Loading ...From here to Oblivion
The good thing about these games is that they just get better and better. I remember playing Legends of Valor and Seasons of the Abyss where you could travel from town to town or venture out into the wild and explore dungeons. Visit craftsmen and guilds, learn spells, buy armour weapons and trade etc. Even in Legends of Valor you could be turned into vampire.
Morrowind is where I picked up on the Eldar Scrolls series. It’s a well made game. If you owned a hog of a machine and cranked up the graphics, you could fully enjoy the beauty of them. There was so much to do. When you started a game and opened up the map screen you could see the whole unexplored fog of war. The whole world where, if you follow the steps of the story you will pretty much explore it all. I was too tempted just to run aimlessly around, killing things for a time. We have game catagories nowadays like Shoot em up and RPG, but to be honest Morrowind is like GTA game in a fantasy world.
And now Oblivion although something similar is a fresh take on the Cyrodil world. The amount of quests is just plain ludicrous. The graphics have been redone and look marvellous! Although it really helps if you have a beast of a machine. I think the game is great, they really have brought a good variety to the game, in terms of races, characters, locations items etc. And the main story line, although I’m only a short time playing, is compelling.
Each quest can have twists and turns and the many guilds you can be a part of will keep you interested. There are guilds to become assassins, thieves or you can just hack people to bits in the Arena. A game this size however cannot escape from the occasional glitch. The game is not riddled with them, but they are there. But you will overlook them as you are in the prescence of greatness!
The NPCs are so autonomous that the game could nearly pass as a mmorpg.
To sum up…
It’s Grand Theft Auto with Swords and Sorcery
It’s huge
It’s a mmorpg without the lag and the spammers
I must agree fully!!! It is a beast of a game….the likes of which we only see every couple of years. Having played Oblivion it makes me cry to think that games like Half Life 2/Doom 3 are seen as the pinnacle of PC gaming….because they are quite obviously not!
I have spent more time playing Oblivion than I ever spent on a FPS, and I haven’t even scratched the surface! I find the mix of magic and brawn fantastic. Just because you choose to play a fighter (or a bard in my case) does not mean you are tied into an experience on tracks…hacking and slashing from x to y….Oblivion has a structured skill set…which allows you to develop any skills through using them.
Because of this system I have developed a powerful fighter…quick and deadly in light armour with an array of spells to heal and destroy. I am an adept lock picker and not too bad at sneaking around! If I was to start the game again…I could have done things completely differently…and as Martin mentioned spent all my time fighting in the Arena…to be come a much more powerful fighter.
Regarding the quests….yes it is ridiculous. At one stage I had 18 quests going at once. I found it difficult to be dragged away from the main plot to go off on tangents…..but I found when I did it could be days before I made it back to the main plot! Each new town is diverse, and harbours a range of quests to keep you busy. Most quests reward your hard work with gold and perhaps a magic item (and experience of course!!)
With all that said no game this size can be perfect. In one quest I had to close up about 5 Oblivion gates in a row….I did get a sickening sense of deja vu. However at any point during that quest I knew I could just run out and find something else to do!
This is a great game…if you have not bought it buy it now. If you can’t afford it steal from the rich to get a copy. Don’t get a pirate….because you run the risk of the next Oblivion game looking like Pacman…because you’ll put the game programmers out of business!!!!!!
10 out of 10!
Comment by Justin — May 22, 2006 @ 8:56 am