By Sam Coles:
Oblivion! Now I know I can hear your eyes roll like saucepans in a
tumble dryer with me talking about this game again, but I have never really
done an editorial about why I love this game with the exception of an editorial
about the Elder Scrolls. I just want to talk about why this game is special to
me.
When I was 13 years old I didn’t really have any consoles I could call
my own, yes I shared a PS2 with my brother but besides that I had no consoles
or anything gaming related to call my own. When I was around my friends house
he was playing this game that caught my attention, it was something that was
unusual (on console anyway), where it was a Tolkien inspired adventure which I
was obsessed with at the time. The reason it caught my 13 year old mind, is
because I had never seen anything like it as at the time I only had a PS2 and
my taste for open world games stretched to Grand Theft Auto.
In 2009 for my 16th birthday I asked my parents for an Xbox 360,
fortunately I got one with a copy of Halo 3 and Mass Effect and a few months
later I had my very own copy of Oblivion and then I was lost in the land of
Cyrodiil. It was when I’d first emerged from the dark and damp dungeons of the
of Imperial Prison was when I was enamored with the world, I was looking
across the lake and was in awe as I saw the rolling green hills and trees
stretch out into the distance.
What captured my heart with Oblivion was the fact you could do well....
anything. You can completely ignore the main quest altogether and go in the
other direction and explore an elven ruin, it may seem rather trivial by today’s
standards but this was a 2006 console game. I love exploring the plains of
Cyrodiil, where I would come across random people who need my help or an out of
the way village populated by various people who live outside of society.
What makes it more convincing these citizens have routines, where they
will get up, go to work and settle with a nice pint in the evening after a hard
day’s work. It truly is a living and breathing world, where it would continue
to live even when I would turn the game off. It made me look at games in a
different light, I saw them more as games, they could be these living breathing
worlds where I could forge my own stories and inhabit somewhere that I know
more than my home town.
What also caught my attention with Oblivion was the soundtrack, back
then I didn’t really pay that much attention to musical scores in games, but
Oblivion was something special. The melodic tones from the genius Jeremy Soule
are beautiful, it can be calm and soothing, intense and haunting and very
emotional. I often listen to this soundtrack when I want to relax or when I’m
writing, as it is truly special and I almost shed tear each time as it reminds
that the world is beautiful and I can just hide away and venture through the
world of Cyrodiil.
Oblivion is a game that I still adore even nearly 13 years later, yes it
shows its age with character models and dialogue but the world is still
beautiful to explore coupled with Jeremy Soule’s superb soundtrack. It’s a game
that I play when I’m feeling down, as I feel safe when I’m in this world where
no one can find me and the citizens of Cyrodiil need my help. It’s a game that
everyone should play!
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