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Saturday 9 February, 2008
GAMELOG ENTRY #2
GAMEPLAY
The more of this game I play the more fun it becomes. Primarily because of the skill tree, not only does it provide for a vastly different gameplay experience based on the specialization of the player, but the growth in that specialization is exponential. So, my first play experience I was limited to a very small set of skills, but now I have a vast arsenal at my disposal with which to dispatch enemies. There's now a great deal more strategy involved in the combat, I have to decide which armors, weapons, and spells to choose, and adapt it to my opponent.
It's also a lot more fun to play because I've realized just how vast the gameworld is. I was originally fast traveling between cities, but for one quest I decided to go on foot. It took approximately 20 minutes to travel the distance, and along the way I discovered very detailed environments, ruins and caves that I could explore, NPCs with quests, and enemies. I feel like I'm still just scratching the surface of the world, and it's fun to actually feel like I'm exploring a living world as opposed to going on a predetermined path in a game like Mario.
I've also learned that there's more social interaction with NPCs than I originally thought. If I've just completed a quest or attained a notable achievement they will chat with me about it. There's also a mini-game in which, based on my charisma level I can try to gain favor with NPCs. If I succeed then new options in the chat dialogue are unlocked, and they become more open with information about quests, and their tone becomes friendlier.
DESIGN
This game doesn't have distinct levels, but rather a world map with cities and structures that can be entered. The world map however is incredibly varied. It would probably take around an hour to walk a straight line from one end of the world to the other, and the player would never see the same environment twice. Different parts of the world have a very distinctive visual feel, there are plains, lakes, snow covered mountains, swamps, and they all transition between each other smoothly. It doesn't jarringly go from a mountain to a swamp, but rather gradually changes. It must have been randomly generated because no matter how large the team, it would take ages to meticulously design each environmental feature of the game.
The tone of the gameworld is unique to each city. Some cities are bright and prosperous while others have a very dark color palette. Similarly, the denizens of each city vary just as much. In one of the more impoverished cities the player might expect to find people sleeping outside, skooma (drug) dealers, and thieves, while in the wealthy cities there are aristocrats, merchants, and cheery well-dressed people. Architecturally they are also very different, varying based on the climate, and economic status of each city. The tone shifts dramatically when the player enters one of the game's oblivion portals (portals to a kind of demon world). Once through the portals, everything takes on a reddish color and the sky starts raining ash. Everything in the world becomes inhospitable and demonic creatures lurk around every corner.
I responded quite eagerly to the game's reward structure, because success on missions directly translates into both new skills and more gold. The use of gold as a reward works particularly well, many games use gold as a sort of abstract concept that the player can never take advantage of, but because of the many merchants in Oblivion, more gold means better equipment, new spells, and more potions. Success on a quest can also mean that an NPC will give you new equipment that is potentially not available from a merchant. The other reward for completing a quest is furthering the story. I didn't care much for the main story, but there were certain quests whose stories I wanted to unravel.
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