Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is an action fantasy role-playing game made by Bethesda.

This game is huge. It is everything that a role playing game should be. Though there is a main story line the character can follow it is up to the player weather or not they want to follow it. The game allows the player to explore a vast world filled with a variety of quests and lots of interesting characters.

Although there’s not as much to explore in Oblivion as Morrowind, the first Elder Scrolls game, there is still enough landscape to keep you exploring for months. There is also oodles of content, and hundreds of unique characters to talk to.

In fact the characters in Oblivion are probably the most diverse compared to just about any game. Bethesda hired a number of voice actors for the characters. You will find that allot of the characters have the same voice, but still, its much more then you’d expect from any other game.

The physics and graphics in the game are wonderful. You may want to stop and take a look around at the pretty landscapes at times, just watch out for the occasional bear or mountain lion headed your way.

Also as a side note, the game is primarily first-person, but can be played in third-person by pushing the left thumb stick.

Bethesda also included a nice feature that allows the player to pick up or move objects without putting them in your inventory. After killing a monster or person you can even move the body around, or play with the limbs… a disturbing yet interesting entertaining feature that I’ve wasted a couple hours with.

Many of the quests are fairly versatile meaning there could be multiple ways of reaching the outcome. Some of the quests even have multiple outcomes depending on decisions the player makes.

There are a few features that let the player name their own items. For example, with alchemy you can combine ingredients to create potions. Each ingredient has four different traits. The player chooses ingredients that share the same traits to make a potion with that trait and up to four ingredients can be chosen for each potion. This means that there are probably thousands of combinations. The player can even name the potions they decide to make.

There are also sigil stones the player can obtain and add to their equipment. The sigil stones contain enchantments that improve the equipment. Upon doing this the player can also name the item.

There is also a wide variety of skills, races, and attributes so that you can customize your character however you want.

All these features make the game very diverse. You could play through it several times with completely different experiences each time.

The leveling system is similar to Morrowind except with the addition of certain mastery levels which give the player certain abilities after reaching pre-set milestones.

There are nine attributes that govern certain skills beneath them. For instance, agility governs the skills of security, sneak, and marksman. Endurance governs the skills of armorer, block, and heavy armor.

To level a skill all you have to do is do an action repeatedly. So to level sneak you just sneak around, to level your skill in blades you just slice things. After gaining a certain amount of levels you are told you should sleep to focus on what you have learned. After sleeping you are given a chance to level up three attributes. Leveling attributes will help with certain aspects of the game and make the skills they govern easier to level.

For example, increasing the attribute of strength will increase the damage a player inflicts with melee weapons. It also increases the players fatigue (energy) and encumbrance (the amount of stuff you can carry).

He difficulty of the monsters you fight in the game will increase. As your skills progress you’ll also encounter tougher monsters in your travels. This is meant to keep the game challenging as the player builds up their character.

However, this can have its draw backs due to the fact that the designers did not take into account that not all skills are combat related. Certain skills like sneak, security, or acrobats contribute the same towards difficulty as combat related skills. So if you like to spend your time sneaking into peoples houses and picking locks be ready for a thrashing if you decide to explore some of the terrain.
Also certain skills like blocking, that are highly important in combat, are not as easy to train as other skills like athletics. These factors create a bit of an imbalance in what was meant to be a balanced form of game play.

Although the game does have these drawbacks Bethesda has also given the player the power to adjust the games difficulty while playing. So if you feel the monsters have become to hard, just pause the game, go to options, and bring the difficulty down.

The game also has a bit of download able content including an expansion available for purchase at stores or on Xbox live. If you’re playing the PC version you can choose from thousands of modifications.

Overall despite a few little quirks, it’s a great game. I give it a hearty 9/10! But you should pick it up and try it for yourself.