It’s not like I’m comparing Doom 3 to Madden 2007 here, saying Madden is a much better game to play. THERE’S where you’d have a problem. THERE’S where you shouldn’t be comparing. See? There are BETTER, SIMILAR games to spend your $50 on. Anyway, on with my original review……

I’ll start off with saying this… Buy Oblivion. There’s really no excuse to NOT own Oblivion. It’s been out since March ’06 and is the greatest game ever. Ever. This game tries SO hard to be Oblivion, but it fails. Oh my God…it fails.

The voice acting is unreasonably horrible. Too much “mayhap” and “forsooth” (which a decent voice actor may be able to pull off without it sounding cheesy). However, the dialogue and the voice acting is all simply unbearable. Maybe Oblivion has just spoiled me.

The music’s great! That’s the only good thing I’ll say about the game, because that’s the ONLY good thing I can say.

The graphics are nice…sort of. Don’t turn HDR all the way up or the sun will take up the whole sky and shine so bright that some of the nearby trees disappear! Unacceptable.

Still on the subject of graphics… The grass and trees sway in the wind, like in Oblivion. However, the grass and trees look terrible compared to Oblivion. Even if I’d never played Oblivion, I’d still say the grass and trees look so incredibly fake.

The controls…are terrible. Bad camera angles mixed with somewhat responsive controls mixed with way too many buttons to remember in order to do basic things = Please don’t buy this game. At least try the Demo first.

The people look bad. It’s like all the people and animals in the game were tossed together by the designers overnight. The animal noises are terrible, the voice acting is still terrible (don’t know if I mentioned that already), and the bird sounds are especially terrible/annoying.

Gameplay just isn’t smooth, the music’s great but the sounds (including voices) are awful, graphics resemble that of Oblivion only without all the QUALITY, and I’ll also mention that the towns consist of a bunch of people just standing around (occasionally someone will walk from one corner to another… wow! Such realism!)

Swaying grass and trees like in Oblivion, check. Clouds moving through a sky which at a single glance reminds me of Oblivion, check. Various towns scattered throughout a countryside that, at one look, reminds me of Oblivion…check. Many people in the towns, as well as people at camps throughout the countryside like in Oblivion, check. Camera that automatically zooms up to the face of the person you’re talking to like in Oblivion, check. Character races (orcs, elves, etc) like in Oblivion, check. A character design system that’s set up MUCH like Oblivion’s, check.

My God, it tries so very hard, and yet… it doesn’t. I feel like I need to play Oblivion right now just to clean the filth of this game off myself. Oh, and if you want dragons in Oblivion, download the Akatosh Mount mod. This game comes with dragons, but… it’s just not worth it.

PLEASE download the demo for this game off the official site (or wherever) and see for yourself! PLEASE! And if you own Oblivion, you’ll spot the similarities in less than 5 seconds of gameplay, and you’ll be disappointed in less than 5 seconds of gameplay.

I can’t recommend this game. I can’t. Please don’t buy it. At least try the demo first before you waste $50. I beg you. I don’t know what else to say. Don’t be fooled by the pretty screenshots. I’m glad there are developers out there trying to make games more like Oblivion… and this game tries to be a worthy replica…but falls so amazingly short.
Rating: 2 / 5