The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

By Johnathan Dehn
Staff Writer

New blocking engine puts the RPG battle in gamers’ hands

Using five-hundred words to describe the world of Tamriel in Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a crime.
Oblivion is a role-playing game. It is a massive game that demands patience and determination. Even forty hours of playing time will not show the gamer the majority of the Oblivion universe. The Xbox 360 has been given a game that will do for the system what HALO did for the original Xbox.

The game opens up with your character in a prison cell, deep in the underbelly of Cyrodil’s Imperial City society.
It happens that the Emperor is on the run from assassins, and needs to use your cell to find an escape route. The Emperor, voiced by the classy Patrick Stewart, frees you from prison and beckons you to follow him and his personal guards to safety.

Unfortunately, the classy voice-acting from Stewart does not last long, as he is slain after he commands that you find his illegitimate son and see to it that he ascends the throne. Finally, you leave the prison and advance to the breathtaking outside world.

There is a reason why there are four Elder Scrolls. In 2002, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was released. It achieved critical acclaim and caused many gamers to forget about personal hygiene for extended periods of time. It is a necessary evil to compare a formidable predecessor to its new and improved counterpart.

First off, the game-play of Oblivion is faster and much more hands-on.

One-on-one battles are more intense, offering more than a hack and slash affair.

A new blocking engine puts the battle in the hands of the gamer, not in a system that calculates chances.
In Morrowind, blocking was not controlled by the player, but rather by the skill of the player’s character. A shield would block an attack only if the player’s skill level was high enough. In Oblivion, a good, manual block can quickly turn the tide of a crucial duel.

The physical environment of Oblivion is vastly improved from Morrowind. Where Morrowind’s landscape was rocks, volcanoes and waterways, Oblivion’s ranges from a lush, vibrant forest with unique plant life to serene, snow covered mountain ranges.

In Tamriel, the forest is so vibrant that the player can get lost in the game, and feel like they are lost in a forest with a timber wolf chasing after them.

Finally, the main gripe from gamers who played Morrowind was the fact that if they were not taking a boat to a city or other caravans, it would take many game days to trek to a distant city to fulfill a quest.

In Oblivion, the player has more options. They can go into the map, put a cursor over a marker and have the opportunity to fast travel there without any problems. Players can own a horse, making travel even faster.

Due to the Xbox 360’s power and a lot of careful designing, Oblivion is what Bethesda has always wanted to release.