User Reviews (1 - 11 of 206)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

How do you review a game like this?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 137 / 143
Date: March 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I mean, honestly. This game is so huge and vast that if someone were to sit down, play it, "beat it," and then go, gee I should review it, it would be time for the next one to come out. Instead, I'll write a review that I will hopefully update as I progress incase my opinion on the game changes. I've logged a few hours into it so far and right off the bat I know I'll like it.

To break it down succinctly before I ramble, if you've played Morrowind and enjoyed it, even a little, you are doing yourself a great disservice by not picking this up right now. If you were disappointed at Morrowind because it was too big that you felt listless and didn't know what to do, pick this game up. If you loved how open and free Morrowind was, pick it up right now. If you've never played Morrowind, well, read on.

Right away, most of the complaints of Morrowind are addressed. After spending a couple hours in the first dungeon/jail escape, you finally see the light of day and let me tell you, from then on, awe and excitement are around every corner. But, unlike Morrowind, in controlled and, if you want them to be, small pieces. Generally, there were two camps of people who played Morrowind: they loved it because it was so open/free that they could do anything they wanted; or, they hated it because they didn't know what to do because it was so open/free.

Oblivion takes the best of Morrowind (the openness) and makes it more accessible. If you want to focus on the main quest, right as soon as you leave the dungeon there's a red flag on your compass and on your map showing where you need to go. In fact, you can click on that town and instantly warp there, should you want to. In Morrowind, it took a bit for the main story to actually appear. In Oblivion you are thrust into the main story right from the beginning. And, if you want, the story can be started right away and has some pretty exciting moments right away.

If you want to, instead, explore the world a bit, well go right ahead. I did the second option, exploring a nearby fort that had catacombs filled with traps, skeletons and a ghost. Tried my hand at pick-pocketing sleeping guards with unfortunate success. Stumbled upon a bandit camp that didn't like me interrupting their probably nefarious deeds.

It's setup so that if you want to, you can very easily pursue the main quest, never get lost and know what you're doing. However, you can also just set out on your own, kingdom be damned and spend the next 100 hours seeing the sights, exploring the 200+ dungeons, and scaling all 17 or so square miles of the land. As an example, one of my friends immediately began the main quest. He's now a good chunk of quests ahead of me in the quests. I took the explorer route and spent the time looking around, finding the ruins and dungeons, joining the guilds etc. Two totally different approaches, both easy to get into and fun to mess around with.

Character creation is similar to Morrowind. There are a ton of races to choose from, about 21 classes (or you can create your own), 21 skill categories and a large handful of astral signs that give you bonuses. For those who've played Morrowind, there's not much difference here. Its all about choice. How do you want to play. Also included is a fantastic character editor where you can change different facets of your character to fit your desire. Really cool.

Choosing your "class" is important in that it will define how you want to play your character. You have 7 major skills that you can assign any of the 21 skills to. Each "kind" of character (melee, stealth, magic) have 7 skills to choose from. Whatever you put in your major skills determines your "class" and how you level, while the remaining 14 become minor skills that can be leveled up (at a slower rate) and don't contribute to your leveling. Races give bonuses to skills and attributes as does the sign you end up choosing.

As you can tell, the game is about openness. Do you want, be what you want. To a lesser extent, Fable tried this with mixed results. But not until this game have I seen so much openness and ability to do practically what you want.

NPCs are on a 24/7 clock. Each one of the 1,000 NPCs in the game have varying levels of needs, desires and goals. They will carry these out without regard to you. Guards will catch NPC criminals, people will go out and hunt. I've seen a guard attack a wolf that was bothering a passerby. It all feels natural and as realistic as any game right now. Mostly. There are some sore spots. The combat AI for any partners you have can be a joke. Sometimes, they will just barrel forward without regard for the other monsters around you. That can lead to very difficult situations as the AI guards round up more than they can handle, die, and then you have a messy situation on your hands.

