The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Xbox 360)
Manufacturer: Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Part number: 29879
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- Gameplay and graphical enhancements. Over 200 hours play time.
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Gamespot editors' review
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Xbox 360) price range: $28.99
- Reviewed by: Greg Kasavin
- Reviewed on: 03/24/2006
- Updated on:02/07/2007
- Released on: 03/20/2006
The bottom line: Gameplay and graphical enhancements. Over 200 hours play time.
This is a rare and remarkable achievement--a huge, open-ended, complex, detailed role-playing game that's fun to play and a pleasure to behold. Oblivion not only delivers everything that earned the Elder Scrolls series the devoted loyalty of a huge following of fans, but also significantly improves on the weaknesses of its 2002 predecessor, Morrowind. Morrowind earned recognition for being one of the best role-playing games in years, but the immersive and long-lasting experience it provided wasn't for everyone. Oblivion is hands-down better, so much so that even those who'd normally have no interest in a role-playing game should find it hard to resist getting swept up in this big, beautiful, meticulously crafted world.
Morrowind was a tough act to follow, but Oblivion isn't just better--it's a lot better.
The Elder Scrolls series is known for its sheer size and depth. These are games that you could lose yourself in, spending hours exploring a fantasy world, traveling for miles, or just looking for minutiae, such as rare plants or hidden treasure. Oblivion lives up to this pedigree, putting you into a massive, cohesive, highly immersive world. You get to create your own character--the possibilities for customization seem limitless--and then explore the world as you will. There's a compelling main quest for you to follow, which takes about 40 hours to finish the first time through, but the majority of the game's content is peripheral to that main quest. You can root out evil in hidden dungeons, join and climb the ranks in a number of different guilds, visit all the different towns and try to solve everybody's problems, compete in a long series of gladiatorial battles to the death, break into someone's home and rob them in their sleep, get caught and face the consequences, contract a disease that leads to vampirism and then try to find a cure, buy a house, steal a horse, invest in your favorite shop, and, if you can believe it, there's much more.
So the breadth of content is as remarkable as ever, but the most important thing is this: The many types of gameplay in Oblivion are well-designed and deeply satisfying, even when taken on their own. That's the main difference between this game and Morrowind. This may be a role-playing game, but you could play it like a pure action game, or like a stealth game, or like an adventure game, and it'd still be at least as good as, if not better than, games that are specialized in these regards.
Oblivion does a great job of quickly introducing you to all these different aspects of play, successfully engaging you rather than overwhelming you. You see the world through your character's eyes, but a behind-the-back perspective is also available. Initially you just pick a name, race, and gender for your character, and the game opens with you stuck in a dungeon cell, being taunted by a fellow inmate. Somehow, though, you get swept up in a desperate escape attempt by the emperor and his loyal retinue of protectors. The emperor, voiced unmistakably by Patrick Stewart (Star Trek: The Next Generation, X-Men), recognizes you from a portentous dream and entrusts you with the search for his illegitimate heir. But first, you'll need to escape from the Imperial City's sewers. As you make your way through this basic dungeon crawl, you happen upon ill-fated adventurers, their stuff, and some ornery goblins, so you immediately get to play around with close combat, ranged attacks, magic, sneaking, lock picking, equipment repairing, and more. How you survive is up to you--it's just as viable to kill your enemies with destructive magic, weapons, or bare hands as it is to sneak or run right past them. And even though the sewer setting might sound unimaginative, the quality of the game's visuals, the exceptionally good atmospheric sound effects, and the realistic physics all serve to quickly draw you in.
Not only is there a huge amount of great content in the game, but you can also experience it in all kinds of different ways depending on the type of character you create.
Toward the end of this sequence, the game does a clever job of recommending a character class to you based on how you've been playing. For example, if you've gone toe to toe with every goblin you've seen, hacking them up with an axe, you might make a good barbarian. But the game's numerous premade character classes aren't nearly as interesting as the ability to create your own custom class. The choices are numerous but clearly presented, and while you could go out of your way to create a fairly useless character, your intuition will easily guide you through what's a complex process. You choose an underlying specialization--combat, magic, or stealth--then you choose a couple of primary attributes, seven major skills, and even a birth sign. Basically, you're choosing your character's talents. Every character can use every skill; it's just a question of how well. Ultimately, this character-creation process is much like Morrowind's, and it shares the same ingenious design: You get stronger in this game by practicing and improving your primary skills, not by killing stuff and earning generic experience points.
