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Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles Review (continued)
More User Submitted Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles Reviews
Date: 2007-08-05
2nd best expansion I have ever played for a game.
This expansion set is fantastic and adds about another 20-30 hours to a fantastic game. Other than Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne this is truly the best addition to a game that's ever come out.
Not only are the new areas to explore and quest in look fantastic, but the much needed change in the dungeon structures is very nice. Highly recommend. You can't say you've played Elder Scrolls IV until you've played Oblivion, Knights of the Nine, and Shivering Isles.
Overall I spent 158 hours playing this game. Loved it!
Date: 2007-07-30
Solid
After The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion's release last year, Bethesda Softworks has been slowly releasing little nuggets of new content. Most of this content, while cheap, didn't add much to the game. Unlike the previous downloads, the Shivering Isles is an expansion pack filled with content, adding roughly 20-40 hours of new gameplay for those still running around Cyrodiil.
The expansion begins when you hear news about a strange island that has sprouted up in the middle of Niben Bay. Upon inspecting the island, you are greeted by a soldier standing guard outside of a strange doorway. Apparently everyone that has entered the portal has either come back out insane, or has simply not come back at all. Being the brave adventurer you are, you enter to find that you have arrived at the Shivering Isles, the realm of Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness. He has put a call out for a champion to help him stop the Greymarch; a sort of cleaning that happens at the end of every era.
The world of the Shivering Isles is divided into two regions: Mania to the Northeast and Dementia to the Southwest. Both areas are visually stunning and look absolutely nothing like anything that you have seen in Cyrodiil. Mania is very bright, vibrant, and oversaturated with plants like tall trees and large colorful mushrooms. On the other hand, Dementia is a very dark, foggy, and washed out swampland. The main city, New Sheoth, is also divided into two sections called Bliss and Crucible. The entire size of the Isles is about a quarter of the size of Cyrodiil, and is packed with tons of stuff to explore.
The main quest is pretty epic in scope and is easily on par with the one in the main game. The quests, of which many are memorable, will take you all over the Shivering Isles to complete various tasks. Your first job upon entering the realm of Sheogorath is to defeat the Gatekeeper. He is an extremely large and powerful enemy that is guarding the Gates of Madness, which is the only exit from the Fringe (a holding area of sorts that prevents those unworthy from entering the actual Isles). You can face him as is, but innovative players will find ways to tip the battle in their favor.
Another one of the early quests involves you reactivating Xedilian, which is an old dungeon that was used to deal with unwanted adventurers before the Gatekeeper was created. Once activated, the dungeon magically draws any visitors to it, at which point you can either kill or play tricks on the NPCs that find their way into its chambers.
Besides the main quest, the game offers a lot of interesting side quests, many of which are just as crazy as the people who reside in the Isles. One of the citizens of Bliss will explain to you that while he has perfected getting boats to float on the water, he has had less success in forcing the water to fly through air. Logically, a boat carried by flying water becomes a Skyboat. So he tasks you with searching everywhere for calipers and tongs to achieve the effect of keeping water airborne, and pays you gold for each caliper or tong you bring him. Another resident is afraid to sleep inside because he believes the walls will fall on top of him. So he asks you to find a safe place for him to sleep outside.
In addition to the new quests, the expansion also includes new weapons and armor, some of which you can craft from raw materials found in various dungeons throughout the Shivering Isles. Players will also get some new spells along the way, the most interesting of which are a few summons. Also, those who like to create their own potions will find a huge amount of new ingredients to experiment with.
Overall, the Shivering Isles is pretty good. It features all of the stuff that you would expect from an expansion pack: an interesting plot, a good amount of quests, new weapons, armor, ect. Not to mention that this expansion offers more hours of gameplay then other full priced retail games, making the Shivering Isles a convincing reason to revisit an already excellent game.
Date: 2007-07-23
Sheogorath's Realm
Personally, I think this expansion pack is worth it on merit of Sheogorath's voice acting and dialogue alone. Yes, there's more to a game than that. But he's hilarious, and they did a good job giving the madgod a personality that, despite his insanity, he is almost believable. His mood swings mid-sentence, sometimes he rambles on about clowns and butter... or says stuff like "Come back and visit anytime... or I'll pluck out your eyes!"
The people in town are all just as bizzare in their own ways. They're not quite as believable, but you'll meet hypochondriacs, people who think everyone is trying to kill them, and people who collect (and steal) forks.. needless to say, they are also amusing, though I wouldn't say as much as Sheogorath himself. Their quests are often bizzare - there's one orc that's afraid of cats (i.e. kajit), and asks you to get rid of a Kajit, which then gives you several different solutions to his quest.
Gameplay-wise, I'd say it's the same caliber as Oblivion itself. The quests in the main storyline are engaging and fun. The sidequests are fun too, but tend to be fairly short, and there aren't anywhere near as many as Oblivion (that may be expected, though, seeing as this is an expansion).
My only real complaint is that I played through the whole game and only bumped into like one of the small villages. They are not at all essential to the storyline. Sure, you can get like one sidequest from the 4-5 villagers at each town, but if you never find the town, you're not so far out of luck.
Overall, though, I found the dialogue to be amusing, quests entertaining, and the landscapes rather interesting. There's a shortage of sidequests, but the characters are much more fleshed-out and distinctive than in vanilla Oblivion. Granted, they're crazy, but at least for me, that made me talk to everyone I saw. I had a lot of fun with Shivering Isles.
Date: 2007-07-06
Adding a new spice to an older flavor
Oblivion is by no means old, but after pumping out possible hundreds of hours of gameplay many things become old and repeatetative. Fortunately this expansion adds a whole plethora of new areas, graphics, dungeons, amor, and spells to access.
If you love oblivion it's more then worth it. A very interesting story and a beautiful new world. Enjoy and have fun.
Date: 2007-06-13
Excellent Graphics but TOO EASY
POSITIVES: Great concept and quite original storyline. Outstanding graphics, controls,character movement and development.
NEGATIVES:
The main negative, in my opinion, is the ease with which one can defeat the foes in this expansion. And, since this is an expansion only, then it stands to reason that the gamer has completed Oblivion and perhaps even Knights of the Nine. If so, then one would be outfitted with some incredibly powerful armor and magic items, which when equipped make the player almost invincible in this additional chapter. Fighting and defeating monsters is way too easy and becomes quite boring.
The game is somewhat linear in scope insofar as one must complete the tasks (yes, "tasks" not "quests")in order to advance the story. Although the exact order of the tasks can be mixed up a bit, one must still do the authors bidding as opposed to roaming the beautiful landscape looking for adventure. Fail to complete the mundane task and you cannot move forward or cannot access the central part of a dungeon. Gone are the days of the brave warrior's quest to slay the fierce dragon in his cave. Now, we've been reduced to collecting plant samples and forks. Oh, joy.
As mentioned, the graphics are the best in the business, but redundant. You see the same rock formations and dungeon features used over and over again. Beware of any game that has a construction set: this means that the graphics will be redundant.
Additionally, the charaters in the Oblivion modules are, without at doubt, the ugliest in the entire gaming community. Every person's face looks like they are dead or on drugs, or both.
Also, Bethesda, if you're going to make millions of dollars off of these games, then next time PLEASE use more than 3 voices for the entire game.
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