An ultimate game to live for

FALL IN LOVE WITH A GAME
Oblivion is the first one of the Elder Scrolls series on which I got my hands on. It didn't seem like much of an impressive game for me at the beginning, but being a former addict of the Diablo series, I found this game as the best RPG title I ever happened to play until now. With the game like Blood Money and Halflife 2: Episode One around, I never thought about playing this game for more than just a few minutes, but just after playing it for about half an hour, I found this one far too much addictive and came to know that I just can't keep me away from it! I have already played the game for above 100 hours and reached level 29, but never felt like stopping at any point, I would rather say that I fell in love with this game in such a short period of time. The game is just too huge!

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
Microsoft Windows XP
512MB System RAM
2 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
128 MB Direct3D compatible video card
and DirectX 9.0 compatible driver
8x DVD-ROM drive
4.6 GB free hard disk space
DirectX 9.0c (included with the game)
DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
Keyboard and Mouse

When the game starts, you happen to be in prison. Well, you don't have to spend much time in there as there is a secret passage through the cell built to get out of the city in case of an emergency, and the emperor Uriel Septim VII himself is escaping through the same passage . This gives you a chance to escape and start a new life, working for the good of the empire. The emperor gets assassinated by some weird cult called The Mythic Dawn and your first major task will be to find the heir. But your objectives are never restricted to just one. You will get lots of quests from various cities as you interact with a number of characters in the game. Even if you don't want to waste time talking to these people, you can always try to close the various oblivion gates opened all over the place. Oblivion gates happens to be like a portal to the other world, and the only way to close it is by getting into it and take the descendent stone from its centre.

TIME TO EXPAND THE GAME
The game will expand itself once you join the four guilds. The fighters guild can provide you with a number of extra quests which includes more fighting, and mages guild will have even more. Another place you may like to join in the Dark Brotherhood which will provide you with contracts to kill various people, somewhat like a hitman. There is another guild, the Thieves guild which needs you to sneak through various places to finish a quest. This time you are not allowed to kill any one and thus it is far more difficult if you are too aggressive. There are several hidden places from where you can get more quests and you need to be alert enough to find them! Well, one shouldn't forget the arena where you can fight as a gladiator and even after becoming a Grand Champion, you can keep fighting there every week and earn gold whenever you are in need of quick cash. You can also bet on a fighter and watch the match and cheer for him, but its only a matter of luck that you win or lose.

Just like the usual games of this genre, the game also includes the features like buying and selling of weapons, armour and other goods, picking locks (in a different manner), and also repairing your own items. The percentage of success in all these things are governed by your skills. The game keeps track of most of your activities including the number quests, completed, days passed, bounty, murders committed and lots more. Another thing which I like about this game is the ability to fast travel to anywhere in the explored areas of the map, as long as there is no enemy nearby, or no guards chasing you! Without this, the large environment would have been quite hard to walk through!

STUNNING FEATURES
Your enemies will get stronger as you progress, but you will keep increasing your level as you go through the game. You will have the opportunity to meet the meanest and the strongest monsters, so its better to have some additional armour and weapons in the inventory, as almost anything can happen in the world of Oblivion. How fast you increase your level depends on your major skills. Every class has got some major skills and minor skills. We should always have a look at the major skills because it is the only way to increase levels and thus improve the attributes like strength, luck, endurance and lots more. For me, Crusader proved to be a better class as the major skills seemed to be easier to increase.

Before getting into the game, we get a chance to customize our character. There are a number of races to choose from, including Nords, Britons, Argonians and so on. Each race will have their own advantages and disadvantages. Nords will have high resistance to frost, while Argonians will have the ability to breath under water. In the game, there is also a possibility to become a vampire, giving you some extra powers and increased attributes but having some weakness to fire as well as some sunburn while walking in the sunlight. Being a vampire is quite a remarkable experience and the choice is left to the gamer himself, whether to cure himself or not. You will have to keep biting those necks as long as you want to walk in sunlight. The other features include buying, stealing as well as riding horses, owning houses as well as the guilds from where you can earn some much needed cash.

LOTS MORE TO PLAY FOR
Along with the selection of race and class, another choice which the gamer needs to make is the sunsign. It can affect your game play as some of them gives very useful powers like invisibility and a few others can affect various attributes. Some of these signs are rather less important, but the signs like The Shadow and The Warrior can make the difference when you find the quests too tough to handle. Not to forget the magic and the variety of spells which plays a dominant role in the game.

The game's graphics is quite outstanding - I didn't find it anything spectacular, but I loved it. The character look well-detailed and the world, especially the wilderness gives you a great feeling. The caves look quite realistic and I would have to say that the evil characters look much better than the good ones. I haven't seen any part of the game which is not detailed enough, but going underwater seemed to be a problem as it wasn't too clear in there, but as there are spells like "detect life", its much better.

Another feature with which I got addicted is the voice-acting itself. The game includes the voices of Patrick Stewart, Lynda Carter, Sean Bean, and Terence Stamp. Along with those various sounds of wilderness, the creepy sounds of the oblivion planes and monsters, what I would like to mention is the voices of the various characters. Each one may sound different, and as you will know, talking to the characters may have more importance in this game, even more important than fighting itself. Some of the major quests can be completed without bloodshed in this game, and so the speech craft skills and the related spells can be handy.

Overall, Oblivion is a game which you will never want to miss. It is one of the most wonderful experiences, and this game really shows how a real RPG game should be like. You will have lots of freedom in this game, and there is more than just one way to complete a mission. The various skills form a major part of the game, and as long as you keep playing this game, the more addicted you will be! There is almost no dull moment in the game, as even if you simply explore the empire, you will have lots of time to spend and lots of new things to find! Just try this game and I assure you that you won't be disappointed!