Polish your sword and put on your helmet, the first person RPG has returned – long live Oblivion!
Just between you and us, this review nearly didn't happen. The willpower it took this reviewer to put down the 360 controller and write this review is simply off the scale. Elder Scrolls: Oblivion has to be one of the most compelling and mind-bogglingly addictive games SPOnG has played in an incredibly long time. It's simply breath-taking. In short, Oblivion is the World of Warcraft for first person RPGs.
Before SPOnG collapses from withdrawal and crawls back over to the recently put-down, warm, welcoming controller to get our next fix of Oblivion, we are contractually bound by death to give you more on why you should spend your hard earned cash on a game that is guaranteed to become your new abode. So before we continue, a word of warning. If you are happy with your life and want to keep your loved ones near, we implore you to stop reading here. Oblivion is not forgiving when it comes to the real world and it will make you believe that you are no longer just a 9-5er living for the weekend; you will become the greatest hero to have ever lived, where a sword, axe or staff will become your best friend, and evil necromancers, goblins and bandits will cower in your shadow. You have five seconds to escape before we proceed; please don't say we didn't warn you...
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So you want to know more do you? Excellent - as Mr Burns would say. Let us begin...
For all you Elder Scrolls virgins, a bit of history. Elder Scrolls started back in the early 90's with the birth of Arena, one of the very first open ended free roaming RPGs, and in SPOnG’s humble opinion, a revolution to the gaming world. Arena was perhaps the first game to let the player be and do exactly what they wanted. Whether that was a dashing heroic warrior who protected the people; a bad-ass magician who controls the evil dead; a nimble thief filching from the rich – and the poor; the decision was completely up to you.
You could charge ahead with the main plot and save the world, join guilds and factions climbing the ladder of fame, or simply explore the seemingly endless countryside scavenging ruins, caves and such like finding treasures from ages past. In short, Arena gave gamers what no game had given before; pure unadulterated freedom. From hours of questing, pillaging and thieving, your character would grow in power to eventually become a force that no monster could reckon with. Then once you felt you could go no further, you'd start from scratch with another character of a different class to see the missions you missed. Oh how the hours vanished...
After Arena came Daggerfall (1996) and Morrowind (2002). Both titles followed the Arena premise, but with each came a whole bucket of enhancements that pushed the genre further than any of its rival titles, particularly in the graphics department. Now four years post-Morrowind, Oblivion has been born. Let the new tale begin....
