User Reviews (1 - 11 of 206)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Hold on

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 59
Date: March 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Okay well... i never have played this video game but it looks really really cool. I plan to buy it today after i get out of class. I am very excited. My best friend trevor hemish and I are planning to stay up all night playing it(but he has to watch) hehehe. I can't even consentrate at all durring school (thats where im at right now) becuase i am so excited to play this game.

PS: love you mom(Happy Birthday)

How do you review a game like this?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 137 / 143
Date: March 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I mean, honestly. This game is so huge and vast that if someone were to sit down, play it, "beat it," and then go, gee I should review it, it would be time for the next one to come out. Instead, I'll write a review that I will hopefully update as I progress incase my opinion on the game changes. I've logged a few hours into it so far and right off the bat I know I'll like it.

To break it down succinctly before I ramble, if you've played Morrowind and enjoyed it, even a little, you are doing yourself a great disservice by not picking this up right now. If you were disappointed at Morrowind because it was too big that you felt listless and didn't know what to do, pick this game up. If you loved how open and free Morrowind was, pick it up right now. If you've never played Morrowind, well, read on.

Right away, most of the complaints of Morrowind are addressed. After spending a couple hours in the first dungeon/jail escape, you finally see the light of day and let me tell you, from then on, awe and excitement are around every corner. But, unlike Morrowind, in controlled and, if you want them to be, small pieces. Generally, there were two camps of people who played Morrowind: they loved it because it was so open/free that they could do anything they wanted; or, they hated it because they didn't know what to do because it was so open/free.

Oblivion takes the best of Morrowind (the openness) and makes it more accessible. If you want to focus on the main quest, right as soon as you leave the dungeon there's a red flag on your compass and on your map showing where you need to go. In fact, you can click on that town and instantly warp there, should you want to. In Morrowind, it took a bit for the main story to actually appear. In Oblivion you are thrust into the main story right from the beginning. And, if you want, the story can be started right away and has some pretty exciting moments right away.

If you want to, instead, explore the world a bit, well go right ahead. I did the second option, exploring a nearby fort that had catacombs filled with traps, skeletons and a ghost. Tried my hand at pick-pocketing sleeping guards with unfortunate success. Stumbled upon a bandit camp that didn't like me interrupting their probably nefarious deeds.

It's setup so that if you want to, you can very easily pursue the main quest, never get lost and know what you're doing. However, you can also just set out on your own, kingdom be damned and spend the next 100 hours seeing the sights, exploring the 200+ dungeons, and scaling all 17 or so square miles of the land. As an example, one of my friends immediately began the main quest. He's now a good chunk of quests ahead of me in the quests. I took the explorer route and spent the time looking around, finding the ruins and dungeons, joining the guilds etc. Two totally different approaches, both easy to get into and fun to mess around with.

Character creation is similar to Morrowind. There are a ton of races to choose from, about 21 classes (or you can create your own), 21 skill categories and a large handful of astral signs that give you bonuses. For those who've played Morrowind, there's not much difference here. Its all about choice. How do you want to play. Also included is a fantastic character editor where you can change different facets of your character to fit your desire. Really cool.

Choosing your "class" is important in that it will define how you want to play your character. You have 7 major skills that you can assign any of the 21 skills to. Each "kind" of character (melee, stealth, magic) have 7 skills to choose from. Whatever you put in your major skills determines your "class" and how you level, while the remaining 14 become minor skills that can be leveled up (at a slower rate) and don't contribute to your leveling. Races give bonuses to skills and attributes as does the sign you end up choosing.

As you can tell, the game is about openness. Do you want, be what you want. To a lesser extent, Fable tried this with mixed results. But not until this game have I seen so much openness and ability to do practically what you want.

NPCs are on a 24/7 clock. Each one of the 1,000 NPCs in the game have varying levels of needs, desires and goals. They will carry these out without regard to you. Guards will catch NPC criminals, people will go out and hunt. I've seen a guard attack a wolf that was bothering a passerby. It all feels natural and as realistic as any game right now. Mostly. There are some sore spots. The combat AI for any partners you have can be a joke. Sometimes, they will just barrel forward without regard for the other monsters around you. That can lead to very difficult situations as the AI guards round up more than they can handle, die, and then you have a messy situation on your hands.

Other sore spots include guards with ESP. Apparently, if a person wakes up while being killed or isn't killed in one hit, the guard seemingly knows that murder is being committed. And will rush right to where you are. This has caused me a lot of consternation when I'm trying to finish a quest with guards who know not only that I'm a murderer but also exactly where I am. And will continue to chase you forever.

