Oblivion Expansion: Shivering Isles

[Vic]

http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3156953

 

Interesting tidbits:

 

Once through you find yourself in a walled-in little village known as the Fringe that sits outside the gates to Sheogorath. Here's where the test comes in: to gain entry you need to defeat a grotesque giant gatekeeper that resembles a certain boss out of Resident Evil 4. While challenges like this in the original game had specific solutions, for the expansion Bethesda wanted to open up freedom in solving quests to match the open feeling you get roaming the world. So, you're welcome to try to charge in, sword flailing, but the developers let you know this might be a little difficult by having NPCs lead you to watch the gatekeeper handily wipe out a team of knights in plate mail.

By poking around the village some, and talking with the locals, a couple of options present themselves. You can recruit an archer to fight with you by helping him take out the crypt guardians protecting bones he can use to make magic arrows. But poke around a little more and you'll run into the apprentice of the sorceress who created the gatekeeper. A little carefully applied speechcraft later, you'll know that the sorceress visits her creation every night at midnight, and that the tears she cries during these rendezvous are poison to her creation. Collected from a handkerchief she drops, they can be applied to your weapon to give you the upper hand against the giant. Or, do both: get the archer to help and gather the tears to poison your sword. When you do face the monster it certainly won't hurt to have every possible advantage.

One of your first tasks from the Prince will be to get the gatekeeper for the realm back up and running. You'll have to help its caretaker get the place back up to snuff again, and in so doing enjoy the wicked delight of getting to take out the adventuring party, Dungeon Keeper-style. With that out of the way, you can get to working with the sorceress to create a new gatekeeper. From a gory collection of body parts including arms, heads, and hearts -- each with unique special traits -- you select the ingredients used to conjure up the new gatekeeper in a suitably spectacular summoning ritual.

 

Before reaching the ultimate showdown you'll also have to take out your competition in court, the Duke of Mania and the Duchess of Dementia. And again there isn't one set way to take care of them. For instance one way to eliminate the Duke avoids direct confrontation, instead letting you help him to a fatal overdose.

Because the expansion features fewer NPCs the team was able to go into more depth with each, fleshing out their personalities more completely, and with that giving them more to say. This figures directly into the quest design that aims to take advantage of these eccentric characters and their unique situations. Their warped psyches present plenty of convoluted, entertaining problems to solve, but it's not a direct attempt to be comedic.

 

Sounds like it might be a large improvement over some of the faults of Oblivion. Fewer quests for more branches in quests. Fewer NPCs for NPCs that are actually fleshed out. Hope it delivers, at least a little bit.

[Weiser_Cain]

One: I uninstalled this game because it was so blah.

Two: I see no new functionality, namely no mounted combat.

Three: Even though I never finished the game I was insanely powerful, I doubt the giant could stand up to 60+ characters.

 

It's nice that they're spending more time fleshing out NPC's but if in the end that's all it adds, it's a good mod not an expansion.

[Pop]

Could be good for a laugh. I might snag a copy.

[Cantousent]

I played Oblivion for hours and hours. Still, I doubt I get this. Since items that end up in the "doubt" column don't usually end up on my shelf, I'm pretty confident I won't. However, if it gets good press here, I'll take another look at it. The big problem I have with Oblivion, and it's one that nagged at me more and more as I played, was the ill-famed balancing scheme. It was a little weird at first. By the end, it was downright loathesome.

 

It was the same way with Borringwind with me. I played it for hours, and then couldn't understand why. I never bought the expansions for that title either. The big difference is that I finished Oblivion with a much better disposition. I'm at least willing to take another look because it really seems that Bethesda has been moving in the right direction with their titles. They're constantly trying to improve.

 

One advantage to this expansion, other than taking advantage of Oblivion's success, is that it gives folks a chance to see what Bethesda can do with NPCs and alternate story paths/quest resolution. This might not be a mistake, as that's the area that falls most under attack from their detractors. If they can strut their stuff in this expansion, then many of the Fallout 3 critics will be muted.

[Gorgon]

They still havent solved the inate boredom of the interaction boxes. I think whats needed is voice acting for every single quest. Better fewer well scripted out quests than hundreds of boring ones. You find yourself clicking through the dialouge boxes without reading them through.

