Post by TPO on Mar 30, 2006 3:04:53 GMT
OK- here is my meager attempt at a review for Oblivion, and it is a long one (sorry about that folks). I have decided to divide it into
four main categories: graphics, sound, gameplay/fun factor, and stability/issues.
Graphics:
First off, let me say that graphics are not that important to me. Having played Might
and Magic VI for hundreds of hours (and you could see and count the pixels in the
graphics) there are more important things. For this reason, I have decided to give them a
weight of 20/100.
Overall, the graphics are very good. The body models are actually very good, although the
Underwear leaves much to be desired. The faces overall are fairly good, and essentially
every single NPC has a unique face. However, the same underlying features are present in
every face (it sort of looks like every human and elf NPC has a common ancestor).
Frankly, I think the orcs look by far and away the best, which is ironic because I
thought they were the most overlooked in Morrowind.
The environmental graphics are approaching amazing. Reflections, lighting, cool effects
like haze- it is all there. Some of the textures look a little low res if you get up real
close, but the game does look gorgeous. The water (one aspect that I think is a grossly
overrated aspect in general, looks very good. Underwater is almost black, but is very
atmospheric.
There is a minor problem (at least to me, other seem to think it is a huge deal) in that
you can see for a long, long way, but the ground textures that are far away are
featureless and ugly. There are .ini tweaks for this, but it should have been improved
right out of the box. It is obvious that some concessions were made to keep the PC even
with the console version, but as a said, graphics are not everything.
Also, there are nuances that greatly add to the atmosphere. Shadows are greatly improved,
and every weapon in the game (that I have encountered) is sheatheable without displacing
armor/clothes, and if you equip arrows you get a quiver. This really helps to immerse you
in the experience.
Overall, the graphics are very good, and as I mentioned, the major negatives that have
been mentioned (especially on the Official Forums) don't really bother me that much, so
the graphics get a 17/20.
Sound:
The sound is an important factor, but still not as much so, in my never humble opinion,
as the gameplay, so again it will carry the weight of 20/100.
The FX are very well done. The spells sound like real fire, lightning and frost, and the
other spell sounds are just as good and really add to the experience.
The footsteps and swimming sounds also sound very good (the heavy armor actually sounds
heavy now).
The combat sounds again are very well done. Swinging a sword/mace/hammer/dagger/axe
sounds like it should, as does shooting a bow. When said weapon connects with the enemy,
the sound is delightfully sickening and certainly helps the immersion factor.
The only negative is the voices. While they are generally good, some of the voices just
don't fit the race. The orcs, although I think they sound good, are too similar to the
Nords, and the beast races don't sound beastly enough to me, but rather like the other
races. Other than this, though, the voices are mostly well-acted and sound good.
The music is extremely well done and fits the various situations quite well.
In all, the sound earns a 17/20
Gameplay:
By far the most important aspect of any game is the gameplay. I don't care how good it
looks, but if it isn't fun it isn't worth anything as a game, and as such is worth
50/100.
Firstly, the combat has received a much needed overhaul. There is actual strategy
involved (blocking is a necessity now) and it feels much more visceral. Holding the attack
button charges up a powerful attack that off-balances the player, but does much more
damage. This forces you to think about when to use the power attack and when to hack away
and when to block. More importantly, unlike in Morrowind, if you land a visible hit, it
counts. No more of this low-level-so-I-can't-hit-the-broadside-of-a-barn BS that I found
maddening in Morrowind. Your attacks are not as effective at lower levels, but you can at
least hit what you aim at.
The magic system is also greatly improved. Just like with combat, you can hit whatever
you aim at and you can cast any spell with a 100% likelihood of success as long as you've
got the magicka. You won't be very effective with low skills, but you can still cast
them. This enable all characters to cast at least some spells. True, Jump and Levitate
are gone, but there really isn't any reason to need either of these spells with the way
the levels are designed.
Havok also makes an appearance, and this leads to some good times. Dungeons now have
traps. Tripwires and pressure plates release spiked balls from the ceiling. You can pick
up nearly any object and hurl it across the room or at enemies. The rag doll physics
creates some wonderfully sadistic fun: you can move the bodies, watch them slump when
they die, you can watch them fly back wards when hit, or roll downhill- you get the idea.
It can be slightly annoying to be in a shop and accidentally bump into a table, knocking
the items to the ground. No one picks them up, and you can't without getting fined for
stealing.
The AI is much better. The NPCs wander around, have schedules, meet in the taverns and
inns to chat and go on about their business. The shopkeepers break for lunch, quit after
dinner, and carry out their own agendas. However, their smarts combined with the
overhauled magic system can be maddening- you are fighting and almost have them, then
suddenly the heal themselves and wallop you. Realistic, but it can be frustrating.
The quests are complex and fantastically fun- no more simple Fedex missions. If you deliver
something, count on having to do something else as well. With the new AI, lots of times
there will be others involved- only, unlike in Morrowind, the NPCs are no longer
complete imbeciles. I haven't started the main quest though, so I cannot comment on that.
