Zero Punctuation: Oblivion

[VonBlade]

When I first discovered ZP some time ago I was genuinely disappointed that I'd never hear Yahtzee review Oblivion.

And now I've heard it I'm still disappointed. Not nowhere near vitriolic enough for the festering pile of Norman Lamont that is this game and has missed at least 5 zillion appalling design decisions.

It's an Action RPG that fulfils neither of those epithets. Meh.

 

[Seekster]

As ive said before the only method necessary to determine if a game is good or not as far as im concerned is how you answer the question "Did I have fun?" after playing it. For Oblivion the answer was yes! Ive had the game for almost a year I think and I still play it from time to time. There are still quests I havnt finished. Yes the leveling system should be replaced with a mod almost immediately after the game is installed and yes the characters do repeat themselves alot but that last one is just being nit picky (Incidentally most of the Beggars work for the Gray Fox and speak normally usually when talking about him or the Thieves Guild. Im guessing the beggar voice is supposed to evoke sympathy. Oblivion is a game that can be played many times and many ways before it finally becomes boring and then the mods help to extend its lifespan.

Once again Yahtzee's reviews are humorous and it really brightened my Wednesday yet again.

 

[TheHecatomb]

you mixed up Night Elves with Dark Elves though

No body cares.

Ah awesome, I was just looking for someone who could voice the opinion of every soul on the face of the planet that's capable of reading, and along came you. You're a true hero. Granted, it's a nitpick, but since when is Zero Punctuation not about nitpicking? I find it disturbing that he's mixing over Warcraft races with Oblivion races. And to be a jerk: you spelt nobody wrong.

 

[A-wel Cruiz]

Funny review, even though I like Oblivion. I play it on my PS3, incidentally. My girlfriend recently picked up Morrowind for her XBox, and I actually perfer Oblivion over it thus far.

The game does have its flaws, to be sure. As has been stated already, the leveling system is a joke. You only level up when the skills you specialize in go up, and everyone else in the game from NPCs to enemies level up with you making it largely pointless. And easy to exploit simply by grinding a non-specialized skill. Say you don't specialize in Destruction magic, for example. You can grind the Destruction skill all the way to maximum without leveling up at all. Suddenly, you have powerful Destruction magic up the ass and a bunch of piss easy low level enemies that you could kill by farting on.

Still, a fun game, even though I've never finished it. Probably for the reason Yahtzee mentioned, not immersive enough. I've probably restarted the game so many times I've lost count by now. I have the urge to start again and make my character an Imperial that resembles Rowan Atkinson's Blackadder. Perfect for the Dark Brotherhood, although I'd like to complete the Nine's Pilgrimage first.

Incidentally, in my last game of Oblivion, I was a Dunmar (Dark Elf) with neon blue hair named "Garet Gobelcoque" (Gareth Cobelcoque wouldn't fit).

 

[Divinegon]

First reaction at seeing Yahtzee reviewing the game that The Escapist community loves to poke fun at: "Holy Crap!".

Reaction at finally seeing the finger being pointed at beggars going from decrepit hags to well civilized persons between lines: "Oh Frecking God Yes!"

I can't believe that after months of seeing this game being made fun of for these things, Yahtzee can still make me laugh for them again.

 

[fanrock51]

I never play oblivion so i have nothing to say much about this review.


(except one part where he said "200 square yards of medieval english country side..." the picture shows 40000 square yards land or something)

 

[JamesR]

I hate Oblivion, glad you tore it to shreds.

Most Over-rated Game ever.

 

[DistortedRaven]

Ive been waiting ages for him to reveiw this istead of crapy wii and ds games.

 

[Geodancer]

I liked Oblivion, so I thought that I would be quite upset when he began riffing it, but instead I found that any mention of Thief II seems to instill a sense of euphoria within me.

Oblivion was a good game, but it can't quite live up to the legacy that Morrowind left before it.

 

[KBKarma]

Okay, totally wasnt expecting that. Some really good points though. While I disagree with Oblivion playing like its all in the same meadow, since I thought it was a fantastic game too look at landscape wise. Certain points did make sense though. I despised the fast travel, but to be fair, I exercised the magically hidden ability to not use it. The NPC's were pretty god damn annoying and all contained a sparse amount of crappy information you will hear 21367286029846 times before finishing the game. Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean did alright though, since its fucking Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean, for gods sake.

Rock they, yes, yes and, this scramble-speak is excuse speak in.

In Morrowind, you would really feel like an outlander, especially with all the unique creatures and customs. Weird dogs attacking me? Sweet. Wizards grow their towers? Awesome. Varying architecture, TONS of in game literature and lore, et cetera.

