Kalniel's Oblivion Review (no spoilers, but long!)

[kalniel]

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.



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.



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.

[kalniel]

This seems like a good point to talk about specifications for the game. The main thing I can say is that Bethsoft got their recommended and minimum specs right. The game really will only run minimally at the required specification, and it really is advised that you meet the recommended spec, especially in the graphics card and to some extent the CPU department. I am running the game on an AMD X2 3800+, with 2gb ram and a geforce 6800GT, and the game runs great. I have settings at roughly medium to mid-high and it is very playable. There is a lot of room for tweaking as well, so don’t be afraid to try different options (there are many) to get the right balance of graphical features and performance for you.

Sound traditionally comes next after graphics, and in general Oblivion scores well in this department also. The music is penned by the ever-present Jeremy Soule and I initially feared it would be far too similar to his previous work for Morrowind or Neverwinter Nights. I needn’t have worried. While the main Oblivion theme is deliberately an exposition of the Morrowind theme, it is different enough to be enjoyable. In fact there is possibly only one piece of music in the game which I thought was too similar to previous work. The rest of it fits the theme perfectly which is some feat given the amount of time you will be spending with the game. My only complaint about the music is the sudden change that occurs when combat presents itself. Perhaps this is a limitation of the drop-in mp3 system (you can add your own soundtracks to the game easily) but combat music will suddenly cut in, often before you are aware of a foe approaching, which ruins the surprise a little. I remember old Lucasarts games having dynamic music that seamlessly shifted into more menacing themes without any noticeable changes. Surely that must be possible today as well?

Sound effects are generally good as well. Combat is vicious and the sound certainly adds to the experience. Natural sounds are mostly well done, though a few ambiance sounds seem a bit misplaced. One area that sound does not match up to Morrowind however is in the weather effects. There are fewer weather effects in Oblivion than Morrowind anyway, but somehow what there is is also less immersive. Rain seems less ‘wet’ than it did, and the storms in Morrowind were famous for making people jump.. sadly this isn’t the case with Oblivion. This is largely down to the sound which appears to be much softer. Perhaps this is environmentally more correct, with all the greenery to dampen sounds, but I miss the effects used in Morrowind’s weather. For those keeping count, D-Sonic middleware is used to drive the sound.

Gameplay

So what do you actually DO in Oblivion? Followers of the series won’t be surprised to learn that the answer is a resounding ‘whatever you want’. The Elder Scrolls games are renown for the freedom to travel around the region at leisure, only optionally participating in the main quest. Morrowind went a little too far in this regard for some, making it too easy to loose track of the main quest. Oblivion corrects this in a number of ways. For starters the player is more involved in the main quest to start off with – at the end of the tutorial there is a very clear story directive and ‘order’ to follow. Of course, you don’t need to follow it, but it’s very clear what you’re meant to do next is.

The journal interface has been completely overhauled as well (in fact the whole interface is vastly improved) - quests are far more clearly laid out and it is possible to set any quest as the ‘active quest’. This allows you to view the quest history in a separate page, and more importantly highlights places of interest on your in game map and a direction caret on the in game compass. If used all the time these quest aids can seem a little too much like cheating – in a lot of cases you can complete quests by quickly going to the locations indicated. But the real value of these markers is when you go off the beaten track to participate in one of the myriad of side quests and get lost, needing some kind of marker to help you remember where you were going. It’s also a valuable addition when trying to find an NPC, as they can and do wonder all over the place depending on the time of day. How are you to know that NPC X actually goes to the temple between the hours of 4 and 6 in the afternoon? The markers save a lot of frustration if you want to quickly find someone, yet they can also be disabled easily (just set it to a different quest) if you think they get in the way.

As mentioned, NPCs do wander around the place. Partly this is traditional scripted daily routines, however new to Oblivion is a method dubbed Radiant Artificial Intelligence, or RAI. To put this simply, each NPC has a set of needs which it has to fulfil, and can also interact with the environment and other NPCs around it. When an NPC meets another NPC they often stop to exchange a few words. Sometimes this is just pleasantries, sometimes one prompts something about a local topic which the other responds to, sometimes they talk about deeds that you’ve accomplished. Where you overhear possible quest topics your journal entry is updated with a new quest automatically, and you can then ask other NPCs about that topic. Sometimes this AI works really well, and you see seemingly natural conversations occurring all over the place, or you see a thief try to steal but get chased by guards etc. Most of the time it works OK, but a bit clumsily. A few times it doesn’t work well at all, and the NPCs virtually mirror what the other speaker is saying. While it is clumsy occasionally my hat goes off to Bethsoft for trying such a non-scripted approach to AI. It certainly helps the world feel more alive.




