ES4: Oblivion - Re-Review @ RPG Codex

A second review of Oblivion has been posted at RPG Codex, written by Section8 (who, if I recall correctly, was an artist with Micro Forte on Fallout Tactics). Here's an excerpt:

I would estimate that some ninety-percent of the many game locations are functionally alike - a dark place filled with cookie cut sets of inhabitants, and loot appropriate for your character level. Basically, nearly every location is a quick mission generator madlib. "I want to explore a (tileset) themed dungeon, face (monster type) and get loot for a (number) level character." And to add to this oddity of world design, dungeons respawn a few game days after being cleared, so basically you get to pick and choose once you've explored a few. I found myself taking note of the dungeons where the inhabitants exclusively wear heavy armour, and I'd revisit every couple of levels to upgrade my equipment.

More information.

Interesting … but what got me was that after ~10,000 words we get "to sum it up in a nutshell"

… and as I thought about the size of the nutshell, I was reminded of Scrat from Ice Age …

Originally Posted by txa1265
Interesting … but what got me was that after ~10,000 words we get "to sum it up in a nutshell"

… and as I thought about the size of the nutshell, I was reminded of Scrat from Ice Age …

lol, what a laugh that scrat was

Not so much of a review but more of a look at some of the mechanics that didn't really seem well designed. Still, I guess that the article has more in common with a review.

I'm glad Section8 is on board.

Remind him to give us a visit as well!!

It's a game that was never likely to hold appeal to someone like myself, an armchair designer of the highest order

Must be an American, got to love that sense of modesty.

That was self-deprecation. "Armchair" signifies that the person has no direct experience in that field, and calls his authority into question.

Well written, especially this quote is hilarious:

"But, as time goes on, you begin to realise that your affection is ruled by imagined possibilities, and each of the game's many facets turn out to be fairly unfulfilling. Kind of like trying to eat a meal with a Swiss army knife. You think it's going to be crazy useful having 27 different tools handy, but in reality, the only thing worth doing is threatening to cut someone unless they bring you a fucking knife and fork."

Originally Posted by abbaon
That was self-deprecation. "Armchair" signifies that the person has no direct experience in that field, and calls his authority into question.

oops I missed the armchair bit. I haven't been getting much sleep recently, I watched the first 2 seasons of Battlestar Galactica in the last 2 days, and completed the first Heroes3 campaign and am work a party through the old buck rogers games for about the 5th time.

more like temporarily blinded by your prejudice

Good review, and one where the ranting and raving was definitely held to a minimum while conveying the general negative drift.

Having recently played Wizardry 8, this sounds rather familiar:

… and some skills also require a certain degree of player dexterity. For instance, if the character tries to pick a lock, an interface window pops up displaying the tumblers of a lock, and the player must raise and lock each tumbler into place to swing a lock open, with more difficult lock obviously requiring more tumblers to be successfully circumvented.

Is this so common a game convention that, like the health bar, it isn't really plagiaristic, or is it a blatant rip-off?

They have all become very common place in games!!

Originally Posted by bjon045
oops I missed the armchair bit. I haven't been getting much sleep recently, I watched the first 2 seasons of Battlestar Galactica in the last 2 days, and completed the first Heroes3 campaign and am work a party through the old buck rogers games for about the 5th time.

I love the new Battlestar Galactica, I have seen every episode and own all the DVD sets released so far. It's actually the only show I'm a fan of, as I'm not really into TV in general.