I'm probably going to sound like a pretentious dick when I say this, but I bought Oblivion because Terry Pratchett really likes it and wouldn't shut up about it when I last met him. I'm serious. Admittedly my PC is too virus ridden and buggy to play this sort of game, whereas his was pretty much identical to that console they use in the Matrix films, so he was enjoying the PC version and I was playing the 360 version. And apparently I'm missing out on some really major things here because while Terry was ranting about something that sounded like it gave you blowjobs and cured cancer, I was playing something I'd only really consider renting if it wasn't so mind-bogglingly huge that buying it is the only way to really justify playing it and being able to credibly argue that you've had sufficient experience with the game to form an opinion.
The main thing it sounded like I'm missing out on here is the whole modding thing, which Terry fucking loves. He's going on about how he uses the mods to hunt more deer and plant crops and buy teddy bears to leave on the tops of mountains and stuff, and being on the 360 with a Live connection that can be at best described as "sedentary", I've not gotten any of that. My only real experience with modding was when I was playing Doom at what was, in retrospect, far too young an age to be playing Doom. I played mods where the enemies were Daleks, or Barney The Dinosaur, or a pool table with the balls being other marines and you sunk them by shooting rockets at them. So I can see where modding gets fun but honestly there seems to be some great arrogance in people saying "we can make games better than the people who actually made it and were paid for making it". I digress.
Oblivion, in case you live in the sixteenth century or something, is a massive RPG that is the latest in the Elder Scrolls series, the previous release being Morrowind, which I was distinctly glad I picked up in a bargain bin because when I played it was extremely gray, drizzly and depressing. It's one of those games that sacrifices characterisation for character customising - you can choose from about seven or eight races according to your wish, modify your facial structure in a slightly more in-depth, but less satisfying manner than Mass Effect, and it goes on and on. Even your birthsign has an effect in-game, which at first I found bemusing, but now I've dedicated a few dozen hours of my life to it can see that it creates some nice variation according to play style. Classes number in the dozens, or you can make your own. The problem with this, of course, is that the writers can't create a player character. You're just CHARNAME, someone who turns up with no relations to anyone in the entire world, and you go out and slaughter goblins in exchange for fabulous prizes. This makes it hard to feel any attachment to CHARNAME as a character and more than just a line of numbers and skill levels and you tend to notice that no-one refers to you by your name, even if they've known you for ages. You're just "you" or an alias according to whatever heroic deed you've performed lately. It sort of ruins the point of being able to choose your own name if no-ones ever going to call you it. Which is the problem with voice-acting, I suppose. When text-based games were all the rage, you could see PC's use your name (and abuse this feature by naming yourself "Big Willy" or something to make the King of Magicland swear in casual conversation) but obviously they can't do that any more when they bring in people to actually talk at you, so they either have to write you a name you cant change, or just call you "you". Jedi Academy did quite well by calling you the nicely androgynous "Jaden Korr", which could be male or female, and of pretty much any species. Again, I digress.
The main concept of the Elder Scrolls series seems to be the open world option, where player freedom is at the maximum. "How do you play it?" the dev staff are asked, to which they answer "Well, how do you want to play it?" You can be a swordsman, a mage, an archer, a sneaky thief, an alchemist, a fist fighter, a blacksmith and a myriad of other skills and talents, in whatever combination you choose, and alignment doesn't come up at all. You don't have to be Lawful Stupid or Chaotic Twat, you don't have a light side/darkside bar, you're just you and you do as you wish. Sandbox to the extreme. The problem here is that this reduces the impetus of the story, of the drive. You can walk out into the sunlight from the first training mission and spent thirty hours doing side quests. I very nearly did.
Now, the levelling system in this works by having you level up (which increases your stats) when you've improved your core skills enough (by doing whatever action is appropriate - casting spells to improve your magic etc). Core skills vary from class to class, but mostly they involve one weapon type, one armour type and then a selection of ancilliary skills. I chose the first time to be a Scout and a Bosmer (wood elf) since I always had this hard on for Rangers (not in a gay way, although I would bang Aragorn) with a birthsign of The Thief, so my main emphasis was on ranged combat, light armour and the mixing of potions. The problem was that ranged combat is pretty nerfed in this game and at best you're firing off one or two arrows before the enemy is able to close in close with you and you need to switch to melee weapons, and the damage they do isn't really worth it. So the second time I went Nord, with a custom classed based on Heavy Armour, Blade, Armour and Alchemy again, because Alchemy is pretty ridiculous. Let me tell you why. Most other skills require you to really do something - go out and cast spells, or get in a fight, or fix your armour when its damage. But Alchemy just requires you to have a mortar and pestle (which you pick up in the training level), pick a flower and then boom you have a potion and some xp towards your next level up, without even having to try. By having Alchemy as a core skill, you can level up pretty obscenely quick, and make a lot of money selling potions. Its just a skill I can't see any reason to not have, no matter what you're going for with your character because ingredients are fucking everywhere and cost nothing.
