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Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion:
Impressions of the first hour and 20 min
By MaTT
Well folks, Oblivion is here and I can't believe how many people have been holding their breath for this one, there were literally gaggles of nerds at my local gamestop eagerly anticipating getting their nerd on while engaging in classic "geek talk" with each other about, now get this, posting on a message forum about the game, but was it worth the brain oxygen deprivation of exposing myself to these social outcasts? So far, yah, I think so. The installation was really quick, easy and the auto configuration feature to see what your system can handle seems pretty accurate. The game set me up at medium settings and I gotta say; even on medium this game looks like the first next gen PC game, the leap ahead in visuals is astounding and so far runs very well on my meager 6600gt driven system. But one bug has already shown up: random crashing. This has happened 5 times within the first hour and 20 minutes….kind of annoying, just a bit.
When the game started I found myself already in adventure, the king himself needs to use my cell to access a secret tunnel and I've been brought along to help. As per usual the first thing I was able to engage in combat with was, you guessed it, a giant rat. Sorry Bethesda, but come on…..RPG cliché's for 600, Alex. As I massacred a healthy population of rats I made my way through a series of cave passages, occasionally encountering a goblin and ending their miserable lives with a katana to the face, then I steal from their lifeless corpses, stripping them of their designer stone washed jeans and leaving naked goblin corpses in my wake….its all about class here folks. Items are literally everywhere, if you see it you can probably take it. The game designers did a good job of providing all and any resources you need to get going, no more wearing lame armor with bad textures until you can find something less embarrassing to wear. Whilst Gathering these items and weapons I found that I had quickly gathered a varied arsenal of very decent and usable items to help me kill more stuff, so this makes MaTT happy.
Combat is infinitely better than Morrowind so far, easy and efficient whereas my experiences in Morrowind had me swinging weapons for long periods of time at seemingly weak enemies without much effect, "hey! i just slammed a hammer straight down on your head.....shouldnt you be dead?!". Sadly there doesn't seem to be any kind of effect when going for any particular body part that may seem like a vulnerable spot, hitting enemies doesn't seem to rely on any kind of player accuracy or skill neccessarily, but this is easily forgiven given the ease of combat. Ragdoll effects on bodies really illustrate the effect of using a giant hammer, bodies crumple to the floor with a satisfying thud. Once I made my way out of this dank little set of caves I found myself in a lush outside world with varying weather, first it was sunny then it started to rain while I made my way to the next important area of my current mission. Thankfully the developers included an "instant transport" feature for those of us who don't find walking places very entertaining, so after walking around and taking in the scene I decided I was done with walking. The first area of civilization I encountered was a monastery, the first citizen I bumped into was an elf stable master type, I saw he had some horses…and I wanted one so I proceeded to whale on this sissy elf with my claymore, knocking him unconscious I found I couldn't kill him, but I stole one of his horses anyways. Instead of sticking to the main objectives I rode around on my new steed until I came upon a tower type structure, so I decided to explore. Once inside I realized that I might have to do some more killing, fine by me. Enemies were pretty tough, but nothing I couldn't handle. After killing some rats and zombies I discovered that I was in a female Vampires personal dwelling! Very cool! The clever little vamp threw her zombie minions at me and I stupidly kept killing them while chgging health potions not realizing I need to destroy the source of the magic, the vampire herself. She fell under my blade easily, offering little resitence in comparison to her strong minions. I then proceeded to rob her corpse and her dwelling. Walking out of the dwelling I felt satisfied with my achievements and decided to go back to the main quest, but then the game crashed. So here I am, reporting in, and so far I am having a grand old time….except for the random crashing.
I will upload more impressions as I play and I will later on in the week post my own personal review.
Please feel free to use the community forums to let us know how you feel about the game so far, ask any questions or exchange experiences with other community members.
-MaTT
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http://mattius2011.deviantart.com/
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