Without a doubt, this massive and epic RPG proves that a masterpiece can still be played long after its been released.
Positive
+ A massive, well-crafted game world offers hours of exploration
+ Interesting story and world, backed by hundreds of entertaining and varied side quests
+ Exciting and fun combat system
+ Masterful soundtrack fits the game incredibly well
Negative
- AI sometimes behaves in weird ways
- Some glitches and other technical issues are expected for such a huge world
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is not like most games you play in its era. It is not the kind of game that tries to fill your head with a continuous story starring a conflict between good and evil or trying to force you down through a single path which you can't stray of. Oblivion is the polar opposite of that; this is a powerful, massive role-playing experience that gives you a huge world to explore at your own pace and approach the story and the constant flow of side quests in any manner you desire without ever intruding on your joy. Small problems aside, they do not matter in contrast with what this gigantic masterpiece of an RPG offers.
The game is not a direct sequel to 2002's Morrowind. The story takes place in Cyrodil, where you, as a self-created character (the character creation is rather subpar), are imprisoned for an unknown crime, but is freed by the arrival of Emperor Uriel Septim, who along with his guards known as 'The Blades' is fleeing from a group of assassins. Before dying, Uriel Septim entrust the Amulet of Kings and tasks you to find a man named Jauffre. Your life in the world of Cyrodil starts after you leave the sewers. After that you are given the freedom very few games give. You can opt to continue the story and get caught up in the mission to protect Emperor Uriel's son and fight alongside 'The Blades' against the evil creatures called Daedra, the mysterious cult 'Mystic Dawn' who was behind the Emperor's murder and the Daedric Prince of Destruction, Mehrunes Dagon. Or, you can just do some of the initial side quests that spread out through the world. There are an unbelievable number of side quests; some obtained by joining guilds and like the story missions, you need to finish one and advance to the next or just as simple to talking to people and get some tasks that will earn you a reward. Or you can just wonder off aimlessly on your trusty stead or on foot and explore the world to find 'abandoned' forts (they are never abandoned), shrines, some camps and more. The game offers heavy terminology such a daedra, the name of each city, magic, famous heroes and such, but the game expertly leaves it up to you to find out. You can ask town folks about rumors, read books you find in houses or just progress the story. No matter how simple a task is, from finding someone's ring to a sneaky and cold-blooded assassination, the vast amount of side quests are as entertaining as they come, and the game makes you find these quests and the guilds that offer such quests.
There are numerous guilds you can join. But there are always certain requirements. There are public Fighters and Mages Guild which you can join in order to help the people and the guild, but there are those other guilds. The mysterious and rumored Thieves Guild is such a guild. In this guild, you do special thief and sneaking jobs, other than looting and selling the stolen merchandise. But then there is the treacherous Dark Brotherhood, a guild of assassins. The Dark Brotherhood's missions range from silent assassinations, to information gathering and even stalking, but it is here that the game's best and most exciting quests are. Tricking your target and then striking is satisfying and the chance for bonus increases the tension of each mission. Other quests can easily come by talking to town folks who are in need for your expert help. Some people may want a lost item back from a dangerous dungeon or ingredients they cannot obtain and many, many other things because the game offers a wide variety of well varied quests that makes such most of which are different from the one before it. As you try to complete the given objective, completing that gives you another objective to reach your final destination. Luckily, the game assists you step by step in quests, with updatable journal to keep track what you need to do and even goes as far as to mark your next location to visit, depending on the quest.
There are hours upon hours of side quests to do without even touching the main story. Yet that would be wasted if those hours would be cursed if the gameplay was unexciting. Fear not, Oblivion is an RPG of the best kind. The Elder Scrolls IV mainly uses a first-person perspective, with a rather underwhelming third-person perspective which is not even half good as the first-person view. The combat is as varied as the quests, primarily the combat using swords, maces, bow & arrow, daggers and the option of magic. There is a ton of each, including armor, items and loot. But combat is just the major part of your quest. You can pickpocket unluckily townspeople, lock pick your way through people's houses without being detected or you'll be arrested or charged, or just wonder in the majestic and incredibly large game world. You can do just about anything; yes, even kill guards and people that are not your enemies but that would give you a bad reputation. But the combat is the main activity, and it is fast and really fun throughout. With adjustable difficulty and accessibility, the combat is rarely dull even after long hours. There are loads of dungeons that are filled with enemies only waiting for you to cut them down with your claymore, or a sneaky one-hit kill or a distant arrow shot.
