Bethesda knows what it wants. Ever since 1996, the company has pursued a singular vision of what it feels an RPG should be: an enormous, immersive world with open-ended gameplay and a content-rich alternate universe that could pull in a player for months at a time. Its first significant attempt at achieving this was 1996's Daggerfall (a.k.a. The Elder Scrolls: Chapter II), a brilliant game that was weighed down with bugs and technical issues that mildly annoyed some, infuriated others, and kept many people from running it at all. The next attempt, 2002's Morrowind, was much better. It was streamlined and easier to get into, but the world was just as deep and rich, the graphics were much improved, and the gameplay was even better. It was, however, also weighed down with bugs and technical issues that mildly annoyed some, infuriated others, and kept many people from running it at all.

Fast forward to 2006 and Bethesda's latest release in The Elder Scrolls series, Oblivion. If this doesn't prove that history repeats itself, I don't know what does. Oblivion is a brilliant game, a bit streamlined and easier to get into, but even deeper and richer than Morrowind. Despite its brilliance, however, be warned: it's also (you guessed it) home to some bugs and technical issues that will annoy some, infuriate others, and keep many people from running it at all.


Find Freedom in Tamriel

Oblivion takes place in Tamriel, a fantasy universe occupied by a mixture of the standard humans, Elves and Orcs, along with a few non-standard ones like half-lion people and even a race of lizard men. Though it's not a direct sequel, Oblivion, like the earlier games, starts with the player in prison for some unspecified crime. You won't spend long there, however, because you're quickly rescued by none other than the Emperor of Tamriel (voiced by Patrick Stewart), who's on the run from mysterious assassins. It seems the Emperor's sons have been murdered and once he's dead, there's nothing stopping the denizens of Oblivion (Tamriel's version of Hell) from opening dimensional gates and wiping out all life on the planet. Naturally, after the Emperor's death, it's up to the player to take his amulet and find some way of stopping the Oblivion invasion.

Or perhaps not. One of the hallmarks of the Elder Scrolls series has always been the absolute freedom to do whatever the player wishes. That freedom remains in Oblivion. If the player wants to walk away from the main quest and never return, they're perfectly free to do so. Indeed, one of the most fun elements of the game is the sheer joy of walking around the beautifully rendered world and discovering all sorts of new things around every turn. One thing that occurred to me as I was playing the game was whether or not it would be possible to kill every named character in the game or climb and jump off every mountain peak. I'll probably never do it, but I suspect that somewhere among the Elder Scrolls fan base, somebody's working on both right now.

Part of this freedom comes from the game's character development, alchemy, and spell-making systems. Character development is relatively unchanged from previous Elder Scrolls titles. Unlike other RPG systems, player characteristics aren't leveled up via an arbitrary experience point system. Instead, player abilities improve through practice. The more the player swings a sword in combat, the better his or her sword fighting skills become, and casting spells increases the power and complexity of spells they can cast. While there are plenty of pre-made spells, magic items, and potions in the game, the powerful and easy-to-use crafting system means that players can create custom made items and spells. This means that character development is largely based on how the player actually plays the game, not on arbitrary decisions made without enough information when the player levels. It isn't always easy to do this -- you're forced to pick a specialty at the beginning of the game -- but it is possible to turn a pure warrior into a mage just by practicing.