The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 console has been out for over a year and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is still at the forefront of the consoles line-up. In an industry full of fast paced non-stop action shooters, slashers, and fighters the world of Oblivion is a welcome relief.

The game begins in a cell within the imperial prison where you are being held for an unknown charge. As you sit rotting behind bars a plot is put into action in the outside world. The kings heirs have all been killed and the assassins are coming for the king next. The king's guard storms into your cell forcing you into a corner from which you can see the king enter and descend into a now open secret tunnel. As you follow behind the king you are stopped and questioned by the guards and the king himself and this is where The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion truly begins.

When you are questioned you are required to answer questions about your race, birth sign, occupation, and skills. While it may sound fairly straightforward there are literally thousands, if not millions, of possible choices. You can determine every aspect of your appearance, from eye and skin color to the distance between your lips and nose. While customizing your appearance is incredibly cool, the real meat of the process comes from customizing your character. You can select a predetermined character class (Warrior, mage, thief, etc.) or you can tweak every detail of your characters attributes to create the perfect champion.

After you have escaped from the prison you are free…literally. You emerge upon the shore of a lake with whatever items you were able to pillage from your escape. You can continue to fulfill the quest given to you upon your escape or you can simply wander. You can fight bandits, guards, townsfolk, demons, monsters, and animals. You can rid the world of evil or you can rob everyone blind, as long as you are willing to go to jail or pay your fine. In this game the word "No" does not exist. There is nothing you can't do. If you can imagine it you can do it.

Considering the size of the game the graphics of Oblivion are simply stunning. The world is massive and full of enemies, towns, caves, civilians, and treasures and they all look amazing. The characters look crisp and realistic. The enemies, from bandits to daedric monsters, look great and fighting them is amazing. You can see the enemy recoil when you smash your sword against their shield. The animals within the game look lifelike as they bound away in fear or rush you in a rage. The daedric monsters are so amazing that they are actually frightening the first time you encounter them.

The sound on the game seems to be more of a personal preference than anything else. The sound affects are phenomenal. Every time swords meet the sound of battle are lifelike in both quality and volume. The closer you are to the source of sound the louder it is, as you move away the noise fades into the background much like it would in real-life. Oblivion has by far the best sound-affects I've found on any Xbox 360 game so far. The music is another matter. I personally prefer something more upbeat and loud than the soundtrack for Oblivion which is mostly orchestra based music that changed with the game, fighting someone brings out a faster, and more pressing track than simply walking through the forest.

The main drawback of the sound of Oblivion is the voiceovers. The townsfolk, civilians, soldiers, and other minor characters within the game are all voiced by a handful of people. In the credits of the games one person does all the voices for every male ogre, one person does the voiced for female ogres, one person does male humans, etc. The lack of variety for voices is a relatively small drawback within the game but hearing the same voice over and over again can be rather irritating.

The gameplay of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is amazing. Oblivion makes use of every button on the Xbox 360 controller and it is done in such a way that prevents it from feeling uncomfortable. Each button assignment is easy to remember and feels almost natural and if it doesn't feel natural the controller can be configured until it is. Oblivion is the first game I've played on the Xbox 360 to truly take advantage of the new controllers extra buttons, as well as the button placement.

The biggest drawback with past Elder Scroll games was navigating. It was altogether to easy to get lost in the wilderness and be forced to walk and walk until you happened upon a settlement. This problem was dealt with very effectively by implementing a compass and more advanced journal feature into Oblivion. The new navigation system has markers that show where your current objective is located on your main map. Also on the main map is a nifty new feature called fast-travel which allows you to travel across the continent simply by selecting your destination. Keeping track of your quests, a feat that was all but impossible in past Elder Scroll games, is now quick and easy thanks to a convenient Current Quests feature which allows you to select a quest and view the progress you've made as well as what you are required to do next.

The most impressive feature of Oblivion is leveling system. Every time you increase your major skills ten levels your character goes up by a level. This on its own is not that revolutionary however every time your character levels up so does the world around you. So when you're at level one all the enemies in the game are at level one too. Thanks to this new system there is no quest which is unattainable at any point in the game. Thus a level one character can complete the main quest with a challenge, and a level fifty character will have the same level of challenge when attempting the same quest.

Conclusion

I would recommend this game to anyone with a PC or and Xbox 360. It is the largest game I have ever played and it is amazingly easy to navigate and play. It only takes about twenty minutes to become familiar with the controls. The leveling system makes it easy to leap right into the game without worrying about getting owned as soon as you leave the safety of the cities. The graphics are amazing, and the gameplay is fantastic. The music isn't my cup of tea, but it isn't a big deal as you can simply select any music you would rather hear from your hard-drive. This is by far the best Xbox 360 game I've played to date, I haven't even started the main quest and I've already logged 70+ hours of playtime.