Gaming Signal: First Look: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

First Look: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

I got my copy of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion last week (thanks to a little help from my friends) and got a chance to really play it for the first time this weekend. Here are my first impressions - all told I'm pretty happy with it.

First, I paid for this game with my own dollars, lest anybody be confused. Specifically I paid $40 for it, using the 'first week' special pricing at Fry's. I think this matters - when my hard-earned cash is on the line, I expect a game to deliver. If somebody gave you a free copy of 'Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition' for the PSP you're probably not going to be too upset, but if you paid for it (like I did) the 60-second transition loading times will have you pulling your hair out and hating yourself for buying it on a whim (again, like I did.)

Anyway, luckily Oblivion is good - really good. The graphics are really strong, with some of the best-looking character models I've ever seen in a game (the close-in NPC headshots are amazing.) Warning: it takes a beefy video card to play smoothly (luckily my 7800GTX is just right for Ultra high detail.)

The best part of this game so far are the intricate quests. The Elder Scrolls saga has always been a more open-ended gameplay that most, and this game continues that fine tradition. As long as you get the quest item from the mob, it doesn't matter if you talked him out of it, pick pocketed him, or pulled it from his cold dead fingers. Any of those approaches are fine and supported. There is plenty of combat required but even here you can put your stamp on things by choosing to use primarily your bow, magic, a big two-handed hammer, a staff, twin daggers, or whatever weapons work for you. I've been playing as a heavy-armor wearing spell caster with a focus on melee touch attacks. Needless to say, this isn't your traditional class, but it works for me and the game works fine with it.

There are some things I don't like - it must be me, but I'm not a big fan of the style that Elder Scrolls graphics are done in. They seem dingy and dull - I'm sure that's the look they were going for, but I've always found it drab. The characters all seem morose too - there are exceptions, but for the most part nobody in the game seems happy.

The voice acting is not always that good - I've heard some pretty uninspired NPCs along the way. The best ones tend to be the very non-human looking races (orcs, lizards, etc.) no doubt because there is a chance to add an accent and feel like an actor. The dialog isn't bad (some of the quest write-ups are very strong) but the performances of some needed to be redone.

I'll come back with a more detailed review once I've finished the main quest, but as that might take 30 or more hours of gameplay I figured it was best to get something out early.

At first I was going to question why you started your first impressions with a statement about where game came from, but then I realized that statement is important for folks to understand some of your review criteria. I can honestly say I have only really recieved one game for free, and that was Arcanum (which I believe was a freebie for helping beta test it - I did a crappy job doing that due to an EQ obsession, but I have applied the appropriate medicines. Anyways, I said my peace here, and will add my two bits about first impressions...

Oblivion is really a successor to Morrowind in almost every way. The graphics and what not really tie well to the previous incarnation. Personally, I find the game to be what I like in high fantasy. The ability to cast spells and move throughout the world is fantastic. My character is a spell sword and he is another heavy armored warrior who uses magic to suppliment his capabilities and soften up his opponents. I have gotten in over my head a few times, but he manages to pull through by sheer determination and the ability to rapidly advance to the rear (retreat). I have yet to start the main quests and have been focusing on exploration and general rummaging around - I know there is some urgency to get to where I need to be. I don't have a horse yet (although I had an opportunity to acquire one through rather nefarious means), and as such walking will be my main mode of transport for a while.

Complaints for me: The graphics engine is really a beast, and I just wish these games would not have me debating if I should upgrade my hardware every year. Luckily my current box is holding up fine and plays at 1024x768 smootly. The control system is a bit clunky for a mouse keyboard operator. It has a console feel to it and I think the original morrowind controls were better designed for PC users. I know switching between inventory, spells and maps through the TAB key is kinda suboptimal.

Overall, I think this game deserves the accolades it is recieving since it really does deliver on a quality game experience that is not too short, which for some is a problem of late. This game shows that you don't always have to build something that is nothing more than a platform to play multiplayer games...

Once we all start finishing - if we can - look forward to full reviews from the GamingSignal bunch...

Posted by Tim on Monday March 27, 2006 at 7:37 PM

Hmmm. Interesting comments on the cost and video performance/requirements. If a game requires the latest & greatest video card to experience the full effects of the game, does that affect its impression and/or review rating? If you don't have the latest, you're either getting slow game play of have it ratcheted down where you are not seeing the true capabilities. If a game has you debating whether to upgrade your hardware every year, doesn't that detract from the overall purchase decision, and therefore, the gaming experience?

Posted by John on Monday March 27, 2006 at 10:30 PM

I have to agree with Tim that the interface concessions made because it is a console game is pretty annoying. It bothers me that there isn't a map key and an inventory key.

Also, I've been having some instability problems - I had the game crash on me a handful of times now. It's never that big a deal, but it is annoying. I'm going to go through the process of upgrading all of my drivers to make sure I'm at the latest to see if that helps, and that's another reason console gaming is a bit easier than PC gaming.

Posted by Scott on Tuesday March 28, 2006 at 2:33 PM

About the graphical requirements, it's not that bad. I'm running it with a GeForce 6600GT card, which while strong, isn't near the recommended 6800 ones. The card easily handles all the visible options turned on (That is, everything available from the interface is turned on and set on maximum, at 1024x768 resolution, but I didn't teak the ini file manually to change other parameters), with no speed performance problems.
Some of the things probably don't looks as good as they would with the latest&greatest cards, but the game still looks very good.

I also concur with the interface clunkiness. Not terrible, but having to use a key and two mouse clicks just to reach some of the info screens is annoying.

The game does tend to crash occasionally, which isn't usually terrible since the load times are quite short. But there were a couple of times I found that a save made a little before a crash was also corrupted (game crashes whenever I try to load it), making it a bigger problem. Saving often is recommended.

Posted by Yaron on Wednesday March 29, 2006 at 4:06 AM

All of these have quite a few sub-screens. The several stat screens each show entirely different types of information, as are the several maps and quests screens. The inventory screens and magic screens do have an "all" screen and others which are basically filters, but they're very much needed since the whole list can become quite long very quickly... So yes, those shortcuts help, but aren't enough.
Assigning key to each sub-screen would have been too much, true, especially since some are less useful than the others. But that varies based on your playing style. It would have been really helpful if it was possible to manually assign shortcut keys to any of the desired ones.

Posted by Yaron on Thursday March 30, 2006 at 4:00 AM