The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

 PC
User Score
8.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 3846 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,010 out of 3846
  2. Mixed: 542 out of 3846
  3. Negative: 294 out of 3846
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  1. StevenS.
    May 6, 2006
    7
    Cool game, good graphics. Expected more variety on spells and weapons. Scaling system sucks big time making the world adapt to you and not vice-versa how it is supposed to be.
  2. DarkE.
    Apr 5, 2007
    7
    Good fun, and huge world, but hugely overrated by the gaming press. Very weak main storyline and the combat could have been better. Sneak and Magic system satisfying although slightly disappointing.
  3. iiiearsiiiears
    Sep 16, 2007
    7
    Beautiful Graphics that beg for a 7 series nvidia card. The hundreds of hours of play during many dozen missions will keep this disk installed on your machine for several weeks. Certainly worth a try. There are a couple of minor irritations one of them is the 200+ hr bug that can corrupt your inventory and the second also at around 200+ hours that will cause door and flame animations to Beautiful Graphics that beg for a 7 series nvidia card. The hundreds of hours of play during many dozen missions will keep this disk installed on your machine for several weeks. Certainly worth a try. There are a couple of minor irritations one of them is the 200+ hr bug that can corrupt your inventory and the second also at around 200+ hours that will cause door and flame animations to slow down.… Expand
  4. AmberD.
    Oct 1, 2006
    7
    Despite this plot being a mockery of the one before it (The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind), it is an amazing game. Graphics are astounding, when at their highest. I am aware that the system requirements for this game are, to be blunt about such matters, bullshit. On a 2gb Intel processor, you will not be able to run this game. At the least, I recommend a 3.7 Athlon. I am running it at Despite this plot being a mockery of the one before it (The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind), it is an amazing game. Graphics are astounding, when at their highest. I am aware that the system requirements for this game are, to be blunt about such matters, bullshit. On a 2gb Intel processor, you will not be able to run this game. At the least, I recommend a 3.7 Athlon. I am running it at GeForce 7300 LE 512 meg graphics, of course, so you can understand that I am biased to the graphics because I can have it at highest settings… Expand
  5. Jeremy
    Mar 22, 2006
    7
    The economy is still broken. A vendor selling items costing as much as 5000gp only has 1000gp cash on-hand? How does that make sense? I stopped playing Morrowind when I found loot that could not be sold anywhere in the universe. Idiotic.
  6. JoeK.
    May 21, 2006
    7
    GREAT GAME!
  7. B.W.
    May 25, 2006
    7
    There is so much wrong with this game: Crash bugs galore, awful scaling difficulty system (it's harder now at lv35 than it was when i was lv1), the leveling up system is flawed, the same spell effects STACK if cast from different spells. The game is great until all of this stuff gets under your skin.
  8. MarkW.
    May 8, 2006
    7
    The AI is not what it is cracked up to be, get used to hearing "I saw a Mud Crab the other day" and "I hear the Fighter's Guild is looking for recrutes". It's not uncommon to beat a foe because they are to stupid to get around a rock or obsticle. As mentioned the game punishes your character for leveling up and if thats not enough dreadful things happen in your sleep (so why The AI is not what it is cracked up to be, get used to hearing "I saw a Mud Crab the other day" and "I hear the Fighter's Guild is looking for recrutes". It's not uncommon to beat a foe because they are to stupid to get around a rock or obsticle. As mentioned the game punishes your character for leveling up and if thats not enough dreadful things happen in your sleep (so why level up?). The graphics are good...but the characters look like crap. It's full of little annoying bugs like characters that have different voices each time they speak. There are also annoying balance problems, like It took about 30 min. to find 10 nimroots (rarest in the game Ha !)....It took me 4 hours to find 5 simple garlic cloves. The game crashes often enough (on a rock solid computer). The story just doesn't make sense if your trying to pay attention to it. Horses are a joke as well as the game controlls. Things that improved are: battle, travel and graphics. Everything else is worse or the same. You will probably buy this and play it and wish you had your money back after the new wears off.… Expand
  9. JackF.
    Mar 6, 2007
    7
    Not a deep CRPG, more like a mindless action adventure. Not a worthy successor to TES2: Daggerfall and TES3: Morrowind, in my honest opinion. The term 'dumbing down' that the fans came up with, is not far from truth.
