Kalniel's Oblivion Review (no spoilers, but long!)
It's good to sit down. At least, that's what my character is thinking as he relaxes on a bar stool at the Riverside inn. It's been a long day - I've settled a minor dispute, foiled an assassination attempt, recovered a long-lost artefact and stepped through a portal into the realms of hell to fight back demons and close a dimensional breach. I book a room for the night and sip at a beer, wanting to warm my boots for a while before retiring. In the corner I hear barely-whispered conversation: word has got around about the demon attacks, but this time the news is good - a nearby town was saved from almost certain destruction. I smile to myself - at least my work doesn't always go unnoticed.
The beer finished I get off the stood and begin to head upstairs. On the way I overhear another conversation - it sounds like one of the town guards is abusing his position. I make a mental note of the name and think about checking it out tomorrow. Entering the room the innkeeper had available for me I take off my armour and store it in a chest by the bed. A hearty meal has been laid out for me on the table, but I think I'll pass this time. At last I gratefully climb into the bed and fall asleep. It's an early start tomorrow and the whole province is ahead of me.
Thus goes a typical day in the game of Oblivion. At this point I have to tear myself away from the computer and head to bed myself - far too many hours have passed immersed in this game.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is the latest RPG to be released by Bethesda Softworks (or Bethsoft as they are informally known). While many fans know this company through the Ultima Underworld-like TES: Arena and the massive undertaking that was TES II: Daggerfall, it was the critical and commercial success of TES III: Morrowind that really put their name on the map. The success of that game (aided by a successful console version) took even the developers by surprise. However, rather than line their own pockets, Bethsoft poured funds into the next game in the series. The result is Oblivion - undoubtedly the most polished game to have ever come out of Bethsoft's studios. But the question begs to be asked: Is it the best game to date as well?
Lore
The continent of Tamriel, where all Elder Scrolls games are set, is a not-hugely-unique fantasy setting. It is a fairly low-fantasy world with more emphasis placed on the people and their politics than on high magic and dragons - think more Gothic than Neverwinter Nights. As with other settings there are several different races of humans and elves, however noticeable breaks from the genre standard include the fact that orcs are not a monstrous race (though they are considered ugly and are frequently persecuted), there are no dwarves (well, technically there was a race of elves that were called 'dwarves', however they all mysteriously disappeared in an event several era before the game is set), and finally you can also play Khajit - a cat like race, or an Argonian - a lizard like race. Each race comes from a different region of Tamriel, complete with their own unique abilities and aptitudes for particular tasks. You will also encounter all the prejudices or favours that members of your chosen race should expect from people they encounter.
TES IV: Oblivion itself takes place in the entire province of Cyrodiil, at the very centre of Tamriel. The 'Imperial Province' as it is known is the homeland of the Emperor Uriel Septim VII and the dominant race of Imperials who in the current era are the conquerors of most of Tamriel (though diplomatically allowing each province to maintain local authority). The date is six years after the events of Morrowind, however as with all Elder Scrolls games, you begin with a new character and the events of Morrowind have no direct effect on the story of Oblivion, bar generic lore. Some books in Oblivion do refer to events in Morrowind however, so if you wish to remain completely spoiler free I would recommend playing Morrowind first, but otherwise there is no need to have played the previous games in the series.
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The story begins, as it does in all Elder Scrolls games, with your character a prisoner for unknown reasons. The game never attempts to create your backstory for you and the circumstances of your own character are purely yours to imagine. Fate, as usual, conspires in your favour and pretty soon you are escaping from your cell and winding through the first dungeon of the game. This dungeon acts as both a tutorial to the game mechanics and interface, and as your character generation, which starts with a hugely comprehensive face editor. Immediately the spending budget becomes obvious as the middleware FaceGen program by Singular Inversions powers the editor. The array of options is staggering and given time you can really create the look of character that you are after. Or you can click randomise and get on with it!
Satisfied with your look, the game goes on to show you all the basics you need, from movement and sneaking through to lock-picking, casting spells and potion making. Another middleware product soon makes itself known: physics! Powered by Havok (as used in Half-life 2), objects in Oblivion have physical properties that react correctly to outside forces – be that gravity or the blast of a fireball. Knock a table and objects tumble off it realistically. Shoot a bucket on a chain and it behaves accordingly. Bethsoft have enhanced the reactions a little when it comes to death, with killing blows sending opponents smashing against walls or flying through the air. Just occasionally this looks a bit silly as the effects of gravity are reduced to make for a more spectacular event, but in the absence of a ‘slo-mo’ system, which would have been even more out of place, it works quite well to provide an added dose of satisfaction when a foe is dispatched.
