Not a game, but a life experience (The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion / Elder Scrolls 4 (PC))

Member Name: Dejavudreams

Product:	The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion / Elder Scrolls 4 (PC)
Date:	11/01/09 (4 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Massive, beautiful world. Almost endless amounts of content. The modding community

Disadvantages: The odd minor bug, but even these generally have workarounds

Oblivion is not so much a game, but more of a life experience - and what an experience!

You knew that Bethesda were going to create something wonderful as soon as it was announced that there was to be a follow-up to the groundbreaking, fan-favourite Morrowind, and they most have certainly delivered. Oblivion is a game that must be seen to be believed and any fan of gaming simply must give it a try.

The fourth in the immensely successful Elder Scrolls Series is an open world role playing game, where you can go where you like, do what you like, speak to who you like, steal what you like (although there will be consequences if caught) and kill who AND what you like. The possibilities are boundless.

Oblivion does have a main quest, whereby you must close the dreaded gates of oblivion and stop the demons spilling through into Cyrodiil (the lush game world you will be exploring). However, most of Oblivion's fun is found outside of this, as there are literally HUNDREDS of hours of side questing to be enjoyed (my first playthrough clocked at 200 hours, compared to between 10 and 20 with a regular game - that's value for money, right there).

Along with these side quests -- which may involve killing monsters, tracking down a grieving widow's lost ring, or even eliminating a rat problem in a citizen's basement -- there are acres and acres of beautiful, superbly-rendered game world to explore. There are rolling hills, roads, rivers, waterfalls, caves, forts, dungeons, settlements, villages, towns, cities, churches, farms, ruins etc. etc. to discover, and you probably won't want to stop until you have seen every little blade of grass in this wonderfully created world.

Along with simply exploring, since this is an RPG, there is the loot factor. While exploring a goblin filled cavern is great, doing so and uncovering treasure to help upgrade your character is far more fun -- the race to find the sharpest sword, and the toughest armour is at times distracting, in fact, but this is not a bad thing at all.

And the great part is that you can choose to do all this (and much much more, I cannot stress this enough) in any way you choose, in any order you choose and with any type of character you choose -- you may wish to be a mighty warrior, slashing your enemies to pieces, or you may decide upon being a mage who prefers fireballs and frostbolts to swords and shields -- it's entirely up to you.

I'll conclude now, as I really could ramble on about this game all day. To summarise, the freedom offered within Oblivion is astounding and a world is waiting within this creamy coloured box (and indeed outside of it, with the active modding community that this game has) that simply has to be explored.

Summary: An incredible game that you must experience