Other sore spots include guards with ESP. Apparently, if a person wakes up while being killed or isn't killed in one hit, the guard seemingly knows that murder is being committed. And will rush right to where you are. This has caused me a lot of consternation when I'm trying to finish a quest with guards who know not only that I'm a murderer but also exactly where I am. And will continue to chase you forever.

The interface has been retooled. The journal and your inventory is now much much more user-friendly. Quests show up in a log and you can easily select which quest you want as your active quest. Doing so immediately pops up a red marker where you need to go. You won't get lost. I will say its sometimes a little disappointing when an arrow appears over a ruin that the quest says you need to find. Instead of following general directions, I know exactly where to find it. That's a bit disappointing in that it takes away from the exploring portion of it. Minor gripe, though.

The graphics also help promote this world. Terrific, they really make Oblivion come to life. From the trees in the background, to the tall weeds you pass through, everything is animated and created painstakingly beautifully. Its a real world come to life in virtual form. The physics are pretty decent. I've caused skeletons to explode, people flying backwards with a well cast fireball, rolling down hills. Sometimes, the close-ups of people are a little jarring because they don't look so realistic when you get up close and a lot of them look like they have uber-wrinkles or a skin problem. Aliasing is practically non-existent. When you get a horse, the very very very brief pauses in between loading the outworld area becomes a bit more noticeable because it seems to happen a bit more often. Its still not in anyway shape or form to the detriment of the game and is completely understandable given that the world is so huge, but its there and noticeable.

The sound is also terrific. The voice actors are pretty decent, the sound effects awesome and the music really well done. Traveling through a thunderstorm really makes you feel like its raining, lightning and thundering. The clash of steel on steel is exciting, sparks fly.

The game does stutter at times. In the first dungeon, when I brought out a torch, the game paused briefly as it changed the light levels. Not a huge problem by any means. Placing spells on your directional pad hotkey can become a pain as you ready each spell. Though, I love the fact I can wield a sword and a torch/shield AND cast spells at the same time. Love it. I guess there's some framerate issues, but I have barely noticed them at all. There are some pop-ups with the shrubs etc in the distance but really when the game is generating all of this on the fly, I can forgive some very very very minor quibbles.

Overall, if you are a fan of RPGs, I don't know why you wouldn't like this game. Whatever you bring to the table, it will match you. Whether you want to get lost in a virtual world, discover catacombs that really feel like they've never been found before, just go after the main quest, buy and sell houses, try and become a mercantile genius or even become a vampire, everything is up to you. You can do it all, or none of it.

I will say it's hard to be objective with a game that was seemingly crafted just for me. I am usually willing to overlook minor faults etc when the end product is amazing. Such is the case with Oblivion. Everything about it are things I love. I love the openness that is controlled in that I will never get lost. I can't think of many games that give you so much freedom, but in such a way that you won't lose your way. Absolutely terrific, there's nothing here that makes me not recommend it fully-heartedly for RPGers.

NOTE: I hesitate to even bring this up, but the game has been re-rated by the ESRB as of 3 May 2006. For some reason, they have decided the amount of blood in the game is more fitting of a rated "M for Mature (17+)" game. There is talk of a mod that will strip away the female character's top portion of the clothes. Please know that this does not affect the Xbox 360 version of the game. The mod is downloadable for the PC version, but not for the 360.

A whole new world!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 72 / 75
Date: October 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Simply put: this game is incredible. I've played RPGs for years, but I've never had a more seamless experience than I've had playing this game.

First, the training mission. I didn't even realize it was a training mission because the events happening around me were directly related to the overall plot of the game. The only notion I had that the game was actually training me was the occasional on-screen message to press this or that button, but those messages didn't appear until I really wanted to do the action they taught me.

Second, the graphics. This world is gorgeous. I've found mysef just wandering through fields looking at the sights because of the level of detail and beauty -- the EFFORT -- that was put into the game. The sun rises and sets, the clouds pass by overhead, birds and animals react to my presence. It's a joy just taking it all in.