The interface has been retooled. The journal and your inventory is now much much more user-friendly. Quests show up in a log and you can easily select which quest you want as your active quest. Doing so immediately pops up a red marker where you need to go. You won't get lost. I will say its sometimes a little disappointing when an arrow appears over a ruin that the quest says you need to find. Instead of following general directions, I know exactly where to find it. That's a bit disappointing in that it takes away from the exploring portion of it. Minor gripe, though.

The graphics also help promote this world. Terrific, they really make Oblivion come to life. From the trees in the background, to the tall weeds you pass through, everything is animated and created painstakingly beautifully. Its a real world come to life in virtual form. The physics are pretty decent. I've caused skeletons to explode, people flying backwards with a well cast fireball, rolling down hills. Sometimes, the close-ups of people are a little jarring because they don't look so realistic when you get up close and a lot of them look like they have uber-wrinkles or a skin problem. Aliasing is practically non-existent. When you get a horse, the very very very brief pauses in between loading the outworld area becomes a bit more noticeable because it seems to happen a bit more often. Its still not in anyway shape or form to the detriment of the game and is completely understandable given that the world is so huge, but its there and noticeable.

The sound is also terrific. The voice actors are pretty decent, the sound effects awesome and the music really well done. Traveling through a thunderstorm really makes you feel like its raining, lightning and thundering. The clash of steel on steel is exciting, sparks fly.

The game does stutter at times. In the first dungeon, when I brought out a torch, the game paused briefly as it changed the light levels. Not a huge problem by any means. Placing spells on your directional pad hotkey can become a pain as you ready each spell. Though, I love the fact I can wield a sword and a torch/shield AND cast spells at the same time. Love it. I guess there's some framerate issues, but I have barely noticed them at all. There are some pop-ups with the shrubs etc in the distance but really when the game is generating all of this on the fly, I can forgive some very very very minor quibbles.

Overall, if you are a fan of RPGs, I don't know why you wouldn't like this game. Whatever you bring to the table, it will match you. Whether you want to get lost in a virtual world, discover catacombs that really feel like they've never been found before, just go after the main quest, buy and sell houses, try and become a mercantile genius or even become a vampire, everything is up to you. You can do it all, or none of it.

I will say it's hard to be objective with a game that was seemingly crafted just for me. I am usually willing to overlook minor faults etc when the end product is amazing. Such is the case with Oblivion. Everything about it are things I love. I love the openness that is controlled in that I will never get lost. I can't think of many games that give you so much freedom, but in such a way that you won't lose your way. Absolutely terrific, there's nothing here that makes me not recommend it fully-heartedly for RPGers.

NOTE: I hesitate to even bring this up, but the game has been re-rated by the ESRB as of 3 May 2006. For some reason, they have decided the amount of blood in the game is more fitting of a rated "M for Mature (17+)" game. There is talk of a mod that will strip away the female character's top portion of the clothes. Please know that this does not affect the Xbox 360 version of the game. The mod is downloadable for the PC version, but not for the 360.

Perfection

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: March 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game has everything that will keep you glued to your couch, lose contact with all of your friends, and maybe break up with your significant other.
I just bought it yesterday around noon and have finally taken a break. My eyes hurt so bad but let me tell you what I have witnessed so far.

PROs:
Graphically amazing - best title ever
Gameplay is steps beyond Morrowind, with more intelligent NPCs and more moves, combat is actually fun. Also being able to hotkey magic spells to your directional pad makes blowing enemies up easy and fun.
Replay value - Game takes about 200+ hrs to beat and then there is 5 more characters to go through the game as. Plus Xbox Live will have downloadable content for it.

CONs:
Small glitching from time to time but nothing to make the game unplayable.
Some enemies in the forest can be to high leveled
You won't be able to get a horse right away "legally" you can of course steal one but you will be punished if caught.

Failed to ship -- easier to get it in store

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 10
Date: March 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I'm traveling this week, so I thought I'd order on priority basis, with overnight shipping, for my son. They failed to ship (or provide updates), so I've cancelled. If you want it fast, just drop over to your local electronics store. I've never had luck with Amazon on new releases, even on products with no scarcity, such as this one.

BEST GAME EVER!!!! MUST BUY!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 11
Date: March 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

All I can say is taht this is like real life back in ancient times, with the inclusion of magic and monsters of coarse. read reviews of Elder Scrolls 3: Marrowind and think of that times 1,000!!! MUST BUY!!! GET NOW!!!

High-performance RPG with depth

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: March 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you played Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind:

ES III was a great game, but it had a few problems; ES IV eliminated those. Travel is much better - if you have found a location, you can go to your global map, and "automove" there instantly(instead of marching through terrain you've already seen, although time for travel still elapses in the game world). Leveling is a lot slower - it still requires 10 skill advances, but skills increase slower. The quests are more complicated - not just talk/kill/fetch. The dungeons are larger and geographically challenging - 3d where you sometimes have to think to get out (e.g. after falling to a lower level where you cannot climb back). There are some insidious traps in dungeons as well, but they make sense - if you see a tripwire and avoid it (or other triggering mechanisms), you can bypass the trap. The graphics are simply amazing, and the sound effects/voice-overs are better also (but not as much as the graphics). The combat is more tactical - casting spells in lulls of attacks, blocking and "loading up" for a big attack when at intermediate range (there are many options, but those are a few).

