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October 4, 2005 - After what seems like an eternity of salivating over a few screens and grainy leaked videos, we finally got to go hands-on with Bethesda's Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and it was good. Upon starting up the demo we were treated to a cinematic of Uriel Septim, Tamriel's lord voiced by Patrick Stewart, describing how his dreams had revealed that the gate to Oblivion had been opened. The camera first showed a group of demons and monsters parading around a glowing red eye that seemed to be powering the red-black portal that we've seen in screens so far.
Afterwards the camera made a sweeping shot of a gear like palace made of white rock with a large spire at the center. We then launched into the game's character creation system. It was set up with the menu options on the left and a large head portrait of your created character on the right. Players could choose between Khajiit, Nord, Imperial, Orc, Redguard, Wood Elf, Argonian, Breton, Dark Elf, or High Elf for their race. After selecting a gender the face could be customized to very specific proportions. It was possible to manipulate your face's shape and tone, as well as the cheeks, eyes, forehead, tone of beard, eyes and eyebrows, lips and nose. You could also change the hair style and color along with your character's age and skin complexion. Overall it was extremely detailed and allowed for highly specific customizations.
You'll have many of the same skill as in Morrowind like restoration, alchemy, destruction, light armor as well as strength, agility, and luck statistics, among many others. Birth signs are still in the game, as well as gauges for bounty, fame, and infamy.
Screaming from an adjacent cell is what you're greeted with as you stand in your own at the game's start. The prisoner from across the way is telling you how you'll never escape and other disheartening information. Soon thereafter Uriel Septim descends to your cell and demands entrance. As back up in your cell to let him pass, he and his retinue of guards, known as the Blades, unlock a secret passageway in a wall beside you. Before he enters he turns to you and claims he's seen you in his dreams. After a short interactive sequence where you're able to ask questions about where you are and what you did to land in jail, Uriel and the guards pass through the gate leaving you unharmed.
You're able to follow, and soon after you'll discover that Uriel and his guards have gotten waylaid in the passages below by a group of rogue soldiers. Though you can only provide minimal assistance given you only have bare hands, you'll discover a katana on the ground among the fallen bodies. You'll still be able to loot just as you were able to in Morrowind, but the looting and equipping interface appeared much more streamlined. Your menus in general were much easier to use, allowing you to scroll between weapon, item, and skill tabs and equip, unequip, assign active spells, and check stats with very little confusion.
With you strikingly detailed katana armed and ready, you need to fend off a gang of giant rats that burst out of a wall next to you. Melee combat in Oblivion felt like it was functioning with a more fluid, intuitive system than Morrowind. We were able to slice the rats into submission with a several swings while nimbly avoiding their attacks, though in some cases were outnumbered by so many rats it was difficult to keep track of which ones we were actually hitting with our sword.
Since Uriel and his guards had gone up ahead and forbidden us to follow, we plunged through the hole the rats had made in the wall into a dark and dirty catacomb area. Shortly after we got inside we picked up a shield and a bow and arrow. When equipped, we were able to block with the shield using the LT button. The bow and arrow was impressive, especially when zoomed out to the third person perspective which showcased the smooth arrow draw and subsequent fire. The tutorial text instructed us to fire the arrows into a bucket hanging into a well. We did as we were told and were treated to a demonstration of Oblivion's accurate physics as the bucket bounced around from the arrow's force.
After we'd shot a few we went and pulled them out of the bucket and went a far door where we saw the game's lockpicking interface. When initiated, a separate screen popped up of a cross section of the lock with a number of pins sticking down. We were able to move our lockpick in and gently tap the pins until they locked in the correct place. Unfortunately we broke all our locks trying to do this, so we wound up picking an iron key off a corpse behind us and progressing onward.
It was dark in the sewers ahead so we broke out a torch which highlighted the glistening grey rock that dominated the scene. Using the X button we were able to switch between the torch an our sword on the fly, which was useful when enemies popped up. We fought one zombie character, progressed into the next room and were absolutely mauled by rats. At this point we had to open our menu and quaff a strong potion of healing. When we returned to combat we blasted several fireballs at the rats and they finally stopped bothering us. We also noticed the rats' corpses reacted when swung at with our katana with a slight jiggle and a squishy sound.
Overall the game was so far everything we hoped it could be. The environment was incredibly detailed, the voices were great, graphics smooth and believable, and the game felt much smoother and easier to control. This is one title we absolutely cannot wait to get more hands on time with. In the meantime, keep checking IGN for new media and information.
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Topic: New Oblivion Screens (Read 99 times)