The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Oblivion is the fourth part of The Elder Scrolls series. It is a hack’n’slash RPG, with the emphasis far and away on the former. Like all of the main Elder Scrolls games, it is a ‘free form’ game, allowing you to pursue the main story, or take on one of the many, many side quests or just wander around as you please. This aspect is present even more than the previous games and encounters are keyed to your level, which is possibly the games greatest strength, and it’s greatest weakness.
The game is completely voice-acted, which is both a good and a bad thing. The problem is that there is so much dialogue needed that short cuts needed to be taken. There are only four or five voice sets for each gender. So, every male Nord has the same voice, which is also shared by the Orcs, for example
High Points
- You can take any quest, whenever you want to. Wherever you go the enemies will be about the same power level, so you don’t have to worry about stepping into an area designed for a higher-level character (although, the thieves and dark brotherhood quests will be tricky without a decent sneak skill)
- Stealth! The sneaking system is very well done, taking into account light, movement, equipment weight, and other factors. It can be very satisfying to drop down behind a bandit and introduce her back to your dagger. Two of the guilds are stealth based, so there’s plenty of opportunity sneaking around.
Low Points
- The levelling system is somewhat counter-intuitive. The way it’s set up, the seven skills that you define as your ‘major skills’ are best the skills that you plan to use the least, or can otherwise strictly control their use. This is because your major skills make you level up as you advance, but all your skills count for how much benefit you can get for levelling. With monster power being based on your level and not your power, having too many sub-optimal levels can hurt.
- Poor storytelling. Some things make little sense. The old arch-mage was willing to promote me, the newest member of the Arcane University, to arch-mage over wizards who he has known for years? He barely knows my character! Hell, I barely know any magic. I know this isn’t much of a role playing game, but still, disproportionate recognition is a bit silly (and the arch-nemesis of the mage’s guild was a pussy, anyway).
- Repetition. There’s only so many ruins you can delve into before they all start to look the same
Conclution
This is a steath/action game in a fantasy world, not a RPG. Having said that, it’s a damn good stealth/action game (my favourite moment was stealthily dropping down behind a major enemy while he was chatting with an under-cover ally of mine, then introducing said enemy’s back to my sword for that beautiful ×6 damage). It’s not the most deep game, but nevertheless it can handle the player trying unusual routes. I don’t feel it has great replay, as it is very possible to have one character do everything in the game, but doing everything in the game will take a very long time.
(I’ll add screenshots later, I haven’t the ‘print screen’ key on my keyboard. I may add more to this review as I play more, I’m not half done yet!)