  10. Cameron
    Feb 29, 2008
    7
    Why do people hate Oblivion and say things like oh theres no effort into it? Dude watch the DvD for the making of it they use a whole new constrution set not rip the old morrowind the textures are great for one of the first games on 360 so don't bag games that you don't know anything about and the leveling system is about having a balanced charcter god some people are annoying Why do people hate Oblivion and say things like oh theres no effort into it? Dude watch the DvD for the making of it they use a whole new constrution set not rip the old morrowind the textures are great for one of the first games on 360 so don't bag games that you don't know anything about and the leveling system is about having a balanced charcter god some people are annoying making games is hard work!… Expand
  11. kungfucat196
    Mar 21, 2010
    7
    My real vote would be 8.4 Ok lets get it started, the gra[hics were good for 2006, its alright. What makes the force of the game is the realism, EVERY but EVERY actions in the game will have an effect on the other AI surrounding you and there is a multitudes of ways to do the scenario, the world is deep and well made, a lot of efforts were put in, but it stops there. The AI is not good at My real vote would be 8.4 Ok lets get it started, the gra[hics were good for 2006, its alright. What makes the force of the game is the realism, EVERY but EVERY actions in the game will have an effect on the other AI surrounding you and there is a multitudes of ways to do the scenario, the world is deep and well made, a lot of efforts were put in, but it stops there. The AI is not good at all, a supplementary 3 month wouldn't have been too much for the game to fix the AI problems and the Glitches. Also, RTS games are my favorite, and i like wen im immerge in the story, like i was in Dragon age: origins or Kotor. The broken AI and universe dosen't help. You can do whatever you want, there is exacly NO LIMITS, a lot pf players are just playing this game for its mods, but i do not know some1 excepted me who alredy beated this game. too much limit is not good, but not enough too. All those facts dosen't immerse you in the story, well, it didn't for me. I had to force myself to finish this game. I didn't like this game, i gave a 7.5 for all the efforts they putted in and to respect those who liked that, but its not a game for amators of games like Kotor, mass effect and dragon age.… Expand
  12. RaghaB.
    Mar 29, 2010
    7
    I love this argument in the PC community about how games are "dumbed down for consoles." Now i'm sure that this argument works for other games, i dont know im relatively new to PC gaming. What I do know is that it does not work for TES games. Remember Morrowind guys? Yeah it came out on the X-box also. On to Oblivion. Being a huge Morrowind fan i was disappointed with Oblivion. While I love this argument in the PC community about how games are "dumbed down for consoles." Now i'm sure that this argument works for other games, i dont know im relatively new to PC gaming. What I do know is that it does not work for TES games. Remember Morrowind guys? Yeah it came out on the X-box also. On to Oblivion. Being a huge Morrowind fan i was disappointed with Oblivion. While the graphics are better (even on my lower end PC) The addition of the Quick Jump makes the world seem MUCH smaller than that of Morrowind. And the main story line is very repetitive. After what felt like the twentieth Oblivion Gate I said forget it and moved on...until i caught Vampirism and gave up all together. I can still pick up morrowind and play for hours but Oblivion was barely aboe to hold my attension for more than a few hours. The combat system upgrades (spell button FTW!!) and the shinnier graphics do not make up for the fact that Oblivion is not as good as its predecessor. If only Bethesda wold release a patch moving Morrowind into Oblivion's graphics and controls. That would be the perfect game. But hey dreamers can only Dream. Overall its a good game, There are just a few things missing from it that should have been kept in the game. Hopefully Bethesda learns from their mistakes and delvers an epic TES:V.… Expand
  13. DanielCr
    Apr 12, 2006
    7
    This game is cool.. at firest what then you play it for 40 hours and realize that there is way less content than is advertized. Point one IT IS EASER TO BEAT THE GAME A LVL 1 THAN AT LVL 20 this is fucking retarded and i am not exagerating also there a very few new or strong monsters cause everything just lvls with you you can go back to a dungeons a few lvls later whoopie all the guys This game is cool.. at firest what then you play it for 40 hours and realize that there is way less content than is advertized. Point one IT IS EASER TO BEAT THE GAME A LVL 1 THAN AT LVL 20 this is fucking retarded and i am not exagerating also there a very few new or strong monsters cause everything just lvls with you you can go back to a dungeons a few lvls later whoopie all the guys you killed have come back to life and they have batter equipment. so it's an RPG with absolutly no meaning ful charater devolopment. That's bullshit Actually upon reflection thats really the only thing horrible wrong with the game. Course it means that the are no place you can't go at lvl one wich makes not sense you will never fight an enemy you cannot beat and you will never encounter an enemy who is easy to beat… Expand
