The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Game of the Year Edition) (Sony Playstation 3, 2007)

The Game of the Year edition of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, is in most regards an exceptional game. It includes all of the elements of the original edition, plus the "Shivering Isles" expansion pack and the downloadable content from "Knights of the Nine." I clocked over 200 hours on the original game alone, not counting either expansion, and still did not complete the game. In other words, the game is HUGE. That hugeness will make it exceptional for some, and downright annoying to others. There are subplots and side stories scattered throughout the game, and players can complete them or not. For myself, I found the substories engaging. However, I have read other reviews that complained about them. Personally, I think it gives the game a great deal of replay potential. If you are only playing to "win the game" (i.e., complete the main story line), the game is probably just o.k. If you are developing a character, the many plots and subplots will keep you engaged. There is a lot of freedom and plenty of world to explore. There is enough structure to keep you on track, but it was not really designed to be a linear game. With the expansion packs included in the Game of the Year edition, you've got even more areas to explore and more plotlines to complete. For me, this was simply more of what I liked about the original edition. There are also additional skills, spells, and items included in the expansion so you can further develop your character.

In terms of actual gameplay, there are two issues that are likely to come up for those who like and are familiar with RPGs. The first deals with adaptive difficulty, and the second with character advancement. Plotlines in the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (original and GOTY) adapt to the level of your character, meaning that if you happen to stumble across a difficult plot line at level 1, the game adapts to make it easier (and possible) to win. This means you won't run into an area at level 10 that you have to come back to at level 25 to beat. True, some subplots and quests cannot be completed until the character is a certain level, but the adaptive difficulty remains. It didn't seem intrusive in my gameplay, but it can be an irritation. The loot is also adaptive, so at the beginning, you never find any good eq but by the end, even the rats have stuff. It's noticeable. The other issue is leveling. In both versions of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, characters level based on practicing selected skills. This makes sense in that if you are going to get better at using a sword or picking locks, you have to do it. As a result, your character only advances if you practice the skills you selected. I like the system, but there are unintended consequences and alternative. For example, the Mercantile skill is developed by selling items to stores. I have found myself reduced to selling 50 iron arrows individually to get the skill to improve. Since all levels are based on this, you may find yourself sitting on a rock throwing fireballs at a troll to improve your Destruction skill, or jumping for Acrobatics. Conceptually, I like it. However, it doesn't encourage exploration in the same way that leveling strictly by Experience Points allows.

Overall, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a great game. The GOTY edition is a better choice because of the expansions, but it's more of the same. If you're a straight main plot line play, go with the original version. If you like subplots, GOTY is the way to go.

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

This was my first experience playing the Elder Scrolls series and for the most part it was an extremely enjoyable game. This game is like a first person shooter without guns...but you do get a bow and arrow if you choose. I will explain some of the good and some of the bad points about it. The strongest point of Oblivion is the sheer magnitude of the landscape and the ability to search and do anything you want. In all honesty if you explore every cave and every fort and complete every quest on the map it can take you near or past 200 or more hours!! I loved this part of the game as it kept me wanting to find new things for days. Also of note in the Game of the Year Edition (GOTY) you get an additional map AND quests that can add nearly 20 more hours of game play! So if you are wondering which edition to buy (standard or GOTY) go for the GOTY because you get everything in the standard edition plus the extras. There is a great deal of customization from the way you do quests to the character you create and you will spend hours doing anything and everything you want. However as you play for a few hours you will notice that things seem to get rather boring...Which brings me to the bad part of the world of Oblivion. Yes you can spend days and months playing and doing everything out there but you will soon notice that every time you explore a cave or start killing bandits in all of the forts...they all start to look the same and the bad guys rarely change as well. Let’s say you're wandering around and you stumble upon a cave you havn't seen before...you go in, loot the treasure and head out again...you then find another cave several miles away and you're saying "ALRIGHT!! I FOUND ANOTHER ONE" you go inside and loot the treasure and think to yourself "was I just in here?" All caves and all forts while different in the way their set up (meaning in one cave you'll have to cross a river or something and the next cave you'll have to go through a maze) offer you little difference in the way they look. So yes there are hundreds of places to explore but if you do look in all of them, it gets extremely dull after awhile. Another bad point is the bugs and glitches. Some are small little things that look out of place while others are darn right nasty. It happened to me several times where I was doing an entire quest and in the end a glitch prevented me from completing it. This is probably my main gripe so heed my words...SAVE and save often in this game because I can almost guarantee you that at some point you'll be playing for hours and a bug will hit and you'll want to go back and restart but can't do it. The glitch/bug problem along with sometimes monotonous gameplay prevents me from giving Oblivion GOTY an absolutely perfect score (I don’t give a perfect score unless it is a perfect game). But hear me out, this game is a must have or at the very least a must play. It is massive and absolutely gorgeous in graphics and is one of the greatest games I own.

This is the game that never ends. Yes it goes on and one my friend, some people started playing it not knowing what it was and they'll continue playing it forever just because this is the...... well most of us know how that song goes and now it's stuck in your head once more :(
One of my all time favorites. For those that love games that never seem to end this is it. For a small amount of money you will get hours and hours and hours and hours of game play, unless you just do the story line. What I dislike is the glitches, load screens and the commitment to a certain type of character almost from the beginning. Once you level your character high enough then you have to increase the game difficulty for it to be challenging. The ps3 version is not the best way to go on this one but still loads of fun.

WOW!
Absolutely addictive game! The game far outshines the hype! I'm glad I got a PS3 for X-Mas and super glad I decided to buy this game!
Oblivion totally immerses a player into the world of Cyrodill to the point where u really get into your created character. In fact, my favorite function is the FULLY customizable characters (my elf almost looks just like ME). There are MILLIONS of possible choices for weapon/spells/alchemy customizing! The gameplay is either direct mission or open-ended; its all completely up to you. I've been playing for nearly a month now and I have YET to do the main mission - I'm having too much fun wandering around - finding secret caves, fighting goblins, trolls, zombies, and vampires - and building up my skills!
One day I'll get into the actual mission ;P
This is my first massive RPG game like this and I think I'm spoiled. Other games do not compare. I don't bother playing my other PS3 games. I only think about what I can do next and how to further my skills.
My wife was not a videogamer at all - we now have to split our time playing Oblivion! It's really really that good.

PROS: Graphics. Sheer scope. Characters customize. Gameplay. NP Interactivity. Realism. Fast travel option.

CONS: Very addictive. Should be able to start relationships. (my wife's idea, lol)