Graphically, there isn't too much to complain about, but also not much to compliment. The towns are well done but the country sides sweeping vistas don't work very well and when you go into the water its an excersize in murkiness and clipping issues. If you go into the wilderness, the long grass is so stiff and artificial closs up that its nearly impossible to tell when a bear is running through it at you, which can be frustrating on occasion. The lip synching is okay, but far from perfect, and the voice actor cast is criminally small. There are perhaps four distinct characters and the rest of the thousands of NPCs are populated by about half a dozen voices. Argonians, Khajit and Redguard have one voice actor for each gender, and every elf race is close to that.
The controls are fairly simple and intuitive, with the right trigger being to use a weapon, the left to block with a sheild or weapon, and the right bumper being used to cast whatever spell is selected. There are a fairly versatile range of spells, including healing magic, offensive magic, summoning spells to create a little gremlin to fight for you and spells to open locks, rendering the Security skill farily pointless to anyone with a few ranks in Alteration.
The music comprises of instrumental, orchestral music that nicely matches the atmosphere, from sweet, sentimental music when looking over a lakeside at sunset to energetic battle music the second an enemy locks on to you (in the long grass this may in fact be the only clue you have that there are any enemies in the area, up until a mountain lion starts eating your face). It's a nice touch and I really can't say anything bad about it.
I took all of Terrys raving with a pinch of salt, remembering the drudgery of Morrowind, but I actually found myself having some fun with this game (I know, shock horror). Theres a certain wit about it that I find entertaining, such as the Lovecraft inspired mission, or the woman who is "just curious" about the fine for necrophilia in Cyrodil. There are some niggles of course - such as telepathic guardsmen who KNOW that you stole an apple in the otherwise empty room with no windows and the locked door and DAMN YOU FOR IT, DAMN YOUR EYES, or when the merchants somehow are able to smell the scent of thievery upon you and are somehow able to choose which items are stolen in your inventory and refuse to even acknowledge they exist. I could also get my little atheist knicers in a twist about how the gods give you blessings in a very shamelessly Christian chapel and the only openly atheist character in the game turns out to be a member of a nasty cult (don't worry its only one of those same-voiced NPCs, not a major plot point) and tries to stick a shiv in you when you piss said nasty cult off, but whatever. Its a fantasy setting, so the whole "gods being real" deal is quite suited for that (har har har, funny joke time). Oh, and who thought GLASS would make for good weapons and armour? I'm serious here. The weapon heirarchy somehow suggests that Ebony and Glass are better for making swords and armour out of than those traditional materials of Iron and Steel.
Anyway, in summary. The games huge, try to play it right or you'll find yourself raped by bears, and I can see why you would like this game but I wouldn't label it Game of the Year. If I were the sort to give numbers in reviews, it would probably be in the mid 80's range, much like the worlds worst fashion, and I apologise for condemning it to that smarmy glo-brite grave, but it had to be done.
The main thing it sounded like I'm missing out on here is the whole modding thing, which Terry fucking loves. He's going on about how he uses the mods to hunt more deer and plant crops and buy teddy bears to leave on the tops of mountains and stuff, and being on the 360 with a Live connection that can be at best described as "sedentary", I've not gotten any of that. My only real experience with modding was when I was playing Doom at what was, in retrospect, far too young an age to be playing Doom. I played mods where the enemies were Daleks, or Barney The Dinosaur, or a pool table with the balls being other marines and you sunk them by shooting rockets at them. So I can see where modding gets fun but honestly there seems to be some great arrogance in people saying "we can make games better than the people who actually made it and were paid for making it". I digress.
Oblivion, in case you live in the sixteenth century or something, is a massive RPG that is the latest in the Elder Scrolls series, the previous release being Morrowind, which I was distinctly glad I picked up in a bargain bin because when I played it was extremely gray, drizzly and depressing. It's one of those games that sacrifices characterisation for character customising - you can choose from about seven or eight races according to your wish, modify your facial structure in a slightly more in-depth, but less satisfying manner than Mass Effect, and it goes on and on. Even your birthsign has an effect in-game, which at first I found bemusing, but now I've dedicated a few dozen hours of my life to it can see that it creates some nice variation according to play style. Classes number in the dozens, or you can make your own. The problem with this, of course, is that the writers can't create a player character. You're just CHARNAME, someone who turns up with no relations to anyone in the entire world, and you go out and slaughter goblins in exchange for fabulous prizes. This makes it hard to feel any attachment to CHARNAME as a character and more than just a line of numbers and skill levels and you tend to notice that no-one refers to you by your name, even if they've known you for ages. You're just "you" or an alias according to whatever heroic deed you've performed lately. It sort of ruins the point of being able to choose your own name if no-ones ever going to call you it. Which is the problem with voice-acting, I suppose. When text-based games were all the rage, you could see PC's use your name (and abuse this feature by naming yourself "Big Willy" or something to make the King of Magicland swear in casual conversation) but obviously they can't do that any more when they bring in people to actually talk at you, so they either have to write you a name you cant change, or just call you "you". Jedi Academy did quite well by calling you the nicely androgynous "Jaden Korr", which could be male or female, and of pretty much any species. Again, I digress.
