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This is a revised old review done back in 2009, if this review seems familiar, you probably might have read it before in an old version of the site.
So Western RPGs haven’t had a huge success here, since Japanese RPGs a very popular in this part of the world, especially in the console market. While there have been a few western RPGs floating around in the console market, many of them have found their niche here and there from time to time.
Before moving on with the game’s review, let’s take a quick overview of what Japanese and Western RPGs are. RPGs tend to fall under two categories, the structured and non-structured. The majority of Japanese RPGs have more of a structured formula, where there is a fixed cast of characters, a fixed, linear story. To put it basically, RPGs with a more (for the lack of a better word) cinematic approach and narrative where the story is told from the a script. Japanese RPGs majorly categorized as structured RPGs, though there are some western ones, like the majority of recent Bioware RPGs (even when they hold a few non-structured RPG elements).
Non-structured RPGs are generally open-ended role playing games that involve playing a role in a virtual world. While majority of the time it starts one way and ends the same, the central part of the game is open and can be approached from many ways and procedures, limited only to the player’s decisions. You are in an open world where you experience and live the story, setting and environment and get what you experience from the game. This is where Elder Scrolls (alongside the recent Fallout games) in general are categorized as.
Neither RPG types are incorrect, technically any game including non-RPG games are “role playing” and both RPG types fall under that criteria perfectly well. It’s just a matter of preference when it comes to which is more preferred, so it’s subjective.
Back to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, like most (if not all) Elder Scrolls game, you start as a custom made prisoner who finds their way out of it and becoming the prophesied hero that will rid the world from evil. Portal gates leading to the Daedric realms of Oblivion have been opening up in the Imperial province of Cyrrodiil, wrecking havoc and destroying towns and villages. You are going to stop them, but as you are the valiant hero who has the attention span of a gold fish, will be doing it along side a number of highly distracting sidequests.
While some may find the main questline fairly tedious and repetitive, the real meat of the game is in the side quests, and there are plenty of them. The side quests very from fetch quests, head hunting, exploration down to some miscellaneous crazy shit. you get these quests from items you pick up, people you talk to and even guilds that you enlist to. There are four guilds to go for and you can enlist in all of them all together, the warrior’s guild, the mage’s guild, the thief’s guild and the dark brotherhood who are the recurring assassin’s guild in the Elder Scrolls series.
As if that’s not enough, the Game of the Year edition comes with the two expansions packed in, Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles. Knights of the Nine embarks you on a pilgrimage (fancy way of saying a series of boring, uneventful fetch quests) to obtain pieces of the Divine Crusader’s Armor.
The Shivering Isles though is a more proper expansion, you get a whole extra world to explore. This whole extra world really brings this game’s world to life with how vivid and bizarre it is. You are invited to a world belonging to a demigod and prince of madness. Think of it as an interpretation of Alice in Wonderland in a game like Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
Obvious to note that it’s better to leave these two expansion for a very late time in the game (you can go for them very early in the game if you want, the game won’t stop you), since both expansions are fairly short. I got way too use to how vibrant and whimsical Shivering Isles’ world that the main world of Oblivion felt dull and “normal” even when it’s green and lush.
Many people have complained about the melee combat being floaty and weightless, personally I didn’t see any problem with it. The battle system gave you many options to play with, critical hits when sneaking and maneuvers that unarmed your enemy. Newcomers will find a bit of a difficulty when it comes to the combination of stats that you are given with the race and job class you select (or make, job class that is) as they might need to restart their character a few times to get the grasp of what their doing. With that, the first bit of the game does give you a good grasp as you create your character throughout a planned scenario. By the end of that scenario the game will prompt you whether or not the character you made is suitable for your style of play, if not, you can fix them up before continuing on in the game.
What We Think: The game at hand here is of absolute brilliance. While yes, Skyrim has trumped Oblivion in so many ways, it is still a game worth looking back at and experience everything that it offers. You will find the game floating around steam for 5-6 dollars every now and then, if you do find yourself not playing Skyrim any time soon and thinknig of playing something that is similar, this is an excellent pick.
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