Looting in Oblivion isn't as strong as the likes of dungeon-crawlers such as Torchlight, but finding gold and other items to sell is fun. Stealing for others require a bit of skill not to be noticed by on-patrol guards that are only waiting for you to trespass or pickpocket to rise against you, no matter your fame. They give you the option of resisting arrest, go to jail or pay in gold for your crimes, plus your stolen items confiscated. Resisting arrest grants you that every guard and soldier knows of your evil deeds throughout the city, and even throughout the world in an unrealistic matter of seconds. This is a problem of the flawed AI. In combat the AI puts up a decent, realistic fight in first-person perspective (you maybe need to block, dodge, and then strike), but there are irritating and recurring issues to deal with. Guards rarely leave you in peace after a crime no matter where you try to hide. There is the comprehensible but unrealistic thing that people just magically make their clothes disappear before going to sleep. And most of the AI has some bad attitude issues. Even after major deeds, some of the AI, the same character you just helped sometimes just shuns you off with "Leave me alone", or "Go away" arrogantly with it ungrateful even by the town folks standard. Other than that there are no children, but that is to be expected but there is a heavy recycle of AI faces, dialogue and voice acting.
There are some activities that don't have you deal with the sometimes irksome and idiotic AI. Lock picking doors and frequently locked treasure chests is an overused minigames the game uses. Although fun, running out of picklocks isn't, and it is a bit frustrating to finds the majority barred by these infernal locks. The locks vary on their difficulty to open; very easy, easy, average, hard and very hard. You use a lock pick which can be bought from the Thieves Guild or found in chest and off enemies, and force all the locks up in order to get its content. After long hours of playing, you will realize that some chests have such poor content that it does not seem worth it to go through the hassle of opening it. It is a fun and believable method of opening locks. Specific magic spells open chests.
Looking back at the beginning, the game makes you do decisions you might later regret. There are plenty of different races, including humans, elves, orcs and others. Plus, the star you wish to be born under that grants special attributes. Although the game lets you do the first section, the sewers and later prompting the option to change your character completely, it still leaves that hidden regret of not choosing otherwise. The game uses a unique process of leveling up. You do not just randomly kill every living (or undead at any rate) thing that moves and gain EXP like most RPGs, but you need to level up every major skill, including magic. Not using a certain skill makes you unable to level up and you end up like me playing over 20 hours without knowing how to get over Level 1. After you successfully manage, you need to find a bed and sleep and be welcomed with a new level when you wake up from the numerous hours you decide to sleep. It is a weird method, rather than unique. I had no trouble playing side quests on average difficulty on Level 1 but some quests had a level requirement.
There is even more than you have read. Throughout the world, you will 'Oblivion Gates', the title of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. These are the menace that threatens to destroy Cyrodil and in story quests eventually you are tasked to destroy some of them. The Gates connect to the plains of Oblivion, another dimension. This dimension is a cool counter piece to the regular world of the game, but the process of destroying the Gate is always the same. Find the tower, crawl your way to the top and touch the Sigil Stone and bye bye Oblivion Gate. The majority of the random gates are the same, but those in the story tend to have a slightly different and more complex design. Once you actually manage to enter the tower, you know where you need to go, what you need to arrive and how to arrive. The internal structure changes too little, but the exterior (after entering the gate) always changing and it sometimes so complex to find the tower that you will have to go out of your way to stray off the path and jump over rocks and go into places you might get stuck. The idea of Oblivion Gates was seriously cool in the beginning, but by the third one, not so much. The enemies in the Oblivion Gates are different from regular forest and dungeon dwellers and the difficulty in these plains is a bit higher than your average run in Cyrodil's forests. On a minor note, doing certain quests earns you the opportunity to become a vampire, yes, a blood-sucking creature that exists in the world of Cyrodil. As a vampire you need to feed on sleeping people or being unable to go under the sunlight without taking damage but not feeding makes you stronger. Also the size of the inventory increases by your strength, giving you a boost if you're a vampire and haven't fed which immediately decreases after you feed on sleeping people; not dead people, not dead creatures or walking people.