In Oblivion, they cut the books down to about two piddling paragraphs and it basically looks like every other fantasy setting I've seen: castles, wolves, et cetera.

Here's the thing: according to Morrowind, Cyrodil should be a jungle, as I recall, not Merrie Olde England.

I miss the longer books. I miss the floating jellyfish. I miss the silt striders. I miss half the things Morrowind had that Oblivion lacked (difficulty slider, par example).

Oblivion made some changes, yes. Some for the better? Maybe. The passive effect of magic on armour was, imo, rather powerful. Learn a spell that granted Chameleon 100%, put it on armour, et voila! Untoucheable.

One of the better changes was with people being able to chase you incredibly far if you trained them, even outside towns. The downside of THIS was the fact that you could no longer drop into a town via jumping off a nearby mountain (they removed the mountains, but still!).

Another was the magic system being easier to use if you're a warrior-type. Just hit a button, and away she goes, as opposed to switching to "magic mode" before being able to do so. Also, shorter magic gesture animations.

Oh, and no cliff racers. That's a definite bonus.

One serious downside, however: the removal of Levitation and the like, which resulted in hilarity for me against nearly any enemy.

Overall, Oblivion was fun. But I enjoyed Morrowind a lot more, despite the bugs.

Though the Dark Brotherhood questline rocked.

 

[GokoWildheart]

I agree with you on the feel of a game. When you get really sucked into a game the floors seem alot smaller and your'll plow on through the game to the end. Oblivion was one of those games no matter how much i tried to love it (and i really did try) It just wouldnt hook me in.

Thanks yahtzee for brighting up another day.. espically today it's just raining kittens.. Damn that english weather XD

 

[vela]

Great review as expected.

 

[Hypersapien]

Great review, as always. I'm playing Oblivion again now and I like it, even though Yahtzee made some good points.

He complained about the repetitive environment, so I'm going to assume he never made it into any of the Oblivion portals.

I was positively surprised that he didn't complain about the leveling system. That would've been far too easy, although I think that breaks the immersion the most.

What are you talking about? The leveling system in the Elder Scrolls games is the best out of any RPG I've ever seen. You increase your various skills by FUCKING USING THEM!

I am saddened that I am yet to finish this game...

Don't be sad. I think that puts you in the majority.

 

[Gregorius]

Let me tell you about immersion. Immersion is when you go for a midnight walk after a weekend marathon of Thief II and catch yourself looking for your visibility gem.

Guilty as charged. XP

There's an old saying, Yahtzee: "If you loved Morrowind, then you'll hate Oblivion."
And quite frankly, that holds true here... well, sort of. I tried Oblivion at a buddy's place and I stood up, smacked him and said "How the fuck can you play this tripe?!" Personally I thought the multi-classing in Morrowind was great because it kept battles interesting, but I tried it this time and got brutally raped by monsters in all orifices, plus a few new ones they made with their razor teeth! And I saw how much you loved the scenery that made you say "I'm pretty sure I've been here before".

Maybe it's because I haven't actually played an Elder Scrolls game in a long time and just suck at it (sarcasm obviously intended, for all you flaming homosexuals*) or the people at Bethesda Softworks crearly tried something new just to piss fans of Morrowind off, but if a man can't fend for his life in this game, then what the fuck is he supposed to do?!

*...he he he, double entendres are funny.

 

[hamster mk 4]

Hilarious review as always. I liked the "If nothing else remember this" image but you forgot to give the if an argument. I know it is a huge nitpick but seeing code that is syntactically incorrect just gets under my skin.
if( nothing() ){
}else{
remember(this);
}
Will compile assuming nothing() returns an int or a bool, you are calling this from a class function, and remember is a valid function that takes the class this is a function of as an argument.
Well I got that piece of nerd rage off my chest, the rest of the review was smashing and I look forward to the planetary alignment that causes you to review a RTS. Maybe even Supreme Commander.

 

[I Mav I]

The only thing i agree with is the samey characters but even that didn't bother me...i still think the game is farking awesome...

 

[Jerakal]

I could never get into this game, one of my brothers acted like it was the goddamn holy grail of videogames but I could never get attached to my character or really feel satisfaction walking around the game world.

This does not give me a lot of hope for Fallout 3.

But as long as they keep the monsters level up with you bullshit out, I suppose they can't fuck it up too badly.

 

[Zetim]

well, the game plays through with more or less in 4 meadows. one tropical rainy meadow, one snowy/hilly meadow, one lush and forested area and one normal meadow. and the re-use of dungeons was really annoying.