I'm making this thread to hopefully prevent any more opinions-threads so that we can have a cleaner forum and all the player-reviews in one place. I know it's kind of contradictious since I'm making a new thread myself where there are plenty taking up the same subject but I felt this was nescessary to make the point clear. (If any mods feels otherwise go ahead and lock )

The structure of your review is entirely up to you, but a good thing to inform the public would be how long you've played so far. That way we can all know how thoroughly it has been "tested" and read the reviews thereafter (If you look at your save-game it sais exactly how long you have been playing). Also it would be comfortable if everyone scored with an equal system and I suggest the PC-gamer style with percentage (0% being lowest and 100% being highest). And oh yeah, one more thing. For some people this is obvious, for some it's not (apparently it wasn't obvious for PC-gamer), but please don't, under any circumstances, post spoilers. Leave that to the "Oblivion cheats and hints" forum.

With that said here comes my review:

Time Played: 26 hours
Version: PC

The box

You know when you see a famous person on television you imagine the celebrity being gloriously big as the fame shines all over him/her also in real life, then if you sometime happen to meet that person the first impression is often "Hey, I thought he/she was.. bigger", you know that feeling right? Well, thats the exact same feeling I had about the box. When the clerk handed it over to me swiftly (apparently it wasn't the first box he grabed from bellow the counter) it felt like a small punch on my stomach as I've imagined the box to be glorious, large and shiny. Well it was, but I didn't see that directly.

I have the Collectors Edition and I capitalize it since I find the box being the neatest and most beautiful game-box I have in my possession (and I have many). When you take it out from the outer box the "book" feels very authentic and it feels very real with its leathery worn look and the (imitational) iron crest in the middle. The inside feels no longer like a book but the two pictures you first see (one of a dremora and one of a warrior in iron(?) armor both brandishing weapons towards you) made me feel I was really opening a whole new world. As you open the last step it suddenly feels like a treasure map wide open.

The content of the box is a different matter though. The coin doesn't feel like a real coin, more like something that comes from a cerials(sp?)-box. I still like it, it's cool with the emperor profile on one side with the text "The Empire Is Law. The Law Is Sacred" around it and I have it nicely attached on my monitor. However, I feel sorry for all the wealthy people of Tamriel having to carry thousands of these heavy and huge pieces of metal around in their purses...

The manual was quite boring, I usually like reading manuals but there was nothing in the manual that made it an exciting read. It's quite thin with very small and boring pictures and only covers the most basics of the game. Big minus. The map was also nothing special, it's the same as the in-game map so it's kind of worthless. The pocket-guide is interesting though, nothing very heavy but for those who wants a quick guide to the Tamrielic history it's a nice read.

Alright, enought about the box and lets get on with the game itself.

The environment

Wow... I mean, Wow... yeah that's right, Wow... It's totally worth repeating myself since the environment meets my expectations and runs through them like cutting butter with a butcherers knife. The ambient of the cellar-jail you start in is magnificent, the lighting in the cave makes it feel extreamly real and the outside view is astonishing. I don't feel there is much more to say.. It will take long time before a game beats Oblivion in this arena.

The sound goes very close together with the environment. The wind blowing, the birds singing, water flowing, yes everything has a very realistic sound and it surelly matches up with the beautiful environment. The music is also beautiful and fits rather nice in the background but I've actually decided to turn it all off as the mere sounds of the environment is enough music to my ears. Just splendid.

The adventure

I haven't progressed very far in the main quest but so far it feels very exciting, although I haven't got to the point were I like it better than the Morrowind main quest. So far the events are rather small and I'm more or less a tool in all happening. I like that since it feels more realistic rather than being the center of all things, besides it lets you go your own way towards the solutions.

The guilds I must say has been a slight dissapointment. (I've only explored Fighters and Mages guild, so I know nothing of the others) In Morrowind the guilds were a central place, with quests, shops, beds and everything you needed practically, in Oblivion however I feel it's more limited. Sure, the guilds have beds and shops (if you have the luck and sellers are IN the guild-house and not wandering around some other place), but for quests it's missing something.

I haven't progressed very far here either but in Mages guild I've gotten the task to go to each guild-house in Cyrodiil and ask for a recommendation. Each of the guilds will ask you for a task before they give you their recommendation and they vary in scope and difficulty. In the Fighters Guilds there are only two guilds in Cyrodiil that accepts novices so the contracts has to be recieved there. Not much problem, but it sure limits the different quests to do at early levels.

Over-all I find that the quests are much more fun than Morrowind as they often evolv into something greater than expected and include quite often a bit of thinking from your part. However, as far as I've explored I feel there are a lot less quests then there were in MW. If you don't want to be a thief/assassin there are only two guilds to join, Mages and Fighters, so the only quests will be attained there. Sure there are some side-quests and most are quite fun, but they are limited and will get boring the third character you create.

I really hope I'm missing something or else I will be hoping on the modders out there to give me more quests.

The mechanics

With this I mean all the stuff "around" the adventure itself, such things as the menues, inventory, weapon-systems, skills, etc..