Finally, however, the gameplay. This game is fun. I can advance in whatever skill set I want simply based on whatever I use. If I want to become skilled at using a bow, then I just use the bow all the time, and I get better at it. If I want to be a powerful mage, I just keep casting magic, and I'll get better at it. The NPCs lead their own lives, talking and wandering around whether I interact with them or not. I can just stand around in a pub and listen in on the conversations around me, and I'll learn so much about what's going on in the realm.

This game raises RPGs to a whole new level -- a level that, as an old-school D&D player, I've been waiting to experience within a computer game for years.

Obliviated!....With Special Tweaks

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 70 / 73
Date: April 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Well, to begin with this game is simply fantastic. I purchased an Xbox simply for this game. It was well worth it. Now I am a big fan of well made RPG's and the Elderscrolls titles are among the best out there. I'm not the quickest with learning the controls but once I do I find that I can fly through any menu with ease. I had heard many a review that had complained that the Xbox controls were a bit too 'touchy'. Well...yeah they are...but let's be smart shall we?....check the Options menu....oooo...look... a slider that controls vertical and horizontal sensitivity. (The default is well over to the over sensitive side) So...a little sliding down here and the problem is eliminated.
The other common complaint I have heard about this game is that the world levels with you. I can fix that too. Now some may be purists and not want to mess with it. But others (like myself) get a bit tired of wolves kicking my highly armored tush all around Tamriel. In the options menu there is another slider under gameplay. It's a Difficulty slider. Yeah...I admit it...I slid the thing down a few notches...but the difference was well worth it. Now, I face enemies EQUAL to my level...instead of two levels above. When I used to walk outside and face a pair of brown bears...I now find a couple of black bears. Still a good fight but one I can at least have a fair shot at winning. And one would imagine the loot would degrade as a result of my slippery slider....well it did change...it just got a little better.
So, I have found that making these two minor slides in the controls and difficulty settings have made this game a thousand times more enjoyable. And keep in mind that it only takes a little tweaking...you don't have to go all the way down to easy...just nudge it a bit that way and the difference is palpable. And I don't always keep it there...when I find that things are feeling too easy I nudge it back up to give me an extra challenge.
So give it a shot and see if it doesn't make all the difference in the world....Go ahead....I won't tell.

One other note on the AI.
I have a very interesting story about it. I was sneaking about in one of the many ruined forts littered about the land. The one I was currently in had a bandit infestation. I am a stealth player mostly so I snuck around the top tier until I could peer down to a large opening below that had 5 Bad Guys hanging about. Well from my dark and hidden perch far above I decided to see if I could take out a baddie or two before being spotted. I chose my mark..(the guy in robes, gotta get those casters first) and shot. I hit with the first arrow, and before I could get off another shot the injured mage started yelling and running about and began attacking his own men (he attacked the two archer bandits...he must have thought one of them shot him) This of course led to the other bandits joining in the fray until everyone was dead....except oddly enough the mage I began with. I then jumped down from my perch and took him out with my blade. But to watch the whole fight happen from above....that was priceless.

The deepest game I have ever played...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 44 / 47
Date: November 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I bought Oblivion when it was first released. I played it for a couple of days and put it up until just last month. I decided to play it again and I am hooked. I just didn't give it much time to catch my interest but I can honestly say that I am sorry I didn't. This is the deepest game I have ever played. I have 35 hours into it and it is going on strong. I had read that there is about 400 hours of gameplay if you play all the side quests, and if you have Live, there is a good deal of downloadable content to add even more game time. I can honestly say that this is one game that warrants buying the game guide to help you through. The graphics are simply beautiful. I can see why this took over 5 years to create. There is such a variety of landscapes to see. You will travel through the forests, through ruins, town and villages. You will go underground in caverns, catacombs and tunnels. You will fight everything from bandits, thugs, warriors to ghosts, skeletons, trolls, vampires and a variety of wildlife such as bears, wolves, lions. You can go on many side quests and enter guilds. You also travel to Oblivion, which is like traveling to hell. I am only touching the surface here. There is simply too much to try to describe here in this summary. You have to put thought into everything you do but not so much that it drags the game down with too much responsibility. I still have a long ways to go before I complete the game but just what I have done has been a lot of fun. It is probably the closest game I have ever played that can pull me to that world, much like reading a good book and getting yourself lost in it. There is really too much game here for a rental. It may honestly take many months to beat this game. Enjoy it and remember that the further you get into the game, the more fun it becomes. Enjoy.

