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Shakyjake's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC)
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| [February 8, 2008 12:15:10 AM]
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GAMEPLAY #2:
Once I was out of the sewers the game play style changed drastically. Oblivion became completely open ended. At first I forgot what I was supposed to do for a short while but the game's quest tracking system made it easy for me to get back on course. Now that I was out in the open world there were more interesting fights as well. I fought a pack of wolves on my way to a bandit hideout and during this got a feel for the game's loot and inventory system which is very well done.
My first dungeon experience in this game was a lot of fun. The lighting gave it a feeling that was both ominous and exciting. There were also some minor puzzles to solve and some fights that were actually challenging because, from what I have seen, the AI in the game is of decent quality even though the enemy units don't always cooperate very well.
DESIGN:
The combat of this game was supposed to be revolutionary and it was. The problem was that it wasn't really involved apart from the melee. The spell system is very unintuitive. You can only have one spell out at a time which is hindering if you try and make your character a spell caster.
The character development system is very intricate and a lot of fun. I love how you level up skills by using them. It allows for someone to build their character the way that they like it without locking people into a class based system. The only problem I found with it was that once leveled up you couldn't assign experience to skills in a different category which early on isn't a problem but after playing through a large portion of the game trying a new school of magic or different weapon style would be near impossible because of how ineffective it would be.
The game world provides an unrivaled interactive experience and lots of things to do. My gripe though is it's size. For a role playing game it feels rather small but most of my role playing game experience comes from massively multiplayer games which, characteristically, are very large. During the two game play sessions that I had I didn't run out of content in this manner but by looking at the size of the map I could tell that later on it would be a problem. One of the things that I liked the most about the game was the scenery and a small world limits that factor.
I could see game world exhaustion in Oblivion taking almost hundreds of hours as there is so much to do. Apart form the game's main story there are tons of things to do. Mainly the guilds in the world which provide their own quest lines to the player. Even though this game log is complete I look forward to being able to play this game more and realize that I should have started a long time ago.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Feb 8th, 2008 at 00:20:32.
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| [February 7, 2008 06:40:02 PM]
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SUMMARY:
The fourth installment of the Elder Scrolls series, Oblivion, is a somewhat high fantasy role playing game. You take on the role of a prisoner who, due to fortunate circumstances, is chosen to carry out the will of a now deceased king.
GAMEPLAY #1:
The game starts off at character creation and the depth of it is fascinating. I sat and toyed around with it for what could have easily been an hour before finally finding a character appearance that I enjoyed. After creating my character I was sent off to the loading screen to begin my journey, hooray.
To my surprise the loading time was very short and the screen barely had time to appear before receding and putting me into the starting zone, which to my dismay was a jail cell. I felt trapped in it and my character must have been claustrophobic because I immediately started to jump around and ram into walls in a manner more suited to a madman than the savior of an empire. This led to the realization of how well thought out the control scheme is and how familiar it seems to someone who has never played the game before as I already knew how to control most aspects of my character.
Soon enough the king showed up and I was led down through a secret passageway into a system of stone passageways underneath the prison. I learned of the treacherous plot to kill the king and with his dying breath he said he needed me to pass on a family heirloom to his son in order to save the kingdom. Up until this point I had been fighting against what seemed like a brotherhood of assassins alongside the king's bodyguard. However after the king had been executed and I was told that I should exit through the sewers. I began to expect that the worst cliche in RPG history was about to be repeated and of course it was.
There is no better way to make you feel like a weakling stable boy in a high fantasy role playing game instead of a heroic knight in shining armor than having your character fight rats. Yes, they have teeth and yeah, probably rabies too but the straight fact is that they are rodents and in a game they are beyond not intimidating, they are almost cute. The developers might as well send you out to kill little bunnies in the middle of a forest, at least that way when you are swinging your sword aimlessly at your feet you will get to see some pleasant scenery.
I eventually triumphed through all the obstacles put forth in the sewers and exited out into the world of Cyrodill. I immediately saw why Oblivion's graphics were heralded as the best to date in a role playing game. The environments were truly breath taking. They made you feel like you were there as your character under the hot, bright sun standing next to a cool stream as the wind swept by and made the grass sway.
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Shakyjake's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Thursday 7 February, 2008
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