Celestial Gamer

GAME DETAILS
Publisher:	2K Games
Developer:	Bethesda Softworks
Genre:	Role-Playing
Release Date:	Mar 20, 2006
ESRB:	MATURE
Official Site:
www.elderscrolls.com/home/home.htm

Elder Scroll IV Oblivion successfully presents an imaginative, immersive environment and easy to learn gameplay that will surely keep you on the game for hours. It allows you to select your own race, name and gender before starting off your game. After which you immediately immerse yourself in the game. You’ll start off immediately in a prison being taunted by one of the prisoner across your cell. A couple of tutorials while following Emperor Urial Septim will teach you the basics of grabbing a weapon from a dead bodyguard, accessing your inventory, casting a magic, using a bow which are all pretty easy to do. Later, you will be given an option to select your class and birth sign.

The GamePlay

Oblivion’s basic gameplay is easy to master but if you are uncomfortable using a first person view (You’ll start off by this view by default). You can always change to third person view by pressing ‘R’. The menu is easy to understand and allows you to configure your video and other settings. If you will be playing this game on your PC, make sure to tweak the settings for optimal performance.

You’ll start off to kill some rats initially which you will learn the basics of handling your sword and blocking with your shield. You’ll find that even your first enemy is a lot more aggressive so best learn to attack immediately. You’ll also find a couple of interesting things that you can do such as picking locks and sneaking into your enemy and attacking them from behind (most fun! J). There are a number of things that you can learn and do while playing the game. Overall, it is easy to learn and master the gameplay.

The Environment

Oblivion is not your typical game where you’ll find NPC characters that all look alike. Characters here are a lot more alive, smart and have personalities. You can spend hundreds of hours just interacting with these characters. They can get mad at you for stealing their stuff and you may get fined for it or go to jail. Either way, your choice of action affects the situation around you. You can turn things around if you can play the mini-game of persuasion and get these characters to like you.

The graphics detail of the environment is just beautiful. See for yourself, Oblivion screenshots.

The Sound

I’m a little bit disappointed with the ambient sound and effects in the dungeon. I still like the overall sound in the game. I am pretty impressed by each of the NPC’s voice. It expresses the emotion of what they are saying and blends very well with the facial expression and the lips. It is almost like you are speaking with a real person.

Overall

It is an excellent game even for beginners who are looking to immerse themselves in a realistic, fun adventure filled game with interesting characters to interact with. The excellent graphics and huge number of hours of playability makes this game a must have. The possible combination of race/specialization and other bonuses plus adventuring in a huge world filled with lot of characters just makes this worth your while.

Mark

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