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Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles, The

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8.1 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 34 critic reviews
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Based on 18 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks / 2K Games

Developer: Bethesda Softworks

Genre(s): Role-Playing Game

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

Release Date: March 27, 2007

Summary

Shivering Isles features more than 30 hours of new gameplay and allows you to explore an entirely new plane of Oblivion – the realm of Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness. Shivering Isles adds to the existing world of Oblivion so you can continue playing with your existing save game/character, or create an all new character just to explore the new content. Within the Realm of Sheogorath, players can explore the two extreme sides of the god's madness – the sublimely creative and the completely psychotic. Something is happening to the Shivering Isles and Sheogorath himself looks to you to be his champion and defend his realm and its inhabitants from destruction. Do you have the strength to survive his trials, tame a realm fraught with paranoia and despair, and wear the mantle of a God? The Shivering Isles features a bizarre landscape split between the two sides – Mania and Dementia-filled with vast, twisting dungeons mirroring the roots of the trees they are buried within. You'll encounter more than a dozen new creatures including hideous insects, Flesh Atronachs, skeletal Shambles, amphibious Grummites. Throughout your adventure, you will discover all new items, ingredients, spells, and more, and have the talented craftsmen of Crucible and Bliss forge new armor and weapons just for you. [Bethesda Softworks]

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GAMES: Elder Scrolls IV: Knights of the Nine Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Cheat Codes & Hints: GameSpot Guide GameSpot Hints & Cheats

Also On The Web: Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Game Informer

Shivering Isles is a bona fide masterpiece and the best that the Elder Scrolls series has to offer.

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Just RPG

The download is pricey, but the content is varied, interesting, and most important, plentiful.

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Gaming Age

Shivering Isles is like Oblivion unleashed and on some kind of psychedelic steroid. While the gameplay remains the same, the artists and level designers kicked things up quite a few notches.

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AceGamez

Aside from the lack of new music and some minor crashes, if you have played through Oblivion and are looking for a fresh new experience then you can't go wrong with The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles.

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VideoGamer

The perfect expansion; it gives you the chance to be good and become Sheogorath's Champion but also lets you be periodically evil, killing and torturing, you can even be the Oblivion version of Frankenstein and create you own monster.

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2404.org

This expansion is a must-have, plain and simple. A gamer on a budget could wait a bit for the price to come down before buying this addition to the game, as exhausting all possible adventures in Oblivion can take a year of real time, but anyone ready for some different-flavored action won’t be disappointed by this worthy addition to the Elder Scrolls series.

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GameDaily

With expansive lands and quests, the Shivering Isles brings forth a landscape that adds further dimension to the already impressive world of Oblivion. Players can find much sadistic joy in going mad.

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Cheat Code Central

As far as gameplay goes, Bethesda has delivered in just about every way. In fact, I think they've improved what Oblivion had to offer.

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Games Radar (in-house)

This 15-30 hours of gameplay is a must-play for anyone, even if you didn't finish the main game.

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GamePro

It delivers more of what made Oblivion great: creative quests, a huge land to explore, and tons of things to do there, making this expansion is a solid purchase for anyone who was a fan of the core game.

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GamerNode

Shivering Isles is an excellent addition, and any Oblivion fan would be well advised to purchase it. An entirely new land to explore AND some of the most original environments in an Elder Scrolls game? Yes, please.

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GameZone

The new environment additions are beautifully twisted, the characters are much more memorable this round being hilariously insane sometimes, and the last and best add-on in Shivering Isles are the missions.

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AtomicGamer

The relatively short playtime and lack of new music or any major Hollywood voice talent are all a letdown, but the gameplay is great and the imagination that went into the Madgod's world really makes this expansion pack shine.

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Jolt Online Gaming UK

Undoubtedly the expansion is better value on the PC, and you don’t have to worry about logging into Xbox Live in order just to play it, but both packages still represent good value at a solid 20-40 hours of additional gameplay.

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PC Zone UK

It's overflowing with creative vision and imagination. [June 2007, p.66]

GameSpot

Shivering Isles adds more than enough new and interesting content to give you a great reason to dive back into the world of Oblivion.

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IGN

It respects a player's ability to make decisions, offers some useful armor sets and weapons, and delivers up a vivid, more imaginative variation on the traditional high fantasy province of Cyrodiil.

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GamingExcellence

With new weapons, enemies, spells, environments, quests, and a story that makes the Knights of the Nine seem like child's play, the Shivering Isles really delivers on the promise of a great expansion pack.

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Worth Playing

Despite the gatekeeper glitch, and a few tolerable crashes at transitioning points, Elder Scrolls IV – Shivering Isles is certainly money well spent. Characters are well developed and the main storyline is interesting.

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Game Over Online

From a shear hours-per-dollar perspective the expansion pack is more than worth it. For those who explored every nook and cranny of Oblivion and were somehow craving more, have at it – you doubtless will not be disappointed. For those, like me, who maybe had enough, more time on the all-you-can buffet line isn’t really a good thing.

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PC Gamer

As Sheogorath would state in a melodious Scottish accent, Shivering Isles is "more of the same, only completely different." [July 2007, p.62]

Gamer 2.0

Bethesda Softworks wisely followed the “if it ain’t broke” axiom and left much of the core gameplay unchanged, opting instead to toss on oodles of new content and leaving no stone unturned as to how to make the game that much better.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

More of the same, but weird, wicked—and psychotically pretty.

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Game Almighty

Kudos to Bethesda for going the extra mile and delivering an expansion pack worthy of their history...as well as taking a risk on such a bizarre setting.

