Customer Reviews:
 Game of the Year September 8, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This game is by far one of the best games that I have ever played. The scenery in the game is magnificent. The game play is very good and fluent. Everything about this game says AWESOME. There are however a few glitches in the game that I am sure you can fix by finding a patch online. Everything has a flaw somewhere though. I would recommend this game to anyone who loves a good RPG. There are Hundreds of Quests, Items, Spells, Dungeons, Monsters. The possibilities in this game are endless. This is the RPGers mega-grand-daddy.
Astounding August 13, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Oblivion is just about everything an RPG should be. The character creation and leveling system, the weapons and magic, the dungeons and outer world map, the limitless open environment, and the ridiculous graphics all contribute to what is easily the best RPG package I have ever played.
Your character awakes in a lonely prison cell, soon to be dead and forgotten, when the Emperor of all Tamriel appears at your cell door, secretly fleeing from an unknown assassin. Escaping from your cell on the heels of the Emperor and his personal guards, The Blades, you are immediately swept into the story of defending the lands from a secret cult of Deadra Worshippers with the goal of world domination.
Your character is fully customizable. At the start of your adventure, you choose your sex, race, birth-sign, profession, skills, specialties, and appearance (body type, face, skin, an extremely detailed process). Once you exit the tunnels hidden beneath your prison cell (a process which guides you through an interactive tutorial to familiarize you with the controls), you enter a virtual world with what could be the most freedom any video game has offered before. After gaping at the astounding graphics of the world map (I have not played the 360 version, but based on screenshots I have seen, the PS3 release is by far the better of the two), your choices are truly limitless.
Perhaps you wander immediately into the Ayleid Ruins across the lake, seeking your fortune in the dark, ancient fortress beneath. Or maybe venture into the Imperial City to make friends (and enemies) or obtain valuable goods and information. Join the Fighter's Guild for some rewarding side quests, or if the arcane is your specialty the Mage's Guild also awaits. If stealth is your forte, perhaps you will have what it takes to find the Thieves Guild instead, or maybe you will even be welcomed into the inner circles of the Dark Brotherhood of assassins. Be a valiant hero, a silent killer, a powerful sorcerer, an agile thief, or all or none of the above. The choice is yours.
For Elder Scrolls veterans, leveling your character is nothing new, but to the newcomer it is a unique and detailed process. Unlike the standard RPG, there are no Experience Points that accumulate toward a magic number that results in a level up. Instead, you improve your individual skills by using them successfully. Cast a fire spell that hits its intended target, and you gain a little experience at Destruction Magic. Damage your adversary with a short sword, and your Blade skills improve. Create a potion out of raw ingredients, your Alchemy skill improves. Improve a skill enough, and the skill itself will go up a level. Level-up any combination of your favorite skills ten times, and your character goes up a level. But if you don't use a particular skill, it will never improve, perhaps to the detriment of your overall attributes.
Interact with hundreds of characters, creatures, and monsters scattered throughout dozens of locales, from large cities, small villages, and roadside inns, to dank caverns, crumbling fortresses, and ancient ruins hidden away in snow-capped mountains, thick forests, and even demon-filled Netherworlds. Enemies and artifacts encountered throughout the world level along with your character so you never have too much of an advantage, or too weak an enchantment. Background characters banter about current events and local news. Word of your accomplishments spreads across the continent as your fame (of infamy) increases. The level of detail that found its way into the game is impeccable.
The only element this game lacks (that fans of say, the Final Fantasy franchise, will miss) is an enthralling story. While there is indeed a main plot and ultimate goal for your character, Oblivion lacks the emotion and humanity of strong story that become the focal point of many other RPGs. This leads to more a systematic style of game-play, simply progressing for the sake of progress, rather than playing to develop an underlying story. In effect, the game sacrifices a gripping story and a bit of fun for your freedom to play it out however you want. If you are looking for pure game-play without the distraction of a story, then this truly is the perfect game. But if you are looking for a game with an interactive story, it may not be for you.
This is the ultimate gamer's RPG, addictive, challenging, and visually stunning. This Game of the Year edition includes two built-in expansion packs, previously available only as separate downloads, and is worth the extra money if this sound likes the game for you.
