I recently introduced my daughters to TES: Oblivion in a sly attempt to lure them away from some awful online pay-for-play-"game"-with-friends-and-random-internet-people they picked up at school, and the strategy has worked perfectly – they're both hooked, and a happy side-effect is that I’m hooked too. I haven’t given Oblivion any thought in years but seeing it in action reminded me of the wonder and magic I felt playing it on release (interspersed with feelings of frustration and angst at how slowly it ran on my PC at the time of course). Oblivion really blew my mind and I can still see why all these years later.
One thing that still delights me are the interactions with the NPC’s. Much was made at the time of the Radiant AI being dumbed down before release but I still find the NPC’s to be incredibly lifelike. They’re plug ugly of course but their range of expression is uncanny – you can really get a sense of how they feel about you by just looking at them. The conversations they have with each other are sensible and the comments they make to you in passing often relate to some recent event in the game world, which always tickles my fancy.
The other thing which has struck me is the quality of the audio and soundtrack. Birds sing, the voicework is solid, objects clatter and clank as you drop them / knock them over, and the wind howls at higher elevations / during storms. After playing Kingdom Come recently, which is a very quiet game, I’m really impressed with how much atmosphere Oblivion creates with sound alone.
And I’m surprised at how beautiful the world is without the need for too much patching and tweaking. I’m running maybe 10 mods, half of which are aimed at improving the appearance of the environment / NPC’s so that's definately a factor, but it’s the lighting and weather effects (which I haven't modded) that bring the place to life I think. Strolling around Cyrodiil’s manicured lawns and forests is still a joy, particularly now that I can run the game with ultimate settings + vsync + FOV fix. My 8 year old i5 still struggles occasionally in towns and the frame rate drops to 50fps, but for the most part it’s smooth sailing.
I’m also finding the quests to be varied and interesting – quite the contrast to Beth’s more recent efforts IMHO. I’ve been avoiding the main quest, the Oblivion gates, and the countless caves / tombs you stumble across, and I’m still easily filling my fantasy days and nights with action and adventure. There's a real depth and attention to detail in the storytelling that never gets old - it's a timeless classic I think.
Life? Don't talk to me about life.
