The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

"Quite possibly, one of the best games in the world, Half-Life 2 is looking damn nervous."

The Elder Scrolls IV is an amazing game. You might of played The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and thought that was amazing. Well, the sequel, Oblivion, is even more better. Oblivion sees you going across the land of Cryodiil, living your life. Literally, you can actually buy houses and stuff like that. There are a lot of good things about Oblivion, and not many bad points.

Graphics - 10/10

I know someone that said the graphics on Oblivion were crap. But they aren't. Oblivion has some of the best graphics I have ever seen in any game. And I don't even have all the graphics set up to high, because they're so good, they need a really good PC to run them properly. There are many good effects, the blood decals are good, the water is good, but not as good as Far Cry. Simply because the water in Oblivion is clear tropical water, its all green, and mucky water. And its a pain in the ass swimming under water. Lighting effects are really good as well, just set it to HDR and blind yourself. Almost. Character models are good too, with a lot of detail, and good facial expressions on them when you talk to them. Basically, the graphics are brilliant.

Sound - 9/10

The music is good. It is very good, and fits the games setting very well. There isn't a lot of music, its like Morrowind, you have some random music playing when your wondering around, and then you have fighting music, title music and other music like that. It suits the game very well, and it sounds brilliant. The voice acting is pretty good too, but you will eventually hear the same voices for the characters. The voices even change, so one minute they sound all evil, then they sound like a really nice person. Its strange. The sound effects are good as well, but then again, most sound effects for games now a days are. But some games do have crap ones too.

Gameplay - 10/10

You start inside a cave. You journey through it, this acts as your characters creation, and your tutorial. Once you finally get out, your told where to go to advance the story line, then you bugger off. You can then go to any place you want, do some quests, admire the scenery, be evil, kill some monsters, train up your skills, anything. You will most probably be doing some story line quests, then do some guild quests, and then adventure into the some what 200 or so different dungeons the game has to offer. It really is that big, you never have nothing to do. It's just great. There are some downsides though. And its all because the game was made for XBOX 360, thus the PC version is more or less exactly the same. They should of changed the PC version a little bit. Firstly, the interface is just too big, and is for 360 users. There are also annoying mini games for locking picking, and when your trying to make a person like you by talking to them, you have to play a mini-game for that too. Fortunately, BTMOD will remove this crap interface and replace it with a better one. And then there is the RPG bit. You have some skills, and if you level up these skills (by constantly using them) 10 times (and with other skills, so you can get one skill up 7 levels, then another 3 levels) and you will level up, raising three of your attributes. The only problem is, the enemies get stronger, and this means that if your a thief, and are most probably getting up not so many combat skills, it can be a pain in the ass to beat some enemies. But apart from that, the game play is pretty good.

PROS:
Graphics are brilliant.
Sound is brilliant.
There is so much to do.
Good story line.
Overall, the whole thing is just amazing.

CONS:
There are a lot of XBOX 360 things which ruin the game.
Mini games are crap.
The game punishes you for being a thief, or any other non combat heavy class when you level up.
The official mods are rubbish.
A lot of bugs, even though its very hard to barely have any in a game this big.

Overall - 10/10

I can only hope that a expansion pack will be made, and a sequel is most likely to appear. Oblivion is a great RPG, without a doubt the best RPG on the PC, and XBOX 360. But because of the 360 version, the PC version suffers slightly, which is really shouldn't. The game is massive, which is good though, and this game boasts around 100 or so hours of gameplay, which is more then enough for me. It's a lot better then Morrowind, and if you enjoyed that a lot, then you will love this. Buy this game, now.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/26/06