The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Beautiful.

With the king assassinated and no heir to the throne to replace him, you are the only one able to fight the oncoming evil and prevent the total annihilation of Cyrodiil.

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Recommended Age Minimum Age Available On... 12 (18 for PC) 8 (16 for PC) PS3, Xbox 360, PC Overall Fun Length Frustration   Violence Sexuality Substances Gambling 10 10 3   5 4 7 1 Mods Religion Anti-Law Community Sports Magic Miscellaneous 10 7 7 0 3 10 6

NOTE: The pictures that I include with this review are from my modded PC version.  This means that the way things look will be slightly different than the vanilla (see Definitions) versions on the consoles.  However, the differences are minor, and won't affect the overall impression you should take away.

1.     Gameplay

• Overall Fun - 10

If you’ve seen the extended cuts of the Lord of the Rings movies, you’ll know what it’s like to be watching something so amazingly beautiful and put together that it would be blasphemous to  try and encapsule the entire adventure in a single three-hour movie.  Take that feeling and add it into a fully interactive player-driven video game and what you have left is Oblivion.

Many games include day/night system, but few include days of the week, months, and years as well.

I have been playing this game off and on for about three years now.  While there are lots of games that I love and would definitely consider going back to, few have managed to keep my interest and give me constantly fresh content like Oblivion.  The game world is huge: 16 square miles of fully explorable landscape.  That doesn’t include the dungeons, castles, houses, stores, caves, and everywhere else you can go in the game.  There are around 215 different quests in the game.  This translates to easily over 100 hours of gameplay.

The amount of time the developers spent on this game is clearly evident.  Not only is this game a complex RPG, but the landscape is vast, and the creature variety extensive.  The customization doesn’t end with the initial character creation, either.  The leveling system, while somewhat illogical, is designed so that the abilities you use the most translate into additional upgrades for your basic stats as well.

A gate to Oblivion, which is essentially like diving into Hell. Willingly.

It seems complicated but is actually extremely simple.  For example, if your character is a melee character (like mine was) the two things you want to make sure are high are strength (so you do more damage) and stamina (so you can continue to attack longer).  If you continue to use your swords in combat you will level up your blade skill, which eventually also adds additional points to your strength when you level up.

In short, this game allows you to choose what type of character you want and sets you out in the middle of the landscape for you to forge your own path.

• Length - 10

The initial game includes what is effectively a hundred hours of gameplay.  There are hundreds of missions hidden throughout the game.  Aside from the main storyline, there are many subplots, guilds, and small tasks to complete.  The official DLCs also add extra hours of gameplay.  Buying this game new was well worth the price I paid.

There's almost no way to completely finish the game.  Even after every main quest and subquest is completed, there are still dozens of locations around the world to explore.  If a player wants to play this game forever, it's entirely possible.

• Frustration Factor - 3

There were only a few things in this game that left me slightly frustrated.  First, certain parts of the environment were placed in a way that my character got stuck and was unable to move.  It wasn’t a huge deal and most of the time I was able to work my way out of it after about 5 minutes of pushing and jumping, but it was still slightly aggravating.

I also managed to accidentally discover an endless loop in the Gray Fox’s dialog (the Gray Fox is the leader of the Thieves' Guild) which meant that I was unable to complete the quest.  I didn’t discover that the loop was endless until much later and by that time I was almost unable to mend the mistake.

Lastly, upon completing the tutorial the player is thrust into the world without much information as to where to go.  The world is extremely large and the player could easily wander off, get lost, and eventually killed by something as seemingly harmless as a mud crab.  It wasn’t a huge deal since I just ended up wandering to the large city that was near where I first started, but it could be an issue for some players.

This is what you see after ending the tutorial. I wasn't sure where to start.

2.     Parental Notices

• Violence - 5

Violence is present in Oblivion, but at the very best it can be described as “comical”.  The player uses melee weapons, bows and arrows, and magic to fight enemy creatures (human and otherwise).  Upon death, enemies sort of float to the ground in a ragdoll-like form that flops around if touched.  The only weapon that impales is the arrow, and again this is almost comical.

A typical battle. Can't you feel the rage?

On more than one occasion, after a battle with enemies equipped with bows, I found that my character survived but looked like a human pin-cushion.  The arrows stay in the player for a few minutes and can be seen if the player accesses his inventory.  It’s quite an amusing sight.

Well THERE'S your problem!

Blood is included in the game, but looks more like red paint than anything else.

• Sexuality - 4

There are some missions with a sexual theme.  One of the missions has the player investigate a number of armed robberies.  The victims are all married men who were seduced by women, lured to a location outside of town, and then robbed of all their possessions.  In order to catch the group you have to pretend to be seduced as well.

The unmodified underwear. The male version is even less attractive.