  14. MattB.
    May 6, 2006
    7
    The game itself is amazing, untill it suddenly comes to an abrupt end. sure you can keep going with side quests and whatever, but the main quest should have been much longer, graphics are awesome, but why is everyone so ugly? release a pretty face patch or something.
  15. Hef
    Jun 20, 2006
    7
    A decent game, good for wasting away the hours, however it's plagued with bugs and the difficulty scaling issue doesn't help its cause much either. I stopped playing it with about half the quests finished, the repetitiveness of the game made me feel like I'd seen every new quest before.
  16. MarcO.
    Aug 6, 2006
    7
    Oblivion is the greatest game in terms of the massive amount of freedom and mods. There are countless mods/plug-ins for Oblivion and that is what i like. Even though the plug-ins cost a small sum it doesn't bother me. This game has somewhat little to no realism in terms of the jumping and weapon damage, physics etc etc. But I don't expect it to be perfect because nothing is Oblivion is the greatest game in terms of the massive amount of freedom and mods. There are countless mods/plug-ins for Oblivion and that is what i like. Even though the plug-ins cost a small sum it doesn't bother me. This game has somewhat little to no realism in terms of the jumping and weapon damage, physics etc etc. But I don't expect it to be perfect because nothing is perfect. And the most disapointing fact is that it has a tendency to crash ALOT. Other then that all is fine. Story line is okay. It's basically another life, i hope they patch up the technical problems, crashing glitches etc etc… Expand
  17. noobclass
    Oct 28, 2007
    7
    Beautiful graphics. Pretty corny 'huge production' theme music at the title screen. I really enjoyed my time playing it, so I'll give it an 8. I'll outline some criticism for it down below. 1st person is great, really like to be able to control it that way. If you want to complain about it, go back to world of warcraft and the continuous clicking of 'cast Beautiful graphics. Pretty corny 'huge production' theme music at the title screen. I really enjoyed my time playing it, so I'll give it an 8. I'll outline some criticism for it down below. 1st person is great, really like to be able to control it that way. If you want to complain about it, go back to world of warcraft and the continuous clicking of 'cast spell', or clicking on the enemy and saying 'attack'. Making your own class was fun, but it didn't really make any difference. You can pick any class and end up being the same as others in the end. Also, a lot of useless skills (alteration, mercantile, illusion, speechcraft, security, etc...) that are just not worth it. The storylines were interesting, but again it was 'go to X city and talk to this person'. go to Y location and kill Z and retrieve AA item. Go back to X. Pretty repetitive after awhile. Unless you've played the game before, the birth signs all seem like really cool, unique ideas. Most of these can be completely obsolete after a couple levels (stat bonuses, shadow, tower, etc...). I would really love to see birth signs that are completely unique and you can't find as a scroll or spell after a couple hours of playing.… Expand
