krinkles
09-13-2009, 02:26 PM
about four months ago, i got extremely bored with all the games i had. i had played them all to death, and i had nothing to do. sure, i love playing on the S&D server with you guys, but it's almost always full, and i don't like to spend a half hour waiting to try and get into the server. for a long time i've heard great things about this game, and so with the recent price drop at my local gamestop, i decided i'd go out and get the three-pack.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is an absolutely incredible game. i can't stress that enough. if you like fantasy, this is it, this is your halo. with over 80 square kilometers of open, explorable space, more quests than you can shake a nuke at, and such an incredible amount of dungeons and detail therein, this game rocks. every quest in the game is unique, and every character is as well. the amount of time you will spend playing this game will rack up to more than a thousand hours, easily. and that's the straight Oblivion. as i mentioned, i picked up the standard pack now, which is Oblivion, Knights of the Nine, and Shivering Isles. while Knights of the Nine just adds an epic quest arc with some amazing enchanted items in the Oblivion world, the Shivering Isles expansion is where it shines. you have an entire new world to explore, something on the order of 60km square; not to mention a whole new epic quest arc for that world, and the many many quests and dungeons therein. like i said, this game is incredible. this isn't even getting into the unscripted evens, like thieves stealing things and bandits attacking you as you travel. i haven't even gotten to items yet. the sheer number of items is staggering, falling under many different categories, such as heavy and light armor, the different types of weapons and their own subsections, enchanted items, books, spell scrolls, potions, the list goes on. did i even mention the graphics on this game yet? absolutely stunning. buildings and trees and everything looks like it's been individually created, and all the textures look like they were taken right from real life. then you get into those dark dungeons, and you can light a torch and watch as the area around you lights up and corners are dark. then you have your magics, creating their own glows. your weapons gleam and if you have an enchanted weapon, it glows, normally with red, but i've seen green and gold. better yet, if you raid one dungeon, you can get a sword by the name of Heaven's Wrath, which is actually on fire, and deals fire damage to your enemies. the skill list is long, and your attributes dictate how quickly certain skills level up. you will also find that leveling up is a long process that requires skill and patience. better than that, all the enemies you face will have been leveling with you, and stayed at the same if not higher level than you, depending on difficulty. another very interesting thing in this game is the ability to own property. in each city in the Oblivion realm there is a house for sale, ranging in prices. these houses you will use to store all your loot in, because you're only human and you can't just carry a buh-jillion weapons and armor with you. gameplay is the odd one out though. it is excellent for a game like this, but i feel it might have been better. as i see it, it is really just a hack-and-slash most of the time if you are a warrior or knight of some sort. however, if you are a magic-user, you will find that you will need to plan out and use strategy a lot. it requires real skill to be an all-out magic user, but in the end you will be one of the most powerful, killing enemies in one or two hits. the magic system has different categories, and in my opinion is a bit eh. it's the basic "your skill allows you to use this magic, and it will use this much of your magic power" kind of thing. don't get me wrong, the amount of skills and how you use them is amazing, and the thought and skill required to effectively use it is way up there. this is not WoW lol. another thing i thought i'd mention is the vampirism. if you get infected by a vampire, you go through three stages, of which you take more damage from sunlight and you just become more and more powerful. once you get to the third stage of vampirism, you can pretty much destroy any dungeon, but you take a ton of damage by just being in the light. a very interesting aspect to the game.
so i have to say, my final rating of this game is 95/100. and for 20$ on the PC, you just can't beat this game in the fantasy category.