User reviews
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Why I Bought an XBox 360
by jones.williamk on August 19, 2007
Pros: Beautiful game, easy to get in to, almost all the choices one could want, almost perfect.
Cons: Console controller, sometimes too many choices.
Summary: Oblivion is the reason why I bought an XBox 360: it was cheaper than getting a PC that could actually run it. It is a beautiful game, and one of ...
Summary: Oblivion is the reason why I bought an XBox 360: it was cheaper than getting a PC that could actually run it. It is a beautiful game, and one of the best RPGs on a console system I've seen (the list include Morrowind). It is chock-full of possibilities, with plenty of places to explore, plenty of nasties (and some goodies) to kill, and a decent variety of quests. It's not without some flaws though.
The first, and perhaps biggest of those flaws is that the horses seem to be more trouble than they're worth. While they do allow you travel faster than on foot, they don't allow you to fight or use magic. They're also not as fast as the autotravel system. A personal problem with them is that I kept losing mine.
Also, interaction with the NPCs is a bit on the linear side. While there are some dialogue options, few of them seem to have any impact on how things may unfold later in the game. Being evil and nasty to everyone, but not trying to kill them generally doesn't result in your being unable to later smoothtalk your way into someone's good graces.
Also, the game can be seen as being a little too expansive, with side quests and other tasks being able to consume hours of game time as well.
Still, to say that Oblivion is a solid game is a gross understatement. From the scenery, to combat, to the story itself Oblivion is a masterpiece.
The graphics are gorgeous, making use of the fast travel option a waste (a reason for using a horse, perhaps?). I found myself running everywhere just to be able to gaze at the scenery. On top of that the physics are a nice touch as well, watching arrows and corpses roll downhill. Then there's the arrows that seem to regularly protrude from my character.
Combat can be handled quite easily, with little player skill required. I personally have been able to do quite well with simple attacks. However, for missiles and magic I find that the console controller and a certain lack of auto-aiming makes ranged combat a bit of a chore (though more gratifying when I hit). The blood on weapons is a nice touch as well.
The plot itself is good enough that a transcription of someone playing the game to completion would not be out of a place in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy section of a bookstore. The twists and turns that occur and that are possible help keep my playing.
Though standard for the The Elder Scrolls series (since Arena) the levelling system in Oblivion is still quite unique. Rather than gaining experience points for completing quests and killing things the character gains experience through successfully using skills.
This levelling system has its own sets of pros and cons. The cons are that it can lead to lopsided character development. Skills such as stealth(?) and athletics can develop much faster than weapon-related skills. Another con (if you're a munchkin) is that trying ensure you max out your stats can have you grinding some skills, and then at a loss as to how to develop some of the others.
The pros to levelling system outweigh the cons in promoting a greater sense of realism (you're character is good at what your character does), and basically removes the need to grind levels to be able to take on some annoying bady.
The only other issue I can think of addressing with this review is the scaling of enemies in the game. As your character advances in level the enemies advance as well. Though I've heard some complaints about this system I've never found it to be an issue myself. There are some enemies I found that prior to some amount of experience were beyond my ability to kill. I also hadn't found any super rats, so some of the easy kills stayed easy kills. Also, There is a possibility that my observance of the enemies scaling is skewed based on my play style.
One last thing before wrapping this up. Oblivion is not like the so-called RPGs that arrive here from the other side of the Pacific. There are no hour long cut scenes, the cinematics seem to be made using the game engine, and your immersion into the plot goes beyond running around and killing things.
Oblivion is a superior game, far outshining this review. Anyone who enjoys role playing games, a beautiful game world, a well-conceived plot, and just an all-around great gaming experience should pick up a copy. It is money well spent.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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A must for all 360 owners
by Sportzguy933 on May 14, 2006
Pros: Great AI, first & third person views, hundreads of hours of gameplay, open-ended, so much to explore
Cons: some glitches (not a huge problem)
Summary: The first "must-have" game for the XBox 360. With at least 700+ hours of gameplay, it will always keep you interested. Great features like fast-travel and auto-save, as well as ...