Not that more satisfaction is really needed. Combat in Oblivion has been completely overhauled from previous games in the series and finally they’ve got it right. The Elder Scrolls games have always strived to find a balance between making a character’s statistics meaningful, yet also trying to involve the player more deeply in what a character is doing to increase immersion. Now when you hit a monster with your cursor, your character hits them with his sword. The damage done is dependant on several factors, including your characters stats, but the involvement you as a player feel in combat is fantastic. Stronger blows have your opponent reeling, biding you precious time. Blocking is also handled in real time now, rather than being automatic and dependant on skills. You can block at any time by pressing the right mouse button. The better your characters skill in blocking, the more damage is soaked up by the block. Successful blocks also have a chance of staggering the attacker, so it is easy to see how even basic combat can become quite tactical, and that’s even without all the perks you can get as you advance in skill.
Skills have also been overhauled from previous games, although it is more evolution than revolution. Once more there are a wide range of skills, from bladed weapons to alchemy and speechcraft. As well as being more successful in a task as your skills increase, going above certain levels unlocks additional perks. For example getting your marksman skill above 50 unlocks a ‘zoom’ function when you shoot, allowing more precise distance shots. Becoming a master in acrobatics allows you to jump off the surface of water!
As with other ES games, your character starts with the full range of skills and can increase any of them. The starting level of your skills is determined during character creation, largely through your class selection. A fair way through the tutorial the game examines how you have played thus far and recommends a class to you based on your style of play. You can accept this class or chose from a large list instead. Classes exist to cover pretty much every combination of fighter, mage and thief you can think of, yet each class is really just a collection of skill preferences – that is each class has 10 major skills, which start with a bonus, are easier to increase, and whose increase contributes towards levelling. There are a few other points such as a class preference for a type of skill (warrior, thief or mage more or less) and some attribute bonuses, but as the system is so broad they’ve also allowed the option (as in the other games) to create your own custom class. This allows you to perfectly refine a character concept and pick your own major skills and path to advance. If you want to play a heavy armour wearing spell-caster you are free to do so.
Levelling is an extension of the skill system, where a total of 10 increases across your major skills constitutes gaining a level. Skills are increased by using them successfully, but the ability to quickly raise skills by boring repetition has been eliminated, resulting in a very natural approach to levelling. Basically you just go play, and you naturally find that the skills you use the most increase by themselves and levels come at a good rate. You can also buy training for skills, although this is much harder to come across than in Morrowind, and often requires you to be of certain standing with the trainer.
Magic follows the Elder Scrolls convention of being available to any character, but this time around magika regenerates, making life as a spell-caster a little more tolerable. Spells can now be cast at any time (instead of having to specifically switch to spell-casting mode) and it really makes a difference to be able to suddenly fire off a spell in the midst of things. All the usual favourites such as custom spell creation and enchanting weapons also return.
Graphics and Sound
I haven’t mentioned the graphics yet, but they deserve a good mention all by themselves. Even at the start of the game the graphics are impressive. Light streams through your cell window and you can find all the latest buzzwords in graphical technology such as parallax mapping, pixel shaders, high dynamic range lighting (HDR), soft shadows and so on. Of course, the engine is middleware too (GameByro) but I’m not complaining – it does a wonderful job of depicting your cell and the dungeon. HDR really is put to good use, with a seemingly endless range of colour graduations, resulting in fantastically dark looking dungeons but with just the hint of light bleeding out from that light source in the distance. The stone surfaces look perfect and react to the light in a way that screenshots can’t do justice to. You have the choice of either third or first person viewpoint. Both look great, although Bethsoft have yet to completely master character animations, they are still a huge improvement over Morrowind.
And then you get out of the dungeon and your jaw drops. While Morrowind looked pretty good for its time, draw distance was always a concern and the horizon fogged out. We didn’t mind – just about all games did it to some extent. Oblivion completely does away with using fog to limit draw distance (unless you set it to for performance on low end machines) and the result is staggering vista after staggering vista. You no longer have to look at a map to see that building or mountain in the distance - you can actually see it, and you can get to it as well.
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The province of Cyrodiil is lush and forested, and for once a game does justice to this type of environment. SpeedTree (yes you guessed it, another expensive middleware solution) is used to amazing effect to render vast forests and fields full of lush grass and flowers. Morrowind had a reputation for good water effects, and Oblivion takes this even further. Ditto the lighting effects throughout the day, as sunrise and sunset are spectacular. HDR is used well, albeit without the dramatic changes in exposure that other games have used it for. There are some exposure changes, but largely it seems HDR has been used to present the player with a wider range of colours for a given scene, making the environment seem much more vibrant and allowing for a more subtle blend effect when fading in some objects. Yes, sadly not all objects are drawn at infinite distance, although the maximum distance for things such as npcs, grass, objects (rocks, ruins etc.) and items is really a long way out. They can all be adjusted and may need to be depending on your computer specification.
