A true dissapointment, dumbed down and lacking in substance. (The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion / Elder Scrolls 4 (PC))

Member Name: Trask

Product:	The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion / Elder Scrolls 4 (PC)
Date:	04/08/08 (40 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very pretty, improved melee combat over Morrowind

Disadvantages: Auto-Levelling of enemies, teleport system, lack of variety, NPC speech, inferior plot.

I was, and am still in love with Eldar Scrolls III: Morrowind, and its excellent expansion packs. Seeing Oblivion in all its next-gen glory and the promise of an improved combat system had me champing at the bit.

The visuals cannot be argued with, the buildings, landscapes, characters and items all look fantastic and everything seems to glisten in the sun in a rather satisfying way.

The melee combat has been improved over Morrowind, with fights taking more than stats and some rapid clicking to win fights.
They have managed to improve the playability and practicality of the theif classes as well, making them a viable alternative to being a warrior or a mage.

Yet somehow this game fails to improve on or even maintain many of the key elements that made Morrowind so great.

Graphically, while the landscapes are stunning there is nowhere near the variety as in Morrowind and it feels almost as if the same few square miles of idyllic English countryside have been repeated over and over. However, this might not actually matter as you wont get to see 90% of the map due to the....

"Teleport anywhere you want whenever you want system" this 'ability/feature' totally ruined the game for me. One of the most entertaining aspects of Morrowind was the fact that you sometimes had to go on long, trecherous hikes through bizzare, fantastical terrain to complete a quest, on your way you would stumble across hidden slave dungeouns, remote farmhouses with dark secrets, mind warpingly spooky shrines and meet some interesting NPC's. Theres none of that here as you only have to travel anywhere once, which probably explains why most of the cool things i mentioned above are less abundant in Oblivion.
Also, you can now ride a horse, which is totally pointless as a horse is slower than instant teleportation and you cant fight properly on it.

Then there is the auto-levelling system, whilst this can serve to keep the game balanced it also means there is little point in doing all the things that usually make sense in an RPG such as levelling up and taking the time out from main quests to explore strange new areas, gain experience and find powerful new items. If you do bother to do such things you will find that you have gained very little as the average bandit no longer has some authentic looking leather armour and a longbow, instead they seem to resemble Space Marines in heavy armour and swing weapons that crackle with magical energy and if you havent structed your skillset well they will actually be more threatening to you than they were at the start of the game.
The other side of this coin is that there are no really hard areas in the game, every dungeon is simply fairly challenging.

The decision to vocalise nearly every line of dialouge in the game backfires totally and far from increasing your sense of immersion manages to completely dissapate it. When you are talking to a gruff ork woman and you suddenly trigger a line of speach that only exists for a sultry temptress she starts speaking like she just had a voice box transplant. There are only 3 or 4 voice actors for each sex so despite the vast number of npc's you might as well only talk to a few of them as they all sound the same.

Unfortunately even the storyline held me less than I hoped it might, it wasnt so shrouded in mystery and intrigue as in Morrowind and many of the supporting characters were two dimensional and frequently annoying, and the best character dies at the start.

There is still a lot to like here, but the only thing it does better than Morrowind (and even then thats debatable due to lack of variety in landscapes and settings).

Its a good game, but it is vastly inferior to its predcessor and add-on packs, plus to run it and get to appreciate the stunning visuals you need a VERY nice PC. Buy the Morrowind Game Of The Year Edition which includes both expansion packs for half the price.

Summary: Not what I expected, the new features cripple the game and much of what made Morrowind great is gone