One other mission has you go into a meeting where one city’s royalty are all having a party and casting a spell that removes the clothing of everyone in the room.  “Naked” in Oblivion is basically just dark brown underwear.  It’s not revealing and it’s not particularly sexy.  It’s even less sexual than what you’d expect to see at the beach on an average summer weekend, so while the mission was childish, it wasn’t anything to write home about.

• Substances - 7

Alchemy

Alchemy is a prominent part of Oblivion.  Instead of trying to convert non-precious metals into precious metals, the player uses alchemy to convert random plants, flowers, fruit, and vegetables into potions.  The plants found around the landscape each have a specific set of effects that occur if the player eats them or uses them in a potion.  The entire system is extremely complex and the player could spend months putting together a good set of potions for combat.  However, I found that potions were in no short supply in the various dungeons the player will find himself in, and as a result I hardly ever developed my alchemy skill.

A plant called "nirnroot". Players can collect them to make some very powerful potions.

Still, the concept that the player will gain health by eating plants can be both good and bad.  It may teach children to eat their lettuce, potatoes, and pumpkins more often, but it may also teach them that eating exotic flowers will increase their mana or make them more resistant to electricity.

Kids, eat your vegetables and you’ll gain a temporary boost in strength and stamina.

Alcohol

While not an especially prominent role in the game, alcohol is included.  The player will frequently find bottles of wine, beer, and other various forms of drink throughout the game.  Each does affect the player’s statistics both in a positive and negative way.  Frequently alcohol will increase a player’s stamina or strength while decreasing intelligence.  It’s a reasonable tradeoff.

It's a very lonely bar.

Frankly, I found myself completely ignoring all alcohol in the game.  The tradeoffs were hardly ever worth it and my character was built to be effective in almost every situation I ran into.  There were very few situations where I needed a boost in strength or charisma, so I can’t remember ever drinking anything other than potions in the game.

“Skooma”

There is one “drug” that comes into particular prominence in the game called Skooma.  It’s found in a drinkable potion form and offers a heavy tradeoff.  The player gains 60 points of strength and speed at the cost of 60 agility and 2 intelligence.  To put that in perspective, the technical maximum strength allowed is 100.  So like I said, it’s a heavy tradeoff.

The reason why it’s particularly prominent is because there are multiple missions in the game that surround skooma and its addicts.  The game makes skooma seem like a highly addictive drug, similar to crack cocaine or heroin.  Characters that are addicted to skooma are frequently pale, sickly, and talk about nothing else except the drug.

As you can see, skooma is a hard drug. Only hard drugs come in pretty blue bottles.

As with alcohol, I stayed away from skooma.  The tradeoff never seemed worth it to me and I don’t think that the average player will find it a good tradeoff either.

• Gambling - 1

The player does have the ability to bet in the “arena”, which is basically a gladiator ring.  He bets on a particular color and if that color’s player survives the match, he wins.  It was a rather boring addition since you really just stand there and watch the gladiators fight.  I tried it once and never tried it again.

Oblivion gambling. Wooooo...

3.     Other Factors

• Mods - 10

While the console version of this game would be appropriate for children as young as 8, the PC version of this game is not.  PC gamers have accessibility to literally thousands upon thousands of modifications that other PC gamers have created.  The most popular of these mods are all extremely useful, ranging from User Interface upgrades to unofficial patches to new creatures.  I still remain absolutely impressed with how dedicated the online community was to creating new, useful, creative mods that extend the life of this game indefinitely.  I found the majority of the mods I applied were pivotal in making this game enjoyable enough to play through the entire thing twice on two different systems.

An entire island created by fans of the game for Oblivion.

That being said, there is also an abundance of mods that can only be described as pornographic.  These range from simple body-replaces, which increase the textures of the characters bodies while removing all undergarments, to full on quests that involve players having sex with NPCs.  I can’t accurately describe every adult mod available because it would take months just to document even the major ones.

These types of "armors" are typical for females.

Basically, you’re going to have to trust your TEENAGE child to play the PC version.  I would put the minimum age at 16 for the PC version and no lower.

• Religion - 7

There are many religious themes and elements in Oblivion.  While none focus on a real religion, the entire system is vastly complex and woven into the majority of the quests that the player will complete.  There is a church in each city, each tailored for a specific god.  Shrines have been set up around Cyrodiil for the various gods and accessing these shrines allows the player to gain the temporary benefits of using these shrines at each of the churches in the game.

One church in each city, each for a different god.

The game also has an equal number of demons / devils / evil gods.  There is a shrine to each one of these gods and, provided the prerequisites are met, the player is able to get a quest from each of the gods.  Completion of at least one of these quests is required by the main storyline.

Daedric gods give you quests through their shrines. No, you're not going crazy, the statue does talk to you.

