Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Rapture Review

For my first review, I will be taking a look at what is, in my opinion, one of the greatest games of all time.

Oblivion is a first person action RPG available on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC. My review is based off of the Xbox 360 version, though the game is fundamentally the same on all systems.

The fourth game in the Elder Scrolls series is massive, with hundreds of potential gameplay hours, tons of customization, around 200 quests, over 350 locations to explore, and just about limitless possibility. This game can be, if you let it, a second life.

The beauty about Oblivion is that it has all of this depth, all of this content, but the game itself is not complicated or difficult to understand and play.

You start by choosing from a list of 10 races, 13 birthsigns, 8 attributes, and 21 skills, all contributing to the stats and abilities of your character. When you have traversed the Imperial Sewers at the opening of the game, and have chosen all of your stats, you exit through a tunnel into the open world.

It is at this point you realize how vast and open this land really is. The green hills roll on for great distances, the forest stretches before you, the mountains pierce the periwinkle sky at the horizon. None of this scenery is background; every spot you can see is reachable. This complete openness makes exploration an exhilarating thing.

There are nine major cities you can visit, complete with homes, stores, cathedrals, guild halls, citizens. It is in these cities that most of your quests will be found, through conversation and events that you run into along the way. If you’re not in the mood for quest or conversation, try exploring the country side. There are over 300 forts, caves, ruins, castles, dungeons, shrines, all waiting to be explored. There is much loot to be found here, and many dangerous encounters as well, but the game can be saved at any time, so there is not much to worry about if you save often. When completely plundered, these caves, dungeons, etc, will randomly regenerate enemy in loot within a few in-game days, creating limitless possibilities.

The main goal in Oblivion is to level up by utilizing your major skills, and to complete quests and explore as many locations as possible. There are so many different things to do in Cyrodiil to accomplish these goals, things never get old. When tired of dungeon plundering or questing, go shopping, maybe try your hand at alchemy, forge some enchanted weapons, or create your own magic spells. Own and outfit your house, purchase a horse, work for guilds, fight in the arena. It’s difficult to run out of things to do.

The game also caters to many different playing styles. The action is largely first-person, you can zoom out into third person mode, but combat is very difficult from this viewpoint. You can go in heavy with war hammers and maces, add a little finesse with a blade, or take enemies out from afar with a bow and arrow. If you choose, you can leave weapons behind and focus solely on magic. Any combination of these four types of combat is possible as well.

Another notable thing about this game is its beauty. The scenery is gorgeous. The bright, lush colors of the forests and fields contrast well with the dark shades of dungeons, and the blacks and reds of the realm of Oblivion itself. The buildings and cobblestone streets of the cities are also very aesthetic.

While Oblivion’s setting is beautiful, there is a fairly important part of the visual presentation of the game that is lacking.

The people.

The characters in the game are downright ugly. Their faces are misshapen and oddly colored, and the hair styles are often bizarre. This is something that the player will get used to with time however, and will actually find it as source of enjoyment. There is something irresistibly hilarious in the randomly generated mess that is a guard’s face as he demands you surrender and go to jail.

I’ve spent a lot of words praising this game, but I can’t ignore the minor flaws it does have. Being such a large and detailed game, there tend to be glitches in the scenery and physics from time to time. These glitches are mostly harmless, but tend to take away from the overall experience Oblivion is attempting to offer.

Something truly spectacular about the game: there is an incredible amount of spoken text in the game, and every word of it is performed by a voice actor or actress. The only problem is, there are only a few actors/actresses covering the countless residents of Cyrodiil. This leads to redundancy, another minor problem, but one I feel I should address.

To sum up, Oblivion’s pros far outweigh the cons. The beautiful environment, extensive customization, abundance of activities, limitless possibility, and sheer addictiveness of the game will have you hooked.

If you own a PS3, Xbox 360, or PC, buy this game. If you don’t, buy one of them just for the game!

9.8/10