Is Oblivion Perfection?

Oblivion is far from perfect. However, it has been one of the most positive step forwards in gaming all year. This is one of the few games that I have played and felt that they could have done a whole lot more with the game. The thing about this is that Oblivion is one of the best games that I played all year.

Morrowind has been one of my favourite games for some time and it was refreshing to see that Bethesda were not willing to continue the franchise without putting in some hard work first. Oblivion definitely does add a lot to the Elder Scrolls franchise. It continues the developing story and manages to add an entire new dimension to games. Oblivion would have to be one of the best games released. The depth in the game is only parralleled by the other Elder Scrolls titles. However, I played through the game thinking that Bethesda could do even more with the game and take it to a level not yet reached by any game released.

Firstly, the economy needs a lot of work. While this was touched on in game by allowing the player to invest in shops when their Mercantile skill reached a certain level it was badly implemented and not really relevant. By the time you get your mercantile skill to the level required you really don't have to worry about earning the extra 500 that you get from the investment, which makes it worthless. The game is definitely suited to having a fluctuating economy. How would the game be with an economy like that in X3. A completely dynamic economy which is based on NPC transactions and manufacturing. This would allow gamers to actually spend some time checking out the different merchants for different pricing. The batering system implemented within the game wasn't done very well, however, it was an improvement over Morrowind. With a dynamic economy the game could introduce banks as a means to keep your money and make investments.

With a dynamic economy it would also be nice to introduce a crafting based system which has been developed in Everquest & World of Warcraft. Rather than the player using specific items established by the game developers they could develop crafting skills and create their own items. A simple "crafting" type system is being used in Hellgate London. Where weapons can be modified with thousands of different combinations through different ammunition and add-ons to the weapons. This gives the player some control over their weapons and gives them the opportunity to create something relatively "unique".

The quest system in game was better developed than in Morrowind. However, the process of questing does become repetitive. The multifaceted quests were generally well thought out, however, I do think that this is only the start of Bethesda developing their quest system. I think players should have been given the option of having the quest markers placed on their map. If they could turn the quest markers off it would have made the game more difficult and created some more interesting adventuring in the mean time. The game setup was too simple for long term gamers. There needed to be more choice with some of the implemented game functions to give players more choice on how they played the game. Level scaling was actually something that I didn't mind, although it definitely needed some tweaking. I don't want to powerplay through the game and be an uber character. I would like to be able to fight and face the possibility of death. I also liked the fact that you could return back at any time and it would be a challenge. However, there needed to be some work done on the random encounters and the equipment these encounters used.

The game was definitely created for a console and ported to the PC. I think Bethesda have lost sight of their PC market and really need to consider the needs of the "traditional" gamer when creating their PC titles. The map and menu system needs a lot of work to make it more effective for a PC gamer. The keyboard controls needed some working over as well.

It would have been nice to make Oblivion my home for longer. However, after having finished the main story in 85 odd hours of gameplay I wasn't in a rush to go back. Where I played Morrowind on and off for months I finished the main story in Oblivion in 3-4 weeks and haven't really returned. Where I found the main story in Morrowind to be complicated and frustrating at times, Oblivion was like a walk in the park. It was too easy. It wasn't involved enough and seemingly hasn't managed to stem my interest to keep me coming back to the game. I have purchased one of the add ons for it. I installed the expansion but haven't played it. Unfortunately, my interest in Oblivion hasn't been as enthusiastic as it was for Morrowind. Oblivion has passed me by too quickly. I would have liked to spend more time in that place, but don't find enough reasons for me to go back.

Morrowind was like being in a troubled relationship that you never wanted to give up on. Oblivion was the short term good looking girlfriend who you were glad to have landed but realised that it was probably beyond your grasp.

(Graphics courtesy of www.elderscrolls.com)