The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Critic Reviews

Like Homer, once you've begun to consume what this eternity has to offer, you'll have no desire to stop. The fourth Elder Scrolls entry is utterly brilliant and should not be missed by any adventure-spirited gamer.

A staggeringly ambitious game that successfully unites some of the best elements of RPG, adventure and action games and fuses them into a relentlessly immersive and intoxicating whole.

The painstaking attention to detail, outstanding worldcrafting, and inspired AI make it a huge improvement; and there wasn't all that much wrong with "Morrowind" to begin with. Oblivion is a stunning game -- don't miss it.

The music is superbly scored and goes a long way to set a mood. I ca not imagine playing this game without the soundtrack and any attempt to do so only managed to break the mood.

Simply put, Oblivion is a game where the story never ends. The story of your exploits in any other game would have natural gaps, but here you can just keep telling it, with every yarn feeding logically into the next.

Here we have a game that is intelligent and uncompromising yet wonderfully easy to get involved with and enjoy.

I’ve been playing Oblivion for the past 5 days straight and I am about 30 hours into the plot and from what I can gather it is only beginning...It literally does have a hold on me.

The most captivating first-person role-playing game yet. This is essential gaming.

Once past the first level, my character continued to skill up in those things she used most, in the most incredibly seamless and incredibly deep role-playing mechanic I've ever seen in a console game.

The bottom line is Oblivion is probably the only game besides Halo that gamers will still have in their drives a year from now, an after running around the world for 50hrs I can see why.

An epic, not only because the immaculate world you inhabit is so immense, but also because the gameplay is fantastically intense.

Worth playing for the sense of discovery—each environment looks different from the last and requires a nuanced reaction—makes the action addictive.

Due to the diversity and individuality presented to the player in the game, it's not possible to adequately explain just how involving and rewarding the experience of Oblivion is, or put over the immense scope of the living, breathing world on offer. Bethesda richly deserves incredible success in producing something so captivating.

Cyrodiil looks absolutely stunning. Everything is bright and wonderful in the sunshine, birds singing, pigeons flocking, butterflies dodging about in the shadows, and then environments look damp, cold and miserable when rain rolls into town. The level of detail is quite breathtaking.

For those used to linear, Japanese-style role-playing games, Oblivion will seem like a revelation. All the games in this series have been known for their sheer vastness and freedom of choice, but the Elder Scrolls IV takes that concept and runs with it.

It’s just so damned big. That’s what you’ll say after playing Oblivion for more than an hour. Or, for that matter, 50 hours.

Oblivion is a blast to play, and it's a considerable achievement in the annals of electronic role-playing games.

One of the ultimate RPG’s of our lifetime. It is an experience you won’t soon forget and possibly one that might never end.

Oblivion not only raises the bar in the visual and audio modules but also in the gameplay and presentation department, making it easily one of the most recommendable titles to anyone who has ever enjoyed the thought of truly doing whatever they want in a video game, in a world where actions actually mean something.

It is quite possible to blow through the game in 30 hours, but it is equally possible to play for 400 and still not have done everything there is to do in Cyrodiil.