CYRODIILICIOUS

OBLIVION REMASTERED is a beautiful, buggy wonder

- Kerry Brunskill

In 2006 Final Fantasy XII was a brand new PlayStation 2 game, the Xbox 360's hard drive was at least in spirit still an optional extra, and horse armor DLC was the biggest corporate issue surrounding Oblivion's launch. I didn't play the game back then, because I thought I didn't need to—I had Morrowind, a smug sense of superiority, and no use for a sequel. I might have been wrong about that.

Although Oblivion's tutorial-laden intro, starring the most obviously doomed MacGuffin-carrying Emperor who ever briefly lived, didn't do a great job of convincing me otherwise. Was a rat-filled sewer, the most clichéd RPG environment of them all, honestly the best opening they could come up with? And then I escaped that boring place, and all of my grumbles were instantly forgotten.

This sunlit paradise doesn’t look like a game that came out when My Chemical Romance songs were in the top ten. Dragonflies flit across the water as flowers sway gently in the breeze.

I immediately decide I'm going to walk, rather than fast-travel, to the next conveniently marked story location just so I can take in my gorgeous surroundings. But the path ahead isn’t quite as beautiful as the one I’m about to leave behind, and that makes me take one last look back and... hang on, is something glowing on that small island just across the water? Nope, not happening. I’ve got a magical plot device to deliver, and I don’t want to get sidetracked straight away and then never recover. But... a little peek wouldn’t hurt seeing as I’m already here, would it?

DUNGEON DIVING