graphics gets a 10/10
gameplay gets a 9/10
main story gets a 10/10
http://www.gameguru.in/images/oblivion-pc-update-released.jpg
http://www.swotti.com/tmp/swotti/cacheDGHLIGVSZGVYIHNJCM9SBHMGAXY=U29MDHDHCMUTVMLKZ W8GR2FTAW5N/imgThe%20Elder%20Scrolls%20IV3.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DNgyYOpFK2Q/Ri-MC56p54I/AAAAAAAAALI/LsjiewYw5oI/s400/the_elder_scrolls_iv_oblivion_shivering_isles_8.jp g
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is an absolutely incredible game. i can't stress that enough. if you like fantasy, this is it, this is your halo. with over 80 square kilometers of open, explorable space, more quests than you can shake a nuke at, and such an incredible amount of dungeons and detail therein, this game rocks. every quest in the game is unique, and every character is as well. the amount of time you will spend playing this game will rack up to more than a thousand hours, easily. and that's the straight Oblivion. as i mentioned, i picked up the standard pack now, which is Oblivion, Knights of the Nine, and Shivering Isles. while Knights of the Nine just adds an epic quest arc with some amazing enchanted items in the Oblivion world, the Shivering Isles expansion is where it shines. you have an entire new world to explore, something on the order of 60km square; not to mention a whole new epic quest arc for that world, and the many many quests and dungeons therein. like i said, this game is incredible. this isn't even getting into the unscripted evens, like thieves stealing things and bandits attacking you as you travel. i haven't even gotten to items yet. the sheer number of items is staggering, falling under many different categories, such as heavy and light armor, the different types of weapons and their own subsections, enchanted items, books, spell scrolls, potions, the list goes on. did i even mention the graphics on this game yet? absolutely stunning. buildings and trees and everything looks like it's been individually created, and all the textures look like they were taken right from real life. then you get into those dark dungeons, and you can light a torch and watch as the area around you lights up and corners are dark. then you have your magics, creating their own glows. your weapons gleam and if you have an enchanted weapon, it glows, normally with red, but i've seen green and gold. better yet, if you raid one dungeon, you can get a sword by the name of Heaven's Wrath, which is actually on fire, and deals fire damage to your enemies. the skill list is long, and your attributes dictate how quickly certain skills level up. you will also find that leveling up is a long process that requires skill and patience. better than that, all the enemies you face will have been leveling with you, and stayed at the same if not higher level than you, depending on difficulty. another very interesting thing in this game is the ability to own property. in each city in the Oblivion realm there is a house for sale, ranging in prices. these houses you will use to store all your loot in, because you're only human and you can't just carry a buh-jillion weapons and armor with you. gameplay is the odd one out though. it is excellent for a game like this, but i feel it might have been better. as i see it, it is really just a hack-and-slash most of the time if you are a warrior or knight of some sort. however, if you are a magic-user, you will find that you will need to plan out and use strategy a lot. it requires real skill to be an all-out magic user, but in the end you will be one of the most powerful, killing enemies in one or two hits. the magic system has different categories, and in my opinion is a bit eh. it's the basic "your skill allows you to use this magic, and it will use this much of your magic power" kind of thing. don't get me wrong, the amount of skills and how you use them is amazing, and the thought and skill required to effectively use it is way up there. this is not WoW lol. another thing i thought i'd mention is the vampirism. if you get infected by a vampire, you go through three stages, of which you take more damage from sunlight and you just become more and more powerful. once you get to the third stage of vampirism, you can pretty much destroy any dungeon, but you take a ton of damage by just being in the light. a very interesting aspect to the game.
so i have to say, my final rating of this game is 95/100. and for 20$ on the PC, you just can't beat this game in the fantasy category.
graphics gets a 10/10
gameplay gets a 9/10
main story gets a 10/10
http://www.gameguru.in/images/oblivion-pc-update-released.jpg
http://www.swotti.com/tmp/swotti/cacheDGHLIGVSZGVYIHNJCM9SBHMGAXY=U29MDHDHCMUTVMLKZ W8GR2FTAW5N/imgThe%20Elder%20Scrolls%20IV3.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_DNgyYOpFK2Q/Ri-MC56p54I/AAAAAAAAALI/LsjiewYw5oI/s400/the_elder_scrolls_iv_oblivion_shivering_isles_8.jp g