Conclusion and final thoughts
The World of Oblivion is a feast of eye-dazzling, astounding beauty. The scenery stretches as far as the eye can see, the lake glistens in the morning sun and bushes and trees sway in the gentle wind. Butterflies flutter past, and the distinct colours of flowers, blended with the greenery of the forests, and the blue of the sky, make for a spectacular view. On a sunny day, sitting on top of a hill and watching the sun appear over the backdrop of the Imperial City, casting shadows across the shimmering lakes, is a sight to behold.
Travelling across the winding roads from town to town is never dull. The weather changes from bright sunshine, to full-on thunderstorms, so subtly that you’ll not even see the change. Initially it will start spitting, followed a downpour, followed by thunder, followed by lightening, it’s visually unrivalled and adds to the whole atmosphere of this spellbinding game.
Click for larger imageIt’s not always sunny in Cyroldil though, head for the north to the town of Bruma where you’ll discover a colder climate complete with snow-peaked mountains, and Nordic style houses. Snowdrops gently fall and rustic charm oozes out of every corner.
Character animations and lip synchronisations are sublime. You’ll meet many different characters throughout Oblivion and each one of them has been given the same amount of attention. There’s no room for mistakes in a game of this quality; the animations are so good that any errors would stick out like a sore thumb.
However, there are a couple of minor complaints. Scenery often builds in front of you as you travel through hills, pathways and forests. At times it takes away some of the charm of this bygone era, but considering the scale and consistency of the graphics, it’s doesn’t spoil the game in any way.
Talking to characters at night-time can also be frustrating. During this time it’s often hard to see a character’s face, especially if you need to judge their expressions for using your persuasion skills. It’s easily solvable by equipping a torch to light up your surroundings, if you don’t have a torch you’ll be squinting at the screen in an attempt to work out whether they are scowling or smiling.
Click for larger imageThe attention to detail throughout Oblivion is stunning. The vibrant colours of the plants, the changing sky-line and weather, the exquisitely detailed shrines and buildings, and the bewitching interiors of the numerous inns, chapels and good stores of the towns, are just scraping the surface of the skill that has gone into creating this visual production. The designers have created a masterpiece that the master of landscape paintings, John Constable, would be proud of; if Oblivion was a piece of art, it would be the ‘Haywain’ of gaming graphics.
Oblivion is a world that you’ll find hard to leave. Time doesn’t exist once your immersed in its story-line and enchanting quests. It’s filled with magical moments that you’ll want to share with others, but ultimately want to play for yourself – “no son I’m playing, go and tidy your room”.
Even my girlfriend wants to play it now! She hates gaming and normally only shows minimal interest in games, she's now hooked on Oblivion. If you have a girlfriend who doesn’t like video games, buy her Oblivion, it may just change her whole outlook.
Be sure to check out this excellent Reader's Review from Kalniel on the forums
Pros
Truly stunning visually
Great story-line
Enjoyable quests
Easy to navigate
Great combat
Great spells
Cons
Horse riding (and even that isn't neccesary)
A contender for Game of the Year 2006
HEXUS Awards
Oblivion
Oblivion: Collector's Edition
HEXUS.gaming:: Second Shot
Nick Haywood writes:Now whilst I was a massive fan of Morrowind and happily lost myself for weeks, I have to admit that Oblivion left me a little disappointed in places. The combat has been improved upon slightly and there’s no doubting that the visuals are gorgeous in the extreme, but I can’t help feeling that I was expecting just that little more…
One of Morrowind’s big selling points was the sheer size of the game and Oblivion certainly trumps Morrowind with just how massive it is. Unlike Morrowind, pretty much most of the Oblivion world is accessible right from the start, if you can be bothered to go off on your own way. There’s loads of caves, ruins, temples and old forts to explore, though you can’t ever quite get over the feeling that the baddies inside are randomly generated.
And what’s with the treasure that creatures drop? I can understand the logic behind a ghost leaving a puddle of ectoplasm behind for you to scoop up, but rats dropping lockpicks? Bears dropping gold?
One of the criticisms of Morrowind was it’s sheer size could often work against it. You’ve got the main quest, but there’s so many branching side quests that unless you kept a close tab on your journal, you’d soon lose the thread of the plot. Oblivion suffers from the problem, though to a lesser extent. Early on in the game you’ll be told to head to a town quite a way south-west of you, but as you set off to do that, a blokey might some up and ask you to meet his master at the city in the opposite direction.
Sometimes, presenting the player with so much choice is a bad thing as you’re now left wondering which you should do. Should you follow your original quest and risk missing out on something good in the city, or is the city meeting part of the overall story? Sure, we like to have some freedom in our gameplay but we need direction too. Fortunately, for much of the time, the main quest isn’t at all time sensitive, which seems odd as it’s all about restoring the line of kings to the throne, which you’d think would be a fairly important thing, no?
But overall, whether you’re playing the Xbox 360 or PC versions, you’ll find Oblivion to be a worthy successor to Morrowind, even if the ‘uniqueness’ of a massive playing environment has been done already. The only thing missing is the opportunity to take your character online, which would have made Oblivion complete, in my humble opinion. Doing a few instanced dungeons with a balanced party especially as customizable as the characters and classes and in here, would have just about made my fantasy year…
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Oblivion is available now priced £39.99.Play.com
