To date I’ve been a lurker on the forums, but that I would add my opinion and constructive criticism on Oblivion. Little long.
Context
I got home yesterday and played for 6.5 hours straight, got to lvl 5 during that period. I’ve explored 2 dungeons, completed 2 quests, and the Imperial City and surrounding terrain. I run a pretty high-end rig (3800 X2, SATA RAID, 2x 7800 GT in SLI, 20” Widescreen), and it ate up Oblivion running in HDR. There are no spoilers in this piece.
Gameplay/ Immersion
From the very start I got sucked into Oblivion. By far the best start of the entire TES series. I enjoyed getting a chance “oohing & ahing” over the graphics, lighting, detail, and physics. But what really captured me was the ease I seemed to slip into Oblivion and stay there. I love Morrowind, but I thought you were just thrust into that world, and it took awhile to get absorbed, not so in Oblivion.
The main quest starts off very “interestingly” (no spoilers), and the exposure to the various basic gameplay (fighting, archery, magic, stealth) just felt “right”. I could feel myself roleplaying out my character from the very start, because it felt comfortable and the tutorial supported me playing out in the style I wanted. I especially liked how you got to decide after playing a bit on what stats/skills you wanted. This gave me a chance to re-assess the skills I wanted.
I ended up creating a custom class (Investigato (Can’t do the “r” because of the character limitation!) – Stealth based. Theme is an investigator for the empire (I was framed!) who uses a cover of a courier/diplomatic attaché to travel around (Blade, Marksman, Sneak, Speechcraft, Illusion, Security, Light Armor)).
After getting out of the prison I admired the world and then decide to start exploring, not because I had to, but because I wanted to. I wanted to leap into the world and forget the main quest. I found a bandit camp, ruins, explored a dungeon, hunted, explored another dungeon (that I need to go back to someday), swam, collected plants, accidentally found a quest, and the finally wandered into the Imperial city via the port, which I swam into. From there I completed 3 quests, joined a guild, got to level 5, and did a fair bit of exploring. I’m still only at the Imperial city.
During this whole period I never felt disconnected from my character. I enjoy the revamped stealth system. It isn’t Thief, but adds a level of depth that Morrowind didn’t have (I watch my lighting now and try to remain in harder to notice places). Archery is very fun, I love pincushion-ing mobs and figuring out the right height and lead time for a target. I liked watching NPCs go about their business and stop and talk. The first time I saw a guard stop at a target and practice fighting it was awesome! Or when I entered a store an interrupted a shop-keeper talking to a citizen. That’s what they should be doing right, interacting with the world around them? It made me want to go an eavesdrop on conversations (that’s me role-playing again) or explore every open door. Oblivion definitely feels more alive.
Speaking of alive, the herald and the published newspaper are genius! Even some of the little details in the city are well thought out, wanted posters anyone? The mini-games are an interesting touch, though I can see how they could get tedious in the long run.
My best gameplay highlight last night had to be one of the three quests I just stumbled upon (of the 5 quests I got, 3 were accidential). All I will say is I want to certain place expecting to do a certain every-day task and found myself both panicked (as in “Holy crud what’s going on, where am I going what are these people?!”) and excited. While short-lived it was intense, had an interesting little story, and was most importantly FUN. I’ll leave you to find it, but all I will say is make sure you sleep around in the Imperial City.
Oh one last thing, leveing up. Bethsoft has added a great tweak to the whole process. If you use a certain set of skills belonging to the same stat more than others when you are in the process of leveling up you get a bounce to that stat above and beyond what you would have gotten. For example: While in the city I was getting a lot of Speechcraft pts. When I lvled up, I had +2 on several stats related to sneaking, and +4 on Charisma. So the game rewarded me based on my role-playing/style! Brilliant!
Mechanics
Graphics - Are great in HDR. I like shiny objects (makes me want to clean them in the river and put them in my burrow). I don’t see what people are complaining about, yeah the distance graphics aren’t the greatest, but they still look good. I’ve only had objects “pop” into existence once, otherwise everything showed up in the distance as it should. This one instance involved swimming over to a fort near the Imperial City, I went from a few ruins to a tower in about 1 second.
