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In this interview below, you can find an interview from our own MaTT. If you have any questions or comments you can post them in the forums.
Azzor.com / Elder Scrolls IV:Oblivion : Review
By MaTT
thethirdfaction@gmail.com
Oblivion is quite the ambitious game, like its predecessor “Morrowind” it seeks to establish itself as the new peak of RPG gaming achievement through the use of many new and established gameplay elements. But does it succeed in its ambition? With a vast, wide open land to explore and a massive amount of quests to explore I found that it more than succeeded; Bethesda has created what may be the pinnacle of RPG gameplay, the new standard by which all may follow. Hell, I am even crossing my fingers hoping that this game will be the straw that broke the camels back as far as turn based combat is concerned, and by this I mean that it needs to go…real time combat has been successfully integrated into RPG gameplay with Oblivion and once you get a taste its hard to go back to the old “sit and watch/wait” combat of turn based combat systems in most MMORPG’s and roleplaying games.
Oblivion is BIG, and by that I mean
That it’s HUGE, some would say MASSIVE!
Oblivion strikes a balance between statistics, player input and combat significance when it comes to its real time combat system, and the player is better for it. Instead of the standard “automatic attack” one must initiate and sustain combat through a series of timed and aimed mouse clicks to initiate attacking and sustain it, if you don’t pay attention than your pretty little elf head might become permanently detached from your shoulders. This adds excitement, by way of combat significance, which requires players to actively engage with their enemies, what it looks like when their enemies are about to attack and how to most effectively take down an enemy. Critical thought and planning is rewarded here, which is amazing considering gaming industry trends as of late (see: every FPS ever) focusing more on presentation than gameplay, and since most gameplay is combat oriented anyways most games settle for either the “point, shoot, rinse and repeat” or “auto attack, rinse and repeat”. But in Oblivion the combat is “fight effectively, fight smart, have fun…..rinse and repeat” =D
Combat is so fun sometimes I would
just go to the arena to watch!
All this great combat takes place in 2 worlds of massive proportions, Cyrodiil and Oblivion. One is a nice green, living place and the other looks pretty much like what you would expect the 5th level of hell to look like, real fire and brimstone kind of stuff. Oblivion is great, a hellish little world providing vastly different enemies, bigger rewards and bigger challenges. But even if you never stepped into this firey plane you would still have all of Cyrodiil to explore, which is what I have been doing more of. With multiple cities with multiple communities its easy to become engrossed in the detail the developers have sewn into this title; Each city has its set of “hot topics” that are discussed by the citizens which can then translate to quests or significant conversations with citizens. For example; if you over hear something about a local being a vampire you can then inquire about it and find out more about that vampire, by discussing overheard issues new quests can be added! As simple as that sounds I think its really awesome, instead of finding NPC’s with yellow exclamation marks over their heads the player has to discover their path of adventure through many different avenues. Conversations are just on aspect by which to obtain further adventure; by reading books, joining guilds, competing in the arena, bumping into strange characters and performing heroic acts your character will find more and more ways to become a hero in this living world of Cyrodiil and Oblivion.
What race and class you choose
determines your gameplay experience
Another aspect of this game that is worth discussion is its ability to give significance and weight to player decisions. Because you are playing in a world with law and society many moral dilemmas will present themselves to you. Need a soul gem to recharge your cool new sword? Well, you could steal one….or earn it the hard way. But you might get caught if you steal it and then you gotta go through the law, and as we all know that’s a huge pain in the arse. Player choice goes beyond that of, “I can steal that or … not?” in that the player will also have to choose what class they wish to play as, and thus what kind of gameplay experience they will have in oblivion. The list of classes is impressive, with many that most players haven’t seen before or may have hoped to exist, like the battlemage class which seemed to me like the coolest name for a class ever! Who would want to be a vanilla mage or warrior when you could be a great….BATTLEMAGE! muhahaha. But seriously, the classes are all interesting and varied. Choosing race is also a big choice for players in that it will determine what skills they will excel in, much like class. But choice also transfers into combat as well; while the combat is real time you can “pause” at any moment to switch spells, drink potions and plan attacks. What does this mean? It means you have the best of both worlds. While fighting in real time if, for example, your health runs low you can hit tab, go to the menu screen and drink a few potions or que up a spell for help. Hell, if your in a situation where your weapon type isn’t working well on a certain enemy type you can switch weapons to maximize arse whoopage.
Even the ugliest of areas in Oblivion
are detailed and beautiful
Graphics and presentation are more or less your standard fare, and by this I mean that the developers really tried to squeeze out as much detail as possible. Why is this standard fare? Well now days having great graphics are the bare minimum, and quite often all you need, to get the average gamer to buy something like this. People care far too much about how pretty their games look, but even if this game was completely isometric with 2d sprites this game would still be great and you can take that to the bank, buddy. That being said this is the best looking game I have ever seen. Everything has a great amount of detail but retains a sense of class and style not seen in most games. Contrastly Where Morrowind was a slow running, smudgy, foggy mess of the ugliest creatures and locals seen in a RPG Oblivion is a clear, pretty and detailed with an interesting variety of characters that don’t look like they have down syndrome, for the most part. Players wont be forced to go out and waste money on a system with an abysmal library of games(X360) just to play this game either, if you have a moderate computer you can play this game. Even if you have a lower than normal spec computer you can still turn down the settings to an acceptable level without sacrificing any gameplay whatsoever. On my moderate 6600gt , 1gb ram, AMD64 3000+ setup my frame rate never became a problem. Granted I DID have to do some tweaking to get the best performance possible I found the game to still be strikingly beautiful in all respects. But don’t be put off by the fact that this game is a beast, it will be in your library and active play list soooo long that by the time you get new and better hardware you will still be playing it, so don’t rush out and buy a new video card or a bad console system for this one game…use what you have, it can be done without sacrificing gameplay!
That’s me, the adoring fan of oblivion =D
So all in all this game is SOLID, like a rock. Adventuring is compelling and fantastical while never letting players feel as though they have to get other things in order like money, supplies, travel and other menial tasks in order before they can do so like in most MMORPG’s that seem so popular today. This game is so good that it sets the bar for any and all RPG’s to come. Hell, I have been having so much fun I’ve canceled my WoW and D+D online subscriptions…after experiencing the joy that is real time combat and being able jump right into adventure in an easy and gratifying way I just cannot go back to the monotony, repetition and hassle of the modern RPG (mmo’s). Oblivion is all the RPG you will need for a long long time to come.
-MaTT
Total Score: 9.7/10
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