The main concept of the Elder Scrolls series seems to be the open world option, where player freedom is at the maximum. "How do you play it?" the dev staff are asked, to which they answer "Well, how do you want to play it?" You can be a swordsman, a mage, an archer, a sneaky thief, an alchemist, a fist fighter, a blacksmith and a myriad of other skills and talents, in whatever combination you choose, and alignment doesn't come up at all. You don't have to be Lawful Stupid or Chaotic Twat, you don't have a light side/darkside bar, you're just you and you do as you wish. Sandbox to the extreme. The problem here is that this reduces the impetus of the story, of the drive. You can walk out into the sunlight from the first training mission and spent thirty hours doing side quests. I very nearly did.
Now, the levelling system in this works by having you level up (which increases your stats) when you've improved your core skills enough (by doing whatever action is appropriate - casting spells to improve your magic etc). Core skills vary from class to class, but mostly they involve one weapon type, one armour type and then a selection of ancilliary skills. I chose the first time to be a Scout and a Bosmer (wood elf) since I always had this hard on for Rangers (not in a gay way, although I would bang Aragorn) with a birthsign of The Thief, so my main emphasis was on ranged combat, light armour and the mixing of potions. The problem was that ranged combat is pretty nerfed in this game and at best you're firing off one or two arrows before the enemy is able to close in close with you and you need to switch to melee weapons, and the damage they do isn't really worth it. So the second time I went Nord, with a custom classed based on Heavy Armour, Blade, Armour and Alchemy again, because Alchemy is pretty ridiculous. Let me tell you why. Most other skills require you to really do something - go out and cast spells, or get in a fight, or fix your armour when its damage. But Alchemy just requires you to have a mortar and pestle (which you pick up in the training level), pick a flower and then boom you have a potion and some xp towards your next level up, without even having to try. By having Alchemy as a core skill, you can level up pretty obscenely quick, and make a lot of money selling potions. Its just a skill I can't see any reason to not have, no matter what you're going for with your character because ingredients are fucking everywhere and cost nothing.
Graphically, there isn't too much to complain about, but also not much to compliment. The towns are well done but the country sides sweeping vistas don't work very well and when you go into the water its an excersize in murkiness and clipping issues. If you go into the wilderness, the long grass is so stiff and artificial closs up that its nearly impossible to tell when a bear is running through it at you, which can be frustrating on occasion. The lip synching is okay, but far from perfect, and the voice actor cast is criminally small. There are perhaps four distinct characters and the rest of the thousands of NPCs are populated by about half a dozen voices. Argonians, Khajit and Redguard have one voice actor for each gender, and every elf race is close to that.
The controls are fairly simple and intuitive, with the right trigger being to use a weapon, the left to block with a sheild or weapon, and the right bumper being used to cast whatever spell is selected. There are a fairly versatile range of spells, including healing magic, offensive magic, summoning spells to create a little gremlin to fight for you and spells to open locks, rendering the Security skill farily pointless to anyone with a few ranks in Alteration.
The music comprises of instrumental, orchestral music that nicely matches the atmosphere, from sweet, sentimental music when looking over a lakeside at sunset to energetic battle music the second an enemy locks on to you (in the long grass this may in fact be the only clue you have that there are any enemies in the area, up until a mountain lion starts eating your face). It's a nice touch and I really can't say anything bad about it.
I took all of Terrys raving with a pinch of salt, remembering the drudgery of Morrowind, but I actually found myself having some fun with this game (I know, shock horror). Theres a certain wit about it that I find entertaining, such as the Lovecraft inspired mission, or the woman who is "just curious" about the fine for necrophilia in Cyrodil. There are some niggles of course - such as telepathic guardsmen who KNOW that you stole an apple in the otherwise empty room with no windows and the locked door and DAMN YOU FOR IT, DAMN YOUR EYES, or when the merchants somehow are able to smell the scent of thievery upon you and are somehow able to choose which items are stolen in your inventory and refuse to even acknowledge they exist. I could also get my little atheist knicers in a twist about how the gods give you blessings in a very shamelessly Christian chapel and the only openly atheist character in the game turns out to be a member of a nasty cult (don't worry its only one of those same-voiced NPCs, not a major plot point) and tries to stick a shiv in you when you piss said nasty cult off, but whatever. Its a fantasy setting, so the whole "gods being real" deal is quite suited for that (har har har, funny joke time). Oh, and who thought GLASS would make for good weapons and armour? I'm serious here. The weapon heirarchy somehow suggests that Ebony and Glass are better for making swords and armour out of than those traditional materials of Iron and Steel.
Anyway, in summary. The games huge, try to play it right or you'll find yourself raped by bears, and I can see why you would like this game but I wouldn't label it Game of the Year. If I were the sort to give numbers in reviews, it would probably be in the mid 80's range, much like the worlds worst fashion, and I apologise for condemning it to that smarmy glo-brite grave, but it had to be done.
