The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Review (360)

It’s gonna be a long month in Cyrodiil

I’m in a fair bit of trouble. I ain’t vain, the pale skin and the endless growing hair that’s making me look like a dishevelled James May after a nasty rave isn’t bothering me, but the other signs that I’ve neglected life on the outside is. The pile of letters on my doorstep, the disconcerting amount of phone messages, the broken window and disappearance of half my property. The reason for this dumbfound neglect and loss of many a close associate? Oblivion.

Recently re-released alongside marine kill-fest Bioshock, Oblivion covers the long winded stat boosting half of the dynamic duo and has somewhat aged well over the past three years since its original release. Oblivion is set in the tranquil land of Cyrodill, and with its lush fields, efficient justice system and severe lack of children, it’s like a safe haven for misanthropes such as myself. The peace is soon broken however, after an assassination on the Emperor, huge (slightly phallic) portals open up across the land, spewing forth demonic creatures hell-bent on crushing anything that shows signs of emotion. Obviously this causes some concern for the citizens, and determine that someone has to do something about the impending invasion. That weight falls upon your shoulders, varying in height and width by extensive character customisation.

It’s easy to get lost and confused through the amount of character applicable features you have to wade through to begin with. Within the first 30 minutes you have to select your race, age, Class, Birth sign, Major Skills, Minor Skills and the size of your chin all whilst pulling off a jail-break. The scenario acts as a tutorial, easing you into the gameplay mechanics and does well to teach you elements of combat and exploration, yet those who have not eased their way into the Elder Scroll series with Morrowind may not be able to get the most out of their character to begin with. Picking attributes which will best suit your play style is done slightly on a whim as knowledge of what could actually be useful to you is scarce before you actually get out into the main world. Fortunately, experienced players can create a custom class to mould around them with full knowledge of all attributes, giving them a slight edge when it comes to speedy levelling up.

You may not lose yourself in the world but you will be driven to conquer everything it throws at you.

The vast amount of abilities that the player can become experienced in may be a niggling hindrance in decision making at first for beginners, but later on proves to be one of the strong points of Oblivion. There’s so many traits to train in that soon the select few that take up your fancy, be they major or minor, form a unique character tailored to your play style. Although this form of hero creation is a lot more subtle to that of Fable’s ‘Be who you want to be’ message that Peter Molenuex burns onto your retinas with a big fat cow poke made out of lies and pretentiousness, it ends up being a lot more satisfying the more you play. When you’re making Trolls fly off with one strike of your sword, or practically jumping through the moon E.T style in your 30th hour of gameplay adds a smile of accomplishment to proceedings when you recall how weak you were as a runaway fugitive to begin with.

Part of Oblivion’s charm comes from the sheer amount of activities there are to do. The apocalyptic main quest can be put on hold in order to complete side quests on collecting plants together should your glasses be exceptionally rose tinted. Those who wish to police the state can join the Fighter’s Guild, then become corrupt by becoming an assassin for the Dark Brotherhood. Those who don’t wish to save Cyrodill, but choose to rule it could become the leader of every Guild, champion of the Arena and complete the main quest. The quest in front of you dramatically increases in size and rewards the curious and most adventurous of players. The amount of content available is truly magnificent and it even manages to clip on downloadable content for good measure.

With such great longevity behind it, it’s a shame that everything else has to be pretty sub-par. Combat consists of basic swings of whatever weapon you pick and players can look unto a vast library of spells to use, all proving useful in certain scenarios. Despite a very basic set-up however, enemies that are faced early on in the game can be balanced incredibly unfavourably against the player, amassing huge amounts of health and force you into a fight of endurance. Graphics prove reasonably impressive, yet really come into their own in regards to landscapes…which can be very rewarding for the artistic of you. The soundtrack consists of pretty much two tracks, one that accompanies gentle strolls across the land, and one that must have been titled ‘Oh My God, Colossal Mutated Spider Approaching’. Despite an unimpressive selection of tracks, both prove memorable enough and give sufficient warning to those approaching battle. What does not deserve much respect in the audio department would be the voice-overs. When faced with a world filled with inhabitants, a cast of more than around 5 voice actors is needed. It appears that the decision to have audible speech was a suggestion that was made late in the Bethseda offices, and once made, the budget was severely low. A limited cast provide an admirable attempt at vocal talent, but are really up against it in providing unique voices for a whole country of people, and those who wish to speak to you have a habit of constantly flickering through personalities in schizophrenic rage.

All the negatives do not exactly destroy the game and bring it to its knees, yet constantly destroy the immersion of the experience. As soon as you begin to slip into the world of Cyrodiil, a inappropriate-sometimes severe-glitch will pop-up. These can vary from something integral to a quest going missing, preventing you from continuing the adventure entirely, or can be slightly more amusing, like smacking a guard in the back with a colossal war-hammer, only for them to look around and declare that “It must’ve been the wind”. Although the major glitches occur rarely and the minor ones slip in the occasional giggle, they all mount up to be a severe pain in the backside of Oblivion, a game that wishes to draw you in and never let you go.

The negatives don’t make Oblivion a terrible game, but do destroy the immersion it worked so hard to build up in the first place. As soon as the hours begin to slip away and you find yourself enjoying dicing up opponents with you sword, one of the aforementioned problems crops up and you suddenly crash down into the real world, possibly sobbing at the prospect of rainy days, microwavable meals and Danny Dyer, questioning the purpose of human life.

Ultimately, however, you end up forgiving Oblivion for its sometimes wonky features and dip straight back in. Although it suffers slightly in a few technical aspects, the sheer amount of quests available, dungeons to explore and alliances to rule over, you may not lose yourself in the world but you will be driven to conquer everything it throws at you. Those who haven’t played it should definitely check it out for its now bargain price. Those who have played it before, go and play it again and prepare to lose all those days, sleep and friends all over again.