  18. AlexS.
    Jan 17, 2008
    7
    "Out of the box," Oblivion is huge, beautiful, and dull. It's true -- first leaving the sewers forces a strong, appreciative reaction. At the same time, there are definite problems. For example, despite its graphical potential, many spell animations are remarkably bad -- "Flare," the starting offensive spell, is understandably under-stated. Yet, additional spells sometimes look "Out of the box," Oblivion is huge, beautiful, and dull. It's true -- first leaving the sewers forces a strong, appreciative reaction. At the same time, there are definite problems. For example, despite its graphical potential, many spell animations are remarkably bad -- "Flare," the starting offensive spell, is understandably under-stated. Yet, additional spells sometimes look practically identical to it; the "radius"/splash effect of many is simply a red or blue coloring, which sort of looks like nothing. Luckily, there are many spell mods out there, using the kind of graphic animations and spell variety Oblivion should have already come with: beautiful comets dropping from the sky, multiple conjurations, black holes, etc. -- just really creative stuff that was simply missing. Even worse, the combat system is merely above decent. You simply aim, slash, block, and so on; although there are "power moves" which are unlocked, there is usually nothing special about them. In fact, every power move is the same from weapon to weapon, with the same effects: disarming, knocking out, paralyzing, etc. There is little variety here, too. There are some mods that add a few things, such as new moves and decapitation, but it's not much. It would have been great to include pressure points, many additional moves, and so on. Directly tied to this are the "skills," which are often uninteresting or useless. There is no, for example, combat-specific abilities that are unlocked -- as you improve abilities, you simply jump higher, run faster, hit harder, and so on. True, there are "perks," but they are tiny additions compared to the size of the game itself. I'm not saying this should have been like Diablo 2; at the same time, this game was released in 2006, when such abilities, etc., were often the norm. There are also significant balance issues, which have not been addressed. Combat is the main part of the game -- "role-playing" or not, you need to survive. But, if you play as Thief, for example, you will certainly be faster and more agile than the average NPC, but you simply won't be able to win most melee fights. Hand-to-Hand, too, is very dull, and quite weak -- despite the tweaks, mods, and so on, it has not been fixed. A promising mod with katars, claws, etc., to augment hand-to-hand was never finished -- it looked like it would have been a great help, especially since katars, etc., are just pure common-sense additions. In short, the game feels large at the expense of substance. I think the developers might have cut out about 1/4 of the areas, and focused more on tightening the gameplay itself -- in this way, we would still have a huge product, and a greater experience. Oblivion -- 7.5 / 10. Oblivion with mods -- 8.5 / 10.… Expand
  19. FB
    May 6, 2008
    7
    I could write a long review explaining all the problems with this game and why it does not deserve a 99/100 but I would prefer not to... All I really have to say is that GTA IV does not bring anything truly revolutionary to the table and is mostly just a prettier rehash of the previous games. Shame of the critics.
  20. IanV
    Oct 23, 2009
    7
    The best example of setting the bar too high and stretching your resources too thin can be found within Oblivion. While everything within the world feels devoid of both life and meaning, there is an enormous amount of content to explore. Memorable quests stand out in a bitter sweet way, reminding you of the game's potential.
  21. SD
    Aug 31, 2009
    7
    Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It may be beautiful, but that can scarcely hide the wafer thin plot or the mind-numbing repetition. Creating a great virtual world is one thing, and here this has been achieved. But a great virtual world needs to be inhabited to beings that aren't just clones of each other, and it needs to contain a game that's not just being an armed Fed Ex guy in a Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It may be beautiful, but that can scarcely hide the wafer thin plot or the mind-numbing repetition. Creating a great virtual world is one thing, and here this has been achieved. But a great virtual world needs to be inhabited to beings that aren't just clones of each other, and it needs to contain a game that's not just being an armed Fed Ex guy in a pretty mythological world.… Expand
