The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Preview
-- December 2, 2005 by: David Craddock
Those familiar with the fantastic Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (PC, Xbox) and
its expansions (for PC, Bloodmoon and Tribunal; available in the Xbox Morrowind
Game of the Year edition) will be familiar with the world of Tamriel, but if
you're new to the Elder Scrolls experience, that's fine, too. An entirely new
location, Tamriel's capitol province, Cyrodiil, has been designed to entice
players new and old. The new location was designed so that anyone who has not
played any of the previous Elder Scrolls installments can leap right in without
any confusion bogging them down. Meaning, Oblivion is not a direct sequel to
Morrowind; it takes place several hundred years after its predecessor's
conclusion. "We like for each game to stand on its own," Hines says. But it
won't be standing on its own for long, if at all, unless a hero surfaces to save
the day. Tamriel is in the midst of facing its greatest threat yet: the Emperor
and his sons have been assassinated, leaving the barrier to Oblivion unguarded.
As one might expect, the barrier falls, and all sorts of vicious demons begin to
pour through and ravage the land. On his deathbed, the Emperor tells you that
he has one surviving heir. Taken away at birth, the Emperor's long lost son
must be found so that he may take his place as Emperor and repair the barrier
between Tamriel and Oblivion.A perilous hero is what is needed, and Oblivion has plenty of options for creating just such an avatar. At the start of the game, the player will choose his or her race as well as what the character should look like. There are ten races to choose from in Oblivion: Imperial, Breton, Nord, Redguard, High Elf, Dark Elf, Wood Elf, Orc, Khajiit, and Argonian. Their differences will be revealed when you're forced to decide which race is for you, and of course, certain races combined with certain classes divided by specific abilities equals tons of possible choices. After you've chosen your race, you just start playing. No long-winded introductions, no lectures pertaining to what does what; just play. "We want you to try different types of weapon, magic, stealth gameplay...basically get a good feel for how you want to play the game," Hines says. After a short while, you'll get to further customize your character by choosing your birth sign, through which certain perks and/or abilities will become available to you.
When you've gone a bit further into the game, you'll be allowed to choose a class type that best suites your playing style. Again, as with all ES games, choices are what the game is all about. You'll have access to pre-defined classes, or you can create a custom class. For the latter, you choose a basic specialization, (Warrior, Mage, Thief) and then two attributes that you would like to favor, such as strength and endurance if you go the warrior route. Finally, you'll choose seven skills that will be your preferred skills over the course of the game. These are the skills that you'll be able to level up during the game, so careful selection is a must. Although this will take a bit of time - millions of possible combinations exist - character creation is one of the best parts of role-playing games. After all, if you're going to be spending 20+ hours with this character, why not make certain it's exactly the way you want it to be?
The player's character will be fleshed out using the popular trend of practice
makes perfect; meaning, you learn by doing. To be honest, it's never made a
whole lot of sense to do a lot of fighting and then miraculously become more
proficient in a skill or spell that you've barely even used. You get better at
something by doing it, and that is the methodology applied in Oblivion. If you
want to get better swinging a sword, then keep on swinging it. As previously
mentioned, seven out of the twenty-one available skills will be chosen at the
beginning of the game. The more your selected skills are used, the more adept
you will become at using them. Simple.To track your progress with any given skill, six different skill tiers have been created. They are, in order of ascension: novice, apprentice, journeyman, master, and expert. Rising to each successive tier grants you access to something new: the ability to repair magical armor with the Armorer skill; a new kind of attack granted to the Blade skill. Some are not as straightforward, but not in a confusing manner. For example, when leveling up the Mercantile skill, you can earn the ability to invest in a merchant and increase the total amount of gold required of them to purchase your wares. The skill cap is a generous level of one hundred, but if that's not enough, that maximum can be increased through spells or the magical properties on weapons, items, armor, et cetera.
Various character attributes are available to coincide with the skills available: strength, intelligence, willpower, agility, speed, personality, luck, and endurance. Each attribute will govern three skills, though it's important to note that luck does not govern any, but has an affect on them all. The more a skill governed by a particular attribute is used, the larger the modifier will be when it comes time to level up. "If you're playing a thief-type character," Hines states as an example, "who uses stealth and picks locks a lot and you improve those skills a number of times, then when you level up, you can assign one point to your Agility and actually have it go up by four, or five, or whatever the modifier might be for that attribute." This is put into practice for any skill, so if you happen to be using skills that aren't a part of your regular repertoire, you'll still receive a substantial modifier for that attribute when it's time to level up. If you're partial to switching back and forth between multiple styles of play, you can alter which attributes will receive the largest bonus.
When push comes to shove, combat in Oblivion will force you to put your skills
and attributes to the test. Luckily, the battle system is rather easy to use.
One button attacks, (melee) a second blocks, and a third is used to cast magic
spells. Casting does not require you to equip or un-equip items; you just click
the cast button with whatever weapon (or lack thereof, in some cases) you have.
The system allows you to choose when to attack and when to block, effectively
using your character's skills to aid in determine the outcome. The skills you
use will figure into how much damage is inflicted upon a successful hit, how
much damage is done to you, any additional effects that come with the attack
itself, (e.g., paralyze, disarm, et cetera) and more. The system is very "fluid
and natural," says Hines, allowing "combat to be fun while still remaining an RPG
where your character's skills and abilities ultimately determine your success or
failure." Success or failure, by the way, will be determined in over two
hundred unique dungeons, so you won't have too much difficulty find a price to
have a good ol' fashioned brouhaha.But what good are all those special skills and abilities if you have no place to show them off? The world showcased in Oblivion is huge, which is a series standard. "The world is bigger than Morrowind," Hines says, "so there's more space to explore. It's about sixteen square miles in size." Very much an open-ended gaming experience, there are heaps of quests (both main and side) for players to partake in, each more robust than previous entries have demonstrated. There are also lots of locations to explore, and only the truly diligent will be able to find them all. Even though it sounds like quantity is the focus, it is quality that takes center stage. Pete estimates the completion time for the main quest to be around twenty, twenty-five hours, but that's only if you're going from point A to point B, all the way through to point Z. If you want to experience even half of the available side quests in the game, you're looking at three or four times that much game time.