Review Oblivion reviewed by the Codex

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Bethesda Softworks; Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

The review everyone's been waiting for <a href="http://www.rpgcodex.com/content.php?id=129">has finally arrived</a>. Vault Dweller's Oblivion review is up! Here's a bit:
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<blockquote><center><b>I think it’s fair to say that a game involving a demonic horde invasion qualifies as a dark game. ~ Gavin Carter</b></center>
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While that may be true in theory, Oblivion is not such a game. First, there is no demonic horde invasion going on there. The demons did open portals all over the place, but instead of invading, they are patiently waiting for you to show up and close all those portals in not very timely manner. Second, the rest of the world doesn't seem to care much and if they do, they hide it well. The problem with the demonic invasion, even as poorly organized as the one presented in Oblivion, is that it doesn't fit the "take your time to explore our world and join a faction or four" motto of the Elder Scrolls series. I mean, the game starts, the emperor dies, I'm told to find the heir NOW!, before it's too late, so joining the Thieves Guild instead and looking for something to steal didn't seem like a very immersive and logical option. All that dramatic main quest urgency seems to play against the strength of the series, breaking immersion and questioning the presence of the menacing, yet silly due to their uselessness, gates. Speaking about the gates...</blockquote>
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<a href="http://www.rpgcodex.com/content.php?id=129">You can read the rest here</a> and complain about the review in the comments thread.

 

[bryce777]

Wow, I just lost all respect for anyone who ever claimed to like this game even a little bit.

 

[SanguinePenguin]

That draw distance problem realy kills what might otherwise be a good looking vista.

When is Eschalon Book 1 suppose to come out?

 

[LlamaGod]

I'm still wondering how these godlike demonic beings thought up the great plan of making 2-way portals that can be defeated by removing a gem from a slot.

You'd think they'd make it a bit more complicated than that.

 

[sheek]

Pretty good review.

 

[Claw]

I think there are still some nice views in Oblivion, they're just inconsistent. Anyway, good comprehensive review, although I missed a mention of lockpicking.
That gold-black dagger in the latter screenshots looks pretty laughable. A waste of technically good graphics.

 

[Micmu]

That gold-black dagger in the latter screenshots looks pretty laughable. A waste of technically good graphics.

...and daggers share the same animation with longswords (and every other 1H weapon for that matter). They chop & slash. So much about "different animation attached to every weapon" bullshit. Answers why there are no spears.

 

[Claw]

Oh yeah, I know. I'm lovin' it.

I still recall TES fans declaring that Gothic wasn't the same leage as TES, citing the lack of diverse animations - as there are basically only two sets of animations for melee weapons, one- and two-handed - as example.
With Oblivion TES has finally caught up with Gothic.

 

[LlamaGod]

If you recall, there was a huge uproar when Todd announced that crossbows and throwing weapons have been axed (or blunted), but - BUT! - bows will be done in a grand, never-seen-before, I-can't-believe-it's-not-a-crossbow way. Frankly, I don't see what all the fuss was all about. Other than "look, my arrow is sticking out of that guy's ass, isn't that cool?" wow factor, I can't say that this "grand" way is much better than, say, what I've seen in Interplay's Stonekeep 10 or so years ago or what Painkiller's crossbow had to offer a few years ago. Still, the archery has been improved and sniping out monsters and evil-doers in dungeons is fun, so let's leave it at that.

Don't forget little indie Mount and Blade, too.

 

[Micmu]

The point is, they used this as an excuse to simplify the damage system from Morrowind (chop/slash/thrust). "Now we have different animations attached to every weapon instead which is cool too blah blah" (MSFD said that here). Yeah. Right.

 

[Atrokkus]

Btw, what rig were you using, VD? And are the settings top-notched, or just set high in the game, without tweaking the .ini?

 

[Psilon]

No one should tweak the INI for reviews. It misleadingly suggests certain graphical settings are achievable in the main interface.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Pentium D 940, 3.2GHz, 2GB RAM, GeForce 6800. I didn't touch the ini file (except to enable screenshots), the settings are the highest the video controls allow (Edit: for the reasons mentioned by Psilon).

 

[Relien]

Someone should update "current status" and "description" sections here and also "description" and "games" sections here (Oblivion is no longer in development).

Nice review. From what you say it seems that although it fails as an RPG, with the right mods it could be a pretty good dungeon hack.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Yep. With the right mods it could be a pretty good RPG, because the functionality is there. It's a shame that Bethesda did so little with it.

 

[Psilon]

Well, apart from the hard-coded text limits I keep hearing about.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Check it out:

http://www.rpgdot.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1913135

Does anyone actually take RPGCodex seriously? So consistently cynical and negative. If it wasnt RPGCodex I'd be able to take the negative review of Oblivion seriously. But coming from that site what a surprise

The feeling’s mutual. Their vile, wretched, brand of humor strikes me as somewhat chauvinistic and their boards are so choke full of bigotry, pampered by their elitist, narrow-minded viewpoints regarding cRPG design, that I find little incentive to navigate through such a landfill of hate and angst.

Such a poetic description.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Well, apart from the hard-coded text limits I keep hearing about.

I heard many complaints from the modders, but since I didn't have time to try anything, I didn't comment on that.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

The feeling’s mutual. Their vile, wretched, brand of humor strikes me as somewhat chauvinistic and their boards are so choke full of bigotry, pampered by their elitist, narrow-minded viewpoints regarding cRPG design, that I find little incentive to navigate through such a landfill of hate and angst.

Such a poetic description.

Sounds like ANSWER needs to recruit that guy. You know, so they can rewrite the Constitution to make vile, wretched speech Unconstitutional and stuff in the name of making the world a brighter, happier place for the proletariats. That'd put an end to us!

 

[HotSnack]

Does anyone actually take RPGCodex seriously? So consistently cynical and negative. If it wasnt RPGCodex I'd be able to take the negative review of Oblivion seriously. But coming from that site what a surprise

The feeling’s mutual. Their vile, wretched, brand of humor strikes me as somewhat chauvinistic and their boards are so choke full of bigotry, pampered by their elitist, narrow-minded viewpoints regarding cRPG design, that I find little incentive to navigate through such a landfill of hate and angst.

Who is this mysterious Guest? Conspiracy!

 

[Mech]

Just one note I want to point out. The gates look like the daedric letter O. So unless Bethesda had the wisdom to create the daedric letter O in order to rip off a game that was coming out years in the future, I would have to say that just made the reivew look silly.

 

[LlamaGod]

It's a Diablo portal stuck in the letter O. Woopie.

Why the fuck do they use a giant letter O, anyways?

Maybe they actually do know their fans are that retarded. Maybe in TES5 there will be a big 'THIS IS A PORTAL' sign floating above it.

 

[Vault Dweller]

It would be hard to come up with a shape that's not featured in the daedric shape-based alphabet, no?

 

[Mech]

It would be hard to come up with a shape that's not featured in the daedric shape-based alphabet, no?

I generally think it would be hard to come up with a portal that isn't round and doesn't look retarded at the same time.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Not as hard as you think