So I sat down and spent a few more hours with the Oblivion on the 360, trying to enjoy it. And I’m almost there! Almost… but not quite! I realized that I was reliving the Everquest 2 experience (and Black & White before): a game that is interesting and has many things to do, but I end up not having fun<\/b> doing them. A game where I like some bits of the graphics but never stop feeling like it’s all just cardboard cutouts. A game where every time I want to do something, I find some bureaucracy is required.<\/p>\n
The world has day\/night cycles and people go about their lives accordingly, but they often don’t fit into my private playing agenda, unless I force myself to follow those cycles too. It is initially impressive and immersive, but I always end up feeling immersed as an observer, as a spectator, as a participant, but not as a player.<\/u><\/p>\n
Automatic level scaling means I can do things in whichever order I want, but also that I never become very powerful compared to how I was in the beginning. I’ll never be able to go back to a previously rough spot and just rip them apart for revenge. I’ll become a hero through my participation in the quest lines, not out of sheer power improvements. Level progression becomes a strange annoyance instead of one of the main indicators of advancement (indeed, a friend finished the main quest at level 2). They should have simply taken levels out of the game.<\/p>\n
The interface is brilliant, but still fails to put in my hands the power of a very complex character sheet, with dozens of spells, scrolls and potions. With only 8 hotkeys for everything (4 of them very unreliable) and which can’t really be used while moving, I fight the interface more than I fight the creatures.<\/p>\n
So… what kind of game is this, what’s the key to its success? Is it fun? Is it interesting? Is it impressive? Is it hype? If nothing else, it’s a huge world with many choices of things to do, and a bunch of predefined content lines to provide some guidance and goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So I sat down and spent a few more hours with the Oblivion on the 360, trying to enjoy it. And I’m almost there! Almost… but not quite! I realized that I was reliving the Everquest 2 experience (and Black … Continue reading