Before my mind gets completely sucked into the gaming onslaught of the 2009 holiday season and I forget about my recent experience the Oblivion Expansions, I wanted to share my impressions since I completed them this past weekend. I decided to go through The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition last week since it’s been sitting on my shelf and I told myself I wouldn’t play the Fallout 3 GotY edition until I got some enjoyment out of the Oblivion GotY edition, which contains the original Oblivion game with the two DLC packs: Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles.
Knights of the Nine was the first of the two major expansions released for Oblivion, and because it was released perhaps too early in the 360’s life cycle, Bethesda Softworks didn’t put any extra Achievements into this particular DLC. This expansion retails for 800 MS points ($10) online, and provides about 10 hours of extra gameplay through a major quest line that has you journeying around Oblivion’s world and assisting the knights with their quests. It’s not a bad expansion, but it pales in comparison to Shivering Isles due to the fact that it’s not only somewhat short, but it still takes place in the regular edition’s world.
Of the two expansion packs, I dove into the Shivering Isles expansion first, which may have been a slight mistake since I ultimately found Knights of the Nine to be less satisfying in comparison. Shivering Isles was the second of the two major expansions released for Oblivion, clocking in at 1600 MS Points ($20) online, with 250 extra Achievement points, and about a 20 hour major questline (along with several hours of minor subquests) in a different world as you step through what is basically a warpgate to the Shivering Isles. I enjoyed Shivering Isles a great deal because it was a living breathing world with new towns, characters, dungeons, and all sorts of landmarks. While the main questline was only 20 hours long, for completionists that are dead set on exploring everything the Shivering Isles have to offer, you’ll be clocking dozens more hours.
The two expansions come on a second disc included with the Oblivion GotY edition, so it’s actually possible to simply install the expansions onto your 360 hard drive and never need the disc again. (I believe the Fallout 3 GotY Edition second disc with the 5 expansions functions in a similar manner.) Also of note – you are able to access the expansions pretty much right away in the game. I created a new character for both the Shivering Isles expansion and the Knights of the Nine expansion.
So what can I say about these expansions? Certainly don’t buy them for $30 online today since the full game itself with the expansion retails for $30 in stores. And how can one really judge whether it’s worth spending more money for 20-30 more hours of questline content when the original game can last you dozens, or even hundreds of hours? In a way, I do like that the expansions provide you with a major questline to follow, as playing the regular Oblivion game and only following the major quest lines would have you finishing the game in about 50-60 hours. So the pricing is right. Definitely recommended, especially those of you that never got into Oblivion, but enjoyed Fallout 3. Oblivion holds up amazingly well today, and will continue to hold up as the highest rated RPG on the 360.
So how does oblivion compare to fallout? Does it feel like a less polished version in an older setting? I never got into it because I was worried about spending 100 hours in it…
i don’t think oblivion feels less polished at all – i still highly recommend everyone play this game at least once in their lives (my goty for 2006). the setting is certainly fantasy based, but one benefit of that is that you have a lot more varied enemies as opposed to only a couple primary types in fallout 3.
oblivion feels even more grander in scope than fallout 3, and after you finish the primary quest line, you can continue to play the game as much as you want so ppl can play it practically forever if they are so inclined.
the biggest difference in oblivion vs fallout 3 is the leveling system. fallout 3 follows a more traditional RPG leveling system, but oblivion’s was based on using your abilities. if you used abilities that were primary ones for your class (that you decided in the beginning of the game), you level up. all gear and enemies in the game level up with you, so you are honestly free to explore anywhere you want and hold on to any gear that you find. some ppl complain about that, since they don’t like that they never become ultra powerful since the enemies ramp up in levels accordingly, but i actually thought it was pretty cool since it keeps the challenge consistent. it also allows you to tackle the world in any order you wish without feeling like you’re too weak to do something.
Meh, I didn’t really like Fallout 3 or Oblivion, to be honest. :/
I enjoyed Oblivion more than Fallout, though. They both just felt boring and monotonous. And Oblivion felt much more like a Hack ‘n’ Slash than an RPG, to me. Oblivion is about as much of an RPG as Borderlands is. (Just a little)
But I still enjoyed Oblivion a good bit until I got about fifteen hours into the game (Had gotten a good ways through the factions sidequests, I was halfway up the Mage Guild one, Done with Arena, and getting into Dark Brotherhood/ Theives Guild. Also started Shivering Isles and KOTN, which I think I finished. (Knights of the Nine))