 From the "casual gamer" POV August 13, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am not what you call a "hard core" gamer. I only recently picked up a PS3 and my first game was ES4:Oblivion...and what an awesome choice it was!
I've been playing for a couple of weeks and have only just scratched the surface (get the companion guide, for sure! You'll be glad you did). Like another reviewer said, I'm not sure you can every really "finish" the game, but it will be fun to try.
Small learning curve on the controls if you're new to the new generation gaming consoles, but it cetainly hasn't affected the fun-factor for me. Its easy to get sucked in and spend hours walking around Cyrodiil, forgetting what you were supposed to be doing.
My only word of advice is to set the difficulty level to Easy when first starting out. Save yourself a bit of frustration.
Enjoy!
W. B. from Simi August 5, 2008
ES IV: Oblivion GOYE is, simply put, an awesome game. Even after completing all the quests (i.e., the main quest and all subsidiary quests, whether for factions or otherwise), I still play the game just to explore the beautiful terrain and possibly run into something I didn't catch before.
A sprawling epic, held back by the forced ventures into Oblivion Gates July 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Others have written volumes on the merits of ES4:Oblivion. Instead I will provide bullet points
Pros
- Something for everyone. Alchemy, hack and slash, exploration, fetch questing, summoning, lore, etc... play how you want to play
- high quality art design and technical graphics
- many lines of unique spoken dialogue
- AI characters interact with each other, including fighting each other in the wild
- emergent gameplay, AI reacts to what you do
- customize your own weapons and spells
- choose your own adventure, quest in the fighter's guild, or join the dark brotherhood and become a murderous assassin
- hundreds of hours of gameplay
- difficulty slider, want to be an unstoppable god? slide it down to easy
cons
- scaling items and monsters. As you level, monsters level, items level, and the difficulty levels. Essentially this defeats the purpose of leveling and reduces combat to action game style hack and slash.
- some items do not level, if you obtain them early on in the game, they become weak and outdated items
- depending on what skills you level, the mid game (Levels 12-20) can become unbalanced. Enemies gain health and deal massive damage at mid levels. Easy 1 on 1 fights become loading screens when its 3 on 1.
- without max STR, END and the right custom spells closing Oblivion gates can become tedious due to the need to wait to regen magic
- once you "figure out" which spells work the best and max the right skills/stats or obtain the correct gear the game becomes too easy for 90% of the monsters.
- basically it's tough to find the right balance w/ the slider. At some levels the default difficulty is either far too easy, or in some cases too hard meaning closing a single oblivion gate can be a 25 minute chore of grinding on the same monsters over and over again.
- once you get 80+ in blade or blunt or block and get a few reflect damage items , normal enemies die at your feet.
- however if you do not go that route, prepare to load up on restore magic potions and scrolls because
- there is no spell to restore magic, yet there is one to restore health. This means if you try to play as a pure mage you still need very high STR to carry all those potions
- the deep enchanting system results in sub par gear compared to what can be found elsewhere, rendering the entire enchanting system somewhat pointless
- for self enchanted items, sigil stones from the oblivion gates have the greatest power, again rendering traditional enchanting moot.
- certain spells are locked out of enchanting
- many glitches and places to get broken quests (I ran into a quest where i needed an 2 items that were supposed to be next to each other. When I arrived, only 1 item was there... breaking the quest, turned out minor as the quest resolution allowed you to use cash instead of the 2 items)
- frustrating escort missions. Friendly AI is flat out broken and the CPU will jump in front of your attacks causing you to attack them by mistake, they will do this constantly.
- because everything around you levels, that makes all areas equal. There are no "high level" areas that are scary, or "low level" areas that are fun for farming. Every area levels with you, from level 1-30 the gameplay only changes in terms of which items or spells you have. Trolls hit hard at level 1, and hit hard at level 30. The only difference will be what gear and spells you have.
I.e. if you have nice gear and spells even at level 10 you can fry them as easily as you can at level 30. Unless you dont have a fire based damage attack.
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