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Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The

EMAIL PRINT ps3

8.2 User Score:

Universal acclaim

Based on 45 critic reviews
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Based on 162 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks

Developer: Bethesda Softworks

Genre(s): Role-Playing Game

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

Release Date: March 20, 2007

Summary

Oblivion is a single-player game that takes place in Tamriel's capital province, Cyrodiil. You are given the task of finding the hidden heir to a throne that sits empty, the previous emperor having been killed by an unknown assassin. With no true Emperor, the gates to Oblivion (the equivalent of hell in the world of Tamriel) open, and demons begin to invade Cyrodiil and attack its people and towns. It's up to you to find the lost heir to the throne and unravel the sinister plot that threatens to destroy all of Tamriel. In keeping with the Elder Scrolls tradition, players have the option to experience the main quest at their own pace, and there are plenty of opportunities to explore the vast world and make your own way. Numerous factions can be joined, such as the thieves or mages guilds, and each contains its own complete storyline and the chance to rise to the head of the faction and reap further rewards. Oblivion features a groundbreaking new AI system, called Radiant AI, which gives non-player characters (NPCs) the ability to make their own choices based on the world around them. They decide where to eat or who to talk to and what they say. They sleep, go to church, and even steal items, all based on their individual characteristics. Full facial animations and lip-synching, combined with full speech for all dialog, allows NPCs to come to life like never before. [Bethesda]

Also On Metacritic

GAMES: Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles

Cheat Codes & Hints: Cheat Code Central GameSpot Guide

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...

100

Playstation Official Magazine UK

I've never encountered a game that so completely captivated my attention for this long. I've clocked 180 hours in total and I'm still playing. [May 2007, p.78]

100

AceGamez

Even if you dislike RPGs, I know you'll appreciate the expansive, ever-changing gaming world of Cyrodiil - and you're bound to find a guild and a class that suits your playing style too, whatever that may be.

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100

GameShark

It is an almost flawless role-playing game experience with hundreds of hours' worth of content.

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GamingExcellence

As great as "Morrowind" was (and it was difficult at the time to imagine better), Oblivion is a game that does everything ten times better. It also makes playing any other game out there seem trivial. Oblivion is not just a game, it's an experience.

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PGNx Media

Oblivion does a lot of things extremely well, and everything else very well. It’s hard to find anything to complain about here.

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Gaming Target

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion pulls off a miracle – it's deep enough for the hardcore ES fan, but designed in a way that even the average player can get into it without too much intimidation, though it can be overwhelming at first until the basics are grasped.

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Digital Entertainment News

It’s still a life-sucking, hour-robbing masterpiece that can convert people who don’t normally play RPGs into die-hard game addicts.

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Cheat Code Central

Finally and for the first time in gaming history, an Elder Scrolls title is making its way to a Sony console and the prognosis is in: The Elder Scrolls is as great an experience on the PlayStation 3 as it has ever been.

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GamePro

Most importantly and most powerfully, however: The completely open-ended nature of this experience creates a very real sense of infinite possibilities.

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Extreme Gamer

The PS3 version is just as grand and impressive as the previous versions, if not slightly better in the graphics department.

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Kombo

An incredible game and a heavyweight in the RPG genre.

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ZTGameDomain

Visually this is one of the best looking games on the system to date. Even more so than the already gorgeous Xbox 360 version released last year, the PS3 iteration features some much appreciated improvements that really show off the engine and the environments.

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1UP

The fundamental game is just so epic, the world so vast, the options so varied, that you'll find more quality gameplay shoehorned into this disc than just about any other game I can think of. But the version sitting on store shelves right now is inferior to its brethren on other platforms. So I can really only recommend it if you don't own a 360 or a PC capable of running the game well.

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Game Informer

Oblivion on PS3 is one of the biggest and most impressive role-playing games in history, and you owe it to yourself to play it if you haven’t already experienced it elsewhere.

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AtomicGamer

What this game lacks for in screen resolution, it makes up for in its excellent open world, beautiful art design, and grand architecture.

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GameSpot

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is an amazing role-playing game that should not be missed.

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GameTrailers

There’s just so much to see and do, that your average player will undoubtedly find something to amuse themselves with, and your average role-playing fanatic will probably have a heart attack when they take in the size of the world.

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Pure Magazine UK

A vast game with so much to do, it'll keep you going for months before you even get to the heart of it. [May 2007, p.62]

Worth Playing

Every time you think you've seen everything this game has to offer, you'll come across something new.

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Jolt Online Gaming UK

A refreshing, immersive, massive, satisfying and hugely impressive game.

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Console Gameworld

The newest installment in the Elder Scroll series is as polished and addictive RPG you'll find on any platform. With so much exploration and adventure at your fingertips, this is just what the doctor ordered for the struggling PS3.

