Oblivion, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?

After taking The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for a spin post-Fallout 3, PC World’s Matt Peckham stumbled upon several of the game’s flaws that he apparently didn’t pick up on years ago.

To be fair, I had a blast my second go at it–three years along and still compelling. That’s something. Early going I wasn’t so sure. I’ve played plenty of Fallout 3 (PCW Score: 90%), a game whose existence is contingent on Oblivion’s, but which also addressed most of Oblivion’s idiosyncrasies. Like: The random creatures that spawn into areas and match your current character level, waving away the illusion of an independent/persistent ecosystem. Or: The madly recycled voice actors and tediously similar dialogue expressions. Or: The clumsy map interface that’s like peering at parchment through the visor slit in a helmet. Or: The way the whack-block-whack combat system makes fighting the finale’s dazzlingly accoutered malefactors feel roughly analogous, mechanically, to chopping up the game’s inaugural nests of rats.

Repetitive spelunking notwithstanding, I was tempted enough by the clever side-stories to keep at it, by the lure to cinch shut every last alien-flame-licked Oblivion gate, by the possibility of finding uncanny narratives sequestered away in backwater haunts I’d simply galloped past the first time. And if I’m being totally honest here, I was probably not a little motivated by that manic compulsion some of us have to finish certain games unconditionally, to tie things off with the same exhaustive checklist-obsessing that’s only Not-Entirely-Insane when the purview of airline mechanics or astronauts.