The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

The Good
Technologically, Oblivion is stunning. After escaping the initial dungeon, you emerge onto the sunlit surface of a vast wilderness. The first thing I did was hike up the nearest mountain and try to explore into the deep wilderness. Oops! No deep wilderness, you cannot travel this direction any more. Oh well, wander around and explore the world. Nothing memorable to encounter, just generic enemies and generic dungeons.

The game is fantastic to look at, and it's exciting to see what will be done in future RPGs with the graphical features displayed in Oblivion, but as a game Oblivion is soulless and devoid of anything cool or heartwarming.

The Bad
Well, the fact that it's not really a game, it's an engine with a few half-baked RPG elements thrown in so consumers can rationalize why they just spent $70 on a terrain-modeller.

Oh yes, the SpeedTrees look good from a distance, but a cursory look reveals that each tree looks identical no matter what horizontal angle you look at it from. Trees in Oblivion are little more than glorified sprites -- not that I have anything against sprites and 2D graphics.

The Bottom Line
A waste of time and money. In the next few years we will probably see an engine like Oblivion's put to good use. People need to look back and remember what made classic RPGs great -- Drakkhen, Baldur's Gate, Betrayal at Krondor, Ultima VII -- before anything truly special can be added to this nearly-dead genre.

The Good
Oblivion is huge, both in terms of the game world and the number of quests involved. Its visually stunning and, despite problems on some systems, managed to run more or less flawlessly on my fairly mediocre system. The greatly non-linear game-play removes the strict need to do X, Y then Z, and theoretically allows many hours of game-play without even touching the main plot.

The Bad
But the sad thing is that the game ultimately lacks character. The visuals, although stunning are ultimately repetitive, and the quests themselves are similar. Cardboard cutout characters speak the same lines and have the same reactions, none of them able to endear themselves. The main plot and the sub-plots are uninspiring and generic, with the majority of the quests boiling down to the same basic game-play.

The game also fails to show progression. Enemies level with the player, and yet only end up getting bigger and stronger, and don't offer up anything fundamentally new. Meanwhile their constant levelling means that although its possible to change your play-style at any time, this leaves the main character critically underpowered.

At first I left the main quest largely alone, and explored the world, completing various sub-quests. Yet I soon realised that there was little actually there, and the first five minutes were pretty similar to the last, and after many hours of game-play I hadn't actually achieved anything.

The Bottom Line
Impressive in scale, but ultimately of limited character. The repetitive nature of game-play soon begins to grind, and the game never delivers a major feeling of progression. The strong modding community may be able to instill a bit of variety into the game, but by the time it had taken off I had already tired.

The Good
First of all, the graphics are breathtaking. Superb lighting effects, great 3D models, impressive textures. Second of all, the voice acting is just right, transporting you in the virtual world of Tamriel. The next game of the Elder Scrolls series keeps the races and classes from the previous versions, and adds great features such as horseback riding (present in Daggerfall, but removed from Morrowind) and an active cross-hair showing the health of the NPC (or monster), the possible actions with the NPC, and if it's OK to use an object or not (it turns red when you look at an object that's the property of an other NPC). The new combat system is just great, with the option of manually blocking an attack, and being able to cast a spell even if you have weapons / shields equipped. The story (with it's flaws) is perfectly integrated in the world of Tamriel and there's loads of books and scrolls that add to the Elder Scrolls lore.

The Bad
The bad things... The leveling system is a great idea, but it still allows you to turn your character into a "jack-of-all-trades". I mean there's actually no problem for your orcish character to sneak around pickpocketing people and braking into the NPC's houses, or to become a heavy armored, axe wielding wood elf. The requirements for this game are rather high, meaning that you need a high end system to play it. (Kind of restrictive, huh?) The story: You were a prisoner back in Morrowind. Come on, can't you guys come up with another setting for the start of the game?

The Bottom Line
This is like the ultimate single player RPG. If you enjoyed the previous Elder Scrolls titles, you should play this game. As for all of the game's problems, they'll surely be solved by the massive Elder Scrolls community through mods, just like the previous title, Morrowind.