The user interface has caused countless flame wars and complaints on the official forums.
Yes, it could be better. The text is gigantic, and the inventory is not as sortable. You
can't delete spells (not that I know of anyway) and there are now only eight hot keys.
However, as bad as it is, it still works and is reasonably efficient. I don't hate it,
but I don't like it. Some concessions were obviously made for the 360 users, and it is
frustrating that Bethesda didn't take the time to make it PC friendly, but like I said,
it works.
Now, there is one major thing that is annoying beyond belief, and on more than one
occasion infuriated me so much I had to stop playing because my vision started to blur.
There is now no reward for tomb raiding. There is no reward for doing much of anything
until you are a higher level, because in the interest of 'balancing' the game, Bethesda
leveled EVERYTHING, making the game feel empty and unfulfilling. You cannot buy high level
items without being a high level. You cannot find high level items without being a high
level. Better get used to that iron armor and your iron longsword, cause that is all you
are going to have for a while.
the creatures are leveled- instead of fighting cooler monsters at higher levels (you do
fight cooler monsters, but not like you should) you fight stronger variants of the same
crappy monsters. The NPC's are scaled to you as well. Leveling up to take on that
opponent in the arena is useless because he is now more powerful as well. This can be
fixed with mods, but I will discuss that later.
That being said, Oblivion is still insanely fun at times, and that is what matters. If
the ridiculously stupid scaling system is improved through mods, I will be so happy I
could sing. As it stands, I can only give it a 41/50.
Stability/Issues:
One of the biggest problems with Morrowind is that the damn thing would crash ALL THE
TIME. Oblivion has only frozen up twice on me, but I did have some problems with it not
starting up. Even better, it would not let me uninstall it, instead I got an error
message saying that uninstallation was impossible. The readme gave a 'fix' which didn't
work. Ultimately, system restore saved me and now I can play it fine.
Once up, it runs very smoothly for me, with FPS hiccups being extremely rare.
Overall, Oblivion earns a 7/10 for stability and relative lack of issues.
In total Oblivion earns an extremely respectable 82/100, for being a gorgeous game that
is nothing short of fun to play.
As for the CS, well, that earns a 2/10 from me. I got it to work once, and it is quite
extensive and more user-friendly that its previous iteration with Morrowind, but the fact
that I can't get it to start up makes it useless to me and therefore it gets a two out of
ten.
I won't pretend to be unbiased, but I think that my review is well-balanced and at least
marginally valuable.
-TPO
four main categories: graphics, sound, gameplay/fun factor, and stability/issues.
Graphics:
First off, let me say that graphics are not that important to me. Having played Might
and Magic VI for hundreds of hours (and you could see and count the pixels in the
graphics) there are more important things. For this reason, I have decided to give them a
weight of 20/100.
Overall, the graphics are very good. The body models are actually very good, although the
Underwear leaves much to be desired. The faces overall are fairly good, and essentially
every single NPC has a unique face. However, the same underlying features are present in
every face (it sort of looks like every human and elf NPC has a common ancestor).
Frankly, I think the orcs look by far and away the best, which is ironic because I
thought they were the most overlooked in Morrowind.
The environmental graphics are approaching amazing. Reflections, lighting, cool effects
like haze- it is all there. Some of the textures look a little low res if you get up real
close, but the game does look gorgeous. The water (one aspect that I think is a grossly
overrated aspect in general, looks very good. Underwater is almost black, but is very
atmospheric.
There is a minor problem (at least to me, other seem to think it is a huge deal) in that
you can see for a long, long way, but the ground textures that are far away are
featureless and ugly. There are .ini tweaks for this, but it should have been improved
right out of the box. It is obvious that some concessions were made to keep the PC even
with the console version, but as a said, graphics are not everything.
Also, there are nuances that greatly add to the atmosphere. Shadows are greatly improved,
and every weapon in the game (that I have encountered) is sheatheable without displacing
armor/clothes, and if you equip arrows you get a quiver. This really helps to immerse you
in the experience.
Overall, the graphics are very good, and as I mentioned, the major negatives that have
been mentioned (especially on the Official Forums) don't really bother me that much, so
the graphics get a 17/20.
Sound:
The sound is an important factor, but still not as much so, in my never humble opinion,
as the gameplay, so again it will carry the weight of 20/100.
The FX are very well done. The spells sound like real fire, lightning and frost, and the
other spell sounds are just as good and really add to the experience.
The footsteps and swimming sounds also sound very good (the heavy armor actually sounds
heavy now).
The combat sounds again are very well done. Swinging a sword/mace/hammer/dagger/axe
sounds like it should, as does shooting a bow. When said weapon connects with the enemy,
the sound is delightfully sickening and certainly helps the immersion factor.