Edited February 7, 2007 by Gorgon

[kalimeeri]

I don't know. Oblivion is no NWN2, but it does have its charm, and I'd hate to see it lose that trying to be something it's not.

 

I was a little put off by the 'crazy' theme behind the expansion, at least the way the press release described it. But I did find an interview on YouTube with 2 of the devs that made me think again; their description and enthusiasm made it sound a lot better, even though I don't much care for the 'Alice in Wonderland' theme of the plane. They did put a great deal of thought into the various types of madness, and embodied them in various NPC's you must deal with; which could be interesting, and I would like to see Bethesda do more with story. So I may give it a try, even though one of the parts of Oblivion that I most enjoy is the natural landscape and the not-so-perfect AI. There are still many places I haven't seen; and I wouldn't have missed Shadowmere jumping on the roof of the stable to get out of a fight for the world. Please tell me that is not *my* horse. (I took a screenie to blackmail her with.) I think as long as Oblivion doesn't take itself too seriously (like Morrowind), it'll be all right.

Edited February 7, 2007 by kalimeeri

[J.E. Sawyer]

If they can strut their stuff in this expansion, then many of the Fallout 3 critics will be muted.

Doubtful. But if not the critics, at least those criticisms.

 

I was a little put off by the 'crazy' theme behind the expansion, at least the way the press release described it.

I'm not that enthusiastic about the concept, specificially. I do appreciate that they aren't just adding on Generic New Fantasy Place.

[Tale]

I'm actually incredibly excited about the concept. However.... ARGHHHHHH

[steelfiredragon]

the dark seductress returns after a long absence.........

 

sounds like fun...... but boethiah would ahve been more fun.

 

 

and i better see mad skooma addicts...

 

 

 

 

( theres a party at mothers)

Edited February 7, 2007 by steelfiredragon

[Spider]

They still havent solved the inate boredom of the interaction boxes. I think whats needed is voice acting for every single quest. Better fewer well scripted out quests than hundreds of boring ones. You find yourself clicking through the dialouge boxes without reading them through.

 

While it's been a while since I played and my memory may be failing me, I'm pretty sure Oblivion was fully voice-acted.

[Sand]

If you can call it voice acting. <_<

 

Some of the voice overs in that game made RE1 original voice acting look good.

Edited February 8, 2007 by Sand

[LadyCrimson]

I don't remember the voice acting being bad. It was having to stare at those funky, goofy faces so often while the voices spoke, that I found irritating.

 

Since I never finished the game (something that happens to me ever more increasingly w/games as years go by...) I doubt I'll buy this. Oblivion was a fairly good game; more involving than Morrowind and certainly beautiful - but like Cant, I never bought the expansions to Morrowind either...I think I've given them all the money I care to give for now.

[Aegeri]

If they can strut their stuff in this expansion, then many of the Fallout 3 critics will be muted.

Doubtful. But if not the critics, at least those criticisms.

 

From what I've read, I wouldn't bet on it to be honest.

 

I was a little put off by the 'crazy' theme behind the expansion, at least the way the press release described it.

I'm not that enthusiastic about the concept, specificially. I do appreciate that they aren't just adding on Generic New Fantasy Place.

 

It has madness ore, MADNESS ORE!!!!

 

How awesome and totally imaginative is that?!

 

Oh and don't forget the ring of water walking and water breathing. MADNESS I TELL YOU, UTTER MADNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited February 8, 2007 by Aegeri

[Spider]

I just wish they would have announced this expansion much, much sooner. I had Oblivion installed for a few months after release, but once I completed it I had no desire to play it again. So of course it got uninstalled and my character deleted. And I really don't want to start over with a fresh character just for the expansion.

 

I should have known better (they have a history of expansions after all) and kept the character, but I guess I didn't think. So odds are good I'll pass on this, even though I am curious to see if Bethesda can actually succeed at writing.

 

And yes, the voice acting in Oblivion was at some times atrocious (sometimes it was good, but for the most time decisively mediocre). Still, had it not been fully voiced, I would probably not have played it at all. It did help with making the characters feel alive. I mostly just wish they would have used a few more actors. And more specifically not have the same voice for orcs and humans.