  22. RicM.
    Apr 11, 2006
    7
    This game is extremely big, but ultimately extremely empty and without reward. The main story will only take a few hours to beat, regardless of what other people say. Since there is level scaling, there is very little reward for leveling up and because of the scaling you can literally beat the game on level 1 if you so choose. There are a suprising low variety of places to visit (mostly This game is extremely big, but ultimately extremely empty and without reward. The main story will only take a few hours to beat, regardless of what other people say. Since there is level scaling, there is very little reward for leveling up and because of the scaling you can literally beat the game on level 1 if you so choose. There are a suprising low variety of places to visit (mostly just town, cave, ruin or planes to oblivion) and enemies to fight. I got very tired venturing into the gates of oblivion to fight only a handful of enemies each time, even if you level up a lot. The main story, as well as completing any of the guilds, leaves a great deal to be desired. In fact, you do not even get to fight the end boss yourself, you just watch this fight and that's it. Since the story is so weak, the ending is weak and feels like a waste of time. I really wanted to give this game a 10, I had a lot of fun and it was worth the $50 I suppose, but I feel that this is one of those rare games that could've been amazing, but it was only good. While better than Morrowind, it still doesn't have an engaging story. It just feels like you're playing an MMORPG that is only for one player really. Too bad you can't combine the size and beauty of this game with the focus and NPC interactivity of Fable. It's also VERY VERY VERY annoying how every guard everywhere has telepathy and if you stealthy kill one all the sudden there's a 1000 bounty on your head no matter where you go, and the guards will never ever stop pursuing you. This game should've been delayed a long while.… Expand
  23. CattyC.
    Dec 1, 2007
    7
    The game has lots of bugs that basically discontinue the story (or make it impossible to continue. Other than that its fun for about a month.
  24. JohnB
    Oct 12, 2009
    7
    The game has a lot of content and enviroments are beautiful. Unfortunately there are some serious flaws. All the npc- characters in the game are ass ugly, generic and they act like robots. There are only adults in the game, and no one has a beard. I'm glad that they didn't include dwarves in this game since they too would propably be as tall as anyone and without beard. The The game has a lot of content and enviroments are beautiful. Unfortunately there are some serious flaws. All the npc- characters in the game are ass ugly, generic and they act like robots. There are only adults in the game, and no one has a beard. I'm glad that they didn't include dwarves in this game since they too would propably be as tall as anyone and without beard. The voice acting is mostly horrendous, and there are 2 or 3 music tracks in the whole game.… Expand
  25. AnonymousMC
    Aug 11, 2009
    7
    Very expansive world to explore, and a plethora of side quests to complete make this a very good RPG. Unfortunately, the game is marred by serious design flaws and a main storyline that leaves much to be desired. There are mods to fix the worst of its problems (such as the unbalanced creature leveling), but a game should not have to rely upon its community modders to fix their product. 7/10.
  26. Higher_Standard
    Aug 17, 2010
    7
    Oblivion has to be played a certain way by people that can imagine themselves in the world that is the game. This can make the game very enjoyable in comparison to just making a god character that's the leader of every guild. Try to specialize and you'll have more fun. Sadly, they seem to have skipped the beta testing stage before releasing this game. On multiple occasions I've had entireOblivion has to be played a certain way by people that can imagine themselves in the world that is the game. This can make the game very enjoyable in comparison to just making a god character that's the leader of every guild. Try to specialize and you'll have more fun. Sadly, they seem to have skipped the beta testing stage before releasing this game. On multiple occasions I've had entire guild quest-lines become impossible to complete due to bugs. If this game had a coop it would be a ten without a doubt. There also seems to be little to no reward for playing on higher difficulties.… Expand
  27. djbarker
    Apr 16, 2014
    7
    This game stole my life. It's very good and I've lost 150 hours to it. I was totally absorbed. But when I came up to air I realised that immersion is not enough for a game to be in my list of amazing games.
    But there are many bugs (dancing dragon corpses) and a total lack of consequence for your choices.
    If I'm a dark elf, I should be spat at when I'm in Winterhold. If i murder a    This game stole my life. It's very good and I've lost 150 hours to it. I was totally absorbed. But when I came up to air I realised that immersion is not enough for a game to be in my list of amazing games.
    But there are many bugs (dancing dragon corpses) and a total lack of consequence for your choices.
    If I'm a dark elf, I should be spat at when I'm in Winterhold. If i murder a villager, I should never be able to return to that village. Plus the dragons are so easy to kill once you figure out a half decent build.
    I found as soon as I got to lvl 30, there was no point in playing anymore. The hardest difficulty was tedium, the next hardest became a walkthrough.