The only negative is the voices. While they are generally good, some of the voices just
don't fit the race. The orcs, although I think they sound good, are too similar to the
Nords, and the beast races don't sound beastly enough to me, but rather like the other
races. Other than this, though, the voices are mostly well-acted and sound good.
The music is extremely well done and fits the various situations quite well.
In all, the sound earns a 17/20
Gameplay:
By far the most important aspect of any game is the gameplay. I don't care how good it
looks, but if it isn't fun it isn't worth anything as a game, and as such is worth
50/100.
Firstly, the combat has received a much needed overhaul. There is actual strategy
involved (blocking is a necessity now) and it feels much more visceral. Holding the attack
button charges up a powerful attack that off-balances the player, but does much more
damage. This forces you to think about when to use the power attack and when to hack away
and when to block. More importantly, unlike in Morrowind, if you land a visible hit, it
counts. No more of this low-level-so-I-can't-hit-the-broadside-of-a-barn BS that I found
maddening in Morrowind. Your attacks are not as effective at lower levels, but you can at
least hit what you aim at.
The magic system is also greatly improved. Just like with combat, you can hit whatever
you aim at and you can cast any spell with a 100% likelihood of success as long as you've
got the magicka. You won't be very effective with low skills, but you can still cast
them. This enable all characters to cast at least some spells. True, Jump and Levitate
are gone, but there really isn't any reason to need either of these spells with the way
the levels are designed.
Havok also makes an appearance, and this leads to some good times. Dungeons now have
traps. Tripwires and pressure plates release spiked balls from the ceiling. You can pick
up nearly any object and hurl it across the room or at enemies. The rag doll physics
creates some wonderfully sadistic fun: you can move the bodies, watch them slump when
they die, you can watch them fly back wards when hit, or roll downhill- you get the idea.
It can be slightly annoying to be in a shop and accidentally bump into a table, knocking
the items to the ground. No one picks them up, and you can't without getting fined for
stealing.
The AI is much better. The NPCs wander around, have schedules, meet in the taverns and
inns to chat and go on about their business. The shopkeepers break for lunch, quit after
dinner, and carry out their own agendas. However, their smarts combined with the
overhauled magic system can be maddening- you are fighting and almost have them, then
suddenly the heal themselves and wallop you. Realistic, but it can be frustrating.
The quests are complex and fantastically fun- no more simple Fedex missions. If you deliver
something, count on having to do something else as well. With the new AI, lots of times
there will be others involved- only, unlike in Morrowind, the NPCs are no longer
complete imbeciles. I haven't started the main quest though, so I cannot comment on that.
The user interface has caused countless flame wars and complaints on the official forums.
Yes, it could be better. The text is gigantic, and the inventory is not as sortable. You
can't delete spells (not that I know of anyway) and there are now only eight hot keys.
However, as bad as it is, it still works and is reasonably efficient. I don't hate it,
but I don't like it. Some concessions were obviously made for the 360 users, and it is
frustrating that Bethesda didn't take the time to make it PC friendly, but like I said,
it works.
Now, there is one major thing that is annoying beyond belief, and on more than one
occasion infuriated me so much I had to stop playing because my vision started to blur.
There is now no reward for tomb raiding. There is no reward for doing much of anything
until you are a higher level, because in the interest of 'balancing' the game, Bethesda
leveled EVERYTHING, making the game feel empty and unfulfilling. You cannot buy high level
items without being a high level. You cannot find high level items without being a high
level. Better get used to that iron armor and your iron longsword, cause that is all you
are going to have for a while.
the creatures are leveled- instead of fighting cooler monsters at higher levels (you do
fight cooler monsters, but not like you should) you fight stronger variants of the same
crappy monsters. The NPC's are scaled to you as well. Leveling up to take on that
opponent in the arena is useless because he is now more powerful as well. This can be
fixed with mods, but I will discuss that later.
That being said, Oblivion is still insanely fun at times, and that is what matters. If
the ridiculously stupid scaling system is improved through mods, I will be so happy I
could sing. As it stands, I can only give it a 41/50.
Stability/Issues:
One of the biggest problems with Morrowind is that the damn thing would crash ALL THE
TIME. Oblivion has only frozen up twice on me, but I did have some problems with it not
starting up. Even better, it would not let me uninstall it, instead I got an error
message saying that uninstallation was impossible. The readme gave a 'fix' which didn't
work. Ultimately, system restore saved me and now I can play it fine.
Once up, it runs very smoothly for me, with FPS hiccups being extremely rare.
Overall, Oblivion earns a 7/10 for stability and relative lack of issues.
In total Oblivion earns an extremely respectable 82/100, for being a gorgeous game that
is nothing short of fun to play.
As for the CS, well, that earns a 2/10 from me. I got it to work once, and it is quite
extensive and more user-friendly that its previous iteration with Morrowind, but the fact
that I can't get it to start up makes it useless to me and therefore it gets a two out of
ten.
I won't pretend to be unbiased, but I think that my review is well-balanced and at least
marginally valuable.
-TPO