If you didn't play ES III: Morrowind:

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is an amazing single-player RPG. You explore a world from a first-person perspective with your one character. Your skills improve through usage, or paying a LOT for a trainer. There is the grand-central quest lurking in the background, but you are free to stray from that to pursue numerous sidequests, or explore structures you happen to find in your travels. The game experience doesn't require that you play the quests linearly (or even at all). Completing quests will allow you to go deeper into plot lines, but nearly all the world is open to you regardless of how diligent you are in completing tasks.

The "class" system is much more flexible than other RPGs. While each character typically has a "focus" on stealth, magic or combat, you can custom tailor your character by selecting 7 major skills which you advance in quickly (you can still learn other skills reasonably well, but they progress slower and do not help you level). Fighter-types typically select "blade" or "blunt weapon", block and heavy armor. Magic-types select from 8 schools of magic (with each school being a separate skill); restoration is a popular school/skill for all classes since it allows healing. Rogue-types often focus on stealth (allowing sneaking/stealing), security (lock-picking), and light armor. In addition to those brackets, there are a myriad of other skills, from merchant to armorer. The game offers many pre-made classes, but players can customize their major skills any way they want.

While there is a fair amount of combat which is fought "arcade-style" (right trigger to use a weapon, left trigger to block, and right bumper to cast a selected spell), you can for the most part avoid difficult battles, or put them off until you are stronger. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to select spells in the middle of combat - you assign a spell to each of 8 directions on your left thumb-controller.

Oblivion develops the "thief" class/skills more than any other RPG I've played. Stealth helps a lot in combat if you can pull it off, and stealing/burglary can pay big dividends, but there are serious consequences of getting caught.

My only dislike for the game is the save/load feature - since you can save at almost any time, you can take large risks and simply reload if you die (only losing the few minutes you played since the last save).

WOW im speachless

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: March 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Ya this game has it all , i havnt got very far but this game is so long and complex it takes a long time to get very far.any way just got this game 2 day even though iv never liked any of the old elder scrolls games i was very excited for it, well i was still blown away the grahpics , the characters , the fighting and the land scape is so amazing ull forget very fast that ur on ur couch playing a video game. I found my self just lookin around the land scape in ahh of how huge and beutiful it looks . This game has it all , somethin for every 1 is found here and this is a must buy for any 360 owner.

A serious CLASSIC

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Man let me tell you when you get used to the control you will start to really enjoy this game like no other. You will find yourself just looking around at all the detail. The playback on this game is so huge, you can't even imagine all the combinations that you can do for your character. I pick up a horse and started trouting around or to can just simply go to you destination. I am having alot of fun with this game. In my opionion not only is this a keeper but this my friend is a serious CLASSIC.......OOOHHH THERE I SAID IT...Rich

Excellent GAME!!!!! I do not regret buying it.....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

So far I have played 40 hours on this game and I've only scratched the surface. It's amazing what you can do... you have total freedom. For example, if you like structure there is a main quest you can follow, however, if you like exploring and doing a mission of your choosing every now and then that is an option also. You have freedom of character also. For example, if you like being a wizard and focus on magic thats an option, however if you like being a warrior and just focus on slashing people up hey you can do that also. There are many character types you can chose from. These are just two of many. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. Personally I like the mage skill... magic.

As for details, the graphics are amazing especially if you have HD TV. Their still really good regardless. As for playability, like I've stated above... I've spent 40 hours so far playing this game and I'm still not tired of it. I'm just getting started!!

Personally, I think this is the best XBox 360 game out. I've been disappointed in many of the releases especially since they now cost 60 dollars. If I'm going to pay 60 dollars I better like the game enough to play it more than just one week and get tired of it.

Basically, buy it you wont be sorry especially if you like RPGs like Fable.

One of the longest, best, deep, rich, best graphic game made so far.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 9
Date: March 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Yesterday i bought this game at a mall in Miami where i currently am. I bought the game and the gamestop guy made me buy the guide for a extra 20$. I never got to play the game yet because im in a hotel. I live in New York. But im stuck to the guide trying to decide what i should be, a thief, warrior, mage, Argonion, Breton, Orc, High Elf? Its the most massive game for the Xbox 360 that will ever be made. Im not forgeting PC but the version for the PC has a problem with the lighting system. My friend has Oblivion and it is very fun. ITS FRICKEN CRAZY. u gotta buy this game, i can't wait to play it!!

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 

Actions