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PSX Extreme

One of those RPGs games that you'll likely play for months and months, without end. The sheer scope is so immense, that it feels as if the game has no end. Furthermore, the sense of freedom is arguably the best an RPG game has ever seen. But most importantly, Oblivion's learning curve is what you make of it.

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Games Master UK

Eclipses 360 and all but the most pimped PC rigs. The definitive Oblivion? Probably. [May 2007, p.66]

PSM3 Magazine UK

An incredible open-ended experience, but you're going to need patience to truly savour it. [May 2007, p.54]

IC-Games

Game of the year for the PS3? Oh yes!

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GameZone

Not only is this one of the best RPGs of the past several years – on any platform – but Oblivion has set the bar very high for any PS3 RPGs that hope to follow. A truly magnificent game.

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IGN

There's no doubt that it stands alongside "Resistance" as the system's crème de la crème even if it does have its own share of bugs and a lack of downloadable content found elsewhere. A must buy for fans of fun games -- no RPG bias required.

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GamerNode

The PS3 version may look and run slightly better, and it may include Knights of the Nine from the get-go, but the status of the expansion is something you have to consider, and the fact that there's really nothing new should convince you to stick with what you have.

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Pelit (Finland)

Great fun on PS3, too. The loading times are short, thanks to the hard drive, and the game is as playable as on a fast PC. [June 2007]

Game Revolution

This is easily the best game out for the PS3. With 100 or 200 hours of quality entertainment on one (Blu-Ray) DVD and so many different ways to play, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Oblivion can be nearly paralyzing just figuring out what it is you want to do next.

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Play UK

There's just so much to explore and discover here. Never has such a rich and fully-realised game world been committed to disc. [Issue #152, p.64]

WHAM! Gaming

While the story and gameplay are identical, the PS3 iteration of Oblivion is slightly better than its Xbox 360 cousin from a visual and technical standpoint. Standing on the top of a tall hill and gazing at the landscape below is even more breathtaking than before, thanks to a greater level of distant detail in the environments. Loading times have also been shortened a bit, making transitions between areas a little smoother.

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PSM Magazine

Play Oblivion. It's amazing. [June 2007, p.70]

Computer and Video Games

Oblivion on PS3 is every bit as incredible as other versions. If you own a PS3 and haven't played it, do yourself a favour.

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VideoGamer

Oblivion will consume you. It'll consume your life, your performance at work will suffer and you might not see friends in weeks. With hundreds of hours of gameplay, and an unprecedented amount of quests to be completed, I couldn't possibly recommend Oblivion enough. Great job Bethesda. Sorry social life.

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TotalPlayStation

This is the closest thing we've got right now to an offline MMORPG. That means a stupid huge amount of gameplay for the money, and with a huge story and hundreds of hours of exploration to be had, good luck finding a better value.

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Da Gameboyz

A game that seems to never end as the amount of things to do is immeasurable.

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GameDaily

Oblivion for PS3 still contains a few annoying visual glitches and the occasional slowdown, but these problems seem negligible compared to the game's grand scale and mesmerizing storyline.

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games(TM)

The sense of awe that you feel when freed from the opening act’s claustrophobic tunnels is as tangible as it ever was, and the century of hours that follow are about as compelling as an action role-playing game can possibly get. [Apr 2007, p.128]

Games Radar (in-house)

The only downside - and it's huge - is that as of this late March 2007 writing, the PS3 Oblivion does not support additional content the way the 360 and PC versions do.

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Yahoo! Games

Arguably the best game you can play on this system. It's a grand open-ended fantasy role-playing game that combines the best of single player RPGs with the best of massively multiplayer online games.

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Electronic Gaming Monthly

This is simply one of the finest, most beautiful, PC-style RPGs you can get. [May 2007, p.82]

Armchair Empire

While it’s not perfect, this game is pretty close and I dare you to find better value for your money.

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PALGN

A class act, but those solo PlayStation 3 owners might be better served by the upcoming Game of the Year edition.

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GameSpy

Although virtually every other genre has incorporated RPG elements, no other RPG has so thoroughly taken in the ideals of the sandbox genre as Oblivion. It gives you a massive playspace, a finely tuned (if sadly flawed) RPG engine to play in it with, and lots of other AI-driven people to play with.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 162 User Votes

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

Phalange gave it a9:
This is my favourite PS3 game ever! Non-linear story, flexibility to do what you want. You can kill a random NPC, run from the guards, steal from a persons store. Never-ending options of what to do. At first, I thought a first-person melee game would FAIL. This game does not! The graphics are dazzling (except maybe NPCs), the many sidequests you could do, new areas to explore make it quite the game. You could join guilds, turn invisible, make spells, become the supreme fighter etc.. It does have glitches like almost any game, so you may have to be slightly careful what you do (e.g. review the glitches of the game before you play so you don't fall into them). One issue I had was the fact that if you made a spell with a silly name, you could not delete it. Also, it was pretty annoying choosing the skills you major and minor in - you have to balance it so you don't level too quickly. Overall, I would recommend this to everyone to try atleast once!

