The game is gorgeous. There is no other way of saying this.
Morrowind was the first game I ever played where one of my first actions was to sit on a rock and watch the sun go down. The landscapes were very alien, with charred valleys, giant mushrooms and flying jellyfish.
Oblivion is several orders of magnitude better looking, with much more mundane environments. The hills around the imperial city are so well rendered in their lush complexity that several times I had the odd feeling to find a particular configuration of rocks, brook and tree very familiar. Oblivion is the first game I ever played that reminded me of landscapes I actually visited in the south of France or in the Alps.
Speed and stability are the second good news of this game. Morrowind was plagued with slow load times and random crash to desktop. So far the game has not crashed on me, and the load times have been exceptionally quick,
But that is nothing compared to the speed of the game itself – being able to run through a forest, with trees, bushes, grass, roots, butterflies, deers, rocks and ruins… all in real time and with near seamless transitions is a real feat. Just for that the development team should be forgiven their mistakes regarding the interface,
The goal of increased immersion is achieved as well. The simplified (simplistic ?) interface is almost understandable in that context. You pick up new quests by listening in on conversations (repetitive after a while but always source of surprises when people talk about the consequences of your actions). The world itself is more mature, with the notable absence of a new monster attacking you every 20 feet – the wilderness is … well… wilderness. Deers run away from you. Wolves don’t. Bandits ambush you on the side of the roads.
The new physics system works quite well, especially when it comes to traps. There is nothing better than luring gnomes into their own traps 🙂 I hope this aspect will be developed later on in the game or in plugins maybe. I have yet to see a full range of mechanical traps in a role playing game.
The last area where the game really stands out is in its advanced ‘artificial intelligence’. Oblivion related forums are the occasion of a new game – what is your favorite Radiant AI moment ?
I don’t have a favorite yet but I definitely have seen some examples :
– Like that patrol guard jumping to save me from a bandit as he was approaching with his horse
– Guild members walking to their room at night for a sleep or taking a break for lunch
– Patrons in an inn walking over to the bartender, then walking back to their tables with some food.
– Roadkills … wolves or bandits already dead on the side of the road
– Guards being relieved for a night shift and going home for a drink
The system is not perfect, of course, but it is a significant improvement over any game I have ever played before. The feeling of a living world is there, at every corner.
It was also a pleasant surprise to see so many mods for Morrowind made it as full features in Oblivion, such as sheated swords, wearable quivers, hoods, dogs, locked businesses a night and people on a schedule. Speaking of mods, the game is not even a week old and already, Oblivion mods are available for download, some of which providing fixes to the most immediate issues with the game.
I can’t wait to see what else will be available for the game a few months for now.