While wondering around towns and hanging out in inns is great fun, the adventurer really wants to be off slaying monsters in Oblivions gorgeous environments, but here is a little bit of an anti-climax compared to the other assets of Oblivion – namely, the difficulty and monsters encountered scale with the level of the player. Now this is not a new phenomena – many games, including Daggerfall use such a method very well. However, Oblivion seems to be particularly militant about this scaling system - a complete contrast to Morrowind which was too far the other way.

If you spend too long at a particular level, it becomes noticeable that you are not meeting much variation in monsters at different locations. Conversely when you level quickly, you notice that previously poorly equipped bandits now have much better equipment in the same location. This is possibly the most negative thing about the whole Oblivion experience. It’s still very fun, however the edge is just taken off by this very annoying oversight. The first thing you can do to avoid it is to have a character which levels at a normal rate, then as you travel and progress through levels the enemies change naturally and you don’t think too much about it. The second thing you can do is use one of the user-made mods for the game which specifically address this issue – but more on that later.

The OTHER annoying thing about Oblivion is perversely enough, Oblivion itself. Bethsoft had a policy of preventing journalists from reporting on the plane of Oblivion in any preview, to heighten the suspense. Sadly the anticipation isn’t well placed - Oblivion is a very scary and atmospheric place, however it looks more like Morrowind polished a little bit than the game Oblivion. Looks aside, the gameplay in Oblivion (which you will enter several times, in localised pockets) just isn’t that great either. It’s basically the equivalent of dungeon trawling, in that you usually go in for the same reason each time, and then you go through a fixed number of variations of area design to get to your goal. While tense and often rewarding, it gets a little repetitive.

Goals... I mentioned you don’t have to do the main quest (which incidentally is about saving Tamriel from an invasion of demons from the realm of Oblivion ), so what else can you do? Well there are a number of factions in the game, each of which have their own quest series. The number of factions has been cut back significantly from Morrowind, and you can only join the Imperial based main factions this time around (Fighters Guild, Mages Guild etc.). However the quests for each of these have been expanded significantly too. Emil Pagliarulo (senior designer, Thief III) has done wonders for the Dark Brotherhood quests, which are probably equivalent in content to the main quest itself. He also had a hand in the much improved stealth mechanics. Of course, each town and NPCs in the country side come complete with tons of quests to do, more related to their own situations than anything related to the main quest, though often events are related so there isn’t a complete feeling of separation. Aside from the main factions there are also lots of mini-factions, such as the combat Arena which provide their own quest series and mini-games.

Talking of mini-games, speechcraft and lock-picking both now utilise a mini-game that is played to achieve an outcome. Lock-picking is a game of nerve and reflexes as you try to lock tumblers in position. Thankfully it can still be handled traditionally with the ‘auto-attempt’ button. Even playing the game manually is affected by your character’s skill however. The speechcraft mini-game is a little harder to justify, consisting of a sort of circular quadrant thingy which has a rotating spindle of different sized wedges. The idea is to pick a quadrant and watch the reaction of the character, then maximise quadrants for effects the character likes while minimising ones for un-favourable effects. It’s not too bad to play.. it just seems a bit abstract and out of place.

Travel is another thing refined from Morrowind - for starters you move much quicker when running by default, so it’s not such a chore. Better yet you can ride instead. Finally there is also a fast travel option, which allows you to skip to a place you know about on your map instantly, the game moving on the amount of time it would have taken you. Morrowind purists may complain, but it’s still more restrictive than the travelling in Daggerfall. Personally I tend to use fast travel if I’m repeating a route I’ve just taken recently, and otherwise ride. But as always the choice is yours.

Owning stuff

No Elder Scrolls game would be complete without the opportunity for you to amass huge amounts of clutter, and Oblivion doesn’t disappoint. Not only is buying houses back, you can also spend your money on horses (really well done) and if your mercantile skill is high enough you can invest in shops. Of course, this isn’t a business sim, but touches like this add long term goals to a game that’s clearly in it for the long run. The only minor disappointment for me so far is a seemingly reduced number of new books. Morrowind was also famous for having more text than the whole of Microsoft Encarta. Oblivion still has a lot of books, but many of them are ones already seen in Morrowind - there isn’t all that much new content.



Mods!

If you manage the almost inconceivable feat of running out of things to do in the game (the game of course, continues on if you finish the main quest) then you always have the option of firing up the construction set and adding content, or downloading content that someone else has made.

