Best Xbox 360 RPG: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
The best Xbox 360 RPG: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Now, some of you dissenters out there sitting at your computers may be saying "There's no way Elder Scrolls can be the best it's way too old." Or "Bethesda released Fallout3, which is an improvement in every way to Oblivion."
For this article I have decided that Fallout3 is the big contender to Oblivion, so, I will be comparing and contrasting the two throughout the article to hopefully show you, dear reader, that Oblivion beats out Fallout3 in the end.
The Beginning of the game.
Each game starts out very nicely, while Oblivion delivers more into straight up action for its tutorial and Fallout delivers a more complex experience that may appeal to people who like more scripted events and being pushed in the right direction. I would have to say that Fallout wins out on this point considering Bethesda put in a lot more care and devotion into making the game feel more realistic to the player as well as building more upon lore of the game universe. While Oblivion basically throws you through a quick dungeon, which is no doubt exciting, but lacks heavily in the depth department in return for ease of access.
Introduction to the open world environment.
Again, in this department both make a great impression on the player in terms of awe in the scenery that you are presented with. Now, where do they differ? Fallout definitely makes a bigger deal in terms of drama considering the process of getting out of the vault is so elicit and actually feels like an important part of the game. Whereas in the wonderful world of Oblivion you reach the end of the sewers, you are presented with the final character customization screen and then it tells you that all the changes are to be final, just as you get a similar screen in Fallout to change your tagged skills etc.
Now, what happens once you exit the vault tunnel/ sewer grating? You are presented with a grand view of the world that is meant to strike awe into your heart and a feeling of just how much there really is to be explored within either of the worlds, this part they have in common, and this part they each do almost just as well. But the victory here, which is a minuscule one at that, goes to Fallout again essentially for the fact of everything that happens before hand leads up to the big dramatic "Oh it's so bright my eyes aren't adjusted yet play some angelic sounding music to add emphasis please!" And again keep in mind this is but a small victory for Fallout, it just happens to be one of the things Bethesda really improved upon Oblivion.
Initial impressions of the game world.
Alright, so, you finish each games' tutorial level, and all is well in your perspective universe, right? Well, this is where Oblivion wins folks. So in Fallout you are some guy or girl from Vault 101 ooh, aren't you just something special? Your precious little eyes finally adjust to real light, and there's only one thing to really do now that your home has basically just been destroyed, go and roam aimlessly through the world looking for dear old dad. And what do you have to go off of other than your dad is some sort of scientist type, well pretty much zip-o. So you walk down the street, maybe smack a mole rat on the way and see a sign that says Megaton, so naturally every player with even half a brain would already be heading toward the nearest landmark, which is conveniently Megaton already, this is all great but for me the awe kind of wore off real quickly after seeing rock after dusty old rock, and maybe a random old house on the way to the game's first and one of its few major towns.
While on the other hand, Oblivion throws you out into its beautiful world filled with nice flora and fauna, plenty of nice bodies of water and not to mention weather effects, and if you have ever seen this game in 1080P you will know what I'm talking about here. As for where you are supposed to go and what you are supposed to do. There is literally almost too much to do in Oblivion whether you are doing quests that pertain to the story line or not, the quality of the questing just feels a lot more rewarding.
Storyline of the game.
While playing either Fallout or Oblivion, this rings true for both, neither game is very story oriented, but for me Oblivion wins slightly more than Fallout for a plethora of legitimate reasons. While it is true for Fallout that they released Broken Steel to improve upon the game's less than stellar story experience, this did not add much in the department of creativity or longevity of the game as a whole. So why is Oblivion so full of win then eh? Compared to Fallout and pretty much any other game in existence Oblivion is very very pretty, this is one of the biggest traits I absolutely adore about the game, I actually DON'T want to fast travel to get around, because there's always something new to see along the way. And this trait plays into the story experience quite heavily, combine the pretty graphics with the fact that this game is fantasy oriented, and the developers can have a lot of fun creating divine and absolutely stunning environments for a player to explore. So the story takes you many times into the Oblivion Gates, which is basically a mini world within the world, and you spend a considerable amount of time exploring within said gates and eventually closing them for good, these gates are very fun as compared to Fallout's walking around and talking to people most of the time. It's not just the gates either. In the world of Oblivion you actually feel like you are inside of a persistent environment where things change and the scale of the world is actually big being defined by different geological traits of differing areas on the map. This also ties to the story as eventually your travels take you to the north where everything is snowy, it makes you feel like you are in a completely different world aside from the forests and castles of the other areas. The overall beauty of each area makes the story feel that much more excellent to the player as some areas can only be visited once forcing you to appreciate the environment that much more.
In Fallout you get a bunch of tasks like "walk across the world and talk to this guy, oh you're done, ok walk back now!" On the way you kill a bunch of crap and crawl through dungeons that make you wish you had something better to do to escape the dreadful ambiance of it all, which is what the ambiance is, it's quite repulsive in my opinion , and often times prevents me from playing the game for more than an hour or so. In this game fast travel is often my best friend as the only fun that can be derived from the game comes just from the quests themselves and not the awesome environments. The environment of the game is pretty cool for a while but after seeing the same thing over and over again it gets really old really quick.
The replayability of the game.
The replayability of the game is quite simply the deciding factor between the two games, nobody plays either for just the story line or just how pretty the environment is, while these things contribute all it comes down to is, how fun the game is to screw around in.
And yes, Oblivion definitely wins this one, by a huge margin. In Oblivion as compared to Fallout, you are free to roam all over, nobody even really gives a crap what you do, which is true for both. And that's why they are both so much fun. Endless replayability, mixed with infinite possibility. Now, with Oblivion there are a lot more factors to add into the fun randomness pool, like spells and custom spells at that you can make some pretty ridiculous things happen to hilarious effect. Besides spells it really seems like a lot more random glitchy/ random events happen around the world. And I'm not talking preset random events like in Fallout I'm talking things that just, somehow, happen.
While in Fallout people usually have more of their serious faces on, nothing exciting really ever gets to happen unless it is tediously forced upon the world by the player. So now let us watch the living proof that is ultimate satisfaction from Oblivion.
[embed:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCF-s7_SrOQ ] This footage is from the PC version but results are attainable for 360 as well.
It is mainly thanks to the wonder of being able to create custom spells that you can make all sorts of chaos throughout the lands in Oblivion, there are of course other means of entertainment but this one is by far the funnest.
While it is true this was a very close race for RPG greatness, Oblivion just plain out wins it, but don't let that get in the way of playing both, you might just want to plan on playing Oblivion more than Fallout just for the sheer greatness that is replayability.