Without question, one of the most impressive games at last year's E3 convention was Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The presentation dazzled everyone in attendance with its sharp graphics, AI modeling, and the game's overall scope. After that showing, Oblivion looked like a "can't miss" game. After playing through the main campaign and a handful of the dizzying number of side quests, it's clear that while not perfect, Bethesda didn't miss with Oblivion. It might not be a certified home run, but it's definitely a worthy addition to the storied series.

Oblivion follows a similar pattern to that of Morrowind (and Daggerfall for that matter). It's really one big role-playing sandbox that gives you total freedom in how you wish to approach it. This sandbox feel starts right off the bat with character creation. You can opt to go with one of the game's base character archetypes or create a custom class and really dig deep into the type of hero (or anti-hero) that you wish to play. You can even get into the face modeling of your character and have him/her look exactly the way you want.

The first few hours of Oblivion consists mainly of character creation and the starter dungeon to get the ball rolling as well as introduce you to the main campaign thread. After you leave the starter area, however, what you do is completely up to you. The Elder Scrolls series is famous for this and Oblivion doesn't stray from this design path. The idea being that Bethesda has created this intricately detailed world and you're free to explore it at your own discretion. This has both positive and negative connotations, though.

Obviously, it's really cool to play the game that way you want – and there are so many side quests in the game that you could completely ignore the main quest and still spend hour upon hour just adventuring in Tamriel. The game is literally that big. However, by allowing you to wander around the countryside doing odd jobs and rooting out evil in caves, the world around you remains fairly static. It's mainly an issue of story consistency. When you leave the starter dungeon you get the sense that you're there to save the world from impending doom and that time is of the essence when in fact the game waits on you. Feel free to spend a month doing whatever strikes your fancy; the bad guys really aren't in much of a rush. Again, this isn't a huge deal in terms of gameplay but it is sort of weird that the game world doesn't evolve and that time literally stands still.

Visually, the game is both hit and miss. It's undeniable that the characters, landscapes, and overall detail is spectacular – when you first leave the starter dungeon and are exposed to the size of Oblivion's world it's pretty awe-inspiring. The NPCs, when you talk to them show several different emotions; it's all very life-like. However, parts of the visual package are less than expected. The spell effects, for example, are far from thrilling. For a game that looks this detailed it would have been nice to see some really outstanding and flashy effects when you let loose a powerful spell. As is, it's all pretty generic.

Another highly touted feature is the game's "Radiant AI". Marketing name aside, the character AI is both extremely nifty and at the same time downright baffling. For example, people have regular schedules that they follow. If you want to take the time to do it you could follow a shopkeeper as he closes up for the night – maybe he'll run an errand before going home? People have to eat, right? Even outside of a city or village, wandering NPCs interact with each other, sometimes violently. Everyone in the world really does have a basic "way of life" that they follow to the letter. Wander into an inn and you hear NPCs having conversations. It's not incredibly deep but pretty cool nonetheless and sometimes you can overhear something that can lead you to a quest.

That said, there are times when the way things work lead to some unintentionally hilarious happenings. For example, my character was searching for an object inside of a water-filled well. After searching for several minutes I noticed an NPC swimming toward me. Shocked, I stood there as the NPC approached…and he offered me a quest and then swam away. It was totally bizarre. Stuff like this can break the sense of immersion just a smidge. Another example is when you walk into a crowded inn and everyone starts blabbing at the same time. All of the talk blends together so you have no idea what anyone is saying. NPCs may have a conversation and even exchange farewells – and then stay rooted to the spot, staring at each other. So while the "Radiant AI" is a cool idea, it still needs further polish.

There's also a lack of awareness of the part of enemy NPCs. Fireballs can be sent across a room to an unexpected enemy and unless the blast hits the target, it doesn't react to the attack. You'd think a fireball exploding against a wall five feet from an evil cultist would turn on some sort of "I'm being attacked" mode.

One other quibble is the fact that there's very little room for real character development outside of basic stat increases. There's no witty banter (being a solo game, you won't get any inter-party discussion) and very few, if any, colorful NPC characters. Almost every person that you meet, friend or foe, is a generic template rather than a fleshed out personality. For a game that is very dependant on interaction it's a shame that so few of the NPCs are memorable. The cities feel just as generic (a few stand out, such as Bruma in the North). You rarely feel as if you're in a bustling medieval metropolis. Even games like the old Baldur's Gate tried to give you a sense of being in a city by adding sound bits here and there to simulate the fact that you weren't by yourself. Here, most cities are almost ghost towns aside from guards and a few wandering NPCs. Of course with the steep system requirements, adding more bodies to the screen would slow the game down to a crawl. (If you want the game to look as it should, you need to bring a beastly PC to the party, and as much RAM as possible.)

So Oblivion is far from perfect, but that doesn't change the fact that you can get lost inside of its world. It's this freedom that drives the game. No game is as good as Oblivion in terms of sandbox adventuring fun.