Nikki Reviews: Oblivion - Updated

Oblivion for PS3

New to Elder Scrolls

My gameplay

A few days ago I got The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion used from Gamestop. It is my first time playing any Elder Scrolls game but not my first RPG by any means. Starting out the game I really loved the ability to customize my character. It was pretty easy to do and my only real issue with it was that once you change one thing and then another to how you like, the first thing might seem really off. But that’s not really something they can control.

For this first run of Oblivion I decided to be a High Elf. I am born under the sign of the Mage and I picked Willpower and Agility as my classes. The seven major skills that I picked were Alchemy, Alteration, Destruction, Restoration, Marksman, Security and Sneak. I’m currently at level 4, though for quite some time I was at level one because I somehow managed to miss the fact that I needed to be sleeping in order to have my level go up. Oops. I also was picking my race based on looks and not based on what qualities that race would bring to me. As a mage it really sucks being super weak to all types of destructive magic.

Ease of play

As I played Oblivion I realized it was similar to that of Assassin's Creed or Dishonored (two games I have played a bit) but with obvious differences. I did find that the controls for Oblivion however were a bit clunky compared to Assassin’s Creed or Dishonored, but they were easy enough to get down.  My biggest problem honestly is remembering what buttons do what and where they are. I’m usually a Xbox or Nintendo gamer and therefore having an X button being where the A button should be, and having a square button where the X button should be, really confuses me. However I’m doing what I can to get better and learn the controls. All of my awfulness aside I’m really enjoying myself, killing goblins, imps and all sorts of silly creatures is proving to be interesting and fun.

Like Assassin’s Creed, there are main story quests and side story quests, however for whatever reason I find it a little more difficult to manage the quests and figure out where I need to be going. However this may be just because I’m new to the format that Elder Scrolls uses. As I play the game more and more the controls have gotten easier to use. I tend to become disinterested during dialogue which is not exactly helpful and I find myself getting really confused during game play. However this has been easily fixed by making sure that I use my map, talk to people everywhere and actually listen to the dialogue.

One feature about Oblivion that I’m really enjoying is the fact that I can either choose to travel to a place on the map or I can actually walk there. Having the option is really neat because I’m not forced to play the game in a specific way. Which is something I really enjoy about side quests. If you don’t want to do your main quest right away, you don’t have to. As someone who is used to playing games such as Pokemon, there isn’t really much you can do without following the main “quest” as it unlocks other parts of the game.

Bugs

Now, for the most unfortunate part of this review, I have the PS3 Game of the Year Edition of the game, sadly when Bethesda did the official patch for this game, the PS3 version decided it didn't want to and there are bugs that were never fixed in the game. The bug that I came across in specific was the bloodgrass bug, where Melisande will not be able to take the bloodgrass from you.

During my gameplay I decided it would be fun to be a vampire. Well just let me tell you, being a vampire has not given me anything but trouble. If you don't feed you start taking damage from sunlight. And if you are taking damage, you can't fast travel. The amount of times I have found myself coming out of a cave at 7am to get damaged by the sunlight is too many. Now you may be thinking, oh well maybe you should just feed so you don't take the damage from sunlight. Well my friend, it's not that easy. In order to feed first I need to find someone who is sleeping. Let me be the first to tell you not a lot of people in the game sleep during the daytime. Secondly if anyone catches you feeding on someone else, you will get in trouble for "attacking them" which I guess is technically true.

However, there is two workarounds in terms of curing your vampirism. One you can do the quest The Cure for Vampirism. Or you can cure yourself by using the Font of Renewal. Only if you have the PS3 version, the Font of Renewal is not available to you as it is included in the add-on Vile Lair. The add-on is of course, not available to PS3. So you are left with completing the quest The Cure for Vampirism. Only, if you are using the PS3 the bug, that was first fixed in the official patch, returns but only if you have the Shivering Isle has been installed. Since I'm using the Game of the year edition, the Shivering Isle comes pre-installed, making the only way to complete the quest, is to get another copy of the game that is not the GoTY edition and complete the quest with that disc, save and then use your copy. The only unfortunate thing is that if you have anything from the Shivering Isle, including keys which you can't place in a safe container, are forfeited and will be lost.

And if you are anything like me when you get the original edition of the game the game my not load for you and then you will just sit there waiting for the game to load but it never does. Needless to say I decided that it was just better to just start the game over and never ever become a vampire again. Because it's just too damn difficult to deal with.          

So all in all the game is great, but for the love of all things good in the world, please save yourself the trouble and do not get this game for PS3. It is much better to play on Xbox or PC.