The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Review Part 1
For Those Who Have Played Morrowind
Tags: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Categories: Features, Xbox 360 Features, Xbox Features
Posted by Jake McNeill on Mar 29th, 2006
I’ll come clean right from the start here: I never played the first two games in the Elder Scrolls series, Arena and Daggerfall. Like many Xbox owners, my first experience with the series came from the third installment, Morrowind. However, because there are a lot of strong feelings about Morrowind (on both sides of the fence), I think it may be best to get a few things out of the way for those wondering how Oblivion compares to its direct predecessor.
The two games have many things in common.
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If you liked Morrowind, you’ll love Oblivion. If you hated Morrowind, odds are you probably won’t like Oblivion either. Like Morrowind, Oblivion is absolutely humongous, with a world that can take hours to get from one place to another (if you don’t make use of faster modes of transportation). Also, it’s every bit as open-ended, allowing you to play the game how you want (albeit now with even more options, with everything even more in depth than before). It’s about as complex and potentially confusing as Morrowind too, with tons of information bombarding you from every direction.
Morrowind was somewhat buggy, and suffered from framerate issues. Oblivion does too. Oblivion also has the same problem with long load times (and lots of them). The actual combat engine of Morrowind was pretty simplistic, and while Bethesda has made an admirable attempt to infuse Oblivion’s combat with more depth (in the form of a new blocking system), it’s still a pretty simplistic affair. Finally, Morrowind’s character models often looked quite ugly, and animated poorly, and that seems to be the case fairly often in Oblivion as well.
Now, as for what’s different…
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Perhaps most importantly, Oblivion is both deeper and more user-friendly than Morrowind was. The various characters and the world they inhabit now operate on far more intricately-designed game mechanics (such as a day-night schedule every character abides by), yet at the same time every attempt has been made to make things more clear and understandable. A small compass points you in the direction of your next objective, and maps now have a lot more functionality, allowing you to easily see where you’re going, and even click on a major landmark to travel there directly (no more silt striders and warp spells needed). The game lists current quests, active quests, and completed quests in a pretty intuitive menu, and tells you in clear, concise instructions what you need to do next. And rather than having to read endless text all the time, every last line of spoken dialogue in the game is actually… spoken (and that is a lot of spoken dialogue, by the way).
Thieves and law-abiders alike will find that illegal activities (like items that can be stolen and locked doors that can be picked) are now clearly marked in red, making it far less likely for you to accidentally commit a crime, and stolen items are now labeled as such, to make it easier for you to keep track of them. Lockpickers will notice a new minigame of sorts when they attempt to pick a lock (it’s not quite Splinter Cell, but it’s nice nonetheless). Those who enjoy the finer arts of haggling will find that their success at getting better prices is no longer on a by-item basis, but based on a rate (i.e. you can try to sell your items for 51% what they’re worth rather than 50%), and the old admire/bribe/threaten system has been replaced with a new minigame of its own. Other new additions include the ability to get a horse to expedite your long country treks, the ability to invest in a store, and the ability to acquire your own home (and you can even furnish and decorate it, too).
It would probably be fair to say that Morrowind was a technically impressive game, but featured a landscape so completely doused in brown that many didn’t care for the presentation. Oblivion, on the other hand, is absolutely beautiful, with deep green forests, brilliant orange and purple sunsets, shining white and gold architecture… hell, let’s not mince words – at times it is simply the best-looking game ever made, bar none.
Finally, a lot has been tweaked since Morrowind. There are fewer job classes (with a some classes being folded into others), and all enchanting of items must now be made in the mage’s academy in the capitol city. You can now only sleep in beds, but you can still make time pass by anywhere so long as no enemies are nearby. Also, the character-creation system for designing how you look is insanely intricate, considering you’re the only person who will ever see it (and even then, only if you go into third-person mode).
Like I said before, if you liked Morrowind, you’ll love Oblivion, and if you hated Morrowind, well, this game probably won’t change your mind. As for those who never played Morrowind who want to know whether or not to get Oblivion, I’d refer you to read on…
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Tags: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Posted by Jake McNeill on Mar 29th, 2006 and is filed under Features, Xbox 360 Features, Xbox Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
