There are a (very) few games that, like the best cinema, novels, or songs, will always hold an immeasurable amount of appeal, despite the passing of years and the inevitable aging of graphics engines. Due to being such a young medium, gaming has relatively few of these bonafide classics, but those we do have are greatly treasured.
When The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was released we received one more such game.
Make no mistake, Oblivion was always going to be a smash hit; Bethesda’s prior experience with the previous Elder Scrolls games, as well as an impressive pre-release hype machine and its status as a launch title for the 360 meant that this was always going to be a pretty special example of the roleplaying genre, and one that was bound to sell more than a few copies.
Despite not actually being a launch title overseas (it was when Australia finally got the Xbox 360), Oblivion nonetheless fulfilled all it’s other promises; a stunningly beautiful setting, incredibly detailed despite its vastness; characters that were no longer, by and large, cookie-cutter clones of each other, but instead were real people with desires, goals, jobs, friends, enemies, and all that other realistic stuff; and, of course, the ability to enjoy a long, coherent, and interesting story while still having the ability to spend hour upon hour doing whatever you want in an entirely free world.
Two years on from its initial release, I can happily report that all of this is still the case; whilst the character models can occasionally be a bit freaky looking, and the voice-acting can be a bit repetitive, and perhaps the NPCs aren’t quite as unique as they were made out to be; the simple fact is that, despite a few subtle and minor flaws, Oblivion is still up there as one of the best, most immersive RPGs you will ever play, and is certainly the best example of an open-world style RPG, bar none.
The game mechanics are a simple and intuitive take on the genre, focussing less on D&D-style number crunching, and far more on practicality - you like using a bow? Guess what, you just got better at it! The graphics and sound are still better than most new games (regardless of genre or system), and the sheer amount of content in the initial release is mind blowing; it is possible to spend literally hundreds of hours playing this game if you so choose, a feat of game design that has not often been duplicated.
Just to sweeten the deal, it is now possible to purchase a ‘Game of the Year’ addition which features the expansion pack ‘The Shivering Isles’- which is bigger than most “full” commercially released games - and the large content update ‘Knights of the Nine’, which adds a nice quest line and the ability to restart and lead a new faction in Cyrodill. Combine this with some very cheap content downloads via Xbox Live (or your nearest PC or PS3 equivalents), and you have a game that should keep you going for pretty much as long as you need it to.
It’s actually kind of amusing to think about, but as it stands Oblivion is currently a much better for money purchase than it was when it first came out. For a pretty low sum of money (I’ve seen the GotY addition available brand new for 30 dollars), you get one of the best RPGs of all time, upgraded with some terrific content and patched to deal with a lot of the nigglies that aggravated players on release; hell, PC owners can also explore a thriving mod community, which has churned out hundreds of well made quests, areas, items, and more, most of which is entirely free.
Oblivion still looks, sounds, and most importantly, plays terrifically, and is currently superior in almost all regards to when it was released. This is a phenomenal feat however you look at it, and I have no hesitation in suggesting that everyone who doesn’t own the game run out and grab a copy of the GotY edition of Oblivion. To those, like me, who have played it quite a few times already, I say give it another go anyway; you may be surprised at how much you enjoy yourself, even on your umpteenth time through the game.
Oblivion is a true modern classic, and a game that will deservedly go down in history as one of the greats.
How I would have rated it on release: 9/10 (Just a terrific example of the freeform roleplaying game)
How I would rate it now: 9.5/10 (Even better than on release, this game still looks beautiful and plays as well as it looks)
- Tim Sweeney
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