So to start with the bad things.. I have to say this is one MAYOR annoyance and dissapointment. The "TAB-menu. Ok, I'm keeping this short or I will soon be cursing Bethesda and all that is related to it. The menu totally sucks. What's up with the size of it? Is it made for analphabetics or three-years old kids?! All these tabs makes it a real pain to reach the desired location the menu and the fact that everything is labeled with ICONS and NO text it makes the road a guessing game. Sure you learn what the icons mean and most are explained in the manual, but hey, nothing beats the simlicity of WORDS! Right.. I'll calm down... Let's just say that I try to ignore the fact that it's a plain pain to find something in the inventory or find out what disease you are carrying.. Why, oh, why didn't they use the Excellent menu of Morrowind were you could see all you needed on the same screen while in oblivion you get to see at most 7 (!!!!) spells at the same time.. I guess thats what we have a scrolling weel for... *sigh*

Another contribute to the downgrade to a kids-game is the weapon-system. Now you no longer see the damage a weapon does but a number describing the strength of the weapon compared to your skill, condition of the weapon, etc.. All is put down in one simple number.. No longer do you need to think what weapon to choose.. No, no longer do you need to think. All you have to do is look what weapon has the highest number and voila, thats the one to use.

This is getting far to long so I'm shortening it up a bit. The combat-system as a whole is a great improvement from MW, it's is actually fun to get in a fight as you exchange blows while blocking and throwing off a fireball or heal when appropriate. It also makes it a lot more valuable to use support-spells and other skills in battle rather than just bashing away. (Considering I'm a battlemage).

I'm putting the rest aside as there is not much more to comment. The horses are a nice addition and so are the houses but nothing really exceptional. Tha AI works as I guessed it would and it totally rocks all RPGs I've played so far. Of course they are not living beings just yet , but it makes the world a lot more alive and fun to live in!

Conclusion

As you can see I have a couple of MAYOR pluses and a couple of MAYOR minuses however the minuses have no chance of outweighting the pluses. This is a game unlike any other and I put it among the greatest games I've ever played. Hopefully a patch or two will fix the occational crashes, the lonesome bugs and do something about the menu (maybe give us more hotkeys or SOMETHING), that way it will go one step further into perfection.

Alhtough I doubt it'll ever reach perfection considerng some of the mayor dissapointments it still makes it a close second to Morrowind so far (thats right, just second). In time and with some mods I'm very certain Oblivion will once for all take the lead and become my favorite game all-time.

Score: 91% (-5% Menu, -3% Simplicity, -1% Low questrate)

Well put. This was actually one of the better reviews I have read thus far. Very unbiased, from a true TES fan. Congratulations. I wouldn't have given it that low a score though. 91/100 is kind of low for Oblivion. But you did point out the bad things which I agree with, the game is rather simplified when compared to its older sibling Morrowind. I didn't like the fact that they took out pauldrons and the ability to wear armour under a robe. That was a bad move in my opinion.

Now I don't know just how long I have been playing, but I got it tuesday and have been playing practicly non-stop since then. But having beat the main quest gotten about halfway through the Fighters guild, done ALL the side quests in Chorrol (Ones not given by a guild or anything just given by a normal NPC.) and many in the other towns I have only have a few problems with the game.

1: Hotkeys. These normaly work for me, unless I have a potion on them. At which they stop using them after every five or so (Or sometimes take them off the key.).

2: Semi-random freezes. Yeah you heard me, this game tends to freeze on occation when in a loading screen (And when ever I try to finish a certian Daedic quest). It's not from my 360 over-heating either, it has done this when I had just turned it on.

3: Horse fights. Have you ever tried to get from one place to another with out fast travelling and used a horse? Then you should know how long it takes to get off the horse, pull out your weapon, move around the horse, kill the enemy, then get back on the horse, and leave. All without your horse being killed in the process.

While these don't stop me from loving this game to death, they are REALLY annoying. But other then that there is nothing to stop me from going back to level 22 Imperial and kicking boat with my (Spoiler weapon) and (Spoiler armor)!

Well, thank you for your compliments Griff. Yeah, I know 91% is rather low, but it's not really comparable to other games (other than MW), Oblivion is still better than any game (except MW) even if they get 100%. The thing is I counted backwards instead. I thought of how much negative percentage the different downside was worth and I got 91% remaining, as you can see. The score should actually start at 150% or something and then minus 9%, that way Oblivion would score 141% wich is more accurately .

In regards to the issue of the menu items being way too big, there is a truly wonderful MOD that i *highly* reccomend. It is called the UI MOD and i cant remember the name of the person who made it. You can find it at www.tessource.net

The UI MOD totally revamps the game menus to allow you to view *15* items at once instead of only 6. It basically shrinks the item icons some and uses a smaller font. It also makes the map section of the menu larger so you can see more of the map.

In regards to your gripe that weapons are too simple: You need to realize that just because a weapon you are carrying has the highest attack value doesnt mean its the best to use. Shorter weapons can be swung faster so you get more hits per fight. Also you cannot use a two-handed weapon for a sneak attack, so there are some things to think about when choosing a weapon.

20 hours. Level 13. Even quest distribution. 360.

Most things are fantastic.
I'll post some "I miss... from MW" here because really I like OB soo much.

I miss levitation.
Loading is a bit much at times (sometimes better, sometimes worse than MW).
Enchanting is not nearly as ... enchanting. Every object can hold the same max charge with a few exceptions. I liked having a shield carry the most and poor quality shoes almost no charge.
MW music.

But, there are way too many things I like better and don't have the time to post all.
I love the quest log (compass has pros and cons); at least I know what I'm supposed to be doing.
Of course I love the graphics. Only lovers of cartoonish child's play wouldn't.
Quirks/twists on quests.
Elvish ruins.
persuasion mini game. Getting bored now but I think its much better than MW system.
New gear.
Closing that first OB gate (whew) - I literally had sweat pouring down.
etc etc etc

9.5/10 sounds good to me. If a few things had been a little better it would be a 10 - and I'd still say it's far and away the best game out there today. I'll probably rank it ahead of MW in time... for the music to get stuck in my head and my favorite places are well-established.