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If you have a family, stay away from this game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I have put over 250 hours in to this game.
I can't stop. Damn family commitments keep cutting into my Oblivion time, haha.

If you like to explore, you will love this game.

If you are a spaz and want to smash buttons, you might want to try something else.

Think that little SanAndreas game was big (I used to)? GET THIS!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

As far as jail-breaks go, you're about to have the opportunity to start again, everything set back to default with no-one the wiser. You owe your impending freedom to a man about to lose his own, the Emperor Uriel Septum, who for the last time peered into the well of destiny and found a stranger staring straight back at him, a stranger whose future is now bound with that of a nation. Whether through the alignment of the stars or just sheer dumb luck, you're as ordinary as they come and happen to be at the crossroads of history when forces combine to push ordinary individuals to great lengths and deeds. Yep, you guessed it, you're mister ordinary, about to embark on an adventure in which you decide how far depths are plummeted to find the information and experiences locked away inside Cyrodiil.

Stretching from Anvil on the Abecean Sea in the West to the shadow of the Valus Mountains in the east, then south down the Niben waterway to Leyawiin and Topal Bay, Cyrodiil is a vast green dogleg, the "Imperial Province" within the Tamrielic Empire and named for a dynasty that included three early emperors. Your adventure starts roughly in the centre, on an island in Lake Rumar on which sits Imperial City. Rather like a stone wheel, the entire city circles around the central and towering Imperial Palace, with huge walls separating the streets into districts. Outside the city walls lies a waste pipe from the sewers underneath, where you'll learn the basics of the game through escaping from jail and become entangled with Uriel Septums final moments, the consequences of which give you the starting step to the main quest.

There are many quests, adventures and experiences to find and accomplish within Oblivion, with plenty to do off the beaten track. Some have stories, though often they're written in gold, darkness and blood. Every dark hole in the ground is considered a new adventure, how you get to those new adventures is up to you. As you might have guessed, you can take life in Cyrodiil as you please. Either hit the floor running and gun up the levels, grab all the spells and beat back evil to save the Empire, or explore the vast world, find knowledge through interaction with the many residents and the books available. You won't find public transportation such as Silt Striders in Morrowind, instead players can buy horses and equip them with the optional download of armour to protect them from thieves and other animals, as well as fast-travelling to other cities via the in-game menu. You won't often ask for directions, thanks to the compass and GTA style map-markers, and knowing where to go is a help, because the world of Oblivion is constantly in motion, regardless of your status or whereabouts. Non player characters get up and go to work, go out for dinner afterwards before retiring home to bed. Others see neighbours or visit other cities. Some do things that are unexpected. Every person is a small mystery.

Oblivion also moves internally, constantly adjusting challenges and rewards according to your characters level. Progression is performed in two ways; you can spend time boosting your skills to become more powerful, and then there's levelling up to face harder enemies. Low levels means weaker spells and potions, armour and weapons, whereas the higher ones unleash the cooler magical elements and stronger equipment and apparel. With progression comes harder enemies, and that's not in skill level. Out in the wild between cities, you'll encounter wolves at low levels. Go higher and you'll see packs of them, before they're replaced by tigers, and finally huge powerful bears. In dungeons you'll encounter zombies and skeletons at the start, with far more powerful enemies emerging as you climb the ladder. Besides the difficulty slider hidden away in the preferences menu, this presents players with the option to either breeze through a world populated by weak enemies, or take the time to level up and slay huge monsters, demons and all other types of unheard of foes. The choice, as they say, is yours.

So you've probably got the idea that Oblivion is one heck of a world. There's plenty going on, there's plenty to do and there's plenty to see. On the subject of seeing, Cyrodiil looks absolutely stunning. Everything is bright and wonderful in the sunshine, birds singing, pigeons flocking, butterflies dodging about in the shadows, and then environments look damp, cold and miserable when rain rolls into town. The level of detail is quite breathtaking, with brickwork incredibly convincing, foliage resembling plants and not just clumps of green material and landscapes that could kill. Everything just looks so detailed, rich and wonderful that you simply cannot help being lured into the world of Oblivion. Water ripples as water should; litter flies about in the wind and collects in bundles in streets. This really is something, and for once words cannot describe the absolute beauty Bethesda have created here.

The downside to Oblivion is if you're not an RPG fan, or someone looking to get into the genre, you're really being thrown into the deep end here. Besides the guiding arrow on the in-game compass, there's not a hand to lead you about or a massive tutorial to follow, so sometimes you can sit about confused and frustrated as what to do next. Luckily, if you have your wits about you, you'll realise that there is so much more to Oblivion than just mission beating. There are wild animals to guard against, of which you can sell their remains to make money. There's locations to explore and discover, books to read (thousands infact), a huge arena to fight in or bet wagers on, a mage university to gain access to and explore, amongst countless other things. We could literally sit here for days just explaining in vivid detail how much you can do and accomplish, but we'd rather simply skim he surface and leave the rest for you to discover.

