ES IV: Oblivion Review (X360)

The best thing about Oblivion is that even though it seems so huge and complicated and overwhelming, it really isn’t. The way you level up just makes sesnse. Learning how to do things like use magic and enchant items or steal or murder without getting caught is all explained by joining the right guild. You really learn how to do everything right as you play normally so the experience is really rewarding because at every turn you are finding something new or learning something that greatly changes the way you can play the game.

I’m not a huge RPG fan (particularly RPGs of this style), but I absolutely love Oblivion. I have spent 35+ hours playing it in the last week and plan on playing it for a good long while yet. The game is so easy to get into and learn what you are doing and it is so well paced that I can say without a doubt that even if you aren’t a big RPG fan you will like this game. You don’t really even have to play it as a standard RPG. You can go all combat, or all marksmanship, or all magic, or all sneaking and stealing, or any combination of the above and the game is just as fun. You do whatever you want however you want so you can really make your own fun.

I do have a few complaints about Oblivion, though. The game isn’t the glitchy nightmare that Morrowind was, but it isn’t a smooth experience either. The game will occasionally freeze while you are out exploring and will also hang up on load screens every now and then. Also, you can sometimes get stuck on objects or fall into inescapable areas and the only way to fix it is to load up a previous save. Occasionally, problems will come up where important quest NPC won’t show up when they are supposed to or they behave strangely and you just have to reload and hope it comes out correctly the next time. There is also some pop up in the graphics and it is pretty strange to see the grass and flowers loading literally 20 feet in front of you as you explore the wilderness.

None of these things are deal breakers, and are certainly not on the level of annoyance as most of Morrowind was, but they are just things to look out for.

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