Once again, I have found that returning to something I had felt somewhat "meh" about for quite some time with the benefit of the additional knowledge and experience I have accumulated over time has caused me to appreciate it a great deal more than when I first tried it.
In this case, as will probably be obvious from some of my recent posts, it's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I didn't hate this game by any means, but back when it was a bit more "current" I achievement-whored my way through both it and Shivering Isles, and that kind of soured me on Bethesda games for quite a while afterwards. (That and I don't like the Fallout setting, and I find Skyrim's relentless brownness exhausting.)
Returning to it after enjoying Amelia Watson's recent streams has been a lot of fun, though — and as a result of some of the work I've done on various games for my various projects, I'm now seeing it in a new light. Specifically, I'm seeing it in terms of being a successor to the classic Ultima format of computer role-playing games, in that you get plonked into a big ol' world, given a broad objective that you should probably complete at some point if you can be bothered, and are then invited to wander off in whatever direction you want.
I'm thinking particularly of the earlier Ultima games here; as the series progressed, it became more narrative-centric, but still maintained a significant degree of freedom. Oblivion — and indeed The Elder Scrolls in general — has never made characterisation and storytelling a particular high point, and this has always been a big black mark against it for me. But returning to it now with this new outlook, I can appreciate it a lot more.
Oblivion is a game in which you go about your business and you aren't an especially important person in the game world; you're just one of many people wandering around and doing your thing. I mean, sure, you can become the Hero of Kvatch pretty early on, close shut the jaws of Oblivion and all that good stuff, but so far I haven't touched any of that whatsoever and I'm having a lovely time. Instead, I'm enjoying just wandering around the world, exploring dungeons I come across, gathering loot and practicing my spells.
I'm playing as a pure mage this time — all my major skills are spell and alchemy-related. I've never played an Elder Scrolls game like this before, as I've always felt being able to take a bit of punishment and hit things with sharp objects was important, but I've been enjoying it so far. I've especially been enjoying the added strategy that being able to summon a skeleton to "tank" for me while I sneak up behind enemies and freeze their bollocks off brings to the table; it's certainly a lot more enjoyable than Oblivion's wafty melee combat.
But yeah. As I've been playing, I've been getting those strong Ultima vibes, and I feel like I'm "getting" something about this game that I never really understood before — perhaps because my sole experience with Ultima had been Ultima Underworld, which is a rather different beast in many ways. That lack of characterisation and the severe lack of voice actors is unfortunate, but after a while it doesn't matter too much; as with living life in the real world, the people you have only passing contact with on your journey are of little real importance in the grand scheme of things; they're a means to an end.
In other words, it's very much a case of approaching Oblivion with an open mind as to what it offers as to what you think it "should" be offering, and you'll have a much better time with it.
With that in mind, I'll be revisiting my Oblivion adventures every so often here as I try a bunch of things — for the first time in some cases. Now, maybe just another dungeon or two…
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