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The sequel to Morrowind is bigger, more intricate, prettier and just better. Morrowind was a great game, one that truly lived up to the open-ended gameplay that it was hyped as. As with other games with such scale, it had a few areas that could be improved upon. With Oblivion, the developers have taken to heart the criticism and made a game that will not only please fans of the series but anyone with interest in a role playing game.
The plot in Oblivion is quite involved. Your character wakes up in a cell being mocked by another inmate. It doesn’t take long for things to gain a bit more importance. The emperor remembers you from a dream and wants you to find his heir. Before you can do this, though, you’ll have to escape.
Oblivion, like other games in The Elder Scrolls series, tosses you in a huge world where you’re able to create your highly customizable character (you can pick the gender, race, class, name, and physical characteristics) and pretty much do what you want. As you play through the primary mission, you’ll join guilds, gain leadership, visit towns, explore dungeons, and complete more than a few puzzles. You’ll also do less expected things like buying a house or stealing a horse (and getting caught!). The game gives you a number of options but each of these options is full-fledged not something tossed in to add another bullet point (not that the game needs any more). You’ll have the option to take a no-holds-barred approach or be stealthier, either way the combat either via melee, magic or weapons is very well implemented. It’s much quicker than it was and it just feels better and more natural.
Even the character creation system is well developed. The game lets you choose from a number of classes but it also gives you the ability to create your own. If you choose to create your own, you’ll basically make them specialize in stealth, magic or combat and then choose some attributes, skills and a birth sign. Even if your character focuses on action, you’ll be able to use all of the magic skills although not as well as another, magic-focused character. As you progress through the game, you’ll learn new spells, skills, and increase your ability. Getting to a new rank will be instantly beneficial to you since the character does get some sweet new abilities.
As you explore the game’s towns, you’ll get a hands-on chance to check out the AI. The characters in the game all have their own schedule, with a variety of tasks to complete in any given day. You’ll spot them moving around to accomplish these tasks, socializing with one another or even spreading rumors. They even react to you and will change their reaction depending on how you look and what your personality is. It’s very entertaining to talk to these characters because you can tell that the developers put a lot of thought into making them unique. They’ll be cautious around you if you have a weapon and yell at you if you are stealing. You may even be able to take on a side quest or be told where one can be found.
Speaking of the towns, this is another area where the developers greatly improved from Morrowind. You can teleport to any of the major towns in the game right from the beginning, or you can teleport to one of the landmarks that you’re discovered. The game simply simulates how long it would have taken you to get there. This rewards players who want to keep things moving while letting meticulous players explore all of the nooks and crannies (and find things along the way).
The game’s visuals are simply amazing. The Xbox 360 manages to keep up with the game, allowing for a smooth frame rate for the most part although there are some parts that the framerate will drop, especially if there are a lot of characters on screen. The character models are amazing—even the townspeople are unique and move about fluidly. The same can be said for the meticulously detailed environments, whether you’re in a dungeon or a lush forest.
The game’s music is equally splendid. The voice acting is superb, with every single line in the game delivered in authentic, quality voice acting. Even the writing is top-notch. All of the characters sound great, even the townspeople. The key characters, like the Emperor (The Lord of The Rings’ Sean Bean) make the presentation stand out even more. The music and sound effects are equally impressive.
There are some games that are tough to rate because they may do very limited things very well, or do a lot of things rather well. Oblivion does a lot of things extremely well, and everything else very well. It’s hard to find anything to complain about here. The main quest, side quests, townspeople, graphics, open-endedness, etc combine to make one of the best videogames available on any console. The game lets you do whatever you want, since a reload is only a few button clicks away. And that freedom is something very few games can actually deliver.
-- Jose Liz & -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Apr 11, 2006
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