Oblivion: The Shivering Isles
Review
Without those repetitive caves and ruins from the previous game
by jdarksun
reviewed on PC
Deranged Arrangement
You are here, after all, at Sheogorath's request. There is a matter of a few trifle life-and-death quests to accomplish before you can see him, but once those are done with he is so happy to see you he could just tear out your intestines and strangle you with them. No, really. He says that with a brilliant Scottish accent. It is like Sean Connery reading Lewis Carroll or Stephen King. Really a bit of both. Exactly like that, except totally different. See, it turns out that our mad god is in a bit of a predicament, one that he gets into once every era, and that ends with the destruction of all his stuff. The Shivering Isles in all its wonderful glory is reduced to so much stagnant Order. Nothing will change that, it always happens and that is why he called you. He needs a champion, someone to change things. Sheogorath assures you it won't work, but he wants you to try anyway. Did I mention he was mad?
I cannot stress enough how enjoyable I found interacting with Sheogorath. The voice acting is brilliant, spot on, and the dialog is nothing short of fantastic. He greets you with open arms, and threatens to kill you. Tells you to come back soon, or he will gouge out your eyes - but warns you against coming back before completing your task. He even gives you his chamberlain to harass. It is all quite wonderfully mad. The happy, insane people of Mania and the depressive, cruel denizens of Dementia and their liege who embodies both so perfectly.
Toys of Psychosis
You might be getting a vague 'Tribunal' (Morrowind's first expansion) vibe from all this; and if so, you'd be right. While you are not constrained in any way to a single city - the Shivering Isles are more like a swampy version of Bloodmoon's Solstheim - the main quests deals with the gods (well, Daedra), their strange games and fickle ways. Along with a slew of new dungeons, caves, towers, camps, and towns to explore, there are weapons and armor than can be crafted on demand. Just like everything else in the Isles, it is split along the lines of Mania and Dementia. Mania's armor is based around Amber, a pretty fire-orange substance that is made into light armor and a variety of weapons. Dementia has Madness Ore, cold gray rocks that are hammered into a menacing heavy armor set. At the high end - yes, everything is still leveled - they are better than Glass and Daedric respectively. They look rather fetching as well. There are also all manner of new spells, alchemical ingredients, trinkets, clothing, 'ceremonial' armor, and oddities. There is even a museum to store the oddities in.
There are a couple minor caveats. The sound didn't work perfectly for me. When enough different sound effects were played at once, sometimes one would cut out and become silent for a bit. The leveled creatures were a bit of a handful at first. The melee AI has been ramped up, causing me to have to change tactics a bit. At level 37, the creatures have a rather huge amount of hitpoints, causing me to rely on enchanted weapons (like the new Dawnblade and Duskblade dual sword) and captured souls to power them. Finally, there seems to be a higher concentration of mature content - no nudity or foul language, but plenty of torture, dismemberment, and violence. This is not a game for the kids.
All told, there is a fairly simple formula that you can apply to yourself if you are wondering if you should get Shivering Isles. Did you love Oblivion? Get Shivering Isles. Did you like Oblivion, but find all those caves and ruins to be a bit repetitive and boring? That didn't happen to me once in the Isles, so get it. Did you hate Oblivion? ... OK, you should probably stay away from Shivering Isles. But personally, I thought it was great, and I can't wait to see if the next expansion follows in the right direction.
9.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