There are niggly bugs and exploits uncovered during the course of gameplay, but handy downloads from Live seem to have fixed these up, as well as introducing horse armour into the game for your trusty stead on those long voyages, but otherwise you're looking at the prime example to own the Xbox 360. We love GRAW and we're mastering PGR3, but Oblivion beats them both to the coveted top spot of must-have 360 games. The lush and vast environments will simply blow you away, the opportunity to either charge on through missions or sit back and enjoy exploring and conjuring up new potions will please many, and the variety of side-missions, quests and factions will keep fans coming back for more, even creating new characters to take on the world with.

Let's stop it here before I uncover something revealing and spoil the plot. Just buy Oblivion and savour the moment, because next-next-gen gaming just got oh-so great.

My First "Real" RPG-Wow!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: October 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have been into games for a long time-started playing on the PC and when my PC got to elderly to play current gen games I decided to get into consoles (it just seemed easier and cheaper then constantly upgrading a pc); I have a PS2, XBOX and now a 360 and a large library of games, all the major releases really EXCEPT, i have never been much interested in RPG's. (I do have Fable, but many of my gaming friends say while that is a very good game, and an RPG, it is not on the order of, say, Everquest or similar titles). After I got my 360 though, I was going through the game reviews on here to find some 360 games I might think of purchasing, and became very interested in this game after reading the (mostly) positive reviews. I purchased the "collector's edition" (which is evidently even more of a collector's edition because I happened to get a copy that was still rated "T" instead of "M)."

Anyway I loaded the disk, turned on my controller, and sat down to play, with an open mind; I figured if i didn't like it, I could always trade it back for a good exchange. Well, was I suprised that, the next time I looked up, SEVEN HOURS had passed by!

The graphics of the world are amazing. For those that don't know yet, you start out in a prison cell, (this is where you create your character, including gender, and main attributes), and are pulled into the main story as some guaruds loyal to the Emperor are trying to smuggle him out of the area to prevent his assasination. This part of the game serves a a tutorial, walking you through moving around, using your inventory, picking things up, and so forth, then a bit later you choose your "class," I guess the term is (I picked knight), till finally you get to an exit, here the game gives you a chance to change your character, then it autosaves and you exit into the world.

At this point, if you followed the tutorial, you have various items and a few well worn weapons to get you started. What is so awesome about this game is you can, even more so than GTA or whatever, do exactly and totall what you want. You can start right on the main quest here, or start out like I did, walk to the nearest town and just start exploring it (I came out of the sewers at night time, so there weren't many people around save for guards). If you want, you can NEVER finish the main quest, or never even start it. You can go about on your own, join guilds, form factions, help people out, be evil, (once you can beat them in combat I guess), kill whoever you want, buy items, buy property, and on and on and on. I can't even list or think of everything. I walked around for at least an hour just looking at stuff, lol. Next I found a shop, and while the shop keepers back was turned I stole everything on the shelves behind him, hee hee.

Just for the tiny bit I have done so far, I can see that this game can indeed provide hundreds and hundreds of hours of game play; in fact, one tip I have heard from some people is, keep that first autosave; go back to it, start all over with a whole new class, etc. This could keep you playing for years!

Right now, I'm still trying to decide whether to be really evil or not. It's easy to be a sneak theif, but from what I've seen, not a killer. Probably it's because I haven't leveled up yet, and everyone I tried to attack (yes I tried to kill the shop keeper and he kicked my *** and called the guard :( ) is five or six levels above me, lol. And it is totally futile, at least at my level of development, to fight with anyone, especially guards. So, hmmm maybe I'll do some quests, and be a shoplifter. Seriously this game is so much fun, it's hard to describe. After getting out of jail for attacking the shop keeper (:P) i spent what turned out to be a few more hours of wandering around. I did encounter a highwayman, decided not to give up my few bits of gold, and fought him, I won,(by pure luck I guess, but was almost dead--thanks to the tutorial though I knew to use my little "heal yourself's wounds" spell). Now, defending yourself, of course, is not a crime, in fact, if there are guards around when you are being attacked they will come over and defend you (and probably kill the threat for you since they all seem to be like level 15 or so). Sweet! If you have a 360, and don't have this game yet, get it. Even if you're not into RPG (I sure wasn't) you will be hooked!

Thanks everyone for all the good advice!

WOW!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: October 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

How im supposed to wright a review on this I don't know. the game has great features and has 16miles of land your player can explore. there are numurous cities that you can go into and explore (i joined the theives guild and found you make alot of money much faster)
The beiging of the game is slow and somewhat boring but once you get out of the sewers you can do whatever you want. i like stealing pickpocketing and stealing from shops. but one of the coolest tings is how you can bet and fight in the arena in the city. Note: steal a horse you go faster

One of the greatest games ever made!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'm not exagerating when I say that this game is one of the best ever. It's purely amazing! The graphics are the best I've ever seen in a video game, the storline is fantastic, and the quests are unforgetable. If you're a fantasy and rpg nut, you defintily need to buy this game. You'll get at least 100 hours of actual gameplay out of this puppy. It's one of those games that you get more game for your money.

Even if you're not a huge rpg fan, you still have to play this game. It will blow you away!

