Review by Sinbomb

With all the strife and division in the world these days, its nice when someone or something can rise above that and unite people along a common bond. In this case, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion serves such a purpose, bucking the console RPG trend of endlessly imitating the established Final Fantasy tradition, to deliver a universally-accepting masterpiece that both RPG fans and haters alike can agree is worthwhile.

Gameplay
After more than a decade of existence, the Elder Scrolls series has managed only four distinct releases. Although this may seem to be a case of laziness, unremarkable sales, or excessive partying, the real reasoning is that the developers do not measure their games in the tens of hours, but rather the hundreds. Anyone concerned about conquering Oblivion in a single sleepless, caffeine-fueled binge should cast their reservations aside. It will take several such binges, and even then it is unlikely you will have seen the whole of it.

Boasting a virtual fantasy playground spanning sixteen square miles, Oblivion can be thought of jokingly as an inexpensive vacation, but players will have to bring their own bikinis and margaritas. Add onto that another two hundred or so hand-crafted dungeons, and portals leading to the randomly generated, titular dimension of Oblivion, and even the most demanding gamers will have to appreciate the sheer magnitude of variety laid graciously before them.

Experienced via first or third-person perspective, Oblivion's control and play style is more akin to games like Condemned or Halo than Final Fantasy, foregoing party dynamics and allowing a greater level of immersion by opting to drop the player directly into the storyline rather than forcing them to witness the events vicariously. In effect, this imbues gamers with a stronger sense of purpose and control than would otherwise be possible. Anyone succumbing to a mean streak has the complete freedom of choice to plunder, loot, and backstab at their whim, but expect swift repercussions in the form of arrests/imprisonment and violently vengeful NPCs, who do not care much for betrayal or psychoticism.

One of the most attractive features of Oblivion is its refusal to impose a predefined job class or set of abilities on the player. Instead, the game responds to each individual's particular style of play by increasing only those skills that are used during the course of the adventure. The system is simple, elegant, and powerful, allowing for more personalized, organic character growth than mere experience points can hope to simulate. For those players wishing for a bit more guidance, a variety of job templates are also available to choose from, and are a perfectly valid and effective choice for either the uncertain novice or the seasoned veteran.

Advancement of the plotline is again left to the discretion of the player. Feel free to follow the general structure of the main storyline or the five major guilds/factions, but those who stray from the beaten path are also rewarded for their curiosity and intrepid spirit, and it just so turns out that the bulk of gameplay is found in these off-road excursions. In case you suddenly find yourself lost in the middle of the forest and you've forgotten what it was you were trying to accomplish, Oblivion provides a couple of user-friendly tools to help get things back on track. The quest log gives a detailed description of all currently active storylines, and allows the user to specify one as a primary objective. A small marker will then appear on the compass indicating the general direction of the goal. Furthermore, long distances can be covered instantly by selecting a desired location on the map, but only if the destination has already been visited once before. This feature helps to condense the action for more dramatic pacing, and is a welcome addition to the series.

Combat is perhaps the only area in which the gameplay seems to lose focus. There is a fairly well-developed stealth engine in place, taking into account lighting, speed of movement, line-of-sight, and clothing weight/material. Sneak attacks can be made, considerably multiplying the amount of damage inflicted and granting a substantial advantage right off the bat, but sadly, players with an assassin/thief character will find a lot more depth here than those with a melee brawler. For the fighter/warrior classes, a bevy of weapon types have been included. Unfortunately, each requires that the user simply get in close to their opponent and hack, hack, hack until they or the enemy falls dead. By pressing the left trigger, players can bring up a shield for defense, however its implementation is crude and less entertaining than it should be. Certain weapon proficiency levels grant paralysis or knockdown power attacks, but again these additions do little to break the overall monotony. Archery also has a place in Oblivion, however the lack of area-specific damage saps some of the skill and fun out of it. Magic in the game is broken down into different schools and is generally entertaining, but there are a few questionably useless spells and some of the effects are underwhelming, although it stands a good head and shoulders above melee fighting.

