Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Previews

[GameBanshee News]

Four more hands-on previews of Bethesda's fourth Elder Scrolls installment are now available on the 'net. The first is at 1Up:

Combat is, of course, a major part of these dungeon crawls. The fighting system in Oblivion is deeper and more skill-based than those in previous adventures, thanks to a number of new Havok engine-powered options, which Howard outlines for us: "You control the blocking, you control what moves you do, you control [the] timing, and so forth. It plays like an FPS, but it's not a 'twitch' experience. I don't know if everyone will take to it, but most people who've played it think it's a ton of fun."

The second is at Next Level Gaming:

Then there is the leveling system that will also be very familiar to fans of the series. Well, I should correct myself, there are no levels, your character does not collect experience points that work towards level ups, and instead your character advances through usage. If you use a sword you will become a master with swords, however, if you were to pick up a bow you would have some issues. The game system rewards usage over anything else. If you are like me with this type of system you use everything you can get your hands on till you are a master of everything. It may take you awhile to become a battle-hardened veteran with all the weapons and spells, but it can be a lot of fun getting to that point.

The third is at GameZone:

Character creation starts the ball rolling with a deep options package that enables players to create a truly unique look in this single-player-only experience. As players progress, they can collect different weapons, use a stealth mode to sneak up on unsuspecting targets, and bind weapons, spells and potions to the D-pad to create on-the-fly change-outs. The game can be played in the first- or third-person perspective, as well.

And the fourth is at Evil Avatar:

Your first task of course is to fight off some rats as you make your way through the underground passage. No RPG would be complete without big rats to kill. More or less you keep working your way through this area picking up various objects and seeing various aspects of the game. There’s a bow and some magic spells that can be acquired as well. All this is part of the character creation process. When you get to the end of this section the game will suggest your character type based on how you played through the beginning of the game. You can then choose that type or pick another, it’s up to you. It’s a very intuitive way of doing this. The only problem I see with this method of character creation is for replay ability, when someone comes back and knows the kind of character they want, they’ll be forced to go through this early part of the game. And it’s by no means short, it’ll take a good 45 minutes to an hour to get through the creation process.