Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Immersive"

Here we have a first-person role-playing game. To some, the concept of that seems too bizarre. To others, this may seem unique. If you like role-playing games, particularly medieval-style, you may as well give it a shot. You just might like it. In fact, the sheer amount of content in this game makes it easy to recommend.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion takes place in the land of Cyrodiil, part of Tamriel. A fair number of large cities can be found, full of residents and criminals. Oh, and then there's Oblivion itself.

An evil cult known has found a way to link the land of Cyrodiil to the planes of Oblivion, which is something like a Hell-like version of the land. Sort of like a parallel dimension. Many gates are opened across the country, which allows the monstrous residents of Oblivion - the daedra - into Cyrodiil, slaughtering whatever they can find. Think this sounds bad? It gets worse. The game begins with the murder of the Emperor. It's up to you to find his illegitimate heir, work with him to find a way to close off every gate to Oblivion, and help him claim his position as the new Emperor. And this is just the main quest.

There are multiple quest-lines to be found in the game, most of them following the ascension of a guild, and plenty of regular quests. You can join a variety of factions, most notably the Fighter's Guild, Mage's Guild, Thieves' Guild, and the Dark Brotherhood. Aside from the regular ascension, each guild offers a minor storyline behind them, such as dealing with evil Necromancers or taking care of a corrupt rival faction. The Dark Brotherhood is probably the most interesting, as it offers the chance of a few murders, while being a murder mystery in itself. If you just want the satisfaction of ascension, then the Arena is for you. Just kill, kill, and kill. In addition, there's no small variety of regular quests here. From the simple (killing a few fish), to the bizarre (rescue a man from his own nightmare) to the downright awesome (wage a war or two). If you have the desire to play a long game, you can easily get over 100 hours from this one alone.

Oblivion follows many traditions of a role-playing game, such as health, magic, quests, mini-games, and more. But there are only few times when it feels like a bore. The first-person perspective adds a superior engaging element, making the experience all the much more worthwhile.

And as if the quests didn't keep you occupied enough, there's also the loot to be found here. Armor, weapons, jewelry, books (that can be read), and more. There's an incredible amount of items to find in this game. You can also find scrolls to let you use magic. You can drink potions to increase abilities for a short while. Heck, you can even repair your items, and if you so wish, enchant them to give them (and yourself) extra abilities. Trust me: this game is filled to the brim with things to do.

Cyrodiil itself is amazing. There seems to be hundreds of characters you can interact with. They don't just stand around doing nothing, though (well, most don't). There's no shortage of city guards, there are shopkeepers to barter with, there are skill trainers, and there are farmers, workers, housewives, fighters, mages, murderers, creepers, and so much more. Everyone has something unique to say to you, either nice or not. You can do these people a favor or just ignore them. It's up to you. As for the land itself, it's big. Like, really big. Really, really big. If you wanted to run from one end of Cyrodiil to the other, grab a snack, you'll be at it for a while.

It's clear that Bethesda worked hard to make Tamriel as realistic as they could, both in terms of visuals and audio. There's a fine bit of detail everywhere you look, although character models look just a tad stiff. Everyone also has the same movements, although this is easily ignored. The music of Oblivion is beautiful. Most of it gives a calming effect, but when the occasion calls for action the music does not disappoint. Also, it took me about halfway through the game before realizing that there really aren't as many voice actors as it sounds. There comes a point in the game when you start to think about how similar some characters' voices are. However, bonus points for Patrick Steward's performance, however brief, as Uriel Septim VII, the Emperor murdered in the beginning of the game.

This game is not perfect, however. My biggest gripe is that load times come too frequently. Sometimes you could wait upwards of a minute for an area to load; this is most apparent when entering the outside world. On the subject of the outside world, it seems I take 25 to 50 paces before I see the words "Loading area..." on my screen again (but it is not a full-blown loading screen). When travelling out in the country, you tend to see the "Loading area..." words almost too often, and the game is guilty of slowing down every time it loads. There are also a number of glitches to be found in the game, the most devilish being freezing, although this has only happened to me three times. One of the quests (involving getting one of the most powerful swords in the game) is a monster to complete due to glitches (although the patch fixes this). There are certainly quite a number of glitches to report, but in Oblivion's fortunate case, the good far outweighs the bad. In fact, thanks to two of the glitches, you could duplicate items if you wish. But the decision whether or not to do that depends on what kind of gamer you are. You cheater, you. There are also a (luckily small) amount of quests that are flat-out boring, but seeing as there's just so many quests to do, you could end up forgetting about those and just enjoy the rest of the game.

Just by glancing at Oblivion, it's easy to become interested in. There's not much harm in trying it out, although you should be prepared to spend a lot of time with it. Anyone dedicated enough could easily put in well over 100 hours into the core game, and with a large variety of DLC available, that number could easily double, possibly triple. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is satisfyingly lengthy, visually appealing, and just downright a spectacular game.