Wondering what to do this summer? How about the next year?

When Elder Scrolls IV was announced, I'll admit that I didn't buy into the initial "hype" that surrounded the game. I never played Morrowind, nor did I ever have an inclination to do so. I like to think of myself as an RPG fan, but Western RPG's have never been able to do much in the way of enticing me to play. I'm not sure what it is about giant eyes and generic plots, but I'll take a Japan RPG over the majority of what's produced on this side of the pond any day. However, as more and more screenshots leaked out, and hype began to build to a fervor, I finally caved. Now, faced with writing this review, I'm forced to take the amount of time I've put into the title, (right around 40 hours or so) and condense that into some clear-cut opinions, and a smidge bit of facts.

Lets get one thing out of the way that everybody most likely knows by now. This game is huge, and by huge, I obviously mean MASSIVE. There's a number being tossed around, something in the 200-hour range, that's probably pretty close to accurate. I say probably, because truth be told, I have yet to actually finish the game, and I have no clue when I will. Outside of an MMO, this is the biggest game I've ever played. However, there's both a good and bad side to be had with this feature. The game begins with your created character sitting in a prison cell. After a bit of heckling from the guy in the cell across from you, a few guards and the Emperor himself enter the prison, and make their way into your cell. Your cell also doubles for a hidden passageway out of the main city, but before heading in, the Emperor stops and takes notice of little old you. It would seem the old man has seen you before, in some type of vision that has to do with his own destiny. The end result has you following him and the guards into the underbelly of the kingdom, where the Emperor meets his demise at the hands of assassins, and entrusts to you an item of incredible importance, and your quest begins from there. At this point, you'll be able to pick your class (or create your own), a deity that will provide some type of bonus, and then you head out into the over world.

The menu layouts are well designed for the 360, easy to navigate, and the ability to view all your quests and keep track of what you are supposed to be doing is all incredibly intuitive. You'll even have a waypoint show up on your compass to point you in the proper direction, along with a difference in color that will tell you whether you need to go thru a door or two to get to your destination. The main quest has you going along, closing gates to the dark realm of Oblivion, and advancing the story along at pretty good pace. However, there are a TON of side quests to encounter that range from random encounters with characters in the field, to hidden dungeons and caves, to various quests inside cities.

One of the biggest problems I had was with simply getting too distracted with side quests. The majority of these quests are tiered, and can take some time to complete. Often you'll need to shadow someone for an hour or two (in game), or break into a house/visit a person at a specific time. There are tools in game to speed up the process (you can simply go to the menu and advance the time, or take a nap) but then you can also run the risk of missing something else. It's the equivalent of a kid that won't fall asleep even if he's dog tired, simply because he's afraid he'll miss something if he does. Really, that's a testament to the great job that Bethesda has done with their "Radiant AI", because it can be a lot of fun to just sneak about town and see how some of the NPC's will interact with each other. Youtube is currently filled with examples of this, a lot of which come with hilarious results.

The controls feel similar in style to an FPS, and the sense of speed you get from movement is actually pretty quick. You're also able to sneak around (in fact, it's a pretty vital skill), which puts you in a crouched position. When you're sneaking, you get a small eye in the center of the screen that allows you to tell when someone can see you, which is incredibly useful when it comes to trying to break into someone's home and steal their best silver.

Combat is a bit mundane at times, generally consisting of block/attack/attack/block and so on. If you're a bit heavy into the magic side of things, there are quite a few offensive spells you can cast as well. You're also able to make ranged attacks via the old bow and arrow, and if you can successfully get the drop on an opponent, you'll get a bonus multiplier to your initial attack. When the game begins you'll find yourself fighting against rats (surprise!) and slowly moving your way up to goblins, imps, bandits, wolves and more. It'd be nice to see a bit more variation in enemies, particularly when going thru a random cave or dungeon, which seem to consist of only one type of enemy at a time.

In game dialogue and the voice over work is all pretty exceptional, especially when you consider the sheer amount of characters you'll come across. There is a bit of repetitiveness when it comes to the local townfolk at times, but it pays to talk to everyone you see, because you never know which one of them might need a bit of help. The ability to influence and win over NPC's to obtain secret information, or to barter prices with a merchant is pretty intuitive and fun as well. If your ability to persuade isn't all that great, then maybe a bit of gold can do the job for you too.

Oblivion's music style fits the game remarkably well. It goes thru a wide range of styles, from sweeping and epic, to a small, suitable, town based tune. When an enemy spots you, the music will change in pitch and style, and tends to be a good indicator when you might not initially notice an enemy on the field.

However, Elder Scrolls IV isn't without its technical problems. When you step out into the world for the first time, everything looks really beautiful, at least at first. As you begin to move about and play, and the initial sheen wears down a bit, you'll notice a fair amount of rendering problems, particular with the ground and structures in the distance. You'll also come across quite a bit of draw in, such as walking into what you think is an open field, just to have a few houses or ruins pop up just a few feet in front of you. This isn't particularly annoying from a gameplay point of view, but for something that's considered to be next gen, it would be nice if these problems didn't come into play so often.

Overall, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is easily one of the best reasons to currently own a 360. The game will provide you with more content than you can possibly handle, and is one of the few games on the market today that's actually worth the full $60 price tag. Even if you weren't a fan of the Morrowind, or a fan of the western RPG, I ultimately still suggest giving this one a go, simply for the unparalleled experience it provides.