First we see the the main menu which is animated and shows the map of Cyrodiil overlayed with screenshots.
First, we see an imperial prison cell. Todd moves around the view to show off the different lighting effects on the stone walls. He then shows us how individual objects like a chain hanging from the wall and bones on the ground can be manipulated - he pushes the chain and it dangles, and he also he kicks about a few bones and a skull.
We start to hear dialog from a group of people walking toward our location. It's the emperor Uriel Septim VII, accompanied by one guard and one Blade operative. Looking through the cell door, we can see them approach and talk about escape of the emperor. The emperor notes to the other two that his sons are dead. He then notices their location: the Imperial Dungeon, right below the imperial garrison. He's told by the Blade operative that there's an escape tunnel going through one of the cells that only the Blades know about
They notice the player character and the Blade operative gets upset and says that nobody is supposed to be in the cell. The guard tries to excuse it with a mixup involving one of the other guards. The guard tells you to step back from the door. The emperor recognizes you and says that he's seen you before. He then goes on to say that the stars have been right after all, and that today would be the day, the day of his destiny. At this point, the Blade operative opens a secret passage sliding back a wall, with a large amount of dust coming off it. The guard mentions that this must be your lucky day and that as long as you stayed out of their way, you were free to go. At this point, Todd advances to another scene in the game.
Todd shows us the in-game forest which looks very realistic. The forests make up 50% of the game's environment and are generated using geological data. The trees and other items in the forests are not usually placed by hand. A deer is hopping through the forest and Todd mentions that we could "kill Bambie" and eat it, but goes on to pick up a mushroom called Fly Amanita Cap, resulting in an on-screen message indicating successful harvest. Todd mentions that more of the game action will take place in the forests as now for the first time, the technology is there to make them appealing from a game designer point of view. It seems noteworthy that the worries about leaves not looking realistic - due to them being implemented as sprites - weren't warrented.
Todd then walks the character over to an elven ruin - similar to one that we've seen in older screenshots - located in the forest. An enemy approaches, and the music changes. The enemy is a humanoid character with single-handed sword and a shield. There's a short but intense fight, with both characters getting pushed back by the attacks of the their opponent, bloodying their swords in their attacks. Todd mentions that blood splattering will play a bigger role.
Next, Todd takes us inside the ruin where he gets attacked by zombies and skeletons. He disposes of them using his sword as well as a few fireballs which look very impressive. He also mentions that you can switch to third person at any time and demonstrates that when fighting the skeletons. The corpses fall realistically to the ground unlike in Morrowind, the skeletons falling apart as well. The ruins themselves look very impressive, offering a broad view from something like a gallery. In this dungeon, he activates several traps - spiked metal gates sliding across tunnels toward the player, and another kind of trap where the player is surrounded by walls coming out of the ground, with poison gas leaking into the trap area. Todd presses a hidden switch to release it, making the walls slide back into the ground. We then see a pedestal with a glowing crystal on it. Todd explains that this is what the builders of this dungeon used as power sources for themselves. When he approaches it, Todd's character is attacked by a lich that uses a kind of shock spell. He picks it up and takes us to another kind of dungeon to show us stealthy movement.
The second dungeon looks more like a cave and is inhabitated by goblins and ogres. Todd switches to his character's bow and shoots a few arrows into a bucket hanging over a well - the arrows stick and make the bucket sway. Even after it came to a halt, it is hanging tilted because of the wheight of the arrows. He then shoots an arrow against the well wall which is made of stone and it bounces off. Todd mentions that the quiver shows the actually equipped arrows, including their type.
Next we can see a goblin standing at the end of a tunnel going uphill, trying to push several logs down towards the player. Before he can do that, Todd's character shoots him with an arrow. Todd then walks up to the logs and shoots an arrow into a log which then rolls down the tunnel.
He switches to sneak mode and the curser turns into an eye, indicating that the player isn't currently noticed by creatures and NPCs in the area. He approaches a number of goblins, one of which is in a pit. He switches to a kind of zoom mode and shoots that goblin. He then approaches two other goblins standing next to an encampment of sorts, featuring a giant rat roasting over an open fire which according to Todd is edible but probably doesn't taste as well as the deer seen earlier. He then grabs hold of an apple and rolls it towards the goblins, activating a trap consting of a number of very large maces hanging from the ceilling, smashing the two goblins. He then tries to enter a tunnel but an Ogre jumps him and claws at him.
