Way back in the dark mists of time (2002), Bethesda stunned the computer role playing game world with Morrowind. This was the first RPG that came even close to capturing how such games played around the kitchen table. Yes, there was a main “save the world” quest, but Morrowind also allowed the player to do pretty much whatever he wanted, from saving the world, to turning into a vampire and completely depopulating the land, and darn near everything in between.

Of course, the only real solution to such gaming greatness is a sequel, by the name of Oblivion.

The vast majority of reviews enthuse mightily on the charms of Oblivion, but allow me to talk instead of the “bad news,” first.

First, while other sequels typically add to the game rules system, Oblivion is actually a step backwards from Morrowind. Characters actually have fewer skills to define themselves by (particularly odd is merging axes into the “blunt weapons” category), and fewer weapons in the game. A few spells (such as the useful “levitation”) have vanished as well.

Next, the AI has hardly been touched, and is just as dubious as before.  Yes, artificial intelligence is a difficult thing to program, but, really, when I murder “the bandit on the left,” and the “bandit on the right” trips on the corpse, he should realize something is terribly wrong, instead of wandering around aimlessly.  Similarly, it is brutally unforgiving when it comes to accidental thievery.  Try to click on the bartender to talk to her, and likely you’ll accidentally click on an intervening bottle.  “THIEF!!!” she cries out, and even if you put the bottle down immediately, a guard will escort you to the castle, where you’ll have to pay a fine for touching a bottle on a bar.  Character interaction is excruciatingly weak.  To get a character to like you, you’ll need to, in a brief period of time, Boast, Joke, Admire, or Coerce him/her, repeatedly, via a mini-game.  Bashing heads solves almost every quest, so the diplomacy issues in the game are neatly covered up by massive bloodshed (although corpse cleanup isn’t so good; this one poor shop has had 3 naked corpses in it for months now…).

Also, the main story line is, simply put, no fun.  It’s not just the “you start in a prison with no equipment or past” lameness that’s been done so many times before (including Morrowind).  There’s this big huge demonic invasion, opening up gates from a hellish world all through the countryside.  You’re told things like “You must save him RIGHT NOW”, but we still have the theme of “do whatever you want,” so the invasion or execution or whatever will patiently wait until you go off and become head of every guild, visit every city a dozen times, or do whatever else you feel like…the main quest just doesn’t feel right in this context.  You’ll also need to close many gates, and the sense of accomplishment for doing so is offset quite a bit by the tedium, as each “close the gate” quest is about the same.

Finally, we have an overall design flaw here.  Morrowind’s flaw involved character development and the game world: namely, once your character got above level 25, there was nothing left to challenge him, making the whole game trivially easy.  Oblivion fixes this by making the monsters and treasures “level” as your character does.  So, a cave that would hold rats for your first level character holds trolls at a higher level.  It sounds nice, but it creates new problems as well.  First, the thrill of exploration drops off a bit; I know the monsters I meet and treasure I gather will all be set to my level—there’s no danger in encountering something far too tough for me to defeat with a simple thumping, and there’s no thrill of finding a great artifact far outside the power of my character (cf: The Hobbit).  Second, the non-player characters generally aren’t leveled.  A number of missions grant you help from additional soldiers and such. If you’re too high a level, the monsters you encounter will toss those soldiers around like confetti… leaving you all alone to deal with a horde of “leveled” monsters (at least you can loot the soldier’s corpses for extra gold).  Curiously, the best counter to this is to design a character that does NOT go up levels.  By basing your character around little used or unnecessary skills, you can get a character that goes up levels at a slow enough pace that you can see all the game has to offer; go up levels too quickly, and you’ll miss many monsters that simply won’t appear for high level characters.

There are, alas, programming issues as well.  Our high-end test computer had little difficulty running at high settings, although a certain bug causes it to reboot reliably (something to do with enemy archers); save often, as this sort of thing is just part of playing computer games.

Now, let’s come to the good news.  The graphics are super-duper good.  Time and again, I was impressed at the gorgeous beauty of the countryside.  It’s not all just eye-candy, either, as many plants have alchemical components for potions.  It’s just…so…beautiful.  The wilderness isn’t only foliage, by the way, as there are loads of caves, abandoned forts, temples, and ruins to explore, and they all look great.  The cities themselves are detailed at a level that puts a few massively multiplayer online games to shame.

The quests, despite the trend of “just go kill it,” are generally fun, outside of the main story line, at least.  The fighters’ guild line quests are combat heavy, of course, and I can’t help but be a little disappointed that the mages’ guild quests also primarily involve killing things (you can advance quite far in the mages’ guild with minimal or no spell capability… only a few quests actually require casting a spell, and you can just use a scroll).  However, the thieves’ guild quests require no bloodshed, making them all interesting and very challenging for anyone but the most clever and stealthy player.  The assassin’s guild quests are also fun (if you like that sort of thing); assassination is a different activity than head-bashing, as you need to do it quickly and quietly.  Finally, you can also go work for demon lords; these quests go back to the combat theme, but you never know what you’ll get (from killing a bunch of good priests to clearing out a nest of undead), beyond a nifty demonic reward.  There are also many, many, side quests, where you kill things for fun and profit.

Since combat is such a huge part of the game, it’s good that it’s so much fun.  You can block, jump, and swing, to your heart’s content; spell-casting in combat is about the only real improvement from Morrowind, since it’s now convenient.  You can also face more foes than before; even a great warrior will have difficulty against 3 or more lesser foes, as it’s difficult to land a blow when you’re taking hits, no matter how minor.

Truly what makes the game great is the world itself, which is just so much fun to explore.  Even with the main quest done and my character advanced to near godhood, it’s still a joy simply to wander the countryside and find ever more dungeons and ruins to explore.  I’ve played nearly 100 hours now, and there are still a few quest lines I’ve yet to finish (and I’m not even level 20, thanks to my goofy “Neverleveler” character design).  It’s just too good a world not to explore.

When it comes to computer role playing games, there are either solo games like this, or big online games.  Often the worst part about online games is the presence of the other people, but Oblivion gives that online game feel, without the nagging sensation that the dungeon you’re about to explore has been trampled by thousands of previous adventurers.  While it may seem like this game has more negatives than positives, much of the bad stuff can be ignored or worked around (or in the case of gimpy AI, simply not exploited), leaving a game that, while little better than Morrowind, could actually be a little worse and still be a great game.  If you played Morrowind, and want more of the same, get this game.  If you haven’t played Morrowind, get it first; in six months, you’ll probably get Oblivion as well.

Pros/Cons

+ Beautiful graphics

+ Deep, detailed game world

+ Freeform character development

+ Did I mention how pretty the game is?

- “Leveled” design detracts from the thrill

- No real game advances from Morrowind

- Crash bugs

- Feeble main quest

- Quirky AI