  It's the crazy race of Oblivion's 'Bone Men'!! Run for your life!! |
You’ve probably heard nothing but great things about The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the Xbox 360, about how grandiose it is, how addictive it is and how it can suck you in and make you feel like you’re a part of its world.
I couldn’t disagree more.
To me, Oblivion is on par with The Sims, only Oblvion has more fighting. Though some of the arguments those Sims get into can get pretty heated.
Oblivion, if you’ve been hiding under a rock on Pluto for the last year, is the latest in the Elder Scrolls series, and the followup to The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. The Elder Scrolls series is known for putting you in a world that is massive and completely open-ended, resulting in play time that could very possibly reach the triple digits in hours played.
Unfortunately, it’s for this very reason that Oblivion is such a poor game – it’s just too overwhelming. Don’t believe for a second that this game is accessible to the ‘beginner’ RPG player. I’m not what you would consider a ‘hardcore’ role-playing gamer but I still love a good RPG. ‘Fable’ impressed me to no end and I actually think that that was one of the strongest games for the original Xbox. Fable itself is open-ended, but there’s still some semblance of order in it, with a beginning middle and end somewhat laid out for you. It successfully tells a story.
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Oblivion, on the other hand, is just way too muddled. Yes there is a ‘main’ quest available for you to complete but the real reason most people buy this game is because of all the other stuff you can do. You could read page after page after page after page from books you find in towns and castles, hearing the stories of an endless amount of people and never even scratch the surface of what’s going on within Oblivion and the cities scattered throughout it. Other players told me that I definitely didn’t have to read any of these books in the game and in fact, they never did. So my question is – why include so many of them?
In addition, there are countless abilities, spells, potions, foods, etc, etc, etc, that you can learn to make, mix, match and use throughout the game. Pretty much anything you can pick up (and you can pick up a lot of stuff) can be mixed to make new potions, but if you want to remember what everything is, you’ll have to name each new thing individually.
And this is considered fun??
Again, friends who played the game told me you don’t have to do this and they never did. So again – why include this in the game if it’s never going to be used? Why allow bones and cups to be picked up at will when they seemingly serve no purpose? A colleague told me it’s so that if you want to, you can decorate your house with these things if you ever do acquire a home … but people rarely do that, according to him.
One more time – what’s the point, then, in having it in the game??!
Yes, I know there are some people out there who will do this, but the majority will not. No one I know has done this and none plan on it.
Now of course, it’s okay for a game to be open-ended – really it is. In fact, that seems to be one of the big complaints of gamers nowadays. They feel too locked in; I’ve said it before myself. But there’s a certain point where a game becomes a chore. I don’t want to have to spend 20 minutes just finding a shop to sell items (because I was constantly overencumbered with many items), only to realize that I have to somehow convince a person to trade with me.
There are plenty other annoyances as well here. If you want to equip certain weapons and/or spells to the D-pad, you’re free to do so, but this is a complaint I have from other games, especially first person shooters. Am I the only one who finds it difficult to move my thumb from the left analog stick (which you use to move), down to the D-pad, meaning you successfully have to stop moving completely if you want to change a weapon or spell? What if you’re in the middle of a battle and can’t afford to stop for even a second? You could use your right hand to activate the D-pad but it’s still very, very awkward.
Load times aren’t awful, but there are times when a new section of the map is loading up when the game will simply freeze for a few seconds. You could be right in the middle of a fight with an enemy but you’ll be forced to wait in limbo as the screen loads up. This completely takes away from the experience of the game.
Of course there are a few things going for Oblivion. There’s no arguing that it looks absolutely stunning, from the realistic faces on every character to the gorgeous scenery everywhere you turn. It could be day or night, inside a castle or on the middle of a farm; each environment is as enthralling as the next.
The orchestral music that play often is also fantastic. It isn’t played to death and it isn’t overpowering, which is especially good since you’ll be listening to a lot of people talking throughout the game and it’s just not the same when you have to read captions.
I also liked that I could jump from town to town with the simple press of a button if I had already visited it previously.
But back to the complaints. Sure, a six or eight hour game may not be very much nowadays, but why would anyone want to play something for 60 or 80 hours or more? And as much as some people enjoy this game, how many of them do play a single-player game like Oblivion for that long?
I know I’m not in the majority here with my opinion but then, I also didn’t like critically-acclaimed games like Halo or Halo 2 that much, nor did I fawn over GTA: San Andreas. To me, it’s more hype than anything.
I can’t suggest just renting the game, because that would be just stupid. What I’ll say is this: if you’re not happy with your life, you could always play Oblivion. Even in the video game world, it’s hip to be cool.
WHAM! Rating: |
5 out of 10 |
ESRB Rating: |
T (Teen) |
Official Web Site: |
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