Interface – In general I like it. It is easy to navigate, easy to read, and manipulate. I’ve got a couple of gripes, see below.
Combat – Took a bit to get the hang of, but again reinforces the immersion. Getting knocked back in combat, timing your blows and blocks, all feels great. You can still take damage while blocking (cuz you are short, or they aim for your feet, or your skills suck), which is a good touch.
Running/Jumping – Are 1,000 better than Morrowind. No longer do you feel like you’re an old man/out of shape and slowly getting younger/fit over time. You can move pretty well right from the start.
Load times – There are load times? Outside you never notice it, and inside they are 3-5 secs. Which compared to most games, that is nothing.
Mini-games – Patience and a keen eye are required. The games require that you pay attention to little details. They are interesting, but have the potential to get boring in the long run.
Gripes/Constructive Criticism
I have very few so far.
The Map – I say that a degree of dread. Here’s my opinion on what the map needs:
1) Make the map pinnable or the compass expandable – This is my one complaint about the general interface. Morrowind let you pin things, so I could size the map window to fairly small and keep it open and see where I was in the world.
2) Add editable pins! – Please Bethsoft or some Modder please add editable pins. One color is fine, I’ll even use rat blood as ink. In the short area that I’ve explored this lack of a feature has been the most frustrating. Here are just a few reasons to have them – Mark dungeons you need to return to because your acrobatics skill isn’t high enough; Mark interesting areas to return to; Mark your guild leaders who don’t have a sign hanging out front saying “Thieves Guild”; Mark your fences; Mark interesting NPCs; Mark doors you can’t open yet; Mark interesting landmarks; you get the point.
3) All quests have pins on/off switch – While I’ve only 5 quests, 3 were in the same general vicinity. I would be nice to know which quests are near other quests so you can do them in groups, rather than completing one, going away, and then only finding out to need to return to that other spot in order to complete another.
Difficulty Slider – Is a little touchlie. Last night I moved it up a little and mobs were clicking my butt. Moved it back down a little and suddenly my bow is a one-shot sniper rifle. Either I’m really lucky and get lots of one shot kills, or the difficulty slider is a little too sensitive.
Item Details – I’d like to see a little more detail about the items. Have them pop slider include some descriptive text (come on suck us in more with nice descriptions), and an indicator of what our total damage with the item will be. I mean is a 5 really better than a 4, and is that more damage or just a rating.
Water – Looks and behaves great on the surface, but for some reason it is cloudy. Even under-water it is cloudy. HL2 HDR demo had great water, it’d be nice if you could see a little deeper.
Tips & Tricks
Just a few:
Pay attention to everything (the ground, faces, people’s activities, etc). There are lots of hidden items in dungeons that you could easily miss if you don’t pay attention. Like that trip-wire holding back those nice physics enabled spiked balls (nice touch on the trip-wires). This also holds true to conversations. In the quest I mention in the gameplay section, there was one particular tough fight that first starts out with some dialog. After getting killed a few times I read the choices more carefully and realized I knew all the right things to say because I had learned them from other character dialogs. I picked the right ones and alternative ending that was much less painful.
Do the speech mini-game with everyone. Not just because it is fun, or will raise your speechcraft, but because it will unlock conversation items which can lead toward quests. Happened to me last night, I talked up a guy to a certain level, and suddenly he had a new topic (never gave an indication he had it before) and gave me a lead on a quest, which lead me to the Thieves Guild. (Again this fits my style perfectly!)
Use fast-travel only to get to somewhere you already been. By wandering around the outskirts of the Imperial City I found 4 dungeons, 2 bandit camps, an accidental quest, several items, and some great scenery and got to see mother nature in action (watched a wolf take down a deer).
All of this in only 6.5 hours of straight gameplay, can’t wait for the rest.
) 
[edit] a more fair comparison shot]
, but I'm probably way way behind the 'fans' that a lot of you seem to be.