Summary: The first "must-have" game for the XBox 360. With at least 700+ hours of gameplay, it will always keep you interested. Great features like fast-travel and auto-save, as well as amazing gameplay and graphics. If you don't already have this game, GO GET IT!
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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best rpg till date
by rhlravi on November 5, 2009
Pros: excellent quality visuals and gameplay and story
Cons: superb game
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You like First person RPG you love this
by not2worried on March 20, 2008
Pros: looks great, plays great
Cons: loading is often. inventory system is ok
Summary: Not much to say about this great game.It can take 100's of hours to do everything. It sucks you into a real living world. It one of the ...
Summary: Not much to say about this great game.It can take 100's of hours to do everything. It sucks you into a real living world. It one of the best RPG made.
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Best rpg for the x360,pc
by aqmaster on July 7, 2007
Pros: it is true that u hav ur own life
Cons: u cant put addons and patches like the pc's
Summary: the best rpg for pc and 360,a must hav
Summary: the best rpg for pc and 360,a must hav
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AWSOME GAME
by alex73a on June 28, 2007
Pros: good graphics, more advanced than elder scrolls 3
Cons: loading is a pain but is worth it
Summary: i personally like elder scrolls 3 better, it seemed more realistic to me but this one is awsome as well
Summary: i personally like elder scrolls 3 better, it seemed more realistic to me but this one is awsome as well
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You must have this title....
by klownkid1016 on May 25, 2007
Pros: one-on-one combat system, lots of sweet weapon choices
Cons: load times, but not much else
Summary: As an avid gamer, I must recommend this game! I don't think that I've ever played such an enjoyable title, with quite the emmersive world that this one ...
Summary: As an avid gamer, I must recommend this game! I don't think that I've ever played such an enjoyable title, with quite the emmersive world that this one does. Lots of things to rave about, but the most important thing is Oblivion is fun...plain and simple. I must admit that I absolutely hated Morrowind, too complicated and terrible load times. This game is a much improved version of a well thought idea. Look into the expansion packs for this guy too, The Shivering Isles is a trip!
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Incredibly addictive RPG
by theInterstate on April 24, 2007
Pros: lots of stuff to do, cool weapons and magic
Cons: Oblivion gates start feeling a bit repeatitive, and you never feel as superior as you should. sometimes there is rendering lag in the backgrounds
Summary: First off, this is the best RPG I've played since Diablo 2. The graphics are stunning. The story is easy to follow. Or you can run off and do ...
Summary: First off, this is the best RPG I've played since Diablo 2. The graphics are stunning. The story is easy to follow. Or you can run off and do all of the side quests. You can basically cater this game to the kind of experience you want. If you want to just burn through the main components and get to the end boss, there isn't anything stopping you, but with all of the side quests that pop up along the way, it isn't likely that you will be that honed in on the main objective.
My biggest complaints:
The backgrounds are sometimes too big to handle, and there is some glitchy jumping as the trees appear right in front of you. The Oblivion gates start feeling repeatitive. And the monsters always seem to be at your level. There doesn't seem to be a point where you can go to a part of the game that you started off in and just annihalate your opponents. I liked that about Fable and Diablo. But it's always challenging, so that keeps me interested. -
Excellent, but not as good as the ps3 version.
by Jacob-B on March 26, 2007
Pros: Good graphics, huge world, free roaming perfection
Cons: loading times, some dodgy graphics here and there, no online features
Summary: This game is probobly the best free roaming game ever released no matter what platform you play it on. The 360 version offers great gameplay but sometimes lags and those ...
Summary: This game is probobly the best free roaming game ever released no matter what platform you play it on. The 360 version offers great gameplay but sometimes lags and those loading screens get very annoying. This is where the ps3 version is superior, not only does it boast almost no loading times but it also has noticably better graphics and the knights of the nine expansion pack included in the game. the bottom line...AMAZING GAME!!! but if you have the option buy it on ps3 instead.