Fong V gave it a2:
I rented this game and I'm glad I didn't buy it. Really, I grew up on RPGs and have enjoyed them for their fun factor, story line, techniques, and battle scenes. This game never engaged me enough to play it past the dungeons. The graphics sucked in comparison to ...say GTA4. It looks like it has the graphics of a regular PS2 game (I own an HDTV and it enhances the poor graphics. Try playing a PS2 game on a 1080p TV and you'll see what I mean). Next, the characters and monsters are not perfectly drawn and have edges on them. Heck, I spent over 30 minutes trying to make my character look half decent. A lot of ways to make your character have a face of a deformed rat. The rooms and walls are flat and poorly detailed. What bothered me a ton was that the sword attacks are slow and did not give an indication if my slashes made contact or made any damage at all. I mean, what RPG doesn't show hit points when they're hit? The character menu screen doesn't tell you if a new weapon/armor is better than the one you have equipped. You only see how it looks like in your hand. Also when you're walking around (first-person), you don't know there are coins and items in front of you. The only way to know is if you move the focus point on the screen directly onto the items and only then will it tell you what it is. When I saw coins on the floor, I gave up after 3 because I had to individually pick each one up. There would've been more to complain about but I got bored and stopped playing after I ate rat meat and hacked at the king and his two soldiers. Lame game.

Michael Z gave it a3:
I was hoping for a decent RPG when I got this (some time ago). Very disappointed. The stills might look 'nice' but in action the graphics are slow and clunky and not really that pretty anyway. And that pretty much sums up the rest of the game. Combat is an exercise in frustration of unresponsive jerky controls, sound is pretty bland, as are the character models. And when you finally win a battle you're fighting with an awful unresponsive clunky inventory system. Dull dull dull. Avoid.

Andrew L gave it a2:
There are so many problems with this game.. The graphics are ugly and cluttered, the physics engine is way off modern standard, the character, regardless of first person or third person view feels like its hovering above ground (what a surprise that this problem occurs in Fallout 3 also). It really just doesn't work, on any console. It seems to have a severe refresh rate problem, along with lag.. in an OFFLINE game. Most melee attacks will hit at random and you spend a lot of your time looting worthless junk that only clutters your inventory, making you walk like a turtle. The complexity of making your class is beyond me, it shouldn't be so hard to just pick up and play the game, that said, this is NOT a game for casual gamers, be prepared to be bored out of your life customizing your ugly character. Given it is open world, there are no incentives. Theres no point the world being so big if you can click on your map to get 3 million miles away in a second. Most enemies are impossible to hit because of the lack of a targeting system, you spend more time spinning the camera around, waving your worthless melee weapon around until for the love of God you finally kill the enemy. Finally, when you talk to people, the camera zooms in on that person, freezing all background animation (coincidentally, Fallout 3 does this too), WHY DOES THE GAME HAVE TO DO THIS? Whats wrong with talking to them as they are? It sucks all the realism out of the scene, making you remember you're playing a [terrible] game. It's just really bad I mean I know its been reduced to what.. $30 on shelves now? Still not even worth that..

Ture S gave it a10:
This game is the best game I've ever played, and probably the best I'll EVER play. While it does not have certain elements Morrowind has, I enjoyed this game FAR more than I enjoyed Morrowind. The fighting system is awesome, the graphics are amazing and the voice acting is wonderful...

Ostaf gave it an8:
This is probably my favorite game ever made. The graphics kind of suck (people suck environment awesome) There is soooooo much to do. I have put in well over 100 hours and I haven't even scratched the surface. This is what I like in a game....get my moneys worth. If you don't like medieval fantasy type games then don't get this. the only people that I know that don't like this game are people that don't like this type of game.

george b. gave it a10:
Awesome. For those who have played RPGs before, this will be the best of the best. But for those who haven't played a RPG then you might be lost. Pecchioni: I don't know why a RPG shouldn't be on a consil, Oblivion works fine on my ps3. John: this game is near 3 years old, the game play is a fast as you want it to be ( RPGs take time, their not fps's) and you can attack 99% of every body in the game Pete: why did you rate the game a 1 based on the system, you yourself said it was great Ryencoke: The ps3 loads are faster (even if its a fraction you load alot in the game).

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Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The

Game Info

Summary

Also On Metacritic

What The Critics Said

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