For those unfamiliar with The Elder Scrolls Construction Set (TESCS), it is a very powerful tool. To properly review it would be a whole different article, but to briefly summarise, it is capable of generating amazing landscape and interiors, NPCS, quests etc., and changing pretty much anything you like about the original game. Changes are saved to a plug-in file which the user can choose to activate or not alongside their master file (the main game). In this way to use mods you just check a box next to the plug-in when you load the game. To stop using it you just uncheck it and your game is reverted to its original state.

Obviously it’s a little harder to quickly generate content than something like Neverwinter Night’s excellent toolset, but the flexibility is often greater.

Bethsoft have been incredibly supportive of the modding community in the past, and this looks to continue being the case - they have already set up an official construction set wiki at cs.elderscrolls.com. This time around they are also taking a leaf out of Bioware’s book, and are creating some premium mods that cost a small amount to download. They have chosen a micro-content type system - what this means is that instead of paying 20 dollars or so for a large bunch of content, you can pick and mix from a selection of smaller items, each costing under 2 dollars. Personally I think it’s a great system - meaning I don’t have to buy what I don’t like, but enabling me to put together an expansions worth of just content I like. The additional money will help Bethsoft support the community beyond the project as well. As always, no-one is forced to buy the content, so Bethsoft will be driven by the market to create something worth while.

In the meantime there have already been some great user-created mods that are already addressing some of the issues found with the game. By default the distant textures are a little low resolution, resulting in some blurriness (if you look for it) - this has already been fixed, along with mods that improve the interface, adjust the level scaling, replace the skill system.. and lots besides.

[kalniel]

Conclusion

Ultimately Oblivion is an amazing game. I will no longer refer to Oblivion as just a good RPG - it is good enough to be a great game outside of any one genre. The improvements in stability, combat, polish and just about every area that was criticised in Morrowind are staggering. It is hard to think of a type of PC gamer that won’t find something they love about this game.

It isn’t perfect, but it is the sheer quality of the rest of the game that throws such sharp relief on the few inadequacies. It’s not just that the rest of the game is good, it’s that it’s so good you don’t even think about it. Everything combines to form one of the most immersive experiences in a game to date.

Where Morrowind was the strange wine that sometimes took a little time to appreciate, Oblivion packs an amazing first impression. The body is pretty darn good too. I can’t tell you about the finish yet - ask me again in four years.

Kalniel’s rating: 91%

[herulach]

very very good. someones angling for a job methinks

[kempez]

Great in-depth review mate. Sounds like you like the game?

Very thorough

[DR]

What system were you running it on?

[kalniel]

Heh sorry, I mentioned the specs but it's hard to see in the mass of text - it's the system in the 'my system' link. (ie X2 3800, 2gb ram and 6800gt)

[MSIC]

Nice one Kalniel, am seriously thinking of getting it...

[kempez]

You seriously should get it. If you like playing games I can almost guarantee you'll love it

[Steven W]

Excellent review, I've put a link near the end of the HEXUS.gaming review, so others can read it.

[Odc]

Great review. Look at my system specs and they are like yours but for some reason this game owns my pc :comfused:

[Odc]

Great review. Look at my system specs and they are like yours but for some reason this game owns my pc

[ecat]

Very nice review, having read it I'd certainly be tempted to buy the game

Of course I did buy the game, on release day. Having played Morrowind to death I've spent quite some time asking myself if I was realy enjoying the game what with the levling and loot issues, only to find that bedtime passed 2, 3 or 4 hours ago. lol. Pointless questions.

In short, over 100 hours game play so far and I've only completed 10% of the main quest, maybe 80% of the Mage Guild quests, some other random quests here and there. There is still a lot to do.

Even with 100 hours gone there is still a level of fascitation and freshness, just yesterday a quest for the Countes of Anvil had me totally enthralled and left me breathless. Just yesterday I downloaded two texture mods and an environmental mod and it was like emerging from the first dungon all over again as my jaw dropped and I just stood in awe.

lol, yes I'm a fan boy. The op's review is excellent, I just wanted to give you all a second opinion

[kalniel]

Great review. Look at my system specs and they are like yours but for some reason this game owns my pc

Play with the settings. I'm only around medium settings - but you can see from the screenies it still looks great. (They are all taken with normal in game settings - no upping details just for the shot - at 1024x768 then reduced with irfanview to 640x480).

[Skaramush]

very nice but is it all yours? some bits look like paraphrasing from gamespy etc.


P.S: an interesting if not as well written review of oblivion http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=3705 the guy who wrote it is obviously one disturbed individual but it doesnt stop him from underlying problems in oblivion especially about radiant ai.

[kalniel]

very nice but is it all yours? some bits look like paraphrasing from gamespy etc.

That's an almost liabalous comment I've not even seen the gamespy review (and if any lawyers want to hook up, I've got the incremental save files from when I was writing it )