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Huge, beautiful RPG with captivating music.
by Vaerax on March 10, 2007
Pros: Size, graphics, and sound are all mind-boggling.
Cons: Pathetic plot, horrible leveling bug.
Summary: I will start off by saying that this is probably the best looking/sounding rpg on the market. That being said, this genre got its start in a LONG line ...
Summary: I will start off by saying that this is probably the best looking/sounding rpg on the market. That being said, this genre got its start in a LONG line of graphically challenged games.
RPGs - role playing games - are supposed to tell a story. They are supposed to have captivating plots with twists and turns, powerful enemies, interesting allies, etc. Elder Scroll just doesn't have any of those.
The extraordinarily customizable main character is also a part of the game's weakness; because you can do so much with your character, there is no preset logical sequence of events surrounding him. The game is so huge that the official walkthrough is something like 450 pages (most games, even RPGs, rarely hit 100). The problem with that is 99% of it is unrelated to the main story and quest.
It is an RPG, but don't expect your character to develop friends. In fact, don't expect any important characters at all besides your own. The main character has no friends. At all. You fight on your own. On the rare occasion you have allies, they are woefully underpowered because of the leveling bug.
The leveling bug is what dropped this game from an 8 to a 7 for me. The makers tried to adapt for people like me who tend to spend hours and hours killing things/doing quests to buff our characters. I respect that. I even applaud it. The problem is they overcompensated. I know at least two people with the game who can barely kill even casual mobs because of poor leveling/character design choices they made in the first 10 hours of play (you could easily put 150-200 hours into this game w/o doing everything). As you level, ALL enemies level with you. The problem is the designers had no way to know if people would build characters around personalities, build them for power, or build them efficiently. Unless you read a guide or something to make your first character, for a variety of reasons (ie it's better to have your most important attributes, such as Strength for a fighter, be secondary not primary) your character is going to be weak and continue getting weaker every level. Your enemies will get relatively stronger every time you level, and eventually you will simply be outclassed.
Even that part of the bud I suppose could be overlooked, but your allies do not get stronger at all. If you are level 50 and go on a quest with ten allies, the game will provide you with an appropriate number of enemies for the size of your group, say 15 enemies. The problem is, these enemies will all be level 50, likely all be almost as strong as you, and your allies will all be level 5 or so. Within seconds, your enemies will slaughter your allies (and usually you need to keep at least 1 ally alive to successfully complete your quest) and attack you. If 1-2 of them made a tough fight, 15 of them....
All in all, I think this game was an excellent effort and worth buying. Before playing it, look up a guide online on creating your character and leveling even if you're an old pro at RPGs, since doing logical things like making Strength a primary attribute on a fighter will weaken your character. I am confident that in Elder Scrolls V there will be a better plot, a little more focus (okay, hopefully a lot more focus), and a better leveilng system. Because of the massive size of the game, replay value is extremely low (another reason to look up a guide before leveling - you aren't likely to want to restart once you hit level 30).
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
- Part number: 29879
- Description: Oblivion is the quintessential role-playing game for the next generation and another leap forward in gaming. Step inside the most richly detailed and vibrant game-world ever created. Oblivion is the latest chapter in the epic and highly successful Elder Scrolls saga and utilizes the latest PC and next-generation video game hardware to fully immerse you into the experience. With a powerful combination of freeform gameplay and unprecedented graphics, you can unravel the main quest at your own pace or explore the vast world and find your own challenges.
Product Basic Spec
- Platform Xbox 360
- ESRB rating Mature - Blood and Gore,Violence,Language,Use of Alcohol,Sexual Themes
- Genre Role-Playing
- Elements Role playing game (RPG) - first person, Role playing game (RPG) - third person
- Context Fantasy
- Number of players 1 Player
- Difficulty Medium
- Learning curve About 1 hour
Game
- Developer Bethesda Softworks
- ESRB Mature
- ESRB descriptors Blood and Gore,Violence,Language,Use of Alcohol,Sexual Themes
- Release date 03/20/2006
Manufacturer info
- Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://www.take2games.com/
- Address:
575 Broadway, New York, NY 10012
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