Games

Best of 2008 | 07 | 06 | 05
Advanced Search

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed games.

Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles, The

EMAIL PRINTxbox360

9.0 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 45 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 28 votes
Read user comments
Rate this game >

Game Info

Publisher: Bethesda Softworks / 2K Games

Developer: Bethesda Softworks

Genre(s): Role-Playing Game

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

Release Date: March 26, 2007

Summary

[Xbox Live Arcade] 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]

Also On Metacritic

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...

100

ZTGameDomain

If you had any question about getting this enormous expansion, my suggestion is do it. You shouldn't need any other reason, in fact, you should not even bother with reading reviews on it.

Read Full Review >

100

AceGamez

Shivering Isles not only lives up to but actually surpasses Oblivion in many respects. It has everything that made the original so fantastic and then some. Depending on how you play, you'll be in the Isles for a good thirty hours and I recommend milking that for all you can.

Read Full Review >

Console Gameworld

With this much new content, I don’t see why anyone would want to blaze through it. There’s so much to see and do in this oddly wonderful world.

Read Full Review >

Game Informer

With that said, it should come as no surprise to hear Shivering Isles is a bonafide masterpiece and the best the Elder Scrolls series has to offer. [Apr 2007, p.94]

Xbox World Australia

You're definitely in for a good 30 hours of questing here, which is significantly more than most games at full retail can claim. In actual fact, The Shivering Isles is so beautifully executed that you'll fall in love with the game all over again, and that's gotta be priceless.

Read Full Review >

Armchair Empire

Each game and each expansion is always just better than their last mind-blowing accomplishment, and here, the camera work and scene integration is the new star.

Read Full Review >

GamingTrend

Shivering Isles is an excellent addition to the Oblivion world, and it isn't just a small set of quests or a building that you can use during your travels. It is a fully realized realm for you to adventure in, with a story all of its own.

Read Full Review >

Team Xbox

While this expansion doesn’t really offer much in the way of new gameplay, it features some memorable quests and characters.

Read Full Review >

Games Master UK

Got Oblivion? You'd be as mad as a mouse with a rucksack-ful of catnip not to get this. [May 2007, p.74]

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.

Read Full Review >

Extreme Gamer

Stepping through that portal near Bravil will reignite your passion of Oblivion, and remind you why you’ve loved the game originally.

Read Full Review >

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.

Read Full Review >

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.

Read Full Review >

360 Gamer Magazine UK

Fans of the base game will discover plenty of new features and surprises in an experience that tops some of the best moments from the original. [Issue 24, p.58]

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.

Read Full Review >

GameSpy

Although Oblivion's playability hasn't been improved, Shivering Isles storytelling and artistry simply soar beyond anything else the Elder Scrolls team has done.

Read Full Review >

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.

Read Full Review >

Official Xbox Magazine UK

It’s definitely a worthwhile Live Arcade download for Oblivion fans, rejuvenating it and giving your character some wonderful new tricks. Frankly, you’d have to be mad to miss it.

Read Full Review >

Cheat Code Central

Luckily, its captivating characters are far from the only things that SI offers.

Read Full Review >

GamerNode

An entirely new land to explore AND some of the most original environments in an Elder Scrolls game? Yes, please.

Read Full Review >

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.

Read Full Review >

GameZone

While it is pricey, the new world you get to explore adds more RPG gaming goodness and enough quests to make this yet another juicy chapter in this already lengthy epic.

Read Full Review >

Gaming Target

While the 2400 MS point price is a bit on the high side, the content manages to provide more swashbuckling, looting and questing for those who couldn’t get enough from the retail release.

Read Full Review >

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.

Read Full Review >

GameTrailers

Anyone feverishly clawing at their 360 for more Oblivion will venture forth through this new dimension with a smile on their face, but once you do the math, Shivering Isles is just as overpriced as Knights of the Nine and the downloads that came before it.

Read Full Review >

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.

Read Full Review >

Digital Entertainment News

The Shivering Isles is far from a perfect expansion, but it still gives players some completely new ground to tread that’s unlike anything else in the game, which makes it a must-have for anyone who enjoyed the original game.

Read Full Review >

PALGN

There needn’t be any hesitation to burn those points if you're still yearning for some more medieval madness, because the Shivering Isles adds even more incredible gameplay to an already stunning RPG formula.

Read Full Review >

Kombo

As an expansion pack, Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles never feels like it’s going out of the way to impress, and that’s because it’s not. Still, because the underlying formula behind the Elder Scrolls series is so irresistibly fun, we can’t help but love the game.

