The Elder Scrolls IV: Knights of the Nine

"An expansion not worthy of your time"

Bethesda has not failed me yet in making a great game. I spent countless hours playing Morrowind and its two expansions: Bloodmoon and Tribunal. Tribunal was awesome, giving me the chance to flesh out the story and add on great new features that made everything flow more evenly. Bloodmoon simply gave me fairly interesting quests that ended up being somewhat mediocre in the end. After playing over 150 hours of Morrowind, I didn't think Bethesda could make anything better than Morrowind, but they were able to come out with a game that surpasses Morrowind in game play yet falls behind in story and side quests: Oblivion.

Oblivion is a great game in most regards, and is challenging (unless you can use the invisibility spell, then the game's way too easy). I played through every faction and finished roughly 99% of the quests in the game before putting it down for a few months. I eagerly waited for this expansion once I heard it was coming out, and gladly forked over the $20 to get this expansion. The expansion consists of a few extra side missions that were downloadable for a price through Bethesda's online website. I wasn't entirely certain if these expansions were worth my time or money, but was always interested in how they were when compared to some of the great side quests that were offered in Morrowind. Once I picked up the expansion, I quickly installed it only to find that...

... most of these expansions are merely 10 minute side notes that make the game just a bit more interesting (i.e. armor for your horse). I wasn't expecting such mediocrity out of an expansion that took about eight months to come out with, and was sure that it was a complete waste of money until I got to the Knights of the Nine section of the expansion. Here's where the true meat of this expansion lies.

The Knights of the Nine is arguably the only worthy expansion in the entire set, as it actually gives you as a player a quest that gives you decent new armor and a new faction title (though it isn't as large or as interesting as the Dark Brotherhood or Fighters, Mages, or Thieves Guilds' missions). It took me about 5 hours to complete, and the story was decent overall. You'll be able to obtain some new underlings from these missions as well, and some new areas will appear for you to go through. Also, the final part of the Knights of the Nine expansion looks really nice, and is probably the highlight of the missions; however, this is the ONLY side quest that is worth playing on the entire expansion set, and is fairly weak compared to any factions quests. With that said about the expansions, here's the grouping of the expansions and their overall scores.

Graphics: 10/10
Nice. The game already looks great, and the new models look just as nice and realistic as they ever have. You'll want to pause and take a look at some of the enemies you encounter from time to time.

Sound: 5/10
Nothing new here except new spoken dialogue about the new areas you encounter and discussion from people. The sound effects and music haven't been changed at all, so there's nothing special about the sound.

Story: 3/10
There's just about no story to go with these expansions except for the Knights of the Nine portion. The Knights of the Nine portion's story basically goes like this (no spoilers, just a realistic look at how mediocre it really is): "An ancient evil has reemerged. Old knights that couldn't finish the job are restless. Do you have what it takes to beat this new unstoppable evil? Well, now that you say you do, go and pray at a bunch of scattered altars and look for miscellaneous artifacts that have suddenly appeared now that you're "the One." Hmm... sounds like... typical RPG story. Nothing impressive, and made worse by the fact that the same voice actors are always doing the same roles.

Game Play: 4/10
You're going to get bored with a lot of these side quests. The Knights of the Nine barely makes up with it by giving you cool new fights, but the same old cheap ways can get you through the expansion far too quickly. Bethesda needs to fix the ability to cast invisible on yourself and bypass 95% the enemies who stand in your way to grab the prize.

Overall: 5/10 (not an average)
They should've given this stuff out for half the price, or (preferably) free. There's no reason they shouldn't package this stuff free with new copies of Oblivion and reduce the overall price of the game itself, as these additions merely make the overall game a bit more lengthy and aren't nearly half as fun as many of the original game missions. For a group that made such amazing expansions before, I was a bit disappointed with this mediocre installment to one of my favorite PC games of all time. Just borrow the expansion from a friend to avoid wasting the money on this installment.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/02/07