Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

“The Emperor is dead!” Murdered in an assassination plot, Emperor Uriel Septum the VII ruler of Tamriel and voiced by Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Patrick Stewart, turns to you in his dying breath and tasks you, an unwitting citizen who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, with defending the realm against the daedric hoards ready to spew forth from the portals of Oblivion.

A day in the life of Nester Nimble-Fingers

The blinding rays of sunlight force open the red man-lizard eyes of Nester Nimble-Fingers. It is an early dawn and a new day for the simple minded Argonian (6 a.m./INT 4). Cruel village people had attacked the poor scavenger and chased him from their city’s streets the night before (attempted to steal nifty looking armor/failed). Abandoning camp the leather clad rogue foraged the woods looking for the path which lead him to safety (time to go/where am I?) Heading in the opposite direction of yesterdays misunderstanding Nester quickly travelled the county roads picking any valuable plants littering the country side (must get to town/need cash).

The gates of Cheydinhal opened readily for the weary traveler as he briskly slips into the morning crowd. City streets curved fittingly around the horizon. Wood and stone texture lay upon the city like a blanket of homely distinction. City guards eyed the drab looking Nester while he sneakily passed by their patrol stations.

Walking past a mash up of local shops, Nester spotted a wealthy looking man whose wallet appeared to loosely hang by his side.

“I’d better help him out and let him know of this carelessness,” Nester thought. “One can never be too careful in this world of rapscallions.”

Poising silently to strike, Nester snatched at the wealthy man’s purse. Holding the treasured purse high for all to see, Nester boasted of his successful outing of the mismanaged belongings. The posh man spun around with a sharp scowl.

“Thief!” cried the rounded aristocrat.

Villagers sprung into a frenzy of curses and vile contempt, running around the poor misunderstood Nester. Panic ensued. Nester looked hopingly into the eyes of discontent villagers. Each pupil showed him with scorn. Escape filled his simple mind, the only option which may save him from the ensuing thrashing. The guards would be on him quickly. Nester turned to flee but instead he met the silvery gleam of the city guardsmen’s armor.

“It’s the infamous bandit Nester Nimble Fingers! Pay your fines villain! $10, 000 septims or it’s back to the dungeons for you.”

The Argonian suddenly perked up, drawing his steel dagger with a defiant shriek.

“You’ll never take me alive!” Nester cried as he flailed his dagger left and right.

Guards flooded the city streets, each looking for their chance to aid in the capture of the largest bounty in the land. Nester tuned back again only to find more and more guards barreling down on him. Soon the only sound Nester could make out was the cracking of steel broad swords stabbing at his scaly hide (curses, wrong button).

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a defining moment in console gaming. Its release sent shock waves into the gaming community as the Role Playing Game selection for the Xbox 360 went from zero to hero when it hit the shelves. Even games which have followed, like Mass Effect and Fallout all seemed to have learned from the Oblivion example –a rich and detailed non-Final Fantasy RPG can still be a success.

The game follows you on a quest to return the amulet of kings to a rightful heir who can prevent an evil cult from opening the gates of the demon world Oblivion and unleashing the horrors within. With nearly 41 square kilometres of geography to explore, the sandbox style game play gives you the freedom to roam the countryside taking quests from locals and playing for hours without ever pursuing the main storyline.

The immense level of details will draw you into a fully flushed out and realized world. A stroll down the city streets will treat you to bustling crowds of NPC’s going about their daily business while braving the fiery wastelands of Oblivion will see you raiding the giant citadels of the Daedric lords. Whether you are a patient or impatient player, Oblivion satisfies all appetites.

Cities are packed with everything you’d expect to see from shops selling everything under the sun to local libraries featuring hundreds of readable books. Troubled civilians will conscript your talents for a plethora of different quests from killing off rats to trailing and uncovering the dealings anti-union shop traders. Everywhere you turn there is something to do.

Diverse groups of races and people populate the society within the game. Some races have distinguishable traits such as: the Argonian lizard men’s natural ability to breath underwater and the free night vision abilities of the Khajiit cat-people.

Creating a new character allows you to choose from any of these races as well as many others. Fully customizable appearances confront you with an almost daunting list of adjustable features, making you feel a little unqualified in character designing.

The graphics are simply astounding. Although released in March 2006 for the Xbox 360, the look of the game still holds up to this day. The characters feel solid and move about fluidly, for the most part, in the world around them. The real “wow” factor of the graphics comes in the spanning landscapes presented to the player. Luscious green grass-hills roll off into the northern mountains, while tress dot the horizon to the south. As you complete the tutorial and step out of the prison sewers every direction you turn beacons to have its hills explored and lootables plundered.

The combat system has also been treated to a complete re-tooling. In the older Elder Scrolls games, frustration would set in straight away since your low-level character could rarely hit anything. In Oblivion you character interacts more rhythmically to the physical world around them. Instead of a watching as your blade cuts ridiculously through the air instead of the fat and belligerent rat because your dexterity rating was too low, your blade will now connect but the damage dealt will still be determined by your stats. This improvement greatly increases the realism of the Elder Scrolls universe.

Magic, potions and weapons can be set to you quick-select D-pad arrows, allowing quick changes of equipment to accommodate your situation. With the accomplished selection of equipment in the game this is easily one of the most useful gameplay elements. I can’t imagine a world where repair hammer isn’t set to my D-pad’s down key.

Elder Scrolls is a famously long gaming experience and in this epic journey it is easy to imagine a stale soundtrack, but again Oblivion shirks these doubts. The music plays softly in the background and never intrudes or distracts from the game, even though it loops with only an hour or so of composed score. Jeremy Soul returns after his award nominated Morrowind soundtrack to inject the game with a rich audio experience.

There are many paths you may pursue in Oblivion. A fighter type character is usually best for newer players who may find hacking and slashing more be-suiting their methods. A powerful spell-caster can give more depth and strategy on a second play through. And as usual to Elder Scrolls, the real joy comes in the sneaky thief’s path where you will take to the shadows, stealing and lock-picking your way to the top. No matter how you decide to tackle the game you’re guaranteed a long, elaborate and rewarding journey in Oblivion.

Exploring the province of Cyrodiil is greatly improved over the previous games. Fast travel will let you instantly return via teleportation to any previously explored location on your map. Long arduous walks in the wilderness can still be abundant, but it is now optional. Excellent.

While nearly a perfect effort on Bethesda’s part, Oblivion is still not without its flaws. Enemies and treasure level up with you, which can be especially frustrating when you look at the spoils of your early-level plundering and realize how much better they might have been at level 20.

There seems to be a bit of a formulaic approach to getting quests. Every city has several random quests and several guild quests. It just gets to the point where you kind of know what to expect in each town as you enter and look around for the closest “I have a problem” looking person.

The overall main story doesn’t quite live up to the standard set by Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. It feels a little brief in comparison, but it looks a whole lot prettier.

All in all Morrowind and Oblivion still stand out as some of the best RPGs on the Xbox 360. With Skyrim set to come out Nov. 11 Elder Scrolls fans will have even more to look forward to.