Released a year after Oblivion, Shivering Isles is the first expansion that features more than just a few tacked on quests and dungeons. Instead, it offers a whole new land to explore, making it feel like a new game in itself.
Complimenting the lengthy main quest are various other smaller quests scattered throughout, along with a nice myriad of new spells and items to satisfy your looting needs and a variety of flora and fauna to look at. For those who found time to just pass them by in Oblivion, Shivering Isles should be right up their alley. Don’t worry if you decide against it, there isn’t anything particularly new added that alters the way the game works. Just think of it as more of the same, giving you a reason to revisit the game and catch up on what you may have missed. Once the content is downloaded, you can access it with any character, new or old.
Talk to some of the citizens and you’ll hear a little rumor about a strange island appearing over Niben Bay, just near Bravil. Inside, you’re greeted by Haskill, who explains that the Shivering Isles are ruled by the Daedric Prince of Madness, Sheogorath. He seeks a champion, and you just so happen to fit the bill. As you continue through the main questline, you’ll notice a story very similar to that of Oblivion’s, only summarized in shorter length. Compared to Oblivion’s drab and dry locale, Shivering Isles feels like a breath of fresh air. Everything feels so flowing and alive, and you’ll find yourself interested in what more the game has to offer.
The theme of Shivering Isles is insanity, and from top to bottom you’ll find it in one form or another. The Shivering Isles consists of two realms: the colorful, psychedelic realm of Mania and the darker, paranoid realm of Dementia. Each half has their own cast of characters that you’ll learn about as you progress through the game, with a lot of the choices you make depending on which side you feel more affinity towards. Because of this, Shivering Isles offers some of the more unique and interesting quests you’ll see in the world of Oblivion. One example early on has you activating a dungeon that is used to filter out worthy adventurers and using it on a group of unfortunate people. You can choose either Mania or Dementia to play tricks to drive them to insanity, or you can be more sadistic and trigger an unfortunate death trap.
This isn’t always the case though, because for every fun and interesting quest you’ll take, there are at least three boring fetch quests in between. Often they require you to trek across the unknown lands, sometimes across the entire realm, to reach that one dungeon required for that one significant item. While you’re fetching items for Sheogorath, feel free to have a chat with some of the locals you’ll come across and help them in the smaller quests they provide. One such person you’ll meet refuses to sleep indoors because he believes the walls will collapse on him, so he asks that you help him find a safe place to sleep outside. Another denizen you’ll meet seems to hate his life and wants to commit suicide, but he just can’t do it, so he enlists you to kill him and make it seem like an accident. The Shivering Isles is home to many people, and these are just a couple of the more lively ones you’ll meet.
Shivering Isles offers its own share of rewards and loot that you’ll find in your travels, but you’ll also be able to create unique weapons and armor. By gathering pieces of amber or madness ore littered in the various dungeons, you can deliver it to their respective blacksmith who can then create new and powerful equipment. Chances are if you’re using a character from a previous save, their current set should be strong enough for the game, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pawn it off for some quick gold. There’s a bit of something for all types of players in the expansion, ranging from alchemy all the way to new spells, even if some of them are pretty useless, like the one that summons Haskill to your side.
Being an expansion, the game isn’t going to have any improvement in graphical horsepower over Oblivion, but what stands out instead is the art direction, with environments looking like they were taken out of the pages of storybooks like Alice in Wonderland. Look around, and you’ll find yourself surrounded by tall mushrooms and floating specks of light. Look up at the night sky, and you’ll be greeted with a deep purple sky glittering with bright pink stars. It’s all very vibrant and colorful, making the land feel more alive compared to Oblivion’s old-fashioned Tamriel.
Only available as a download on Xbox Live, Shivering Isles will run you about $30, along with a copy of Oblivion required to play it. By finishing the main questline, which shouldn’t take you long, you can nab an extra 250 achievement points on top of Oblivion’s 1000 already in place. From there, it’s up to you on what you do next; there are plenty of side quests to be had, along with plenty of unexplored land to be discovered. With this packed content, and whatever time you may have already spent in Oblivion, Shivering Isles makes for a great value all around, taking what was once a seemingly never-ending world and making it bigger and better.
