Developer: Bethesda
Platform: PC (and others)
Release Year: 2006
Stephen's Rating: 3/10
A potentially incredible game ruined by an absolutely retarded skill system.
Basic Plot
Oblivion is set after the events that took place in Morrowind.
The game is set in the province of Cyrodiil and like the previous game the player takes the role of a prisoner of an unknown crime. The player quickly finds themselves escaping underground with the Emperor Uriel Septim VII (voiced by Patrcik Stuart). You are ambushed by the Mythic Dawn cult, the Emperor is killed, but he gives you an amulet to deliver before he dies.
In a nutshell hundreds of portals have opened up all over Cyrodiil which lead to the plane of Oblivion. This is caused by the lack of an Emperor... which I have some moral issues about but lets move on. The only way to stop the invasion of the Daedra is to find a rightful heir to the throne and get them to use the Amulet of Kings to light the Dragonfires.
Third person view in the game.
Gameplay
The game is at first glance a lot like Morrowind. It plays out as a first or third person single player role playing adventure in a vast world. There is a primary story to follow and a quest line to complete, as well as a huge variety of secondary quests which can be completed for various other factions or individuals.
I'll cut to the chase. The skill and advancement system is appalling. Here is how it works... When you start you choose from a large list of skills some to be your major skills, and some to be your minor. When you gain 10 skill points in either major or minor skills you level up. Depending on the skills you used to achieve the level up, you'll be able to increase different stats (strength, agility, endurance, etc). The frustrating thing is that in order to get the most out of a level up you need to keep track of what skills you've gained points in. Skills are linked to particular stats, and depending on how many gains you get in each skill point you will be allowed to increase your stats more or less. I literally still can't explain to myself how it all works but I can explain the impact.
Firstly, when you level up so do all your enemies. Throughout the game you will always take on opponents roughly the same level as you are. If you make poor choices in levelling up (i.e. just play the game normally) you will find yourself getting comparatively weaker and weaker in relation to your enemies. This is unintuitive and in my opinion a deeply flawed mechanic.
Secondly, you are essentially forced to keep track of your skill gains. This greatly takes away from the playing experience, as you'll find yourself carefully having to take notes with pen and paper and change the way you play in order to level up efficiently. This is absurd, for a game to expose this much of its core mechanics and force the player to keep track of it. It could mean if you gain a level in swordsmanship you might want to only get strength based skills, but while you run to hit another enemy you gain points in Athletics which is an agility skill (let's say), which screws up your levelling.
Character information.
All and all the skill advancement is very, very, very, very, very badly thought out and executed. I could not play this game once I learnt how it worked (and now I'm still a little confused...). I did find a patch which altered the skill system to be more organic, but people who bought this game for console didn't have that option.
Other than that... you spend a lot of time travelling around the world as you did in Morrowind. You can get mounts in this game, and there are many other small changes. You can enter Oblivion gates and close them. And instant travel was introduced which is a huge improvement from Morrowind where you had to find an in-game source of transport like a silt strider.
Positives
Instant travel. Patrick Stewart's voice.
Negatives
The skill system. The repetitiveness of the Oblivion zones. The annoying things people would say around cities. The regression in terms of the visual design of the world in comparison to Morrowind. Better graphics, worse design and detail. Single player only - what is the point in playing such a vast game when you can't share it with your friends?
Memorable Moments
I basically hate this game. It could have been awesome, but the skill system is retarded. And it's single player.
I have to disagree with you on two points, instant travel is a flaw, in my opinion that detracts from the overall experience. Single Player is a pro, and I won't even go into why right now.
ReplyDeleteOutside of that, I agree that the enemies leveling with you is stupid! The way attributes increase based on what kind of skills increase does make sense to me though.
I also prefer the world design of Morrowind. MUCH more interesting rather than generic medieval fantasy.
Overall, I still disagree with you because it's a great game to me, especially when modded. I did enjoy reading your review though and I respect your points.