 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | Bethesda Softworks |
| Publisher: | Bethesda Softworks / 2K | |
| Genre: | RPG | |
| ESRB: | Mature | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | HDTV 480p, 720p | |
| Buy Now: |   |
Most of your quests will come from the various guilds and factions scattered throughout the land, although you’ll also run into random citizens that need things done for them as well. Join the Fighters Guild and beat people up, join the Mages Guild and help advance the study of the supernatural, or even join the Thieves Guild and rob people for the good of your own guild. There are also other “unofficial” groups scattered throughout the land, including vampire hunters, orders of knights, and even the murderous Dark Brotherhood.
While some of the quests are fairly standard RPG fare, most of them have enough interesting twists and turns to keep the game moving along at a brisk pace. Each guild has its own subplots, political maneuverings, backstabbing, and in-fighting that you’ll eventually (should you choose to participate) play a key role in. Along the way you’ll be manipulated, lied to, and even do a bit of your own trickery to advance your rank in each faction.
Something Morrowind lacked on the original Xbox that Oblivion adds is a handy quest tracking system that makes it easy to juggle multiple quests at a time. The next objective in your current quest is displayed with a marker on your map, while a list of your active and completed quests is also available along with plenty of notes as to what’s going on and where each quest stands. At any time you can select a different active quest as your current one, which makes it much easier to revisit quests you’ve dropped earlier in the game. In short, keeping track of everything is no longer the overwhelming prospect it once was.
Of course, no discussion of the quests in Oblivion would be complete without mentioning the Knights of the Nine quest included for free in the PS3 version. Sold as a downloadable extra on PC and Xbox 360 for $10, the quest adds roughly 10 hours to the game, a new faction, new armor and powers, etc. It starts out slowly since you’re first required to travel to a shrine for each of the Nine Divines to prove your worth and devotion (especially if you do it right away and have few waypoints on your map to fast travel to like I did), after the first few hours it becomes an enjoyable addition. In particular, the final sequence of events is very enjoyable, and a good payoff for following it through to the end. Like the rest of the game the difficulty moves with you as you advance in level, so even my relatively low level character had no trouble completing the quest.
One thing I don’t like about the implementation of the Knights of the Nine quest in the PS3 version is how the game bludgeons you over the head with it until you finally start it. Practically from the moment you step foot into any town, you’ll see dialog options pointing you in the direction of the quest. On Xbox 360 and PC this is understandable, since you just paid $10 for it and probably want to start on it right away. With it integrated into the PS3 version though, it could’ve been introduced to the player in a much more tactful manner without seeming somewhat out of place. It’s a small complaint, but it definitely bugged me.
When not performing quests, as you walk around the world you’ll often witness the much-heralded “Radiant A.I.” system in action. While not quite the leap forward many had hoped it would be (and to Bethesda’s credit they never promised it would be), it’s still impressive to see even a year after the game’s original release. NPCs have conversations with each other, and although they’re somewhat stale (usually small-talk or something you’ve already heard dozens of times elsewhere) on occasion they’ll surprise you with something interesting to say. So it pays to listen to the babble of others around you.
As events happen in the game world these conversations evolve, and you can even pick up on hints that may help you out along the way. The A.I. system also governs most NPC’s actions, determining when they sleep, when they go to the local tavern, etc. For example, if a character indicates that he will meet you in a certain city, you can literally follow him around as he travels across the countryside to that city. Combined with the realistic tracking of time (although time passes much faster than real life), it creates a very convincing game world. Having a NPC unavailable at certain hours of the day doesn’t negatively impact gameplay either, since you can simply wait and speed up the passage of time for however many hours it takes for the proper amount of time to pass.
Posted: 2007-04-09 16:35:08 PST