SicShot picked up the PC version of ElderScrolls IV: Oblivion last Friday and I did a little marathon in the office just before the exams to bring you guys this review.
In the 20th hour, of my gameplay I have to say I was disappointed.
"Levelled" System
Being a Morrowind player, I had spent 50% of my time training up my theiving skills just to raid the imperial palace vault for some cool weapons and armor. I go in and what do I find? JUNK! mugs bowls, Junk!!! and then the palace guard spots me and kills me. Oblivion uses a levelled system, loot and monsters are levelled along with you. If you're low level, you get crap.
Gone are the days where you sneaked into the vault at the start of the game, stole the glass armor and ran like mad. Fair enough a leveled system might make for "fairer" and more challenging gameplay. All the same I feel cheated that the glass armor worked so hard to steal from the fighter's guild was a ceremonial set with a defense rating of 1!
Overly Simplified System and less variety
In Morrowind, you had the choice of chitinous armor, leather armor, boiled leather armor and a whole variety of relatively similar armors; and that was just light armor. In Oblivion, the developers have decided to simplify things, instead of 4 categories of armor (light med, heavy, unarmored), we now only have light and heavy. I dropped my iron armor the moment I found some chainmail because it was lighter only to discover at the boss fight that it counts as light armor for which I do not have a proficiency in. I know that chainmail isn't as heavy as plate mail but if you've ever held chainmail you'll know it sure as heck isn't light!
I'm just using this as an example, overall there seem to be a whole lot of features that have been simplified for console gameplay instead of PC gameplay. Some spells are missing (Mark, Recall) too.
Fewer towns and Quests
The developers claimed that you wouldn't notice. Well I think it's pretty darn noticeable!
Firstly, fewer factions to join. I spent a good 3 hours raiding barracks trying to join the Legion because I wanted some cool legion armor, only to discover much later that... GASP! There is no more Legion faction! Despite the fact that you are in Cyrodill, home of the Imperial Legion! the imperial cult and the temple have also disappeared. There should be some new factions but I have come across those yet so it might be that I'm jumping to conclusions. BUT I STILL THINK THERE SHOULD BE A LEGION FACTION.
How many towns were there in Morrowind? Tel Mora, Tel Arun, Sada Moraith, Balmora, Vivec, Ald Ruhn, Ebonhart, Caldera, Syeda Neen, Dragon Fel, etc... countless basically. How many towns are there in Oblivion? 9 one for each of the 9 divines I suppose, and they are all on your map from the begining. Wow, that's a great incentive to explore the land. There are some small farms and forts around but far from what I'd call a town or village. Even if the area in oblivion is the same as Morrowind. It certainly feels much much smaller.
The achitecture in Morrowind was much more exotic as well (floating Cantons of Vivec, Mushroon towers of Tel Mora, Giant crab Shell City of Ald Ruhn, etc). Granted it may be that Cryodillic architecture is more like the European architecture we have in the real world. But the problem is, it's too much like the real world. It's more like medival Europe and not the center of Tamriel!
Conclusion
For all that I've said, you might have noticed that I keep comparing Oblivion with Morrowind. Simply because, there's no other game that even comes close, if you're going to critque an elderscrolls game you can only compare it too another elderscrolls game.
Oblivion is simply breath taking in terms of game graphics. Instead of just a sky box and ambient lighting, the sun actually moves across the sky as time passes and clouds drift following the direction of the wind.
The new combat system also adds strategy to the way you fight as compared to the otherwise dull button mashing system of Morrowind.
Other that that, it's basically Morrowind with some tweaks here and there but the same winning formula. I'm going to upgrade my home PC in June, and play this game VERY VERY slowly and savour every moment until my eyes bleed from playing it too long.
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