[Tigranes]

I fired up Oblivion again on a random whim a few days ago and found that I still liked its early-game feel; just the feeling of walking around in a new, not yet fully fleshed out world, with the knowledge that there is so much beyond; playing with the bow and sword combat primitively, hiking up the difficulty slider and getting in real mortal peril; not really being effected just yet by the atrocious balancing scheme, horrible story, daedric ruins or the loot scheme.

 

Unlikely I'll get Shiv, but if done well it could certainly show everyone that Bethesda can actually write / script / design interesting things. They've shown small signs of it in Oblivion with some of Dark Brotherhood and a few other quests, but still.

[Belhawk]

I like oblivion and i am still playing it from time to time. i will get the expansion.

[Girias_Solo]

Bethesda can keep their "GTA: Level scaling fantasy" all to themselves. Maybe one day they will make another RPG.

 

Ooops....I am sorry if this comment gets this site blacklisted :'(

[Sand]

:confused:

 

Blacklisted?

[Shadowstrider]

We haven't blacklisted anyone for panning our games.

[Bokishi]

Shadowstrider is this expansion good or not

[Shadowstrider]

I think so, I played through it for the first time recently, and I like it.

[Sand]

Do they fix the following problems in Oblivion:

 

1. The level scaling. Oblivion has very poor level scaling and it seems to penalize leveling your character. Also some of the leveling seems to not make any sense. If there were hordes of bandits with daedric armor wielding powerful weaponry the whole country would have been taken over by them.

 

2. The voice acting. Every female nord sounds the same. Every male basmer sounds the same. Every male orc sounds the same. So forth and so on. If you are going to voice every single character in the game use more voice actors!

 

3. Plays more like an action game than a CRPG. I know it is suppose to be a CRPG but it doesn't play like a CRPG and it most definitely does not feel like a CRPG. I hope the expansion fixes that.

 

4. The UI. The UI is so freaking consolish I simply do not care for it. The UI needs a complete redo and needs to be more along the lines of a PC game since I am playing it on the PC.

 

5. The constant hand holdinhg. The quest arrows have to go and full entries of text needs to be in the journals. I don't like dumbed down games and Oblivion was very much dumbed down.

 

Those are my problems with Oblivion, and if the expansion fixes 3 out of the 5 then I will probably buy it.

[Shadowstrider]

#5 is so laughable it's absurd. Pick a quest without a damn quest marker, or a quest where the marker is somewhere the quest you're doing is not, then play.

 

Don't like a feature, don't use it, it's not going to get taken out because Hades and 17 other guys hate knowing where to go.

[Tale]

I think the level scaling system might be my only real problem with it. I don't like what Sand calls the "hand holding," either. But, that's simply because I enjoyed it in Morrowind where I would have to travel out, explore, and search for the dungeon my quest wanted me to go to. Then after exploring it, I would sometimes found out I'm in the wrong danged place! This was never a problem, because every dungeon always really interested me. With the level scaling, dungeons don't interest me. The bandit at the front of the dungeon is only slightly less interesting than the bandit at the end of the dungeon. There's no interesting items to find laying around, no glass daggers resting on altars. It's all rusty iron.

 

I can't decide if the reason I always just jumped A-Z using quick travel and the arrows was because it was convenient or if it was because I couldn't find anything worth doing on the side.

Edited February 12, 2007 by Tale

[Sand]

#5 is so laughable it's absurd. Pick a quest without a damn quest marker, or a quest where the marker is somewhere the quest you're doing is not, then play.

 

Don't like a feature, don't use it, it's not going to get taken out because Hades and 17 other guys hate knowing where to go.

 

Okay, what part of the main quest that doesn't have a quest marker? How about a toggle? You said if I don't like a feature, dopn't use it so does that mean I can turn off the quest markers? Where is the off switch then? Its not in the difficulty menu. As for knowing were to go, that is what the journal is for. The quest giver tells me where to go, I check the journal to see where I need to go, then I go there by following the directions the quest giver gave. Its not that difficult to figure out.

Edited February 12, 2007 by Sand