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Strategy Informer

There’s a bounty of new swag, interesting characters and quests to be had in these isles of Mania and Dementia; a great expansion to an already great game.

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The New York Times

The game does ask the player to make choices, but they seem best decided by a coin toss, as there are no practical or moral reasons to choose a particular path. While a theme of duality runs through the game, it is more narrative conceit than game-play enhancement.

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My Gamer

Like everything they release, The Shivering Isles is a highly polished gem, well worth every penny. I just wish that they'd tried a little harder to give "honorable" characters a way to win.

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PC Format

It seems that Oblivion wears insanity quite well, and it's a refreshing approach to the established universe. [May 2007, p.65]

1UP

OK, so Shivering Isles doesn't reinvent the fireball. But the impeccable design and construction of the original game breathes life into this expansion -- not, as you might assume, the other way around.

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GameSpy

Its original problems are still there, but they're more than made up for by the amount of fun to be had in the main quest line. In its current state, the expansion is already fun enough to justify the $30 purchase, and, like the original, we're sure it's only going to get better as time goes by.

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Boomtown

My only real problem with Shivering Isles is the not-so-great mission structure and how the worlds of Sheogorath seem a bit more dead than the regular game - despite the beauty of the new world. As a supplement to Cyrodiil, however, they work great.

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Gamers Europe

The only real problem with this expansion is finding the time to play it.

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PC Gamer UK

This odd land is worth exploring, and its meaty questline worth bashing through. Whether it's worth £18 for the privilege comes down to your appetite for Oblivion's combat.

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Eurogamer

I can't see anyone who enjoyed Oblivion enough to get through the main quest not buying this. There's lashings of new fighting and exploring, and it's more gorgeous than ever before.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Steve P. gave it a0:
Beware, the game secretly installs malware - SecuROM. It is likely to cause problems with your computer and is almost impossible to remove.

Peter R. gave it a7:
Shivering Isles brings to Oblivion what I had longed for in the original game yet never find. Rather than being forced to endure gate after gate of virtually identical planes of Mehrunes Dagon's sphere of Oblivion, Shivering Isles is, simply, one gate to the realm of insanity. As far as TES lore is concerned, I thought Shivering Isles could have used a little less lucidity, since it IS supposed to be the realm of the Madgod. This aside, however, there is plenty of fun to be had for any player. I was never terribly impressed with Oblivion, at least in comparison to its predecessor, but Shivering Isles breathes life into what had become a rather dull environs of Cyrodiil. The pluralistic world of Sheogorath provides plenty of eye candy and opportunities for exploration, though I would have been happier had there been more than one major city (technically two) instead of a bunch of wooden hovels scattered about. I would rate the expansion's main story as its best feature, in contrast to the miscellaneous quests which are far less interesting. I will avoid spoiling anyone, but suffice it to say, it was very interesting to see some of The Elder Scrolls' most mysterious lore finally be revealed, much in the same way Bloodmoon involved the player in the affairs of a different Daedric prince. My major concerns over the game are the ridiculously bloated graphics (and I thought Oblivion was bad) taxing even the fastest computers, and the reference bug that will, if left unpatched, irreversibly corrupt your saved games after so many hours of play. Do NOT let this happen to you.

James H. gave it a9:
A worthy addition which makes up for those lame "nickel and dime" quest add-ons. Oblivion and it's various add-ons are really entering a "golden age" now that the latest lot of video cards can run it at max or very high settings, allowing for a true appreciation of the graphics (AMD FX55 8800GTS 2GB RAM runs it completely maxed) Very creative design as far as landscapes, new character models, cities and the quests/gameplay are concerned. I agree with what some have said about the music; some new music could liven up this addition even more. Although the landscapes are excellent (giant mushrooms? felldew addiction? I think some game designers were under the influence while designing this expansion :) ), they are horridly barren and undetailed in some spots. One of my favorite things to do in regular Oblivuion is look from upn high at the vista, the trees, landscape features, but in SI it's very perfunctory and lacking in creative detail whenever you aren't walking along the main path. Nice night skies; entire galaxies are visible. The new monsters and races are probably the best new feature, very creative and almost psychadelic looking oddities in this one. This expansion will not disappoint! Well, except for the fact that the usual run of game flaws persists, such CTDs and improper shut downs. Nevertheless, pick it up and play it with your high-level character for maximum enjoyment!

Steve K. gave it an8:
I love Elder Scrolls as much as everyone else, I've played over 165 hours, but I think this game is a little over-hyped for me. I'm still giving it an 8, because there is nothing "wrong" with this expansion. More quests, new locale, new gear, all good. But for higher level players, this is NOT 30+ hours of extra game, more like 15, maybe 20 TOPS, even with generous exploration and doing side quests. My character was level 37 going into it (now 39), so I realize maybe it was a bit on easy mode for me, but still I was expecting it to be a robust 30 hours. I'm grateful to have more ES IV, but I think it is wise to put this game to bed and have an ES V. It's been a great run though, and this is easily the best game on XBOX 360 so far, with some great downloads to keep the experience going.

Sean O. gave it a10:
If only the main game were as detailed and creative as this. A fantastic expansion to an already fantastic game. I'm just a little bummed that they didn't add new music - the original soundtrack is really starting to wear thin.

Harm L. gave it a10:
The artwork is very well done and some very creative minds have been working on the conversations. A worthy sequel that adds a lot of fun to the quality of Oblivion.

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Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles, The

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