By Marcus Snell & Dan Blomberg on May 20th, 2005

Today my world met Oblivion, and I loved it.

Now, when I say ’Oblivion’ I do not mean complete destruction and chaos. Well in a way it is. This ’Oblivion’ that I speak of is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, next in the awe inspiring Elder Scrolls series. As you, my dear and devoted (by circumstance) reader, should well know Bethesda, the designer and publisher of the series, re-designs the game each and every time they make it. Therefore you are never really playing a sequel where the characters are the same and the plot line has just been extended with new bells and whistles. This is all new, nothing like this exists, and it is glory in the highest.

This is what I would like you to do, call it a demonstration of sorts: Stand up. Begin walking. Stand back up after you tripped on [insert object/thingy here] because you were trying to read the screen and walk at the same time. Head towards the door. Wrap your hand around the round protruding object attached to the door (some call this a ’doorknob,’ though who ever came up with this had too many o’s in ’dork’ and left one out in ’noob’ and what these things have to do with something everyone uses and no one pays attention to is beyond me) and turn it. Are you facing the outside? No? Then repeat the previous steps until this is accomplished. Ok, there yet? Good. Now, do you see the grass and how each blade is discernable from the next? Do you see how the leaves on the trees flutter in the wind? How each and every crevice in the rocks casts a small yet visible shadow? In the puddles can you see the reflection of yourself? Of the grass, trees, and rocks? The giant creature of hell lunging at you from behind? If you can see all this then welcome to the world of Oblivion. And this, my friends, is only the beginning.

I have already spoken of the beauty of the world, but not of its size. Oblivion takes place in Cyrodiil, the Imperial Province and heart of Tamriel, as well as parts of Oblivion (being our equivalent of hell) itself. The entire world is somewhat randomly generated. The forests, and they are stunning forests, are randomly generated by a computer so they seem less repetitive and more natural. The developers even went back to college to learn how the environment interacts with earth and used this knowledge to control erosion, tree growth, landscape, and everything else. The trees are all individual objects that can sway in the wind independently of each other. The forest isn’t the only spectacular environmental feature. The cities and ruins look true to life as well. Ruins exist in the middle of forests to allow your character to have something to do while literally wandering around the forests. These ruins aren’t without purpose though. After fighting your way inside you can pick up the "glowing crystals of bright power" made "thousands of years ago." This is just a simple example of the vastness and diversity of this game as well as how the environment serves not only to awe you but also to interest you.

Walking from area to area of Cyrodiil is possible, but with over 200 individually created dungeons to explore and countless cities and towns it is just far too time consuming. To solve this without detracting from game play Bethesda engineered it so that you can warp from anywhere to any city/dungeon at any time. Also, it is not just places that you have been to that you can warp too, but any place you have heard about. Say you were to come upon two citizens engaging in their random dialogue (which I will speak upon later) and they were discussing a siege in a southern city. This interests you so after they have finished (and you do wait until they finish because it is rude to interrupt) you walk up to one and ask him about the city. Boom. Now it is on your map and you can warp right there right now and be in the midst of the action.

This is how the game is designed: lots of instant action and shorter challenges around a basic central plot. The central plot is, in short, the Emperor has died and gates to Oblivion have opened up all over the world. Though you the player must bear in mind that this central plot is only a guiding element in your adventures. It is comparable to the breeze and how it gently guides a feather while the feather can still move freely about. With these elements in play it leaves the player in greater control of the quests they follow and the areas they explore, all while keeping the action new and exciting. Though where do you get these quests from? The Non-Player Characters (NPC’s) of course, who themselves have had a major overhaul.

In the past (and everything you have ever played is the past for this is the future and it welcomes you with open arms, flowers, and a liquid cooled motherboard) NPC’s have lived a dull and boring life. They existed to tell you interesting tid-bits, catch you stealing, and obstruct your path when you have to get somewhere in a hurry. Now they each live their own lives. They have pets that they can interact with, feed and take care of. They have shops where they actually trade with each other, gain money to buy food they eat to stay alive and potions that that take on their own to increase their stats. NPC’s can gain in abilities as they perform such actions as archery, cooking, bartering, and so forth. And these are not just ’So I told the NPC that I was hungry so it made me bread and became a better cook,’ but rather self initiated actions. In the example I saw a female NPC set up a target and started practicing her archery, all on her own. They even hold conversations with each other, real conversations. One NPC and walk up to another NPC at random, let me say that again: at random, and start talking about anything. They talk of the weather, family, business, war, anything. And these are not pre-scripted conversation, rather hundreds of possible statements and questions with hundreds of possible responses and answerers that the computer AI chooses to use as it best fits the NPC and its relationship to the other NPC. There are over 1000 hours of voice data in the game, it takes up over half the DVD. This voice bits are also all lip-synced, the NPC’s don’t just talk they appear to move their mouths correctly. In this aspect alone it is absolutely impossible to play the same game twice because as you interact with the NPC’s you affect their mood which, in turn, affects their interactions with other NPC’s and so on and so forth. This, coupled with the unscripted actions and paths of the NPC’s, means that none of the more than 1000 NPC’s will ever be in the same place at the same time so everything is controlled chaos, like real life. This, if nothing else, is the resounding trait in Oblivion: its similarity to real life.

Sim-life isn’t without a very important law, the law of physics. The physics engine in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is one of the slickest and sleekest ever created. Things react as they would in real life and even react in relation to each other. For example, if you were to shoot an arrow at a bucket, the bucket would no longer hold water. Beyond that the bucket would now have a different weight. After it finished swinging from the impact it will hang differently than it did before the arrow was in it. Of course hitting the side of the bucket will cause a spinning effect whereas hitting it dead center will just make it swing. After you retrieve your arrows (because you don’t have unlimited numbers of them) the bucket will return to its normal boring (yet oh so beautifully rendered) position. These same physics apply everywhere, including in the lives of the NPC’s. Physics aren’t the only thing Bethesda took time to detail, for your character is no less detailed than the rest of the environment. In almost all RPG’s characters will carry a quiver of arrows. Though how many games will actually remove arrows from the quiver as you use them? Very few, and Oblivion is at the forefront. Arrows aren’t the only part of the character that is extremely dynamic. After you get in a fight, and hopefully win, your sword will remain coated in the blood of your vanquished enemies while you go seek out your next hapless prey. Everything from the physics to the detail put into characters shows how The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is revolutionizing not only the RPG genre but the gaming industry in general.

At any rate The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion offers all that I have said and so much more. I would say that Bethesda Game Studios outdid themselves on this one, but expecting anything less than perfection from them is selling them short. Oblivion will be a game to live forever in the gaming history books (known to the faithful as The Archives) as a true pioneer of innovation and creation. I tip my paddle to you, Bethesda, in thanks.