ihavebeenfloated

I’m ridiculously addicted to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t. To give you a little perspective, I’ve already played this more than any other game in history. Usually I get bored with games pretty easily, sometimes never actually completing them if game time lasts longer than eight hours or so, though there are a few exceptions.

With my first character, who I became dissatisfied with, I logged a little over twenty-five hours with. Twenty-five hours, only to abandon the character and make a new one, who I have spent a little over three hours on already.

I don’t know about you, but twenty-eight hours of game time and counting is something I think most people would attribute to a MMORPG these days, or something like Baldur’s Gate way back in the day. But, no, Oblivion is a single-player only RPG.

So how can I, a gaming cynic, love a game so much? I think a lot of it has to do with the sheer perfection in almost every aspect of the game. The graphics are gorgeous, you can view a few screenshots I have taken while playing on my system by clicking on the thumbnail above. The action is fantastic, a real joy to do battles this time around as opposed to how it was in Morrowind. The voice acting, again, stupendous. The quests and storylines? Convincing, immersive, and just wonderful.

I’m going to mention this aspect on it’s own line because it’s incredibly important: The music, and sound design, in Oblivion is to die for. I spent about fifteen minutes on auto-walk just trekking through the wilderness, lost in this sublime feeling of tranquility that was a result of the music combining with the peaceful sounds of my feet stomping through grass, the wind rustling the trees, and a few crickets and other bugs that I passed by. I really don’t know how they did it, but Oblivion is almost worth buying just to have as a wilderness simulator. Screw actually going outside, I can go camping in Oblivion and it’s just as realistic… aside from the fact that I don’t get attacked by rabid wolves and boars in reality.

The main quest is a bit on the short side, and is extremely linear. It’s alright though, because there are several guilds with full storylines and quests to partake in. (The Dark Brotherhood questline is actually leaps and bounds better than the main game quest, and would also be another buying point in my opinion. Maybe the other guild’s questlines are just as good? I will find out I suppose.)

There isn’t really much more I can say. I’ll just summarize with a few feelings.

I’ve never been quite so immersed in a game world before. This is really the first RPG where I actually feel like I am role-playing in some way. In most RPGs I’ve just been the guy who runs around and bashes things with his sword, there never seemed to be any pay off in trying to play anything different. In Oblivion I am a stealth assassin, a member of the Dark Brotherhood who takes pride in working for the Night Mother; killing for my Dread Father, Sithis; and working with the other members of my Family. Even when I venture outside of the Dark Brotherhood storyline, I still feel as if I am working for the Dark Brotherhood deep down. There is an eerie since of pride I have for my character and my actions in the game.

It’s strange, but really amazing. I don’t think you can find a game finer than this. Admittedly there are low points (third person view is retarded and useless, but who cares? graphics can lag even on an uber system, but at least it’s still better than having it on 360 and not being able to download user-made mods that fix some of the issues), but they are outshone by the excellence the rest of the game is soaked in.