Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC): Added 3-23-06

Take a game like Morrowind, up the graphics and you've pretty much got Oblivion. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it isn't without problems. The fourth in the Elder Scrolls franchise, Oblivion marks the latest entry into the ever expanding library of Bethesda Software. Released both for the Xbox 360 and the PC, Oblivion makes use of a lot of textures and in many areas is visually impressive. Feel free to browse these screenshots for examples. All shots were taken at 1600x1200 resolution

For this review I decided to run with what the game deemed my recommended settings. Though for screenshots i bumped the resolution up to max. Test rig is my P4 3.2Ghz, 1GB RAM, Nvidia 7800GS system.

While static screens are impressive, in game you'll find that movement can be a bit clumsy at times. Definitely think being conservative on what you turn on is advisable. Interior environments are impressive though I found they lacked a good balance of ambient noise and to tell you the truth I found FEAR and HL2 to be more compelling. HDR is used heavily, nearly every reflective texture, torchlight and water surface will ding your video card a little. If you're running anything older than an X800 or a 6800 you may want to rethink turning that particular feature on.

Combat is something of a mixed bag. If you liked Morrowind you'll be right at home. Swinging your sword, casting, firing a bow and arrow, all of the them are readily controlled by a WASD layout and your mouse. Nothing new here, but the responsiveness of the interface may confound some users. In a rapid battle I found myself overriding my casting (done by hitting the c key) with my melee strikes (left mouse). Other times I found myself attempting to cast too soon and the melee attack hadn't completed. Instead of queuing up your strikes though it simply negates the cast. For most of your earlier fights you'll only be seeing one enemy at a time. Which is a good thing because in multiple target combat, the toll on your system resources can get pretty bad.

Audio quality is about on par with Morrowind. The occasional cameo by the likes of Patrick Stewart (TNG, Xmen, Dune) was a nice start though you'll quickly see that his involvement was fairly minimal. One thing that sort of irked me was that other races rarely had a variation in voice. A guard can sound exactly like a half-orc, and elf will sound the same as a store merchant. In this sense the voice actor selection seemed to be kept to a rather tame range.

The storyline is a little tighter than in Morrowind where you tended to just roam around and pray you happened upon the main story. Due to the independence of the smaller quests though you can and will overlook a good chunk of content simply because you didn't explore every nook of a city. For some gamers the freeform nature of Oblivion will be confusing, for folks used to MMO's you'll be surprised by the fact that the game scales the enemies and there are rarely quests that are "totally impossible" at your present level. This is both a blessing and a curse as you can can sometimes just hack and slash without thinking and complete a good number of quests and never really get a feel for what the game was trying to tell you.

The biggest problem with Oblivion is inconsistency. Indoor environments look impressive, but then as you close in on some objects you'll see the texture quality doesn't really improve that much. Likewise, NPCs will look great until you see them turn at certain angles. Animation is likewise glitchy at times. If you look closely you can sometimes get the sense that the exterior facial animation is lagging behind the skeletal animation. This leads to a case of "loose skin" where the jaw moves and the face plays catch up. I found that to be rather distracting. One of the most annoying aspects though is outdoors. The distance calculations and redraw seem oddly paced. Trees in the distance will literally just pop up out of the ground. All the while you star at your crosshair and your rather ugly hands. On the upside though your armor will look shiny as will your sword. Though your only view of yourself is usually first person or the "vanity" mode which is a behind the head 3rd person.

Diehard Morrowind fans will feel right at home in Oblivion, newcomers to the series may find some of the design ideas offputting. Sadly the inconsistent delivery forces me to put this title at 6/10. It had a lot of potential but somehow doesn't get the formula quite right.
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