Attention all skeptics!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I know how you feel. I have never got into RPG's either. Final Fantasy, what the.... Everquest huh.... what the heck is Elder scrolls. Oblivion is a RPG that is far reaching and appealing. You have got to trust the countless number of others that love Elder Scroll IV: Oblivion. Take it from a guy whose library had consisted of every madden, racing sim, and first-person shooter. This game is friggin awsome! You practicaly live a fantasy life exactly how you want. The gamer is totaly submerged into the game world. I pray everyday for Elder Scrolls V and I haven't touched the main quest of this one.

By the way, I traded Gears of War in after about a week so I could buy the strategy guide for Oblivion.

Long Awaited followup

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: November 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

My friends were a geek about The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowing for the now obsolete regular X box. They said he fighter's guild was the military, there is no ending to the game- taking themselves too seriously with little to no humor plus their characters sucked. I on the other hand, peaked at level 53 and was head of all the guilds where the game ends. I was waiting a long time for a fourth Elder Scrolls game, and this one is better. While the game is a lot harder to go through with ease, the graphics are a lot better to the point where 360 bit is like a virtual reality machine. When I killed this guy and went to bed a guy from the dark brotherhood appeared, talked to me and vanished into thin air it was so creepy and realistic the graphics are so much better. There are Dungeons and Dragons like tougher monsters like the minitour, goblins, imps, pegasus, giants, etc that are harder to kill except for goblins and imps. The last game the monsters were too easy to kill at level 12 and up and not very good. Most of the glitches making the game too easy seem to be fixed. You need to sleep in a bed and rent a room that costs good gold to go up levelsMost merchants won't buy from you esp. if it's stolen and you can't make the price go higher or lower and you can't get them to sell to you and sell to them so you can rip them off and fix how much gold you have. Weaker heavy armor isn't much help and light armor is useless. Overall, the game is totally realistic and better but not as fun to play.

Deep and engrossing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Oblivion has so many ways to experience it, it is almost mind-numbing. The game world is vast and there are loads of places to explore in it. Your character can be so many different things and it's entirely up to you. I have a long way to go to "finish" this game, but I look forward to all of it. The graphics are beautiful and things are always changing that show them off. Stars crawl slowly across the sky at night and weather changes convincingly. Fights can be very challenging and are always fun to engage in. Oblivion is truly an experience and should not be missed by someone looking for an engrossing experience that will truly be worth your $60 investment.

A Shining Star for a Great New Console

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: March 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am not in any way an experienced RPG player but I think I will be exploring that world much more seriously since I purchased this game for the XBOX 360. The game is incredibly impressive and immersive, and I have not been this much in love with a video game since The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was released for the Nintendo 64 in 1998. I have played Oblivion for about ten hours so far and feel that I have only begun to scratch the surface of its expansive world.

Buying an XBOX 360 is not a financial decision that should be taken lightly: my purchase of a Premium Console plus an extra wireless controller and the game came to approximately $550; this was at my local GameStop. After pulling out several mortgages on my house and hitting the street corners of New York city as a man-whore, I was able to pull it off without any further economic pressure. Nevertheless, buying the system for that price was entirely worth just to be able to play Oblivion. It is a gorgeous game, but more importantly, it is an intelligent and adventurous one that provides intellectual as well as visual stimulation.

There is a main quest you can follow, which involves closing shut various gates of hell that have opened throughout the land, but you can just easily ignore that stuff, go off and join guilds, ransack caves and forts for treasures, and enjoy the countless mini-games that the world offers. This game, I must stress, is really an unprecedented achievement in interactive entertainment in general, and I cannot wait to see what other developers will do as they take notes from Bethesda and 2K Games and build the success they have had here.

I grew up in the heyday of Super Mario Brothers; it boggles my mind to see something as great as Oblivion on my home TV screen. I never thought I'd experienced this in my lifetime, let alone ten or fifteen years after the big boom of Nintendo.

Best Real Time RPG Ever

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: May 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Wow. First off, let me say that this game is absolutely incredible. Just one hour ago I finally finished the Mage's Guild questline, which was the last faction I had to complete after beating the Main Quest in addition to all of the other factions. In completing those questlines, I have logged over 100 hours of play time, and I was hooked for every breathtaking second. The graphics are gorgeous, the gameplay is excellent (although it could benefit from a minor tune-up), and the stories for the factions and main quest are well conceived and mesh together nicely. This is definitely the most fun I've had with a video game since Goldeneye was released for the N64. So why did I only give it 4 stars for the overall rating? Well, the game isn't entirely stable. Glitches are abundant (although I never encountered any major problems; additionally, an upcoming patch promises to fix the bugs), and to be honest, now that I've finished the major quests I no longer feel compelled to play. I'm sure I'll pick it up again in the future, but after 100+ hours of playing, I need a break from that world. Even so, I can confidenntly state that, despite completing all major quests, I still have barely scratched the surface of the Oblivion experience. This game is truly massive, and even those who normally don't like RPGs will probably enjoy the game. I definitely reccomend it to any 360 owner with the reservations that 1). despite what you may have heard, you WILL get tired of it after awhile, and 2). there ARE glitches (and some obscenely long loading screens). I hope those of you who purchase or rent it have as much fun playing it as I did.

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