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The controls, inventory, and magic system overall and be a bit to get used to but within five or six hours of playing the game you should understand it fully. That isn’t to say you won’t learn something new about the games gameplay later on in the game, as it seems something new pops up all the time, keeping it incredibly fresh. The whole sewer tutorial ends asking you in a neat way what class you would like to be, selecting what you will concentrate in, along with the kind of person you are, and before you leave it gives you one more chance to change everything if you aren’t comfortable with it.
When you finally make it out of the sewers, and various corridors, you find that the gates to Oblivion (the Hell of the Elder Scrolls universe) are opening, and you must find a way to restore order across the land. The story is pretty deep, and it can go even deeper as you do dozens of different quests and read the many books you will find scattered about in the world, but for the sake of not spoiling anything, I will leave it at that.
There is plenty of old and plenty of new to Oblivion, but mostly new, with the old being heavily updated. You can merge items you find with amulets, and name them as you please, and of course make your own spells if you’d like. You can enchant your weapons to have special lightning powers, and there are plenty of magic spells also. You can shoot lightning, fire, cast heal, and protect spells on yourself, conjure up monsters to help you out and plenty more. There are of course the guilds that deal with fighting, magic, stealing, and a few dark practices, all with their own hierarchy, and with their own set of missions.
Other than the guilds, you may also join the Arena, something that will keep you going with the game for quite sometime. The great thing about the arena is you can bet on it, or be in it. Either way you can make some gold. When in it, you fight various opponents, each with their own unique style and abilities, so not only is it fun to try and figure out how to kill them, and what to use, but it also gives you a chance to sharpen up your skills. Something else new that you learn about from the beginning is the use of stealth—what doesn’t this game have? When crouching you see an eye, and when the eye is dim you aren’t seen by the person in the area, when it lights up they know you are there. Sticking to the shadows definitely helps as well. You can use this technique to better sneak up on a enemy, surprisingly them with a crushing blow, or picking the pocket of a unsuspecting nobleman. As I mentioned before you can now fast travel, but say you want to travel fast, but still explore, you can always ride a horse. Horse riding seems hard at first, but it is easier than it seems, only needing the left analog to steer the horse around. It makes things easier for you, and it is also pretty cool to actually ride around.
Traps are also something you will find in the game, especially in dungeons and caves where enemies lurk. In one such instance I entered a cave where some bandits where sitting by a fire, noticed a trip wire, but apparently the bandit forget, tripping it, sending a log right into their side, sending them flying. I tripped another trap, sending a couple of maces down on me, taking some damage, but another bandit came at me, and as I swiped at her, I fell through a hole, not realizing I was standing on a rotting board. All of this variety is a lot to take in, but luckily, the game doesn’t throw it at you all at once, but rather does a good job of pacing it.
You can see for days!
The Xbox 360 Achievements will help give you an idea of how far you are with a certain goal sometimes, and if you are looking for some that are quick and easy you are out of luck. I have only managed to get 220/1000 and I have been playing the game for at least twenty hours thus far. Still, while they help, it isn’t something you will care much about in the game, but rather the memorable experiences. One of the most memorable, is actually closing your first Oblivion Gate. When I first saw it I was in complete awe of the raw power it seemed to permeate with. When you first go to Oblivion to close the gate it is scarier than Doom 3 could ever imagine to be. Plants grab you, demons shoot fire at you, and other demons run fearlessly in your path, axes swinging, until you finally make it to the area that closes up the gate.
You have your main quest of course, but after a few hours you will find you get more quest simply by talking to town folk, or going to various places, or joining guilds. Before you know it your quests have quests, and you have a hefty stack of at least six quests to complete at the same time. The game doesn’t force you to continue on with a quest either, and it does a good job of letting you know how to get through a quest with markers on the map, and notes in your menus. The game is so open-ended, you feel as if you are in a MMORPG, and not just a RPG. The game’s amazing AI adds to this. The AI just doesn’t sit around; it moves around, goes about its business, and will actually have a schedule and task. When you aren’t there, it is doing something. They close up shops for the night and go home, steal from others, kill others, and so on. No one person that plays this game may get the AI to act the same way either, they may be able to get a different response depending on their infamy, fame, race, and many other factors.
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