Last year I called Oblivion my
favorite game of 2006, and that opinion sticks. Good points can be made
about the generic fantasy setting, reduced depth compared to Morrowind,
and some promises less than completely fulfilled, like the new AI which
had some silly problems. But I still enjoyed the hell out of it for a
long time, and continued to do so long after I wrote that. Pretty
recently I added a whole bunch of content, including most of the
add-ons, the enjoyable Knights of the Nine
quest line, scads of user-created stuff, and the expansion released
last year, Shivering Isles. It all adds to an already huge game, and
Isles in particular revitalized my interest in the game and its history.
Shivering
Isles doesn't do that much to improve gameplay, there is some
interesting additional weapons and magic, but it plays largely the
same. What's great about it is how it steps up the enjoyability of the
atmosphere. If you get into it, the Elder Scrolls series has some
interesting lore and really intricate detail to it, although that's
somewhat obscured by the blandness of Cyrodill, the province of Tamriel
Oblivion mostly takes place in. That's not a problem with the
expansion, which ships you over to the realm of Sheogorath, one of the
other Daedric princes, who happens to be completely insane. Instead of
lush hills and deciduous forests, the landscape is peppered with
gigantic plants and mushrooms and all sorts of winding paths. Every
resident is almost as crazy as Sheogorath in their own, unique way, and
in contrast to Oblivion's pervasive seriousness, Shivering Isles is
genuinely funny. It's always fun to meet new people and discover
exactly what psychosis is bothering them that day. Sheogorath is the
star attraction, and as far as talking heads that serve only to give
you your next quest go, he's one of the most entertaining to listen to.
There's
improvement in the amount of choice you have, too. Many quests in
Oblivion gave you some choice about which way to go with a certain
dilemma and the consequences varied, but those were mostly isolated
incidents. There are a few choices you have in Isles that have real
resonance with how the rest of the entire game plays out. It's still
mostly the same, but it's different enough that your decisions seem to
have an actual impact. In addition to all these design improvements,
it's still an entertaining, rewarding RPG, and my only real complaint
is that too many of the side quests are really just fetch quests, even
if what you're fetching is more interesting than it usually is. There's
still plenty I haven't seen, but I'd recommend it to anyone who has any
interest in the series.
