You Had Me At Hello

TES IV: Oblivion immersed me from the word go. So many years of my life have been spent roaming the lands of Cyrodil; in fact I consider it my home. I’ve never used games to escape the real world, but Oblivion made me question what the real world was, and why I had to turn on the real world at my Playstation.

I am well aware that I played Oblivion the worst way possible; I played it on the platform with the least DLC, with no mods available to me and with no horse armour. The 360 version had more to offer with add-ons like the Wizards Tower and the Vile Lair, the PC was a modder’s dream with the ability to rebuild the ruined city of Kvatch and restore it to it’s former glory. The PS3 however, had the Knights of the Nine & the Shivering Isles – arguably the two biggest and best expansions.

My first encounter with Oblivion was a long one; I had strived for daedric armour the entire game, focusing on completing the main quest and all the daedric artifact quests too. This left me with quite the assortment of deadly weaponry but not quite what I desired. I moved on to the Shivering Isles quest line too, really starting to beg the game for some daedric apparel and incredibly powerful enchanted weapons. I was head of the Fighters Guild and the Mages Guild too, but I was young and didn’t know where to look. I ended up playing Oblivion as my sole game for a number of months, but was devastated beyond recognition when my Playstation experienced the dreaded yellow light of doom. By the nine divines how upset I was. Talos’ blessing was not on my side. I ended up following this event by buying an Xbox 360, but couldn’t quite bring myself to play it again, it hurt far too much to revisit.

Fast forward to 2011. E3 gameplay of TES V: Skyrim. My heart jumped for joy, I was over-encumbered with excitement for what I believed to be my chance to go back to where I belong. Months passed and every day it got closer. I would be lying if I told you that Skyrim lived up to my expectations. It felt like a bare shell of my epic adventures through Tamriel many moons before. It wasn’t the same, it was nowhere close. They had stripped away all of the charm and wonder of Oblivion and made it bleak and hollow. I had to go back some day; I had to reclaim my throne atop the Guilds. Benirus Manor lay dormant and ridden with ghosts, waiting for a lone wanderer to purchase it from Velwyn Benirus. Years later, after the death of that console, my set-up consisted of a PS2 and a couple of old Singstar and Buzz games from my childhood. Oblivion was a far away wish.

Fast forward to Christmas 2014. A PS3 for me? Just what I needed to get back on my Dark Brotherhood horse and gallop into the realm! The first game I remember buying again was Oblivion. I was so excited.

The land of Cyrodil is bursting with quests, NPCs and the opportunity to do whatever your heart desires. There are many different paths you can take, many different guilds to join and many different ways to earn a reputable bounty. Do you choose to join the Fighters Guild, the Mages Guild, the Thieves Guild, the Dark Brotherhood or the Arena? Join them all! You get so much play value from doing all of these quests and they each teach you so much about different aspects of the game and the rewards are aplenty.

There is a huge variety of weapons and armours, an unlimited amount of different enchantments, especially due to the Chironasium, allowing you to enchant your own weapons and create your own spells. There are also glitches for duplicating items and giving you permanent enchantments. For instance my character has an extraordinarily large carry weight due to a hundred or so strength enchantments, which also allow him to hit extremely hard when he needs to. He can also jump atop of buildings reminiscent of Assassins Creed.

I’ve heard the storyline get a lot of flack from different people when compared to Skyrim. I find the story to be intriguing and successfully draws you in, especially because of the large amount of locations it grants you access to (Mankor Cameron’s Paradise anyone?). Skyrim didn’t feel like an Elder Scrolls game because it’s predecessor could not be beaten. Oblivion is THE perfect game, and any attempt at recreating it will always fail miserably.

The combat flows perfectly as does the exploration and story. This is a game you can get lost in and spend at least 48-hour stints playing. This game controls my life every time I start to play it again. I have to be careful or my real life will disappear whilst I am locked in a coma-like state desperately seeking the next enchanted glass helmet hidden off Anvil’s Gold Coast.

The world is just the right size and there are still new places I find on my travels, I tend to avoid the fast travel system as it removes me from the world for a split second. Wandering along the edge of the world searching for goblins, skeletons and bandits is so enjoyable and nothing compares to finding a cave full of bandits and marauders all flaunting an admirable mix of enchanted glass and daedric equipment.

If I were to believe in an afterlife, I would hope it would be an uninterrupted game session of this game. Untouched by basic human needs, with no loading screens and an unlimited amount of DLC. If there were one game I could play for the rest of my life it would be Oblivion without question.

10/10

Conclusion

‘Forget Mankor Cameron, this is my paradise’.