Graphics
Never before has a game world been brought to life so convincingly or with so much attention to detail. Honestly, there are moments where framing the onscreen image would be a pretty wise decision. Draw distances extend all the way to distant mountain slopes bathed in the warm umber glow of the setting sun, or down into mist-shrouded valleys where lightning flashes eerily illuminate ancient ruins and spires on a dark and stormy night. The brilliant lighting engine displays the entire gamut of worldly weather effects in achingly beautiful HD, while the procedurally drawn forests burst with vitality and seem as if ripped straight from a dream.

All this graphical majesty comes at a price, however. Every so often the game will chug for a moment as it draws in new terrain, and small foliage pop-in occurs at disappointingly close range. This would also be an appropriate spot to mention the modest load times when transitioning between towns and open wilderness, presumably for the same reason of loading up textures. Somewhat humorously, the character models in the game can only be described as ugly, not in the sense that they are low resolution, just that these are some ugly people/creatures, and almost none of them look to be less than thirty years old. Other minor graphical beefs, such as lackluster underwater effects and simple flame animations can be seen as fair tradeoffs, and do nothing to damage the overall immersiveness. For a series that has never been known for graphical flair, Oblivion is an absolute surprise knockout winner in this regard.

Sound
In keeping with the highly ambitious nature of the title, Oblivion's designers gave each NPC in the game full professionally-voiced lines. Prominent celebrities such as Patrick Stewart (Cpt. Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek: Next Generation), Sean Bean (Boromir of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy), and Terence Stamp (General Zod of Superman II) lend their noteworthy talents to the pivotal characters in Oblivion, but the remainder simply rely on recycled lines from a handful of secondary voice actors. From time to time this can be a bit jarring, as when two NPCs have a conversation with each other using the same voice, but it is something players will have to forgive. Longtime admired videogame composer Jeremy Soule also returns to grace Oblivion with light, ethereal pieces that complement the game nicely, and never seem to wear thin no matter how often they are heard. Sound effects are either hit or miss, the weather and environmental ambience being spot-on and the weapon sounds being dull and repetitive.

Multiplayer
Lacking any sort of multiplayer mode, this absence translates into Oblivion's "Achilles Heel", especially as it seems ideally suited for co-op play. Perhaps it is unrealistic to expect something like this considering how demanding it must be on the 360's processor (Oblivion utilizes all three cores), but the inclusion of such would have completed the experience in grandiose style.

Achievements
Even though Oblivion lists 50 achievements, they are all connected to the central storyline and the major guilds of the world. Not one of them displays any sort of creativity, and most gamers should have no trouble at all unlocking everything. It would have been nice to see achievements requiring players to ride the unicorn or locate a rare item, but this is where Bethesda decided to slap on a quick and dirty solution. At least they do require that you actually play the game through to unlock them, but a lot more could have been done here.

Lasting Appeal
Once the main quest, and presumably the guild storylines, have been finished, motivated gamers may still continue on with their exploration, but eventually interest will wane and die off due to lack of a cohesive story and direction. Bethesda has promised additional content made available for download from Live Marketplace, but so far the released "Horse Armor", "The Orrery", "Wizard's Tower" and "Thieves' Den" packs leave much to be desired in terms of value. Users always have the option of creating a new character from scratch, but the casual player will find the task of repeating the lengthy quests to be more of a chore than a blessing.

Final Score

• Gargantuan game world = The most bang for your buck on the 360
• Freedom to play how you want, be whomever you desire

• Melee combat is a little rough around the edges
• Load screens give you plenty of time to ponder the meaning of life

Note: A rating scale of 0 - 10 is used, with 10 being the highest a game can score while 0 is the absolute worst. Each category has a point value associated with it and a final score is displayed at the end of the review. The opinions expressed in this review are not necessarily the opinions held by the owners of www.achieve360points.com.