The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles

"Must-Have for Oblivion Fans"

The Shivering Isles expansion for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a must-have for anybody that enjoyed Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls games in general. It adds plenty new content for a reasonable price and is worth every penny.

The Shivering Isles will probably entertain for thirty or more hours, clocking in at a length exceeding many full-length games that retail for double the expansion's $30 price. The main quest line in the expansion can surely be run through considerably faster than this, but there are several side quests throughout the Shivering Isles and several new places to explore. The new quests are more original and more entertaining than the bulk of those from the main game (Oblivion).

Additionally, The Shivering Isles expansion brings several new enemies, lots of new equipment and spells, and some interesting new locations and characters, especially the madgod Sheogorath. Perhaps very important is the dramatic change of scenery offered in the Shivering Isles, which are dramatically different from the same old scenery many of us have spent between a hundred and two-hundred hours looking at already, and the night sky over the isles is quite a beautiful sight to behold.

I have long been a fan of the Elder Scrolls series, and greatly enjoyed Oblivion a year ago. The Shivering Isles expansion gave me a reason to pick the game up again, and was absolutely worth the cost of admission. No matter how much new content could have been available, a fan such as myself always wants more, but this is by far the biggest and best expansion thus far and is a must-have for anybody that appreciates The Elder Scrolls greatness.

Graphically, the game looks as great as Oblivion did a year ago, The Elder Scrolls IV still holds up respectably a year later. We see a lot of new enemy models, texture work, and so on, which is a nice change from the content we've seen for upwards of 200 hours in the main game before. Some of the new equipment available has the same top-notch detail that we've come to expect from The Elder Scrolls IV, and I personally feel that many of them are some of the best-looking so far, as style and design goes.

The voice acting is similar to that of Oblivion before, but there's plenty of new dialogue in the expansion. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no new music of any kind, so we still hear the same tunes we've heard so often before. That is fine, since the music was always decent before, but a new tune or two wouldn't have hurt. The level design is top-notch, with the entirety of the isles being very interesting to explore and travel around, and the dungeons are as entertaining as the quests that take us through them.

This would have been worth 9/10 even if a stand-alone game (losing a point only for not being longer), but as simply an expansion it definitely deserves the full 10/10.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/09/07