I preordered the 360 so I could buy Oblivion at launch, unfortunately it didn't hit the launch window and I used my 360 for other fun but not awe inspiring games. I have been in possession of Oblivion since the afternoon prior to its general release. As I had in the past, it has been awhile because WoW has basically taken over my life and I only am allowed brief moments a day to do anything other than work or play WoW, I will break my review into 4 areas: Graphics/Sounds, Gameplay, Value and Personal View.
Graphics/Sound (25 pts)- This is next gen. It also retains many of the stiffness and oddities that Morrowind did such as many stiff animations, odd lighting on NPCs, and my favorite the floating avatar in 3rd person. That aside I love the lushness, I deal with the pop in and the lack of clarity in the distance because the game is so incredibly full up close that it does not surprise me that some sacrifices needed to be made. The sound and the voice acting so far have been good to excellent, with more attention being given to characters that provide you quests or I am expecting to see on and on thoughout my adventure. Overall 22/25.
Gameplay (35 pts) - Ok the bar was set in Morrowind for open ended gameplay in a single player RPG, I would argue that a game like World of Warcraft is more open ended but in a significantly differant way. Oblivion is currently bigger and badder than Morrowind in terms of open ended. I haven't gotten to far but I really like the decision to allow the player to go almost anywhere and enter anyplace at any level and encounter creatures that are comparable. In Morrowind, how could a comparison be avoided I guess, I grew weary late in the game because nothing other than the final final main quest end boss gave me a lick of trouble during I would guesstimate the final 60% of the game. I have no faults so far with gameplay, I like the combat and have really enjoyed increasing my spellcraft thru the mini game so far, in fact with virtually everyone that I can talk to I have maxed out their disposition thru the minigame, a polar opposite of Morrowind. The game is very similar to Morrowind and if you loved the do and you learn stat increases of Morrowind it is the same thing here. No grinding needed, I mean sure if you plan on maxing out your blade skills you better find a great deal of things to kill but again you can also choose a magic approach or a sneak approach. Heck, I replayed a single sequence on a silly quest like 5 different ways just trying to figure out what my best approach was... as it turns out bribes work great and with some spellcraft and a few gold coins I got the key I needed and vanquished the bad guy. There lays the beauty of the game, I have only done the minimal start on what I expect is going to be the main quest but I don't feel pressured to get to it, right now I am happy just picking up odds and ends and finding out a little about the guilds. Overall 33 pts.
Value (15 pts) - $60 is a lot to drop. Games have different values, Call of Duty 2... wait no it wasn't worth $60, $50 or maybe even $40 but that is a different review... FEAR only lasted 12 hours but was worth the $50 because I enjoyed the tension I liked the few scares that I got but Oblivion needs to rely on a long journey where you always feel you have something to do and you don't want to put down the controller. The reviews say 60 hours of game time many more if you do everything and accomplish everything you can, I suspect I will easily get 100 hours of game time out of it... is it the obsence hours I have spent playing WoW? No but this isn't costing me $13 a month either. A good RPG you don't want it to end and I only have Morrowind to look back on and what I have read about this and my initial feelings but this game is going to live up to the $60 price tag all day long. Overall 15 pts.
Personal View (25 pts) - After the first hour I thought I might just play it straight thru until its completion and use all of my sick days and vacation days at work to do it. During the second hour I realized how dissappointed I was at the pop-in the floating walk in 3rd person the stiffness of some of the models. Since then I have abandoned the idea of taking off work and secluding myself until it is finished but I also have turned to look out over a mount edge, into the vast distance and view The Imperial City from above and realized
1) That I had expected this to be so immersive that I would forget that it was a game.
2) I was having my first of many jaw dropping moments as I looked out towards the city and thought to myself how are the inhabitants of The Imperial City dealing with the loss of the Emperor?
3) Whose brilliant idea at Bethesda to have a quest where you enter a landscape picture to save the artist?
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