Playtime: 10 Hours
Score: 9/10
An excellent expansion and easily one of Bethesda's best DLCs! I love Oblivion as its easily one of my favorite games of all time but I have less memories of this expansion. I remembered fighting the Gatekeeper at the beginning but not much after that, so a replay was in order!
The one thing I loved most was just how visually diverse the Shivering Isles are to Cyrodill with its more otherworldly look. It reminded me of Morrowind in that aspect. I also love how the island is split up into Mania and Dementia, with them meeting in the city of New Sheoth, with it being split into two districts. I remember visiting the Dementia side first and seeing how dark, twisted and Tim Burton-esk everything looked, but when I went over to the Mania side, everything was bright and colorful. Overall, S tier art design!
The enemies can be a little annoying in this expansion, especially if you decide to enter Dementia first which is what I did. Some enemies like the Grumites will always have poison tipped weapons, so whenever you face one they will hit you and drain things like your magicka and damage your attributes which was so annoying. I played through the base game as a two handed warrior but in this DLC I had to switch to sword and shield for better blocking and use tons of poison resistance. Other annoying things like the stagger mechanic still exists which just are so annoying to deal with in combat, especially when fighting multiple enemies who just keep constantly staggering you. Also there are priest enemies that turn invisible which is always fun to!
Story wise, I thought this was better then the main story from the base game with an almost Alice in Wonderland vibe. I loved helping Sheogorath and then becoming the Dutchess of Dementia as I played which was really cool.
All that said, this is a pretty good expansion I'd say despite the annoying elements. Definitely worth a playthrough!
All DLCs I have played and reviewed ranked - https://www.backloggd.com/u/JudgeDredd35/list/all-dlcs-i-have-played-and-reviewed-ranked/
Score: 9/10
An excellent expansion and easily one of Bethesda's best DLCs! I love Oblivion as its easily one of my favorite games of all time but I have less memories of this expansion. I remembered fighting the Gatekeeper at the beginning but not much after that, so a replay was in order!
The one thing I loved most was just how visually diverse the Shivering Isles are to Cyrodill with its more otherworldly look. It reminded me of Morrowind in that aspect. I also love how the island is split up into Mania and Dementia, with them meeting in the city of New Sheoth, with it being split into two districts. I remember visiting the Dementia side first and seeing how dark, twisted and Tim Burton-esk everything looked, but when I went over to the Mania side, everything was bright and colorful. Overall, S tier art design!
The enemies can be a little annoying in this expansion, especially if you decide to enter Dementia first which is what I did. Some enemies like the Grumites will always have poison tipped weapons, so whenever you face one they will hit you and drain things like your magicka and damage your attributes which was so annoying. I played through the base game as a two handed warrior but in this DLC I had to switch to sword and shield for better blocking and use tons of poison resistance. Other annoying things like the stagger mechanic still exists which just are so annoying to deal with in combat, especially when fighting multiple enemies who just keep constantly staggering you. Also there are priest enemies that turn invisible which is always fun to!
Story wise, I thought this was better then the main story from the base game with an almost Alice in Wonderland vibe. I loved helping Sheogorath and then becoming the Dutchess of Dementia as I played which was really cool.
All that said, this is a pretty good expansion I'd say despite the annoying elements. Definitely worth a playthrough!
All DLCs I have played and reviewed ranked - https://www.backloggd.com/u/JudgeDredd35/list/all-dlcs-i-have-played-and-reviewed-ranked/
7 Comments
@RedBackLoggd Ya I agree his voice can get a bit much. I mostly was annoyed with how passive aggressive he was. I didn't find the quests to be too evil except towards the end, but I don't mind since RPGs (especially Bethesda) makes you the good guy all the time and i like the games that led you be evil or morally grey to spice things up.
You could be right, it's been some time, but I distinctly remember a whole series where you have to pick between killing a bunch of treasure hunters of driving them insane.
I get that, but that should be a separate title, not a part of the Hero's Quest of another game if that makes sense.
I get that, but that should be a separate title, not a part of the Hero's Quest of another game if that makes sense.
@RedBackLoggd Oh ya that was the quest where those adventurers come into the dungeon and you have to set traps for them. I was also annoyed but mostly for the fact that the game stopped me dead in my tracks and forced me to do it. But I thought it was a neat idea and it was something different to what all of the base games quests offered. Plus most of the characters in the Shivering Isles are creations of Sheogorath and there not nice people anyway. Like later when you have to take out one of the dukes I was like "dude is a shitty politican, so I don't care.".
That's true about it offering variety and, to your point, it certainly speaks to the Shivering Isles atmosphere.
@RedBackLoggd Ya its got a unique atmosphere for sure. But thats always whats Oblivion has excelled at for me.
Glad we ended on a point of agreement :)
RedBackLoggd
3 months ago