    One thing that really annoyed me was the illusion spell tree. the lvl of an NPC i could spook in some way was listed, but you can't tell what lvl the npcs are. After looking up some online, they don't match the power of the spell. Not a game breaker, but sloppy.
    So I give it a 7 because I loved it at first, but will never want to play it again. So for that reason it doesn't get a higher score.    … Expand
  28. syrik
    Nov 20, 2011
    7
    Picked this up on a recent Steam sale. I had Morrowind on xbox when it came out but I never got into it. It seemed extremely boring and long to get into. Well, years later Oblivion is also extremely long to get into and boring at the beginning, but it sure is worth it. This game is detail on a scale that no other game even approaches much less achieves. From random books scatteredPicked this up on a recent Steam sale. I had Morrowind on xbox when it came out but I never got into it. It seemed extremely boring and long to get into. Well, years later Oblivion is also extremely long to get into and boring at the beginning, but it sure is worth it. This game is detail on a scale that no other game even approaches much less achieves. From random books scattered around the world (that are actually written and can all be read) to thousands of things, just things, strewn all over the place. Each one realized on a scale that makes it almost impossible not to get lost in this game. Imagine taking about a 50 mile square of land in the real world with all the trees, houses, roads, people, animals, water, weather, everything and sticking all of that into a game. That's Oblivion. Houses fully detailed inside and out, random junk that is actually relevant and non-repetitive like people really have. If you want to know what this place you're standing looks like from that mountain top over yonder, hike up the mountain and take a look. You can. In fact, you can basically do anything you want any way you want. It's the most freedom in a game, ever. Period. (notwithstanding other Elder Scrolls games of course) Want to be a spell casting rogue that pick pockets and hides in the shadows? OK. Wanna be a ranger that also swings a gigantic mace? OK. Wanna be a warrior but in leather armor and summoning undead? OK. Whatever you want, there's a way to do it. The game is huge, I'm talking HUGE. Think WoW without the subscription and they probably have about the same content (except this is one release with some xpac content and WoW is constantly updated for the last 7 years). There is a good enjoyable story packed in between all the other side quests and random places to explore also. It's the whole package. This game would easily warrant a perfect 10, except it's not perfect. Unfortunately Bethesda, in all their creative genius, weren't very good at squashing bugs. This game came out in 2006 and despite multiple official patches and DLC content for sale there are literally thousands of bugs in the game they never bothered to fix. The game is so popular that its very talented and committed fan base has created their own mods that patch the game for you correcting many of these bugs, but they shouldn't have to. Bethesda made the money off the game, not the fans, they should be the ones fixing it. So, 7/10 because buggy games deserve ZEROES, but this game really is awesome.… Expand
  29. EsquireIII
    May 15, 2011
    7
    This game stole what little life I already had. It's incredibly fun. Randomly exploring caves and ruins never gets boring, though I do admit, I had to start using console commands to close down Oblivion Gates because I just couldn't take doing the same map I had already done a million times before. Another small complaint I have and that I've heard a lot of is that Oblivion doesn't captureThis game stole what little life I already had. It's incredibly fun. Randomly exploring caves and ruins never gets boring, though I do admit, I had to start using console commands to close down Oblivion Gates because I just couldn't take doing the same map I had already done a million times before. Another small complaint I have and that I've heard a lot of is that Oblivion doesn't capture Morrowind's atmosphere. I haven't played Morrowind much yet, but after playing hours upon hours of Oblivion and stepping of the boat in the very beginning to see a massive insect that, come to find out, was used for transportation made the game feel very alien. Oblivion's atmosphere is indeed more of a generic sort of feel, but there are definitely improvements over a few problems I noticed with Morrowind despite how little I played of it. First of all, combat feels much more smooth, and when you hit an enemy, you actually hit them, rather than using stats to determine your hit chance. In addition, the combat just feels smoother, with the ability to block at will rather than using the block skill to determine the chance of blocking. My biggest Morrowind annoyance is how slowly you moved at the beginning of the game. Being a rather impatient person, that gets kind of old. Oblivion definitely fixed this problem. A change from Morrowind that I think is for the worse is the horrible leveling system. Enemies level up with you, and