An RPG for all seasons

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 14
Date: March 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game about a year ago and I just finished the main quest about three days ago. Simply put, this may be one of the best, if not the absolute best, role playing games I have ever played.

There is so much to see and do in this game that I just don't have the space to write it all out here. Besides the main quest, you can join guilds, help out the citizens in the towns and cities with favors, scour the land for a cure to vampirism, steal for the poor, kill an entire village... and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Endless amounts of treasure, weapons, items and monsters to dispose of make this game an experience in its own right.

This game really succeeds in creating mood and atmosphere. Whether travelling across an open field or exploring a dark dungeon underneath the city, the graphics and surround sound will help put you right in the middle of the moment. For example, the world of Oblivion is a world where portals to another dimension and the creatures coming out of them threaten the lives of its inhabitants and of all existence. Whenever you come across one of these Oblivion gates, the music slowly becomes more menacing and the skies slowly begin to turn red with thunder and lightning crashing overhead. If you really let yourself get taken in by this game, just the sight of one of these gates will send a little chill down your spine.

If there are any problems I have with the game, it's that the loading can get a little annoying at times. Sometimes it'll load quickly and sometimes it'll go quite slow. There are plenty of load times in this game and I noticed on some spare occasions that the game crashed on me in the middle of a load. Thankfully, the game autosaves quite frequently, so in the case of a game crash, you won't really be getting screwed by losing hours and hours of playtime.

I haven't even mentioned all the downloadable extras that you can get from Xbox Live, especially the just released expansion pack, "Shivering Isles", which I have just started playing and promises well over 30+ hours of game time. Add this to the 200+ hours you can get out of Oblivion by itself and that's a lot of time you'll be spending with this fascinating adventure. That's the great thing about this game. Even when you think you're done with it, there's still much more to do.

If you are in any way a fan of RPGs, this one is well worth it.

Amazing.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: May 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

so im about 27 hours in now. its just gotten better as i progress. there are four guilds you can join, each with their own expansive list of quests. fighters guild, mages guild, dark brotherhood, and the thieves guild. you can compete in the arena of the imperial city in gladiator style matches. lush forests and environments as far as the eye can see. beautiful cities to explore. side quests are easy to find wherever you look. approximately 200 dungeons scattered throughout the continent will keep anyone busy for quite some time even without working on the extremely well written and entertaining quests or guilds. i havent progressed through the main story all that much yet, but what i have seen has been interesting. the emporer has died, and with his last words instructs you of his unknown child, the only heir to the thrown. it is your job to find him and bring him to his rightful place as emperor. i havent learned a lot since then, but it's shaping up to be the most epic, amazing game i have ever seen. you can enter the deadra dimension known as oblivion, which resembles common depictions of hell. its great bringing up the dashboard menu, crankin up some metal and just unloading on the creatures that lie within.

with seemingly unlimited choices, and a completely beautifil world to explore, this game will keep anyone busy for a very long time. (200+ hours i have heard) this is on of the greatest games ever made, it's that simple. whether you own a 360, PS3, or a high end PC, this game should not go overlooked by anyone.

