The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

[Roto13]

So how is it? I'm refusing to trust game reviews on this one because it's one of those hype games. :P

I've heard some mixed things about it. People who love it love how immersive it is, but I also hear complaints that it's padded with a really slow pace. I don't like games that are too slow. :P I'm considering getting it (the PS3 version) because it's pretty cheap now, but I've never played an Elder Scrolls game and I'm not sure exactly how they play. Most of the information I find about it just goes on and on about how everyone has a mind of their own and it's really big and blah blah blah blah, but nobody seems to want to talk about things like the battle system and level system and dungeon design and stuff.

So yeah. Advise me, dear internet!

[Vyk]

You set the pace yourself. Its more realistic open world (albeit a fantasy world). Erm, I mean in comparison to games like GTA. You can enter any building. Talk to any person have some modicum of conversation. The sheer number of things to do can be overwhelming. But you don't -have- to do anything. So its just got a lot of options. And you can pretty much do anything at any time. If you're given a quest you're not required to do right then. Its a game you can take your time with. But it doesn't have to be slow. Just the way most people play is slow. My brother, for one, prefers it that way. Only real complaint I have is that its a very lonely game. You're a lone adventurer. And you don't make any real friends aside from having to do certain quests for (or in rare cases, -with-) people. You'll want to get the patch, though if you're playing it on a system that will probably initiate automatically. Its a large beautiful game. With hundreds of people. Maybe a thousand or so. I'm not sure. But its lonely

Edit: I suppose I should have gotten to the point of your post. You don't level up by experience points. You pick like 10 skills that you major in, and those level up faster than your other skills. Once you've acquired 5 accumulative levels amongst those major skills you get to level up. And each skill is set to one of your stats. If you get five levels in one skill you get to add five points to that stat. And you gain levels in skills simply by using them. Fighting is kinda wobbly. But you get used to it. If you can imagine any 3D shooter game using a sword instead. And if you go into third person view, if you imagine how stupid you look from first person view if you'd back the camera up. Yeah. It looks that stupid xD Its not horribly bad though. And its pretty easy to kill anything by darting in, attacking, and darting away real quick

The dungeons don't vary wildly. They don't usually get much bigger than 3 floors. And aren't usually very vast, per floor. And there's only a hand full of "types" of dungeons. But for some reason it takes a while for it to feel repetitive. Probably because you can do a dozen different types of quests rather than just going in dungeon after dungeon (though there are a quite a few dozen dungeons). Most quests have you solving problems in people's lives, which rarely requires you to go into a dungeon. Usually you have to hunt someone down and talk to them and/or kill them

[Markus. D]

There's also a GIANT ENEMY CRAB somewhere in there too =]

[Psychotic]

I've just bought it and have been playing this game obsessively for the past week or two. It's my first Elder Scrolls game too. It's great, it's sucked up countless hours of my time and will probably suck up yours too if you let it (I haven't even bothered with the main quest yet!) because there's just so much stuff to see and do. It's not as immersive as some would have you think. A lot of the NPCs look and dress the same, and I swear there are only two or three god damn voice actors for thousands of characters. You will come to know and hate each voice actor in turn.

Anyway, battle system? It's real time, and it's first person (I didn't know it was first person until I got it). Just hack away with your sword/axe/whatever or carefully aim your arrows - I am sure headshots do more damage but I could be wrong. You can also cast a bunch of magic crap real time too, with various buffs, heals, damaging attacks, summons and what have you. I've found it's pretty easy just to block an enemy's attack with my shield, then smack them twice with my sword afterwards.

I love the levelling up system in this game. You raise your skills by doing actions a lot. If you jump a lot, your acrobatics skill will go up. Hacking stuff with a sword a lot will make your blade skill up. Picking a bunch of locks will increase your security skill, etc. etc. Once you have raised a certain amount of core skills, you can go to bed, and when you wake up you will level up, and then you can choose some stats to raise (although they all have already raised based on the skills you levelled up during the day. If you talk to people a lot and make them like you, thus boosting your Speechcraft skill, your Personality stat will have gone up a lot in the night)

Dungeon design...meh. Lots of winding tunnels with the odd treasure chest or evil beast. Nothing to write home about there. Overall I'd say yeah, it's great, but sometimes it feels like something is missing.

[Roto13]

Well it sounds promising. I've been playing too many JRPGs lately and this sounds to be distinctly western.

Is it true that you can kill, like, anybody in the whole game? xP

[Psychotic]

No. Important quest characters are "knocked out".

[Roto13]

Aww. I wanted to, like, assassinate the royal family.

So I guess in your opinion it's worth the $30? :P If I pick it up (and you guys make me want to xP) it'll probably be after I finish Disgaea.

[Vyk]

Note you don't have to play it in first person. Though it is a bit more immersive that way. On 360 if you push in one of the joysticks it changes views. Probably the same with the PS3 (I think pushing it in is called L3 and R3?) Same way as getting in and out of sneak mode. Just can't remember which stick does which, since its usually my brother playing..

[Sir Lancealot]

No. Important quest characters are "knocked out".

As well as MOST people who are meant to die a scripted death.

[o_O]

No. Important quest characters are "knocked out".

As well as MOST people who are meant to die a scripted death.

You can use the console to enable important characters' deaths if you really want to kill them. Kinda ruins the game if you do though.

[Karellen]

I have not played Oblivion but I played Morrowind and it was terrible. I hear Oblivion is even worse, so I didn't bother. Then again these are the same people who recommended Morrowind, so maybe I'll give it a shot one day.

That doesn't really help you at all, of course.

[CimminyCricket]

Aww. I wanted to, like, assassinate the royal family.

So I guess in your opinion it's worth the $30? :P If I pick it up (and you guys make me want to xP) it'll probably be after I finish Disgaea.

Everyone here saw it, Frontsmack, you can't run from it this time. But, I swear, if you try, I'm going to kill you.

[Psychotic]

Note you don't have to play it in first person. Though it is a bit more immersive that way. On 360 if you push in one of the joysticks it changes views. Probably the same with the PS3 (I think pushing it in is called L3 and R3?) Same way as getting in and out of sneak mode. Just can't remember which stick does which, since its usually my brother playing..

Huh, never knew that. It'd probably be the right stick as the left stick is sneak mode.

[Goldenboko]

Oblivion is a great game, I just couldn't get into it because Morrowind was so much better. >:/

[JKTrix]

Loved it, played it *obsessively* for a week (like over 40 hours, which is a lot for a working man), then forced myself to quit cold turkey to play Kingdom Hearts 2 which came out a week later. Haven't touched the game since, out of fear of addiction.

Recommended, especially 'cheap' *thumbsup*