value
With the amount of quests and exploration to do, there isn’t much point in starting the game again especially since you can create more quests if you feel the need to. The storyline isn’t worthwhile either. But this is a game you’ll pick up and play again after while, even through all the flaws of the game, the repetitiveness and mediocre storyline, it does have its shine that makes it unique.
8/10.
Overall Score: 8/10