This game alone justifies buying a 360...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: December 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Having been a fan of RPG's since the first Dragon Warrior for Nintendo, I've seen the coolness of these games improve over the years. When I first played the 'Champions of Norrath' games for Playstation 2, I remember thinking, "It just couldn't get any better than this". I was wrong. Really, really wrong. I'm not going to go on and on about how amazing the graphics are, or how immense and realistic the world is...a lot of people have already talked about that, so let me just say this...I have a girlfriend. Anyone who has a girlfriend knows what it's like to want to play video games when the girlfriend is over. It usually goes something like this...
"I'm almost done, just give me ten more minutes and I'll turn it off." or
"I just have to find somewhere to save the game." or
"Just let me kill these guys, then I'll turn it off.."
But something happened with Oblivion that's never happened to me before. When she saw the game, she said "Oh my God..."
I offered to shut it off but she stopped me. She told me to keep on playing. As my level 2 Archer skulked about mountaintops in a looted hood, the sky became blazing red and the Sun crept down. Deer fled my presence. It started to rain. Lightning blazed in the distant sky. A wolf attacked me. I killed it with my dagger. I found a town and picked the lock of a house. I crept to the bedside of a sleeping farmer and picked his pocket. He woke up and cursed me. I ran out into the stormy night and guards pursued me through the foothills. A hail of arrows glanced off the cracked, rusted armor that I plundered from a skeleton.
"Should I turn it off now?" I asked.
"Hell no!" She said. This is better than watching a movie!"
At that moment I knew that what Bethesda has accomplished with 'Oblivion' is far more than a stunning ext-gen RPG. It's a bridge between people who have always loved games, and the people who never quite understood why.
Cost of XBOX 360 console : $399 (plus tax)
Cost of Elder Scrolls IV, Oblivion : $54.99
Cost of hearing my girlfriend say, "Will you please play that game tonight, I really love to watch it.."
.....Priceless....

Your social life is over

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: May 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion- Circa 2006

GOOD:
- This game literally has a huge world (and you can explore every inch of it), it rivals that of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (GTA: SA's entire world not just one city). For Example, if you went into the woods in the game and did not use a map you world get just as lost as you would in a real-world forest with no map.
- Hundreds of quests (really big and really small) to perform you can skip any you want or do them all, plus you deicide the outcome weather it be good or bad.
- Interact with NPC's, there are literally hundreds of them and they are all voiced acted and display emotions on there faces.
- A very life like world in which Police chase thieves, wives nag husbands and wolves prowl the woods looking for prey.
- Do just about anything you can think of like steal (anything), save people form gangs, fight in arena's, hunt animals, sail ships, become a vampire (pretty cool) or just hang back and do almost nothing the choice is yours.

BAD:
- This game may be way to hard for most casual gamers.
- The loading in this game is can get annoying, this game will load often and some loads (not all) take a long time. The hard drive cuts down on some loading, but it's still a pain.
- Some of the character animations especially those of your character are a little sloppy (but in 1st person you cannot see your own animations so it's not so much a problem)
- The Hit Detection (or hit boxes) sometimes doesn't work well.
- While the world is huge it's also mostly wooded forest area, which can be a little bland after a while.
- Morality seem to play little in the game in terms of your characters development, you can do evil/good act but will not really be considered evil/good in the same way that you see in Fable or Jade Empire. In the end it's more realistic but a little underwhelming.

IF IT FITS YOUR TASTE:
- A first person Swords and Sorcery RPG (Click in the left thumb stick to toggle third person mode).
- The games theme is very much close to that of the Lord of the Rings books or movie trilogy, by Peter Jackson, other similarities are found in the tabletop RPG Dungeons and Dragons.
- This is a do as you please type of RPG (like Fable or Jade Empire), this not anything like Final Fantasy, you pick [...] and you choose the outcome, that said there is little to no character identity outside of your deeds and don't expect a party of other characters who tag a long like in most other RPG's (like Final Fantasy).

