"I like it, but..." - Episode 6: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, continued...

Dungeons: “This seems strangely familiar...”

This is part 2 of my discussion of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which, despite my complaints is still one of my favourite games ever.

Oblivion is set primarily in the Imperial Province of Cyrodiil, in the very heart of Tamriel. For a game released in 2006, over four years ago now, the world created in this game still looks incredible (especially if you have a HDTV). Sometimes I just like to wander around the wilderness of Cyrodiil, finding map markers and enjoying the scenery; the sunrise, sunset, the stars at night (and the two moons of Mundus), and even rainy days are all done beautifully. There’s no real limit to where you can go in Cyrodiil and just exploring can often be really fun. The land is honeycombed with complex networks of caves and dungeons beneath ruined fortresses, many of which you will visit as part of quests, but most have nothing to do with any quest in the game and you can simply explore them at your leisure. And therein lies the problem.

Some of these dungeons (I’ll call them all that for brevity’s sake) are quite unique and cleverly done, but most of them are very similar in appearance, to the point that it can become quite dull to go on multiple dungeon crawls. They use the same shapes in cave walls and tunnels and you will often find your character in a vast open space that looks exactly like the vast open space from the last cave you visited. And this happens a hell of a lot, even in caves that are quest-related. Granted, every dungeon is technically unique--they all have a unique layout; however, many of the elements of the scenery are reused--and I cannot help but respect the sheer amount of effort and the number of man hours that must have gone into creating all 223 uniquely laid-out dungeons across the game map; but I wonder if, perhaps, it might have been better if the developers had made fewer dungeons and focussed on making them more unique in their appearance than in just their size and shape. After all, I've played Oblivion several times now and I still haven't even found all of the dungeons, to say nothing of exploring them.

Only a short entry this time, I know. Next Saturday’s will be longer and will be concerning some of the problems with voice acting in Oblivion.