The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Collector's Edition) (Xbox 360, 2006)

The Good

* Huge, lavishly detailed world offers tremendous amount of action and adventure
* Main mechanics like combat, stealth, and magic are fun and well designed
* Impressive artificial intelligence and hundreds of believable characters
* Outstanding symphonic score, as well as excellent voice acting and sound effects
* Tremendous replay value, plus gorgeous graphics to make it easy on the eyes.

The Bad

* Frequent though fairly brief loading times
* You might run into some technical issues with performance.

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.

Overall Rating: An 11/10

The Elder Scrolls IV is a perfect example of what the Xbox360 will be able to do even though at times the game can suffer from major glitches (glitches so bad you may not be able to complete some quests). The game is beautiful and the 16 square miles you can cover in the game is mind-boggling. Dungeon diving can be repetitive sometimes but you can find some pretty great things down there. What the game brings to the table cannot be defined as a simple RPG. There are so many elements stealth, action, 1st person shooting, 3rd person slashing (could use some work on the stiffness of the camera and the player), horseriding (would be great to see them use "GUN's" horseriding engine), character building, and tactical squad game all rolled into one huge epic of a game. These elements will keep you playing well over 100 hours. Using magic is also a key element and the graphic effects are oh so pretty. You can become a vampire if you like (would be great to see a werewolf download). So many things can keep you busy in this land where things go on 24/7. People have jobs to do and places to go. And downloadable content has several things to keep you playing even longer. Just be careful what you buy. Not everything is worth the money (horse armor, spell tomes). This is a game that must not be passed up. IT is a MUST play. 5/5
Not really worth paying much extra to get this version but the coin is a nice touch.

I was hesitant to purchase this game as I dont traditionally do well with Role Playing Games. When I started to play, I was a little put on by the character creation mode, as it is pretty detailed and requires a little prior knowledge of skill classes (at least to me since I dont like to play RPG's). After I was done though, and got into the gameplay, I found it to be very engaging and pretty easy to figure out. The spell casting is easy and the combat, depending on the enemy, is fun. The environments really draw you in and everywhere you turn, there is something to explore, especially if you get into collecting plants/items for spell making that grow in the wild. Unfortunately, even in action/adventure games, I take my time and explore as many nooks and crannies as I can to find secrets. As far as this game is concerned, I would have to be independantly wealthy and have no job to be able to explore every single thing I want to explore! I really do think that this is one of the best games I have ever played and look forward to playing it to the end, though from what I understand, a lot of players dont get to as it is a huge game!
There is always a new quest to get involved in and with the opportunity to buy houses and furnish them, it makes it easy to plunder the dungeons and sell the spoils to make some extra money without traveling across the huge world (and I do mean HUGE!). The only thing I have noticed so far about that which I would like to see different, is during one quest, I ended up having to kill a crazy person that owned a home and I ended up with the key to his house. Unfortunately, you cant legally take anything from a place where you are intruding and even after that person is dead, you are still intruding when you go there so you cant sleep either. All in all, that is not a big deal and this is an excellent game if you are looking to play a game that draws you in and will provide hours and hours of enjoyment.

Oblivion is so immersive that at times, I literally didn't even realize I was playing a videogame. There is so much to do in so many ways that to do everything would take you 200 hours. The most fun is ranking up in the different guilds. My favorites were the Thieves Guild, where you steal, and the Dark Brotherhood, where you assassinate a whole lot of people. The game is unique in practically every aspect. You really can't compare the game to anything else (other than the prequel maybe).

Highs: Graphics are astounding, Endless amount of FUN things to do, free-roaming medieval gameplay is a plus, decently balanced combat/stealth/magic system, fantastic production values, loads of additional content, will suck your lifeforce.

Lows: About a 5 hour learning curve for people unfamiliar with the franchise, Loading is frequent and will cause your 360 to hang up, like, a lot, about 80 hours into the game you realize it's going to be repetitive, very short main quest, could have better utilized Xbox Live in some way other than for downloading content, will suck your lifeforce.

Surprise Bonus: You can be a vampire?! Wow...

Collector's Edition Surprise Bonus: A COIN!!!! ZOMG!!!

And Finally: If you like action games that pull you in and refuse to let go, I can't think of anything better to play.

This is a great next-generation RPG that is sure to please the lovers of the genre. It makes a very good use of XBox 360s powerful graphical prowess with the lush terrain and rich textures. If you love RPGs and you own an XBox 360 this is a must have.

The best feature of this game for me was how the world does not force you to follow a linear path. Far too many RPGs fall into this trap, forcing you on a very strict path with only minor sidequests which are just thrown in as a light addition to the game. Oblivion offers very rich and deep sidequests with the whole world evolving with your character as you gain a reputation and follow sidequests.

If you aren't a fan of the RPG genre however you are pretty much guaranteed not to enjoy this game.