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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Apparently in the province of Cyrodill, all hell is breaking loose, litterally. An ancient Daedra Prince named Marunes Dagon is trying his damnedest to take over the mortal realm and bring it under the control of his plane of exsistance, Oblivion. (Think of Deadra like demons, there are 16 different Daedra and they all have thier own planes of exsistance.) The only hope to save Cyrodill, and Tamriel is you.
The actual adventure starts with......(drum roll) Character Generation! Yep, you get to pick your name, race, what your face looks like, how your hair falls on your shoulder, eye color, skintone, and how old you look in game. This could be a game in and of itself. This has got to be one of the most immersive character creation tools I've ever seen. Well, after you've made your character, and entered a proper, or not so proper name, you're off............so to speak.
You find yourself locked in prison for a crime that's never spoken of, and even later in the game you never find so much as a crumpled arrest warrant. You're given a brief tutorial that explains how you move and look around the game world. After a few moments of taunting from another prisoner in a cell across from you, Captain Picard........damn, I mean Emperor Uriel Septim and his private bodyguards The Blades, escorting him out of the city through a secret escape route that just so happens to go straight through your cell. JACKPOT!
There's of course backstory on why this is happening, but since I've gone too much into detail about the begining,I won't go into detail. But unfortunately things don't go acording to plan and you're sent off to find the Captain's, I mean Emperor's son who was born out of wedlock. There's a few more sections to get through, and of course you're allowed to either choose a prebuilt character class to play as, or you can create a completely new one from scratch. Either way you do it you're locked into that class for the remainder of the game.
After you've ventured out of the sewers beneith the city you're set free. That's right, you don't have to do the main quest at all. Hell if you really wanted to you could just walk around the MASSIVE province that's been set before you. There's alot to see, and even more to do. For every one new place you find, there's thousands more to find.
Of course like other RPG's you level your character up, and become more powerful. The game compensates for this by leveling the monsters accordingly, so that way new characters don't end up wandering around to someplace that they shouldn't have and being smacked down by the local level 1,000,000 baddie.
The story is told very well. It sucks you into it's world, puts you in a headlock, and never lets go. As I said before you start in prison, but after just a few min (if your like me and just went straight for the main quest) you'll be entering the plane of Oblivion itself to try and stem the flow of the lesser Daedra from overruning Tamriel.
Characters are fleshed out each with his or her own personality and even scheduals. Characters will go about daily life even if you're nowhere near them. Voice acting is done exceptionally well, and Patrick Stewart isn't the only famous voice that you'll hear. Sean Bean and Terence Stamp (General Zod from Superman II for those who don't know) lend thier voices, and acting tallents to the game. Each bringing a life to the characters that sets them apart from the others.
Wow, I'm starting to sound like a fanboy.
There's more to rave about this game, but that would start me in on all the other quests, and that's just to damn long. So I'll start getting into the flaws.
The game while has a great story, it will have the tendancy to leave you to figure out what you should do next. While the Journal does a good job of keeping track of your quests, some don't have any markers, or tell you outright what you're supposed to be doing.
Although the game does a great job of keeping the difficulty changing for you while you're playing, it can seem a little daunting. I've found myself going into the options menu a few times, and ramping down the difficulty just so I can get through a cave or dungeon I need to get through for a quest. Also the loot and gold you find on dead bodies, and chests are also leveled to your character. While this is good for keeping the powerful weapons outta the hands of brand new players, you'll often find yourself running low on cash and selling off almost everything in your inventory just to get your hands on a new spell, or weapon.
I've noticed a few hiccups in the game as well. There were times when certain people wouldn't load, or objects would just be stuck to the ceiling on some houses for no reason. Also there's been a few times when people give me a quest, then go out and get themselves killed, and I'm unable to complete the quest. These are all few and far between, but they can be annoying if you're not expecting it, or aren't prepared.
One of the biggest things that's kind of a let down is the voices of the other characters in the game. While the Patrick Stewart, Sean Bean and Terrance Stamp are all great in the roles they play, you'll end up hearing the same two or three voices from just about everyone in the game. I know that it would have taken time to hire more voice actors, and to make sure they all knew the lines that they had, but it would have added just a bit more depth to the game.
Combat can be a little overwhelming at time, specially if you're a new player. The controls all work, and are responsive, but there are times when you'll accidently hit one button, and end up doing something that does more harm than good in certain situations.
So there you have it. The joys and flaws of Oblivion. I'm sure there's more, and I'll find them eventually, but for now this is the bulk of how I feel about this game.
If you're an RPG fan, and don't mind playing for years on end to get the game 100% complete, then this is a game that will fit right in to your collection. Casual gamers may give this a pass, there's just to much to do and to explore, but it's worth at least a rent.
The next review will be the second part. It'll be.....interesting.
-Vangle
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