Xbox360 is rolling with hits this moth with Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and now Elder Scrolls Oblivion. Make no mistake, this is the killer app for Xbox 360 and your home theater system. It’s a new fantasy role playing game that was released last week for both PC and Xbox 360. It’s a big budget release, the finest example of today’s technology, esthetics, storytelling and voice acting. The graphics are truly next generation with gorgeous environments to explore richly detailed by some of the finest graphic artists in the business. The people you’ll talk to in game have realistic faces that can portrait complex emotion. Noted British actors comprise the voice acting of non-player characters with which you’ll interact including: Terrance Stamp, Sean Bean and Patrick Steward as the Emperor Uriel Septim. I love a good role playing game (RPG) but have been under whelmed with the massively multiplayer variety lately. This is a pleasant return to a simpler time when a good RPG was about storytelling and playing your character and less about how powerful you can be so you can beat up on other players.
The platform debate will be endless but not indulged here. However…Oblivion is a prime example of a game that was meant for the console. This game should be played at a relaxed, thoughtful pace. You can pause to sip a coffee or beer depending on the time. The game begs for you to take in the scenery. Sitting at a desk hunched over mouse and keyboard is fine for a first person shooter. But this is different it’s a more relaxed pace and is best played kicked back on a couch with large screen HDTV and surround sound system.
I’m a longstanding veteran of the Elder Scrolls series. One might say I am an Elder Scroll. I was there when the Emperor Uriel Septim was betrayed by Jagar Tharn the Battle Mage in the series first installment Arena. Back then Uriel didn’t sound like Patrick Stewart as he communicated in text only. But I had never seen anything like it in a computer game a non-linear, wide open environment with an opportunity to explore the world at your leisure. The so much time went by when Daggerfall finally arrived that I thought Arena was but a dream. Then Morrowind, 2003’s game of the year and it was best single player role playing game made thus far. So the pressure was on the Oblivion development team to build the next installment of the game to live up to vast expectations.
I’ve only played for probably 6 or so man / hours and thus far I believe it lives up to expectations.
Environmental breakthrough
The greatest breakthrough in this installment of Elder Scrolls is in the environment. It’s another vast world to be explored with an artificial intelligence controlling events and individuals in the world that affects everything in the game. For instance the forests, meadows and animal species that inhabit them are controlled by a sophisticated system of AI that takes into account how they all interact. This can result in fluctuations in the deer population or even the extinction of a plant species. It’s an AI controlled micro – verse where your actions can set into motion reactions that affect the world around you.
Graphics
The graphics are amazing to behold, Oblivion takes its place among the most sophisticated looking games of the current generation. However, since it does so much it won’t be the best you’ve seen at any one element. Faces for instance look good and can express emotion. Faces in Oblivion aren’t the best you’ve ever seen in a computer game but that’s no complaint, they still approach photo realism. The indoor / outdoor environments are a marvel to behold and the sharp contrast between them is incredible. What easily makes this a graphically elite game is its wide variation. Most first person shooters today are good at a particular recurring environment you’ll see over and over … think … Doom 3 and dark shadowy hallways or F.E.A.R. and its detailed office buildings. Very good examples of graphics but neither game offers much variation from what it does well. In Oblivion you’ll explore shadowy dungeons with beautiful grey and indigo hues inside. You’ll strain for light and maybe fire up a torch and you can marvel at the real time orange light that casts shadows as you walk. Then you step outside into a bright sunny day and it’s as if you’ve opened a completely different game. The color palette changes drastically, gone are the orange glow and grey indigo hues in favor of a bright blue sky with rolling hills and grassy fields. Wind sweeps across waves of local fauna as you make your way across a meadow. The sunsets are so breathtaking they could make you want to applaud like a tourists at a Caribbean resort.
Sound
From the subtle squeaking of rats sneaking up behind you through your surrounds to the deep bass thump of certain spells the home entertainment system is well used by the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track. The game does a great job at centering you on sounds such as speech that will remain placed consistently as you walk around the speaker or turn away. People might call to you from behind or drops of water might echo slightly within a musty dungeon and effect that exercises the soundtrack’s subtle details.
The music hasn’t gotten too repetitive as it stays mainly unnoticed in the background giving you atmosphere. But sometimes it’ll be the clue that danger is apparent if you hadn’t spotted an enemy and the soundtrack turns to a military style march letting you know combat was about to ensue. That is my one minor quibble, if I’m to be surprised I don’t think the music should provide clues. But I’d love that in real life … When my wife comes home I should hear either Julie Andrew’s “Sound of music” or Darth Vader’s “Imperial March” depending on the kind of mood she’s in. Actually that’s what I already hear subconsciously anyway.
Gameplay
The strong suit of this game is its relaxed gameplay. You can always hit pause, even in a tight situation. You can leisurely select a different weapon or spell and then go back into the game where you’re about to die. I’ve gone through the Elder Scrolls cycle of “newness” many times now. The dungeons that are a pleasure to explore the first 75 times become repetitive drudgery in the last 10 before I completely lose interest. This could be the case here too, obviously I don’t know yet. But Morrowind did a good job of keeping things fresh by hand making everything in the world you’ll explore. I hope for the same here. But for now, it’s a pleasure to move around, explore new places new buildings. The new shops you’ll enter to get supplies for a journey won’t just be a mock up of the last place you went to get your armor repaired. The designers seemed to take pains to provide a functional layout of a store that doubles as a family dwelling or a workshop where they can repair your armor. The buildings make sense in layout and design and this means they shouldn’t get too boring. I’ve rented a room at several cheap Inns (and one bloated float) and they’ve been non-descript bare bones affairs. The last one was no low budget room as it cost twice what I’d been accustomed to paying. And when I entered the room it looked like an expensive room. Well decorated corner room with windows all around and tapestries on the walls. It was beautiful and not cheap.
There is a main mission in the game but since it’ll take so much time and you’ll be required to gain a lot of experience before you’ll be able to undergo many of them you’re encouraged to strike forth into the world and find side quests that will build you a reputation, gold or possibly a gambling addiction at the arena. I won’t give anything away but you’ll definitely meet Patrick Stewart very early in the game.
Combat
This isn’t a first person shooter but combat is a big part of the experience. This game does it as well as can be expected for a game system that almost tries to employ way too many elements. You can cast spells in combat, swing your weapon in various arcs that do different kinds of damage. Depending on your weapon you can have different effects on your foe if it lands just the right way. Your weapon and likewise blocking skills are increased just like all skills in the game are increased, by actually using them. This is a clever system for gaining experience, one that a lot of “level” system RPGs can benefit from. There are a few minor glitches I’ve found, like being attacked by an invisible rat. Overall the combat system has greater flow than past versions of this game. You can move in and out of the range of the opponents axe and likewise they’ll do the same. At one point I’ve even seen an opponent run back around a corner and forced me to give chase.
Overall you have an excellent game that is a suitable heir to the Elder Scrolls line. It’s easily the killer app for your Xbox 360 and it’s the real reason for getting one. If you like the RPG and are sick of the massively multiplayer variety this is the one to try.