The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Reviews

A handful of positive reviews for Bethesda Softworks’ fourth Elder Scrolls installment hit the web earlier this week. The first is at AceGamez with an overall score of 9/10:

Outside of the main story, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is great fun to play and allows you to do the greatest thing in gaming – to make your own story. However, the change to simplified action instead of storyline makes me very apprehensive of the next game (if this trend continues) and I wonder if it will even be classed as a role playing game – perhaps First Person Stabber will be more appropriate. People wanting big, immersing RPG stories would be best advised to look at The Longest Journey games instead, but most fans of the series, despite the various changes that have made it more of an RPG-Lite, will not be disappointed by what Oblivion has to offer.

The second is at Game Power Australia with an overall score of 9.5/10:

Over the last few years, roleplaying games have strayed from what made them great. Japanese roleplaying games often involve the gamer more as a spectator than as an active participant, while massively multiplayer online games can become more of a social environment than a roleplaying experience. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion takes the genre back to its routes, and it does so more successfully than any game before it. We have a few niggling complaints the game’s characters would have benefited from a little more body language, and we feel an over-the-shoulder camera as seen in Resident Evil 4 would have worked better than the third person perspective which was chosen, but these are really minor issues. This is an enormous world that will leave you enchanted, occasionally regretting your decisions, sometimes proud and always enthralled. Oblivion is a unique accomplishment, and one that, for almost anyone with time to invest in a game, we can’t recommend highly enough.

The third is at DarkStation with an overall score of 9/10:

I am happy to report to all the skeptics who thought Bethesda might be releasing a poor rendition of Morrowind, that in Oblivion that is not the case. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a great action RPG that takes place is one of the most beautiful environments gamers have ever laid eyes on. If you like what Bethesda did with the Morrowind (like millions of gamers did), then you are going to love what they managed to do on the 360 with Oblivion.

And the fourth is at Gaming Illustrated with an overall score of 96%:

Oblivion took our expectations for the game and sent them … well … into oblivion. The game surpassed our wildest dreams and became an instant sentimental hit for this new console system, and really can act as a great showpiece to show off 360’s graphical and sound capability. The gameplay is extremely streamlined and straightforward, and offers some originality in the sense that’s it is truly a groundbreaking title.