Review written by Playstation4.net staff member Michael Feather
Oblivion, the first in the popular Elder Scrolls series to make it’s way to next-gen consoles, was first released for the PS3 in early 2007. It was then later re-released with both the Knights of the Nine, and Shivering Isles expansions packs, dubbed the Game of the Year edition later that same year.
Oblivion has what you can expect from any typical RPG, with elves, goblins, fantastical creatures, and so on, all presented in a mode usually reserved for shooters. First-person. Despite the peculiarity of this, the game works particularly well, and the graphics are also of a good quality.
Complimenting the graphics is a cast of voice talent which includes Patrick Stewart, Sean Bean, and Terence Stamp. However, this is tempered by the low number of voice actors in comparison to the number of races of people, and the amount of NPC’s present in the game. This can make the voices in the game feel repetitive after some time spent in the game.
Moving on to the player, the game allows a great deal of customisability for your character, including allowing to choose gender, age, race, hair colour, eye colour, etc. This customisability, while refreshing, can be daunting at first to those new to these games. However, this is not integral to the game so the player may start as soon as they are ready.
The game starts with the player’s character in prison for an unrevealed crime, leaving it to the player to decide the reason. By a stroke of luck, a secret passage out of the Imperial City just happens to be through the very cell the player’s character is currently held in. The Emperor after meeting you as he passes believes he sees something in the player’s character, and so you are asked to leave with the Emperor. The player then leads the emperor through the dungeon, eventually parting ways, and ultimately escaping the caves the player is in.
As soon as the player has escaped the dungeon, they are left to their own devices as to what, where, and when they want to do anything. If the player wishes, they can simply ignore the main quest of the game altogether and concentrate on accomplishing the many things available in the game, including becoming the leader of the numerous guilds, or simply exploring the vastness of Cyrodiil, the country the game is set in.
The game world is literally overflowing with countless dungeons, caves, and abandoned forts just waiting to be plundered. The problem with this is that after exploring these various dungeons for the long enough, the player will feel a sense of déjà vu as many of the dungeons seem to suffer from copy-and-paste syndrome. The loot also becomes monotonous as even high-levelled players will only find tiny amounts of gold, and very little in the way of rewarding treasures, and will soon tire of the experience. Even if the player manages to stumble upon a large cache of gold, and expensive items they will be hard pressed to buy anything of worth after the first few levels the player’s character has obtained. Nor will they be able to sell their expensive items for a reasonable price, as the merchants within the game only have a certain amount of gold to spend in one go. This problem is lessened somewhat if the player levels their mercantile skill to master as this allows the player to invest money in the shops, thus allowing the shopkeepers to increase their total spendable gold to an extent.
The levelling system too, has its flaws. An example being that as the p;layer’s character increases in level, so too do the other inhabitants of the game making some monsters too easy to defeat in some instances. Despite this, the system is robust, allowing the player to choose seven major skills at the beginning which unlike the minor skills, will also eventually make the player’s character level up. There are many skills allowing the player to choose just how they would prefer their character to be, whether it be a powerful warrior, a cunning thief, a mighty sorcerer, or any other class that takes the player’s fancy.
All in all, while Oblivion has its many flaws, as do all games, they are more than compensated for with the game’s many good points, making for a truly enjoyable RPG experience on the PS3.