Read Full Review >

Official Xbox Magazine

It feeds the hunger of Oblivion veterans for more RPG goodness, and new players will eat up the kooky detour it offers as they explore one of 2006's finest games. [May 2007, p.72]

RPG Fan

The unique setting and duality of madness that Shivering Isles possesses provides an excellent backdrop for more Elder Scrolls adventuring.

Read Full Review >

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.

Read Full Review >

IGN

It respects a player's ability to make decisions, offers some useful armor sets and weapons, delivers up a vivid, more imaginative variation on the traditional high fantasy province of Cyrodiil, and will reinvigorate that addictive itch for exploration inspired by Oblivion.

Read Full Review >

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.

Read Full Review >

The Onion (A.V. Club)

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

Read Full Review >

GameShark

If there’s anything I’m not a huge fan of it’s the constant trek through the dungeons, which is akin to a first person shooter with crates, but Bethesda seems to be pretty creative with their dungeons so there’s not as much of a sense of been there done that as there is with many other RPGs.

Read Full Review >

Gaming Nexus

What's really nice about The Elder Scrolls games is that thanks to the level scaling system it doesn't matter when you tackle Shivering Isles. You can take your level 30 character in or start a brand new character and do the adventure at level 1. No matter what your experience is you will have a balanced game where the enemies are neither too strong nor weak.

Read Full Review >

X360 Magazine UK

It's more of the same, which is both the strength and weakness of Shivering Isles. [Issue 19, p.82]

WHAM! Gaming

The first full-fledged expansion for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion takes you on a trip to a skewed and psychotic Oz, full of odd people, new magic and killer creatures. And chances are you’ll love it there.

Read Full Review >

Computer and Video Games

If you played the original to near death, then forgot about it, Shivering Isles is the perfect stepping stone back into what's essentially an incredibly involving adventure game.

Read Full Review >

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.

Read Full Review >

Xboxic

The amount of depth and variety in the Isles, combined with how different the Isles feel from the rest of Cyrodiil make this expansion a worthy addition to Oblivion, and a worthy addition to your hard drive.

Read Full Review >

Yahoo! Games

Given free range to vent their most outrageous, vivid, degenerate, and depraved fantasies on an unsuspecting player, Bethesda's developers have crafted a unique world that shares the same quality of writing and attention to detail as Oblivion itself. Appropriately enough, only the most insane Oblivion addicts could refuse such an opportunity.

Read Full Review >

games(TM)

It’s most definitely aimed at those who were enamoured with last year’s masterpiece – there’s nothing so radically different it could alter any opinion. [June 2007, p.108]

Game Revolution

We expected to have our sanity challenged by talking dogs and barking women, not game breaking, data corrupting bugs. Still, those of you without corrupted save files might consider a trip to the land of madness – it is a strange and bemusing place, and at least it’s more Oblivion.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 28 User Votes

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

Shawn P gave it a10:
When you compare what you get here for your 1600 points against other games versions of expansions for the same or more you find there really is no comparison at all. If the 30+ hours of new gameplay isn't enough to compel you the enjoyable characters and great quests/side quests should. Bottom line is that after hundreds of hours already sunk into Oblivion this expansion reignited my love of the game to play for another few hundred.

Sanzee Boy gave it a10:
This is the greatest expansion pack for any game ever released. Not only is it filled with hours of extra content, it's totally worth the 1600 Microsoft Points (20.00) it costs to buy it. If you have the game Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, purchasing this expansion pack isn't just a suggestion, it's a requirement.

Terrence N. gave it a10:
This expansion is every bit as enjoyable (if not more) than the original game. I will not stop until I have drained every second of playtime out of this one!

Red XIII gave it a9:
Great expansion for a great game, well worth the $30. Lots of new quests, new armor/weapons, new places, a whole new realm to explore, a must have for oblivion fans.

Lars B. gave it a9:
fantastic graphics, good gameplay, but truly a lot of loading times...

Matt W. gave it a10:
So I downloaded this expansion pack about 2 days ago, and CAN NOT stop playing it. It shows that they really put alot of time into this add on. I have not completed it yet but I strongly suggest you give it a try if you like the regular game itself!

Nyte O. gave it an8:
A welcome addition to the elder scroll world. The shivering isle is insane and beautiful at the same time. It brings some new hardware to your already briming armoury. the creation of specific weapons and armour is a nice addition. strange exotic flora and fauna, puts you in awe. hell the world itself is beautiful as mentioned earlier. the negative side aspect is mapping of the npc feet to the floor. There's still a gap from time to time and running on certain gradient looks unnatural (jerky too). The 360 has been out for awhile now, why are developers still using too much lighting?

Games

Sony

Microsoft

Nintendo

Other Platforms

Upcoming &Recent Releases

Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles, The

Game Info

Summary

Also On Metacritic

What The Critics Said

What Our Users Said

Upcoming &
Recent Releases