You are trudging along an unseen road with a blade in your right hand. Deer gallop can franticly away as you come into view. You can practically hear the birds singing and you take in a deep breath of clean air. Butterflies flutter through the air and daisies bloom as you walk by. The sight is incredible - and your character gets stuck on a rock. Shaking about like a moron as you try to release yourself from the rocks iron hands. The belief of the game evaporates into thin air and you realize you are no longer a triumphant hero, but a lonely man with Playboy magazines.
This is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion; a buggy, non-linear game that took its claim to fame with graphics. Yes, the graphics are beautiful and the storyline drew me in, but the lack of voice actors and the glitches were awful. The graphics were the only thing I was counting on in Oblivion to keep me in, but later they failed me with the constant pausing and brief loading periods. We bought a game to play, not so we could look at a frozen screen and count how many flowers were on the trees. Yes, graphics are a nice detail to have in a game - especially if you want to make the game realistic - but you need to have a strong storyline too.
Many people may say that Oblivion's tale of a prisoner saving the only living heir to the throne and closing the Oblivion Gates was an epic tale. I say, that it was short and brief like every other quest in the game. Everything was surprisingly easy and my character was probably the strongest guy in the land. I could have easily token out the every guardsman on earth, and still had enough heath to go vampire hunting. That's another thing. The vampires were surprisingly ugly. I always thought of a vampire as a person that was beautiful - almost like they were frozen in time as an eighteen year old, but Oblivion made you this terrible creature that turned old and crusty two minutes after the change.
The fighting sounds of the game were realistic, but I don't think I would actually grunt while swinging a sword. The combat wasn't much to desire for. It was the usually clanking against armor and swords breaking while fighting. I can understand people breaking their weapons after long periods of time. Mine broke a second into the fight, leaving me to defend myself from a Minotaur with a hand blade. The ghouls were impossible to kill, unless you were skilled in magic and I was forced to run from room to room of the crypts to avoid the ghosts.
The characters were stiff and rude and many didn't like me because I was a dark elf. Racist as they were, I was able persuaded them with money. The voice acting was something to desire and the bodies were fake and unrealistic. The guild masters got angry when ever I hit the training equipment and they would all gang up on me like I have done something wrong. I wished there had been more guilds and groups because after completing the first five I got board.
The quests though were easy to follow and unique, making the game interesting. I like how I could stop in the middle of a quest and buy something I needed. Many of the quest were filled wih suprises and prizes that earned you a lot of gold. Ransacking peoples hose and stores also added an interesting idea to the game. These and the graphics were the turning point for me. These are the things that kept me going, even when the game got bad.
All in all Oblivion was a good game. I liked the story line and the graphics were amazing. I finished the game with amazing speed and kept crawling back for more. I was so impressed with the game I bought the Shivering Iles expansion pack. Every game has its problems, but Oblivion had more than a few - bring it from its full potential as amazing to ordinary.
Overall: B-
This is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion; a buggy, non-linear game that took its claim to fame with graphics. Yes, the graphics are beautiful and the storyline drew me in, but the lack of voice actors and the glitches were awful. The graphics were the only thing I was counting on in Oblivion to keep me in, but later they failed me with the constant pausing and brief loading periods. We bought a game to play, not so we could look at a frozen screen and count how many flowers were on the trees. Yes, graphics are a nice detail to have in a game - especially if you want to make the game realistic - but you need to have a strong storyline too.
Many people may say that Oblivion's tale of a prisoner saving the only living heir to the throne and closing the Oblivion Gates was an epic tale. I say, that it was short and brief like every other quest in the game. Everything was surprisingly easy and my character was probably the strongest guy in the land. I could have easily token out the every guardsman on earth, and still had enough heath to go vampire hunting. That's another thing. The vampires were surprisingly ugly. I always thought of a vampire as a person that was beautiful - almost like they were frozen in time as an eighteen year old, but Oblivion made you this terrible creature that turned old and crusty two minutes after the change.
The fighting sounds of the game were realistic, but I don't think I would actually grunt while swinging a sword. The combat wasn't much to desire for. It was the usually clanking against armor and swords breaking while fighting. I can understand people breaking their weapons after long periods of time. Mine broke a second into the fight, leaving me to defend myself from a Minotaur with a hand blade. The ghouls were impossible to kill, unless you were skilled in magic and I was forced to run from room to room of the crypts to avoid the ghosts.
The characters were stiff and rude and many didn't like me because I was a dark elf. Racist as they were, I was able persuaded them with money. The voice acting was something to desire and the bodies were fake and unrealistic. The guild masters got angry when ever I hit the training equipment and they would all gang up on me like I have done something wrong. I wished there had been more guilds and groups because after completing the first five I got board.
The quests though were easy to follow and unique, making the game interesting. I like how I could stop in the middle of a quest and buy something I needed. Many of the quest were filled wih suprises and prizes that earned you a lot of gold. Ransacking peoples hose and stores also added an interesting idea to the game. These and the graphics were the turning point for me. These are the things that kept me going, even when the game got bad.
All in all Oblivion was a good game. I liked the story line and the graphics were amazing. I finished the game with amazing speed and kept crawling back for more. I was so impressed with the game I bought the Shivering Iles expansion pack. Every game has its problems, but Oblivion had more than a few - bring it from its full potential as amazing to ordinary.
Overall: B-
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