Game:

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)

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This is my playthrough of Bethesda Softworks' The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, played through the PC version.

Ursual Starfire was a gifted Breton, whose skills in the different Colleges of Magicka bested even the most renowned spellcasters in Tamriel, and as such, one fateful day, while testing a new spell on a summoned creature, she acidentally caused a small fire. Needless to say, the innkeeper of the inn she was staying at didn't look too kindly at this, and so called the guards to arrest Ursula. As Ursula was in prison, wondering what would become of her now, she met with Uriel Septim, who told her to follow him, and then sent her off to find Jauffre and give him the Amulet of Kings. Thus begins the time history would come to know as "The Oblivion Crisis."

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion plays much the same way that Bethesda's previous game, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind () did, but with a few changes, such as running no longer draining your stamina, but rather causing it to regenerate at an increased rate, as well as getting rid of the invisible dice rolls that would determine everything you do, meaning that now skills determine how much Magicka your spells of the relevant College of Magic and skill will cost, or how much damage you'll do with a particular weapon's type, to how much damage your armor reduces to you, to how quickly your armor degrades and whether you'll need multiple repair hammers or just one. Personally, I liked Morrowind more precisely because of the invisible dice rolls, as they actually made you consider just what sort of character you would be rolling.

The graphics took a serious upgrade, as well. Seriously, I forget exactly which one it was, but I swear to God that the first time I played Oblivion, I thought the character models from either Morrowind or Oblivion looked a lot fatter. It was probably Oblivion. Regardless, the graphics are bright and colorful, and it's just a dream to look at, although most of the enviroments you'll be exploring in Oblivion are rather common amongst fantasy RPGs in general.

The music is a right feast for the ears, composed by Jeremy Soule, who also composed the soundtrack for Morrowind. I won't go into detail about all of the games that he has composed music for, but I think it's safe to say you'll be seeing his name come up quite a bit in descriptions for videos for future playthroughs, maybe, we'll see. Anyways, Oblivion's soundtrack is something that absolutely must be listened to. It sounds like a beautiful orchestra, and the names of each of the game's town songs make you feel as if that's exactly what Jeremy was picturing in his mind when he wrote the notes to the music down. I promise you that it's very uncanny.

Overall, Oblivion is honestly a right joy to play that is marred by a few issues, namely, bugs and glitches that are to be expected in Bethesda Softworks' games, by now, but one that is even worse than that is the game's level-scaling. See, enemies get stronger as you do, meaning that the game can become unbeatable if you don't build your character in the right way, but if you build your character in a certain way, that is to say, to pick skills you're never going to use as your Major Skills, then you can play the game and literally never have to level up, except maybe during one of the game's many Daedra Lord quests, but whatever, right? All in all, I can't recommend Oblivion as nearly as much as I want, and I'm already recommending it at 100%, and I still prefer Morrowind more, it's a real treat to play, and I wish I could travel back in time to my 18th birthday when I first got it just so I could relive the experience that I got from that first time playing it, over a decade ago.

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