The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

"Enjoy a massive, entertaining world with Oblivion!"

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is, first of all, a truly massive RPG, giving you a vast world filled with quests and letting you choose what to do at any given time. Here's what you can expect from Oblivion:

Story: 9/10

Your individual back story is almost non-existent: you are a prisoner in the Imperial city, imprisoned for an unknown crime. Not only is that vague, but you'll never learn of your origin, if you have friends, or anything else for that matter, so you can essential say that you're dropped into this world. Your future, however, is all yours. After creating a character, you are interrupted from your tranquil prison stay by none other than the Emperor, who is fleeing an assassination attempt through a hidden path through your cell. Upon seeing you he claims that you're the hero in his dreams and insists that you follow him. However, these assassins are persistent and eventually hunt down the Emperor, despite any attempts you make make to stop them. Before he dies he asks that you find his last remaining son, an illegitimate son who is now a monk who knows nothing of his origin or bloodline, and deliver a magical amulet to him. After this you are given your freedom and have full access to the world.

While the lack of a back story may disappoint some, those who are patient enough to dig into the meat of Oblivion will soon forget all about that tiny detail. There are dozens of well-thought out quests and story arcs to be played through throughout the game, including working for the warriors guild, thieves guild, mages guild, and the dark brotherhood, just to name a few, and this is all besides the main quest. Each city also has several jobs that you can accomplish as well! Furthermore, many quests tie into one another and they always take into account your actions prior to starting any given quest (meaning that the game knows whether or not your current quest will interfere with any other mission). There are also many different books scattered throughout the world which go into greater detail on how Cyrodil came to be, as well as delving into the history of previous games (such as Morrowind) and various races. The main storyline was excellent, and provided more than one plot-twist that I never saw coming. The many stories in Oblivion are sure to please any fan of the genre.

Game play: 10/10

The game play in Oblivion actually surprised me. First of all, the game can be played in either first or third-person views and can be switched back and forth at any time. Ok, let's go into character creation. Your customized character is created in prison, and you can choose from an impressive menu of choices. First you'll need to select a race (there are a wide variety of races from humans and elves to khajit (tiger men) and argonians (lizard men), each with their own unique race-specific abilities). After that you can change them almost any way possible, even down to small little details (such as how far their jaw juts out). Than you'll need to decide your characters job by picking one from a list of about two dozen choices or you can even make your own custom class. Making your own means selecting your characters major skills from the game's list of skills, basically building your character in your image and play style. Than you'll need to select what birth-sigh you were born under, which will add even more special skills or attributes. There, that covers character creation!

With such a detailed character creation, you should expect the rest of the game to be just as detailed, and you would be right! The world is literally your sandbox, and most missions can be completed any way you want to complete them (seriously, there is hardly any "wrong" way to play Oblivion). You will also level up your skills by using them throughout the game, eventually leveling up your level and increasing your attributes by skilling up your major skills. As you play through the game you can gain titles, fame, and buy houses in many different cities. The world is huge and begs to be explored (there are dozens of dungeons and caves that are not required to be traveled to unless you're an explorer, in fact). Thankfully you can fast-travel between locations (letting the game load with you in a new area) that you've already visited and you can even purchase a horse to make traveling easier. There is so much to do in Oblivion, and with it being so open to your individual play style, anyone would have a good time.

Graphics: 10/10

Simply put, Oblivion and all of Cyrodil is beautiful. Though the climate only really changes as you head north (or when you visit the plane of Oblivion), there is still quite a bit of variety in the world map.Detail is definitely the name of the game, each city is beautifully crafted and there are thousands of items lying around for you to pick up (legally or not). Due to how massive the game is, there are sometimes loading screens while traversing the world map and almost always when entering different houses in any city, though they are usually very fast. Spells look great, as does the attacking and blocking animations. I particularly liked the animations that occur when you've been hit with a hard attack that make it look like you're staggering for a bit. There are a few glitches here and there throughout the game (be careful of running into rocks!), and I even saw it slow down a bit when there were multiple enemies on the screen, but when so much is going right I can't bring myself to drop the score. You'll love how Oblivion looks!

Music and sound effects: 9/10

The background music mostly consists of light strings with the occasional wind piece, but shifts dramatically in a fight to a much more dramatic overtone. In dungeons you are often treated to a wavering string tone, accenting a nervous vain or anticipation. Sound effects are rather standard, with a lot of detail and some amusing comments and shouts during battle. The voice acting is superb throughout the entire game, and that is really saying something as there are dozens of important characters. The voices do seem to change inclination unnecessarily sometimes when you're talking to people, often leading you to think that they use two voice actors on one character (which they may very well do with unimportant characters, I would imagine). Overall, the sounds of Oblivion have the same level of detail and quality as the rest of the game.

Re-playability: 10/10

If anything in the world deserves HIGHER than a 10, it would be Oblivion's re-playability. If you read the "character creation" part I wrote a little earlier, you can already see how much re-playability there is to be found in Oblivion. There are even two expansion packs released for the game: Knights of the Nine (which is included in this version of Oblivion) and Shimmering Isles. You'll only get bored with Oblivion if you choose to be bored with it (otherwise you have way too much time on your hands!).

Overall: 10/10

I believe this is the first ten I've ever handed out to a game. If anything deserves it, it would have to be Oblivion, even with a few graphical glitches, you completely control the world you live in. Bethesda has really outdone themselves, and I, for one, will eagerly grab anything else I see their name on in the future (watch for Fallout 3 as well!). Have fun and keep playing!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/19/09

Game Release: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (US, 03/20/07)