Next, Todd takes us to the town of Chorrol to show off the character AI. When passing an NPC, they greeted us. Todd then explained that the player could listen in on inter-NPC conversations, even learning new topics for discussion with NPCs. We then get to listen to a conversation between one bard called Marus Antorius and a Dunmer mercanery where Marus tells the Dunmer about Kvatch having suffered a Daedric attack. While we do see "text-over" when Todd is talking to Marus later, no text is seen when the Marus talks to the Dunmer. Todd then starts a conversation with Marus, showing off the dialog system. The keywords are located in a list to the bottom left. The keyword menu has a scrollbar, but in this demo, there is just one keyword - "Recent Attacks" which we just learnt about by listening in on the previous conversation. When talking to Marus, he asks the character to help out in fighting back the attack. We will come back to that later.
Right now, Todd decides to take us inside a book store, mentioning that there are over 400 books in the game. The store owner, a lady, engages us in conversation and Todd shows us the new disposition system which is a lot more complex than the old one. More on that will follow as part of our Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Interface discussion later on.
He tries out several options, first resulting in the store owner getting mad at us, visibly affecting her facial features to reflect that change in disposition. He then mentions to her that he was just joking, which gets her disposition back to a friendly level. She then invites him upstairs. There, we meet her dog - Thunder - to whom she's talking. Thunder is actually standing on his hind legs to greet her. Todd then mentions that NPCs do a lot of the things that the player would do, and that they get afffected by the same stats and effects. The store owner starts practicing her marksman skill, accidently shooting some of her furniture instead of the target, resulting in her cursing. She then remembers she has a potion somewhere that fortifies her marksman skill and drinks that, trying again, hitting the target and noticing that "this is much better". She then talks to her dog again, noticing that he must be hungry because he is so grumpy. She fetches and throws him a chunk of deer meet which he happily eats. He then appears to be much happier and starts to roam about. Eventually, he becomes too active for her taste, so she paralyses Thunder with a spell. She sits down to read a book - moving her finger over the lines and turning the pages - and to eat and eventually decides to hit the hay herself, all in fluid motion. Unfortunally, her dog wakes up again and wakes her up. At this point, she gets really upset and slays the dog with a fireball.
Todd then decides to have his character steal several items from the sleeping store owner, telling us that the NPC schedules come in handy for vampires and thieves - most NPCs always sleep at night, offering creatures of the night the chance to strike.
Next, Todd decides to follow up on that quest we got from talking to Marus Antorius, so he brings up the fast travel map which allows the player to go to any one of the nine major cities in Cyrodiil right from the start - all other locations have to be visited first except for a view special cases where the player is given a fast travel map symbol. Todd selects Kvatch and we enter the city.
The city of Kvetch is in flames. Pictures of that are in the official Elder Scrolls: Oblivion trailer released on the first day of E3 (2005-05-18). Todd's character meets several legion officers which ask him to help stop the Daedra attack on the city. They mention an open gateway and charge towards it. On the way, they encounter seveval Clannfears as well as two Daedroth. Todd's character and the guards defeat the creatures and they approach a gateway to Oblivion. One of the legion officers asks what to do - whether to hold position or to enter Oblivion itself. Then, without warning, a fearsome-looking Dremora steps out of gate that is shaped like the Daedric letter O and asks who dares to contest the power of Oblivion. It slays one of the legion officers and then, Todd's character deposes of it. He then steps inside, and the demo ends.
A few interestings facts:
- The game has been in development for three years
- It will feature all-new music, keeping the concept of combat music, adding dungeon tracks. There will also be music specifically for cities and exploration
- The game contains over 9000 different objects
- Any object can be picked up and manipulated/moved realistically
- There are over 50 hours of voice-over dialog, making up for at least 50% of the data on the game DVD
- In dialog mode, new keywords are displayed in gold, old topics in gray
- Eating boosts stats
- The same skill and attribute system, no experience points
- During fights, weapons get soiled with enemy blood, but it drips off after a few seconds
- Vampyrism is confirmed as being in the game, no info on lycantrophy yet
Oh and by the way, the game is coming out around christmas. Have a nice day.