The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Xbox 360)

Physics

Havok Physics is married into Oblivion, it runs through the combat system and can cause some hilarious events when you hit someone with knock-back and smash them into a table full of objects, sending plates and glasses/food flying all over the place. It gives everything in the world a specific weight and mass, for example if you smack a bottle with a plate then the bottle will be knocked over.

If you kill a bandit on the top of the stairs, then their dropped weapons will roll down the stairs, clanking down the steps as they do so. Bodies will fall and roll down inclines and in combat you’ll suffer from the various effects that your enemies do, if they hit you with a hard enough blow you’ll be knocked off your feet and if it’s a big creature that hits you, then you might even end up being slammed across a room or down a cliff.

One word of warning, or perhaps advice, Oblivion features traps in most of the dungeons and these are also based on the physics system – get hit by a moving spiked ball or press the wrong pressure plate and you will be restarting from a save point. It’s also nice to know you can use these features to cause trouble for any enemies that you might find.

To Zone or not to Zone?

Oblivion is broken up into zones, you have for instance the main world map which is largely seamless and is populated with a huge amount of things to explore. Hidden dungeons and side-quests wait as well as various dangers and monsters that are only hinted at by scared townsfolk. The world loads in areas as you travel; this occasionally causes a tiny wait as the segment loads.

Then there are the town/city zones like the Imperial City, this is a large area that is broken up into several segments all accessed by doors. Click on a door to go into someone’s home or enter a new area, the game loads that area in and the loading times aren’t too bad – we have seen worse, it’s a minor quibble.

As a general rule, if it’s a dungeon, quest area, home or other such building then the game requires another zone for it. Monsters will also track you through zones unless they get bored, the same as the guard, they’ll hunt you down as you try to run from them.

Sound

With a game like Oblivion you need good sound; thankfully it has bundles of excellent sounds in all the game’s various places. The clash of steel in combat is great, the grunts and crunches as blow after blow lands or is deflected joins seamlessly with the rest of the system and provides a much rounder experience. The sizzle of a fireball spell or the tell tale zap of a lighting based spell soon clues you in to the kind of attack (as if the visuals weren’t enough).

The ambient sound is also excellent as the world is brought to life before your eyes, the whisper of the wind in the trees on a balmy summer’s day or the thrashing howl as the rain crashes down in the middle of a storm, are all done with an excellent attention to detail.

As you’re sneaking through the various dungeons, you learn to pick out these audio clues as well, since the creatures all have various sounds they make like for instance, the creak of a skeleton as it stands idly by before stomping off to guard somewhere else.

Music

Jeremy Soule provides the music for Oblivion and he captures the same feel as he has done with the previous game, it has a stirring score that truly matches the epic nature of the unfolding adventure and provides a dynamic change when you’re about to enter combat, this is one of the ways you know you’re in trouble when the stirring music kicks in and has you scanning the horizon for enemies.

Voice work

There’s a lot of spoken dialogue in Oblivion so it’s hardly surprising that there are a number of voice actor repeats for certain characters. But where the likes of the bit-part voices add excellent parts to the game the stage is stolen by the inclusion of Terence Stamp and Sean Bean as they enter the world of Tamriel as various characters, joining Lynda Carter and Patrick Stewart.

I have no problem with the dialogue in Oblivion, since it’s a mammoth undertaking and the developers must have made some tough choices when casting the game.