GAME ITS MOST ASSOCATED TOO:
- Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
- Fable: The Lost Chapters
- Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
- Thief III: Deadly Shadow

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- There is downloadable content missions/quests and areas for this game out on PC and Xbox-Live. Examples being horse Armor, Spell Tomes, The Wizard's Tower, The Thieves Den, Vile Lair, The Knights of the Nine, and The Shivering Isles just to name a few.
- The Special Limited Edition (Xbox-360) comes with a bonus disc, which has a lengthy behind the scenes documentary, also on the disc you can view concept art work for the game, plus the limited edition comes with a small book on the history and people of the Elder Scrolls world and you get a real-to-life coin from this games world.
- The world in the game if measured in real-world miles would be about 16 miles not including underground areas like caves, crypts, basements, and bunkers, also most areas in the alternate-dimension of Oblivion are immeasurable due to the fact that they are randomly generated and huge.
- All Elder Scrolls games are first Person (the other Elder Scrolls games besides Elder Scrolls III where on the PC).
- In the game (at the main city) you will see a poster for a gladiator type of fighting arena called Arena, the poster is the same picture found on the box art for Elder Scrolls first game called Elder Scrolls: Arena.
- More lots more information go to this link [...]

MUST HAVE!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: May 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is genius, simply put.
Positives:
*Doesn't ever end.
*Has hours upon hours of gameplay potential.
*Almost unlimited amount of quests.
*Expansive character with very detailed skills, sort of like runescape.
*Can download extra content such as buildings, armor, etc.
*Very brilliant graphics and textures.
*Can switch between third and first person.
*Lots of items and weapons.
*Detailed character characteristics.
*Great main story line.
*Enormous world map.
*Easy to play and get used to.
*And last but not least, FUN!!
Negatives:
*It does load alot, but it's nowhere near unbearable.
*It really heats up your 360.
*Frame rates can drop from time to time but that is very rare.

P.S. Also if you plan to get this game you might also look into the Nyko Intercooler. The reason is that this game heats up to a point where it can literally melt part of your GPU chip causing freezing and hardware failure screens. But the Nyko Intercooler works wonders for this problem. I have had the Intercooler since i have had the game (about a month) with absolutely no freezing, even after 12 hours of straight gameplay.
Another problem the game has is that it caches files onto the harddrive for faster loading and such. But this cacheing can cause the harddrive to become fragmented and cause loading to become sluggish. This problem can be fixed by simply holding the A button down as the game loads. This will clear cache memory. But dont worry no saved files or downloaded content will be harmed.

This game is the best 360 game I have played so far!!! A must have for RPG and Roleplaying game lovers!!!

Oblivion = Addiction. Get this, but only if you've got the willpower to resist it...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: January 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I'd give this game more stars if I could. I rented this one to see what all the hype is about, and actually *had* to return it so I could start sleeping again. Its that immersive. The environment is HUGE. There are literally thousands of places to visit and things to do. If you wanted to just wander around picking flowers and hunting sunsets, you could actually do exactly that. Weather changes, the sun rises and sets, people carry out lives... you get the real sense that there's a world moving around you while you go about the business of killing bad guys, learning to pick locks, and finding newer and better treasures and weapons. Quests are useful and well-managed within the interface. NPC all live their own lives - in one case I tried robbing a store... the next day I actually overheard a conversation between two NPC talking about how the store was robbed!!! Seriously!

* Bethesda pulled an excellent trick with this game - if you'd like, you can just play and the game learns and adapts to you. (Original character specialty is tailored to the way *you* play the tutorial. Levels happen in the background, and based on how you play. Etc.) If you want to get into the mechanics of leveling up, skills development, etc you certainly can, and its *extremely* deep and well thought-out.
* Technically, as someone who's never played this type of game before I found that everything was easy to understand. That's saying something.
* Easy interface, well-laid out and accessible.
* Character creation and development system is rediculously deep while still being intuitive.
* Immersive, living enviroment - weather, 24 hour days, NPCs with actual lives, habits, and personalities
* Graphics are crisp and clean
* Lots to do - you'll never be bored by this game. You can fast-travel across the map in the time of a loading screen, or you can walk/ride from point A to point B and see everything in between. (And there's a lot to see.)

Very well done. Get this game, but only if you have the willpower to resist it. Otherwise, kiss your life goodbye for a while...

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 

Actions