16 out of 16 people found this review helpful.
This is going to be tough to me to review.....
Date of Review: Oct 5, 2007
The Bottom Line: I think I can safely recommend this to anyone who likes this genre, but it won't convert those who don't.
Honestly, I bought Elder Scrolls for my PS3 only because I heard so much "hype" about the game on the PC from a few friends of mine, and saw a couple gaming web sites had rated it upwards of "9 out of 10". It seemed like I couldn't go wrong with this one, and I really wanted something to add to my very small library of PS3 game titles.
For those who know nothing about this title, it uses a "tried and true" theme in computer gaming, called the "RPG" (or "role playing game"). These games tend to run in either an overhead 2-dimensional perspective, or (in Oblivion's case), a 3-dimensional view from the eyes of the character you're controlling. Basically, you explore a medieval land that was taken over by an evil force, in the hopes that you can free everyone from the curse or spell and return things to their former state. As with practically all the games in this genre, you get to customize your character when you start out, including picking which "race" they're from and their physical attributes. Certain races of characters excel in different skills - so this allows you to, say, cast a lot of spells as your primary weapon, or do a lot of "ranged combat" with bow and arrow as your strong-point.
I got home, started up the game, and tried to get into it. The graphics were VERY good, as were the voices of the characters and narration. It seems like no details were left out of scenes, including drawing little pebbles and cracks on the ground, small scratches and signs of wear on stone walls, and rotting wood boards on old fences, gates or doors.
Very quickly, however, I discovered things about the gameplay I wasn't really pleased with. For starters, I had a tough time with the controls. I'm just not convinced that games should assign every last button and control stick on these console game-controllers to different functions. It felt too much like Oblivion was REALLY designed for a computer with a full keyboard and mouse to control things, and then they tried to pack everything onto the Sixaxis controller as an afterthought.
In the heat of battle, I kept accidentally casting a spell, or pulling up some inventory screen I didn't mean to pull up. I realize some more time spent with the game would cure this, but I'm getting frustrated at having to go through this big "learning curve" every time I get a new PS3 title!
It's a smaller annoyance, but another flaw in this game is the lack of different voices. What they have is EXCELLENT, but after a while, it gets a bit disconcerting seeing many different characters speaking with the exact same voice!
On the plus side, one of the expansion packs they sell separately for the PC version of this game is included with the PS3 version. So out of the box, you get a little bit more. And nobody can complain that Oblivion is finished "too quickly" anyway! This game has a VAST world to explore, and many little side quests you can wander off and do, as well as following the main ones.
I'd also say that overall performance of the game was good. I didn't feel like the system was "lagging" in any fashion as I walked or ran around the virtual world, and it was always responsive pulling up the menu screens.
To be honest, I think these role-playing games set in "Dungeons & Dragons" type settings just aren't my thing. If they were, I'd probably like this title much more than I did. I haven't been motivated to play it again since my first attempt, but I'm trying to keep an open mind about it. If nothing else, I'm sure this will be a game a friend of mine will eventually come over and play for hours.
