The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - First Impressions

I've had a couple of days to get acquainted with Elder Scrolls IV, and I must say I'm very very impressed. Until I saw Oblivion listed as a release title for the XBOX 360 I never gave Elder Scrolls much thought. I usually go in for more mainstream fair like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and .hack. When the promise of having an RPG at the 360 launch evaporated, I got impatient and picked up a "Greatest Hits" version of Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. After wandering around cluelessly for about 45 minutes and getting pwnd by a Mud Crab, I put it down and didn't touch it again for two weeks. But the hype over ESIV forced me to give ESIII a second chance and I was glad that I did. After overcoming a steep learning curve, a cryptic menu system, and awkward battle controls, I was hooked. I had been playing ESIII for around 50 hours by the time that ESIV came out. I've been playing ESIV for about 25 hours now and I feel like I've only scratched the surface. There is simply so much to do here it's mind-blowing. For example, I just spent about 3 hours clearing out a dungeon that I had absolutely no business even going into just because it was on the way to my next destination. I didn't really get anything valuable out of the experience, and died a couple of times because the monsters were way too strong for me, but I had a total blast doing it. The game world is easily as immense as those in MMO's like Final Fantasy IX and World of Warcraft. The graphics are top-notch. Honestly it's the best use of the XBOX 360's power that I've seen so far. The Dolby Digital Surround adds a creepy degree of atmosphere. Unlike a lot of other games, the music isn't just there to give you something neat to listen to, it is used to add ambiance to the game to great effect.

I have a couple of very minor complaints - the 3rd person view still looks unnatural and clunky, the horseback riding is a bit glitchy, the menus, while arranged very logically, aren't as easy to navigate as they were in ESIII and I managed to somehow get myself and my horse lodged inside of a rock and had to restart the game to get out of it. These minor gripes disappear in comparison to the improvements that have been made. The Journal system now logically sorts your objectives so you know what you have done and what you need to do. It also correlates with your map and compass to tell you exactly where you need to go, making navigation a breeze. And if that wasn't good enough, moving around the map no longer requires Travel Guides, Silt Striders, or the Recall spell. If you've visited a location before, just open your map and point to it, and the game will take you there. You still lose time off of your clock for the time you would have spent walking the distance but it makes the game a lot less tedious.

I purchased the uber-expensive special edition of the game (because I'm a complete sucker for stuff like that) that came with a bonus DVD (which I have yet to watch) a pocket guide to Tamriel (It's pretty cool - writtent to look like an official guide from the Tamriel government to newcommers) and a reproduction of a Septim coin from the game. It also came with a map of Tamriel that was ripped because whoever packaged it at the factory crammed it down into the sleeve. The case itself was a cardboard and plastic fold-out similar to what the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings movies came in, complete with a lot of nice hand-drawn artwork. I also opted to pick up the phone-book sized official strategy guide. It's over 300 pages long and has already come in handy a couple of times. It was printed on relatively thick paper, presumably to make it appear to have more pages than it does, but it's still a good value all-in-all.

If you like RPGs at all this is definitely worth checking out. If you liked Morrowind, you will absolutely love this game.