subsequently, so does their loot. It tends to ruin the realism quite a bit (how do so many bandits find full sets of Daedric armor?) and generally makes the game get harder as you level up, unless you micromanage your skill growth to obtain the maximum boost from each level, which is incredibly annoying and just plain tiresome. On the good side of the game, the world is massive. There are hundreds of locations to discover, many of which have a quest assigned to them. There are also quite a lot of joinable factions. Not as many as Morrowind, I've heard, but still a good amount, ranging from the magic oriented Mages Guild, to the combat oriented Fighters Guild, and the stealth oriented Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood. Each offers a very different experience and all are worth joining, even if you don't really focus on that particular stat (heck, I was a thief and I still became one of the top ranking members of the Mage's Guild). Spell casting tends to be a bit on the weak side when it comes to buffs, many lasting as little as 10 seconds before needing to be recast and the spell making is more limited that many would like it to be. The spell animations tend to be a bit bland after a while, using the same effects for each spell for the most part (for example, a strong fire spell will look the exact same as a weak fire spell. At least prior to impact). I personally do not like the music in Oblivion, though the songs can easily be changed by replacing the files in your music folder. The main story quest is fairly interesting, though I find it hard to play more than once. Even if you don't enjoy the story, the lore still provides an interesting feel to the world you Overall, Oblivion is a huge game with a very nice combat system, a huge world for you to explore, many NPCs to populate it. Finally, though I'm not counting this towards the score of my review, it is definitely worth mentioning that there are a HUGE number of modifications available for Oblivion, improving upon many problems I've mentioned here (like the shoddy magic system and broken leveling) as well as a few I didn't. There are many to improve performance and stability of your game if your computer can't handle the graphics, while others add in various content (homes, weapons, armor, the things you might expect). As a last word. whether or not you use a few mods or a lot of mods or just avoid mods altogether, Oblivion is definitely a game you should pick up regardless of what console you want it for (though if you want mods, the PC is the best console to go with).… Expand
  30. Necrotaur
    Nov 11, 2012
    7
    When Oblivion first came out, I, and pretty much every other gamer out there, was blown away by the improvements in TES graphics and physics. I must have spent hours watching the guy shoot that bucket with an arrow. Oblivion was THE game to test your PCs capability on. Apart from that, though, the only thing it really improved on over Morrowind was the combat - you could now activelyWhen Oblivion first came out, I, and pretty much every other gamer out there, was blown away by the improvements in TES graphics and physics. I must have spent hours watching the guy shoot that bucket with an arrow. Oblivion was THE game to test your PCs capability on. Apart from that, though, the only thing it really improved on over Morrowind was the combat - you could now actively swing and block instead of having to wait for the stars to align. Questing more or less remained the same, but the setting and certain aspects of the leveling process were huge steps backward. For one, the unique, jungle environment that Cyrodiil originally had was traded in for Generic European Fantasy World #64. Levelled loot and enemies were also a huge problem. The higher level you got, the tougher (read: bullet sponge-y) your enemies got - a case could be made that the game is easier to complete the lower level you are. Radiant AI was also not what it was cracked up to be. Still, Oblivion is a decent RPG and worth a look if you enjoy TES series or RPGs in general.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

1
#1 Best PC Game of 2006
2
#2 Most Discussed PC Game of 2006
2
#2 Most Shared PC Game of 2006

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
94

Universal acclaim - based on 54 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 54 out of 54
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 54
  3. Negative: 0 out of 54
  1. Entertainment Weekly
    100
    It’s just so damned big. That’s what you’ll say after playing Oblivion for more than an hour. Or, for that matter, 50 hours.
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  2. Game Over Online
    96
    Oblivion is by far the closest I have come to playing D&D Sunday afternoons with my friends (yes, I did that, though I’m on medication now), all wrapped up in a stunning package with tens of thousands of lines of spoken dialog and good music.
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  3. Quandary
    100
    I honestly have to say that I am in favour of most of the changes and I think Oblivion is an awesome achievement from Bethesda.
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