The Magic of Cyrodiil – A Conversation on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Quests to remember

Now onto one of the most fundamental and intricately crafted elements of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion: the quests.

Len: One of my favourite quests, and I’m sure you’ll agree, was entering the painting in Cheydinhal to search for the lost painter who’d been trapped by a thief who’d stolen his magic brush. Walking through a painted landscape fighting immensely difficult painted trolls felt so epic, knowing you couldn’t escape that reality unless you recovered the brush.

This quest cements Oblivion as a timeless classic. I don’t think I’ve encountered a quest as innovative as this since I first tentatively entered the painting quite a number of years ago. Most quests seem fairly linear in all manner of RPGs: “Go and fetch these carrots from the farm”, which inevitably ends up with you getting ambushed by some mutant rabbits or the like. Maybe you’ve got to “Investigate the tower” which just leads to a similar scenario, with maybe a few more quests branching from it, requiring you to talk to a few more people and collect a few more things. But this quest did away with boundaries and conventions, throwing you into an unfamiliar, dreamy, painted world that quickly became claustrophobic as you fought your way desperately to the paintbrush in order to escape.

Len: There was also a quest, in Bravil if I remember right, where you entered the dream of a comatose mage who was trapped by his lost senses of self. If he died in the dream, you died, and if you died in his dream, you died for real too.

I’ve always liked the sort of things that explore the mind as I find it increases immersion and really makes you know a character. Slowly building up the mage’s personality from scratch and watching him change as I retrieved each lost part of his self from vastly differing physical realms of thought – was awesome.

Bethesda really outdid themselves here, crafting quests that explored the minds of those you encountered, allowing you to develop a further relationship with them in a way that wasn’t restricted to chat boxes and dialogue options. Experimenting with these “mini worlds” not only brought you closer to each character, but separated you from the familiar, adding unexpected bonuses to a game already filled with rich content.

Who could forget the Dark Brotherhood questline?

Len: Don’t get me wrong, I loved the Skyrim brotherhood questline, especially the mini side contracts you’re given, but it can’t hold a candle to the Oblivion one. It was fantastic. Plot twists, in-depth backstories, simultaneously hilarious and terrifying members, great missions… it had it all. And it really felt like I imagined it would when I first did the storyline, a good balance between an assassination-based business and a dark cult following, whereas the Skyrim brotherhood lacked a certain something. This makes me sound like a complete sadist, but it felt more right to be recruited into the Dark Brotherhood by slaughtering an innocent and being visited by Lucien Lachance in my sleep, than helping an orphan kill an evil old hag and improve the lives of some Riften urchins.

My favourite mission was probably the house party, playing out my very own murder mystery, where the game is subverted as I am the killer, making everyone else believe another person in the house is the culprit.

Again, Oblivion played on the unexpected. If you were ever gripped by a sudden murderous intent and mercilessly butchered someone in their own home, then proceeded to sleep off the act, you would be surprised to find a dark figure offering you a chance to become part of an organisation to sate your evil desires. And boy, were these quests indescribably good. I think Bethesda really nailed The Dark Brotherhood as they moulded you into an increasingly well-oiled killing machine. You were taken under their wing, taking part in a number of small assassinations – Rufio being a hilarious and swift highlight – before becoming involved in some serious hits. You really felt like you were growing as a member, climbing your way up the ranks and participating in the politics of it all. This questline really is an example of some of the best progression you’ll ever come across in an RPG, trust me.

Weirdly enough, one of the most memorable quests for me was to help a woman called Arvena with her “rat problem”. I found out that she loved keeping them as pets, but she was finding more and more of them ending up dead. “I can deal with that problem for you ma’am,” I exclaimed, before finding myself confronted by a hulking great mountain lion. As things progressed I found myself stalking another lady suspected of causing all the fuss and seemingly responsible for murdering her beloved rats. In the end, I managed to catch her out as I lurked in the background watching her dump meat outside the basement, catching her by surprise as she guiltily exclaims, “I didn’t mean to cause so much trouble!” I set about dobbing her in to Arvena and gained a handy boost to my Speechcraft stat.

Why does this stick with me? It’s because the quest was so simple, it seemed totally innocent and unscripted. I genuinely felt like an aspiring hero of Cyrodiil, helping out the townsfolk with their outwardly small issues. Waiting in the shadows of my own accord to see if anything would happen was as heart-pounding as any action sequence. Sometimes you don’t need huge sieges or crazy questlines to create gripping moments and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion proved this is so many different ways.

Familiar characters

Critics were quick to dislike the fact that many of the characters had the same voice, but I disagree. Although it did seem a bit odd and slightly sloppy, it added a strangely unique element to the game and its characters, bolstering familiarity with new faces in an instant.

Len: I liked that there were only about five voice actors in Oblivion. I know that’s a silly thing to say, and the many voice actors of Skyrim were great, but having so few almost felt like you personally knew every character you met after a while.

It was like talking to old friends.

On the topic of characters,  the paranoid Wood Elf Glarthir was a particular highlight for Len:

Len: …If nothing else just because of his ridiculous voice, hairstyle and cottage cheese face.

Not forgetting the amazing arena which sadly didn’t make a reappearance in Skyrim, there was another amusing character who emerged if you managed to become champion. The Adoring Fan would appear out of nowhere and follow you around in awe of your newfound status. He was flattering, but also rather annoying at the same time, so sometimes you could take measures to ease the burden.

Len: Paralysing the Adoring Fan and watching him stiffly plummet off dive rock never ceased to make me laugh.

M’aiiq the Liar was also a rather amusing highlight, clothed in his robe, running up to you at lightning speed before disclosing some information on previous entries in the Elder Scrolls series – then disappearing in the blink of an eye.

I think the real catalyst behind all of the components that make Oblivion great are the characters themselves. Part of their charm is the fact they’re all voiced by the same people, they look rather hideous at times and their mouths appear to move independently of what they’re actually saying. But there’s an air of playfulness about each character you encounter; it’s like they don’t take themselves too seriously in their kookiness and mannerisms. The team behind the characters and their dialogue imparted a great sense of humour into their creation, and in the process, made them seem more real than surreal. You also never knew who you were going to meet next, they ranged from fairly normal to utterly bat shit crazy, popping out of nowhere at just the right time to keep your adventure fresh and exciting.

If you’ve read this far, I admire you. You’re probably someone who has either shared our experiences and looks upon them as fondly as we do, or has now had the grandeur of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion presented to them and is considering an expedition into Cyrodiil. I implore you to grab the game for next to nothing from practically anywhere and embrace the aged graphics, the hilarious glitches and ultimately lap up Bethesda’s arguably best title.

And we’ve only scratched the surface, not even mentioning the plethora of decent DLC content: The Shivering Isles, I’m looking at you.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is available on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. If you’re yet to visit the wondrous lands of Cyrodiil, you can buy it now from Amazon