Even though I already owned the DVD version of Oblivion and Shivering Isles and most of the add-on content, I couldn’t pass up last week’s Steam sale where I bought the complete Oblivion, which seems to include at least one add-on that I didn’t have, for less than $8.
I fired up Oblivion and was reminded of just how great a game it is, and not just because it has Captain Picard as the Emperor and Wonder Woman as various other voices. It really is a good-looking, easy-to-play game that is intriguing, deep, and fun. It has swords, sorcery, magic, crafting, and a huge, beautiful world!
There are many wonderful things about Oblivion, but I’ll give you a couple of my pet peeves from my earlier play through (these also exist similarly in Oblivion with Guns, err Fallout 3). Even though I was Champion of Cyrodiil and had closed the gates to Oblivion and kicked butt and taken names, I still got attacked along the road by petty thugs and bandits. C’mon, couldn’t they see I was wearing armor and carrying weapons so far above theirs that they wouldn’t stand a chance? The only game I’ve played that got this sort of thing right was Freelancer, in which you could hear the other pilots chatter about you and decide not to engage because you would kick their butts. Surely other game designers could implement something similar. Also, why do wolves and bears always attack? They’re no match against a high-level champion and in real life, the attack probability is much lower.
Anyway, I love having Oblivion available from Steam, because now I don’t have to keep track of the DVDs from before. I’m not saying I will play through Oblivion again soon, but I’m not saying I won’t…