Oblivion is what everyone has been hoping for from the Elder Scrolls since its first inception. It’s extremely open ended but there is a main quest that is linear and holds your hand. Gone are the limits of only being accessible to hardcore RPG gamers and here to stay is the ability to appeal to any gamer of any kind. Sure the D&D roots still make it a bit obtuse but if you’re willing to put in a bit of effort and time then Oblivion will show you the way.

Thankfully Bethesda didn’t go the route of eliminating the Elder Scrolls calling card, which is total freedom, and they just made it a bit more accessible. In Oblivion, like in Morrowind, you can take anything, search anything, pick any lock, talk to any person, and use any item you find. You can follow the path of justice or you can kill any do-gooder you find along the way. You can choose from a variety of starting classes like the Knight and Mage or you can create your very own custom class. You can buy or steal a horse, you can invest in a shop, you can buy your own house, you can join and ascend within a large variety of guilds, and much more all the while completing the main 40 hour storyline at whatever pace you see fit. The game is huge and feels like a new kind of MORPG otherwise known as a Massive Offline Role-Playing Game.

The new menu layout helps immensely at putting the player right at home, at least on the XBOX 360. Everything is custom tailored to be used with a controller and gives the couch gamer a real advantage. The tutorial section of the game does an excellent job of explaining the menu and controls and everything else that goes into playing Oblivion. So much so that someone who’s never played an RPG like this would feel semi-confident after reaching the end of the beginning of the game. And that’s saying a lot for a D&D based game.

Then there’s the graphics which are truly next generation if you have a 360 or a very high end computer. Everything looks nearly as good as the pre-released screenshots. Armor looks wonderful, environments go on forever and feature minute details that astonish, and the often overlooked sky always shows off visual beauty. There are slow downs at time but since this game isn’t exactly framerate sensitive it doesn’t matter all that much. Couple that wish some harsh loading times between areas and you pay the price for next generation visuals coupled with endless freedom.