But with such a massive world, some small problems appear that mar the game in no possible way. There are some weird glitches, mainly when waking people up and don't move. People you just killed may be sucked in doors, yes literally. There are some rare crashes and freezes, mainly if you exit full screen to desktop with the menu open. Beware of possible save corrupt; many people on the internet have complained and even after six years of existence, it still happens. Yes, and it happened to me, forcing me hours of lost progress. There are frequent loadings, and an especially long initial loading. After experiencing corrupt save, you'll fear the game will crash on that loading.
I am not really going to go in depth on the graphical performance. The game uses a cartoony and appealing visual style rather than the realism employed by its successor, Skyrim. There is a high degree in repetition; aside from combat. You'll find the same character faces all over the places and all guards look the same as well as having the same voice. It is the limitation of the technology at the time, and speaking of time, time magically stops for anyone who isn't taking to you when talking to someone. Again, technology wasn't as powerful then as it is now. Putting all visual settings down for computers with lower performance prompts a gazillion pop-ins, including not seeing the tower in the Oblivion Gates from a distances and bushes continuously appearing as you get closer. The dungeon structure is always incredibly repetitive; especially the shrines and forts, bearing the same design but not the same map. While the voice acting is repetitive and uses the same samples too much, the voice actors do a great job of feeling that their characters belong in that world. The game is fully voiced. But what impresses most is the soundtrack; rarely has a soundtrack felt so pleasant even after constant hours of playing. The music is pleasant, with a change in dungeons and when enemies are around, but the calming soundtrack will never get on your nerves.
Oblivion is a colossal game that is also very addictive. Rarely has a game before this given you so much option without tiring you out with the desire to quit and leave the world of Cyrodil behind. Even games years later struggle to give the same replay value and variety that Oblivion hands out to those who dare enter. The combat is great and solid but it is really the side quests that are as fulfilling as the worthwhile story that keep you going, one after another. There are some frustrations when dealing with the AI but with the exception of some missions, most of straightforward and plain fun. Minor glitches are but mere, rare and uncounted for nuisances in exchange for a wonderful world. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a highly successful and loving RPG that it will require at least one more installment of the Elder Scrolls to bury Oblivion forever, and let us make Oblivion an example how games should be.
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Graphics = 7.8
The cartoony visuals look good but there are repetitive character and dungeon design. But the world is huge, I mean HUGE. Some glitches here and there.
Sound = 9.3
The soundtrack manages to remain bearable through many, many hours. It fits exceptionally. The voice acting is repeated, it is all solid. Plus, the game is fully voiced.
Presentation = 9.0
It may take some time to get accustomed to the gameplay and all its mechanisms, but everything is worth it. Some long loadings, rare freezes and crashes. Time stops for anyone but you and who you are talking to. Difficult terminology, but the game offers a superb way to get you to know it.
Gameplay = 8.9
The first-person perspective combat is fun, but sometimes it feels you aren't actually hitting your target. An enormous variety of armor, weapons, loot and activities to do. It is not perfect in any way, but there is so much that you're bound to love something. Weird leveling system
Story and Last Value = 9.7
Excellent main story, but there are tons of entertaining side quests to do. Very few games have given you so much freedom without restricting you in the least.
Fun = 9.5
34 hours in five days, before my final exams. Oblivion is one of the most addictive games I have played in years. It is dangerously addictive for the first few hours if it grips you.
OVERALL = 90 / 100
Without a doubt, this massive and epic RPG proves that a masterpiece can still be played long after its been released.