Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
March 29,2006 - At the start of every new generation of gaming, there’s supposed to be one game that is so good that there is no way it could have been done on the previous generation’s hardware. Games like Super Mario World, Quake, Super Mario 64, or Grand Theft Auto III come to mind, but this time, when the Xbox 360 kicked off the newest generation we simply did not have that. Only a short while ago Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter released and for that week as a new release, there was nothing better. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, its reign at the top of the pack for this year was short lived as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has hit retail shelves. In every sense of the word “breathtaking,” Oblivion becomes a champion. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is not just the best game of this year so far, but it’s one of the best games ever made. There is no one who should miss out on this video game masterpiece.

In 2002, Bethesda released the third Elder Scrolls game, Morrowind. Though it was met with much critical applause, it was also met with an even greater backlash by gamers who thought it was too overwhelming, that it didn’t live up to its potential, and that it was just an all around boring video game. The game set out to make one of the most cohesive, expansive game worlds ever created, and though it did that, the gameplay was ultimately uninteresting and it seemed as if it fell on deaf ears. Fortunately for us, Bethesda announced the “role-playing game for the next generation” not too long after Morrowind came out. It was many years in the making, but needless to say, they did it. They took the foundation they had lain out with Arena, Daggerfall, and Morrowind, and with Oblivion they have finally made the game they’ve been working on for so long now. Even if Morrowind, or the past Elder Scrolls games weren’t to your liking, make no mistake; Oblivion is a must own game and perfects everything that role-playing games can and should be.

 The Elder Scrolls series is one that defies most every plan role-playing games have had in them—especially on consoles. You don’t pick a command and attack like you would in a turn-based RPG and you don’t point your mouse at an enemy and click on it so you just start fighting like you would in a D&D RPG like Baldur’s Gate or even World of Warcraft for that matter. In Oblivion you play it more or less like you would a first-person shooter. Rather instead of guns, you use blades, blunts, bows, and magic. It’s a pretty simple concept, however in the past iterations of the series, it never felt right.

Oblivion’s story is set in the province of Cyrodiil, in the world of Tamriel. Cyrodiil is a little different from Morrowind than you might think, as most of the cities are more up-scale and developed than everything you saw in Morrowind. The game begins in the main city of Cyrodiil, Imperial City. You find yourself locked away in a prison with barely any items, you hear a man across the hall yelling obscene comments at you, and then all the sudden a palace guard tells you to step aside and make way for the Emperor. Why would he be traveling through a prison cell? Well, his sons had just been killed and there is a route to the outside gates of the city from your chamber, fancy that! The Emperor looks at you as he steps into your cell and says he knows your face, recognizing it from a premonition. Soon you find out the Emperor believes you’re destined for great things, which is not surprising in the slightest. You watch the guards—which are actually known as Blades—escort the Emperor through the chamber and into a little area of ruins as they try to get to the sewers. This is where your journey begins.

You follow the Emperor and his two Blades before separating. At this time you begin your quest to find the same exit they are in order to escape the wretched prison. As you make your way the game monitors how you’ve been playing. If you pick up swords, use magic, or sneak around past enemies, that will be key to the next step of the game. At the end of the dungeon you meet back up with the Emperor and his Blades. They are cornered and the Emperor gives you the Amulet of Kings, an important artifact that tracks the blood of Talos and is only usable by an heir in his family. Emperor Uriel Septim is killed, however he tells you there is one last heir (no way!) and you must find him and deliver the Amulet of Kings. As you guessed, this is just the first plot entrance into what becomes a really enchanting and mystifying story of mystery, illusion, and magic—and that’s just the main questline.

When you're done in the sewers of the prison you're given the option of choosing your class and your sign. But rather than just giving you free choice of who you will become—even though you have it—the game will recommend various signs and classes that fit well with your playstyle through the introductory dungeon. Though it’s tempting to choose the first thing that they throw at you, we highly recommend you create a custom class or you really take into consideration what the major skills of the class you choose. If you choose Knight you may wind up getting stuck with some useless skills—like hand-to-hand combat for example—that you’ll never really use when you could have substituted that for athleticism and you’d have leveled up much faster. It’s not a flaw in the game itself, but rather a flaw in them expecting you to know more about character creation than you probably do when you first start.

The first moment you step out of the sewers and into the real world is one of the best moments in the history of video games. It’s not because it’s some remarkable story advancement, or some ridiculous shootout, or the introduction of a cool character, but it’s for the reason that video games have become such a wonderful experience for many of us; you get to see the most breathtaking environment in any game ever made. Cyrodiil is, without a doubt, the most cohesive, believable game world ever created, and everything about it flourishes in beauty, detail, and a grand sense of escapism. Imagine The Lord of the Rings’ Middle Earth except you are at the leisure of exploring it and shaping the country’s destiny.

There are about a dozen main cities in Cyrodiil that you can explore. The main storyline will take you to most all of them at one point or another, but you won’t truly experience all that the game can offer if that’s all you do. There are four main factions for you to join: The Mages Guild, The Fighters Guild, The Thieves Guild, and The Dark Brotherhood. They’re all more or less what you’d expect from guilds with their names—The Dark Brotherhood being an assassins guild of sorts—yet they all have fantastic plotlines for you to follow that will ultimately result in the majority of your exploration of Cyrodiil. Beyond that, however, there are many dungeons, caves, and mines you’ll happen upon just out of pure chance that will either bring you lots of great loot or help you meet some cool characters where you’ll find some neat freeform quests.

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