The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

To start, I´m going to introduce my system of reviewing games.

First, we have the five different sections:
Graphics: Rates the games visuals
Mechanics: Rates the controls, how the AI, etc works.
Length: How much can you do in the game?
Audio: The sounds of the game.
Fun-O-Meter: Is the game fun?

I´ll rate each thing with stars "*". Ten is max.


TES IV: Oblivion was developed by Bethesda game studios and published by Bethesda softworks and 2K Games. It is one of the best Action-RPGs that has ever been made, and even though its successor TES: V Skyrim featured more mechanics such as marriage, shouts and unique dungeons, Oblivion will always have a special place in my heart.

The first time I played Oblivion was at a friends house. It was on an Xbox 360 console. I was about eleven. I remember asking my mom if I could play the game, because it was for 16+, and my mom is sadly quite strict with age-restrictions (Not anymore, just check my steam library and you´ll see..), but she said yes, and I took the controller, and started creating my character. My friend told me everything I needed to know, and I chose race, class and messed around with facial settings. When I was done, I had created a Khajiit Agent, and I was good to go. I exited the boring sewers, and stepped out into the most fantastic game world I had ever experienced. I remember asking my friend what to do. He had simply answered: No idea!

When it comes to graphics, Oblivion is quite outdated. But when the game was in the beginning of creation, Oblivion was designed for consoles and pcs that weren´t even available at the time. But the game delivers. And really, if you are fussy about graphics, just type in nexusmods.com in your web browser and scroll around the numerous graphic mods.

The sounds of Oblivion are amazing. The music is calm and rythmic, and it contributes to the main atmosphere of the game. The ruffling of leaves, the sound of footsteps, celebrity voice actors - It is mighty.

The story of the game is quite ordinary, gates from an evil dimension are opening all over the country, an evil cult wants to take over the world and to stop that from happening, you must find the assassinated emperors lost heir. But hey, don´t feel restricted. Visit any town in the vast country of Cyrodiil, and just get a quest from a random villager. Or if you are the mercenary type, join the Fighters guild. Mage type? No problem, because there is a mages guild too. There´s even a Thieves guild with a very cool storyline. But if you prefer backstabbing and sharpshooting like me, kill an innocent citizen and get an invitation to join the Dark Brotherhood. All guilds are cool, but my favourites are definitely The Thieves Guild and The Dark Brotherhood. And I forgot to teell you that there is even a gladiator arena with a whole lot of enemies to fight, and through the storyline, you get to fight one, two and three enemies at the same time!

Pick locks, cook together potions and poisons, enchant your gear and break the law. It is all up to you! It is extremely fun to just play around in the game. Nothing seems out of place, it´s all thoroughly thought out. The massive amount of things to do makes this game impossibly large and wonderful. When you sleep on a floating inn, you wake up and realize that it is in the middle of the sea, overtaken by pirates. Buy a manor, suspiciously cheap, and you will soon discover it´s dark secrets. There´s even a quest in the Thieves guild when your goal is to steal an Elder Scroll. A freaking ELDER SCROLL!

The fighting system might not be perfect, with just hacking and slashing, but nevertheless, as I said before, MODS!

The radiant AI gives the people of Cyrodiil lots of fun functions, they will eat, sleep and go on missions on their on initiative. It is definitely one of the best single-player games ever.

The vast world of Cyrodiil offers a lot of places to discover, settlements, shrines, caves, and ancient Ayleid ruins. But sadly, the caves aren´t near unique, which actually gives a little minus to this otherwise awesome games. The planes of Oblivion can also be quite monotonous, but you don´t have time to think about that, you´ll probably be to busy fighting off hordes of scamps and daedras.

To round it up, Oblivion is unarguably the best game of Bethesda, and certainly one of the best single-player experiences ever.Two expansions have been released, Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles, both of which expands your adventure in Cyrodiil. I will most probably review them too, when I have explored them to their limit.

I hope you have enjoyed this review, and if you read it because you are thinking about getting this amazing game, my only response is buy it.

Graphics:       *******(8/10)
Mechanics:    *********(9/10)
Length:          **********(10/10)
Audio:           **********(10/10)
Fun-O-Meter:**********(10/10)

Score: 47/50

Thanks for stopping by!