• Anti-Law - 7

Oblivion includes two guilds in particular that are anti-law.  The first is the Thieves’ Guild.  In order to join this guild, the player must demonstrate his ability to pickpocket and break-and-enter.  It’s a guild that surrounds thievery.

Lockpicking in Oblivion is fairly common. You don't always have to be stealing items to need to crack a lock.

The second is the Dark Brotherhood.  The behind this guild is that civilians all around Cyrodiil can pray to the Night Mother for someone to die.  The Night Mother will then listen to the prayers and the ones she deems as worthy, she will pass on to her followers.  The followers then stalk the victim and assassinate him.

The Night Mother seems innocuous, but she's the one that tells you to kill people. When statues start telling you to kill people, then you can safely say you're crazy.

These are slightly disturbing in their nature, but the average player may find these guilds impossible to find.  Simplest way to find out about the Thieves’ Guild is to be put in jail for some other crime.  There are other methods, but they are easily overlooked if the player doesn’t know what to find.

The Dark Brotherhood is even more difficult to join.  You have to murder an NPC in order to join.  I accomplished this accidentally (arrows sometimes miss their targets).  While the concept of murder for hire is fairly disturbing, the quests aren’t particularly graphic.  I was more disturbed by the members of the guild than by the questline.

Let me be clear about something though; Oblivion does not encourage anti-law behavior.  There are quests involving the behavior and rewards for completing the quests, but the consequences for anti-law behavior in the game are severe.  The least severe punishment is being sent to jail for a night, losing some stats, and having all stolen items removed from a player’s inventory.  The player can also pay a fine, which can add up to a significant amount depending on how high the player’s bounty is.  Each crime gives a player a different bounty amount, and the bounty will compound after each crime.  It adds up very quickly and on multiple occasions I found myself locked up in prison because I was unable to pay the fine.

When you can't pay a fine in gold and refuse to go to jail, the guards encourage you to make a blood donation to your local Red Cross instead.

• Online Community - 0

Oblivion features no multiplayer experience.  The only online community is those players who develop mods for the game.  The modders are generally intelligent and respectful, but these people are irrelevant on any version of the game except the PC version.

• Extreme Sports - 3

As the player gains strength and prominence in the game he is able to heighten his abilities to super-human levels.  Both my Xbox 360 character and my PC character are easily able to jump over people and fall great distances without taking much damage.  That being said, there’s no way this game would encourage children to try and jump over each other the way that my characters moon-bounce their way through the landscape.

A 13-foot vertical is realistic, right?

• Magic - 10

Every character type, from fighters to rangers to mages, will use magic.  Period.  Even my characters, who are both heavily combat-oriented, use restoration magic frequently to heal.  Spells are a pivotal part of the game and any player will be exposed to heavy magic use.  All NPCs (non-player characters) use magic of some sort, and frequently the player will find himself dodging lightning bolts and fireballs in the middle of combat.

Statues are naturally resistant to electricity.

Let me put it another way.  You could combine every Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter book and still not encounter as much magic this game contains.

• Miscellaneous - 6

Murder for Hire

As was mentioned earlier, the Dark Brotherhood’s guild surrounds the concept of murder for hire.  It's still a small section of the game, so I don't consider it too adult.

Vampirism

There are vampires in Oblivion and the player is even able to become a vampire.  There are some serious advantages to becoming a vampire, but if the disease reaches the advanced stages the player will receive damage from sunlight and will be extremely weak against fire-based attacks.

This man is 50% vampire. You can tell from the red eyes. Maybe he should've used Clear Eyes.

Vampires will frequently have to feed on sleeping victims.  There is an animation involved during feeding, but as with most of Oblivion it isn’t graphic.

Shivering Isles

The Shivering Isles is the official expansion pack for Oblivion.  It adds on an entire new realm that was created and is run by a Daedric prince.  It includes an extensive questline with a large area to explore.

The entrance to the Shivering Isles. Yeah, this will get a bit strange.

The reason why I included it in this section is because it includes a lot of adult themes.  In one mission, the player has to consume a drug and becomes addicted to it for the duration of the mission.  If the player doesn’t continue to consume the drug he gradually becomes weaker until eventually he is unable to complete the mission entirely.

The NPC dialog also includes references to sex, drugs, drinking, and parties.

Missions frequently involve evil choices with no other options.  In one mission, the player activates what is effectively a giant death trap.  He has to choose how to torture three unsuspecting adventurers.  The choices are either drive them insane or kill them.

The "Gatekeeper". After killing him, you have to remake him with new body parts. It's really weird picking individual arms and legs.

Basically, the entire Shivering Isles expansion pack would bump up most of the categories by at least one point.  However, it’s not required to play the game and can easily be lost in the flurry of other quests that Oblivion contains.