The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion opens with the Emperor of Tamriel dying and handing you his amulet. That is the whole promise of Bethesda Game Studios’ fourth Elder Scrolls game in one scene: a continent-sized fantasy world, a throne with no heir, and a player character who starts the story in a prison cell for an unknown crime.
It came out in 2006 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360, with PlayStation 3 following in 2007. It was co-published by Bethesda Softworks and 2K Games. It is an action role-playing game, single player, first and third person, and it is still one of the clearest answers to the question of what an open world is for.
Trailer, via Bethesda Softworks.
Uriel Septim VII Dies in the Sewer
The plot does not waste time. Emperor Uriel Septim VII flees his palace after assassins murder his three sons and turn on him. He and his Imperial bodyguards, the Blades, arrive at the prison where the player is locked up, because the cell holds a secret entrance to the city’s sewers.
The player is pardoned and follows the group into the sewer, where they are attacked. Before he dies, Uriel passes the Amulet of Kings to the player. A Blades captain is killed in the same attack.
The empire is left with no legitimate heir, desperate factions fight over the throne, and the cult known as the Mythic Dawn works to open portal gates into Oblivion, a demonic realm in another dimension.
The main quest is a search: find Uriel’s lost and illegitimate son, the only remaining heir, and unravel the plot before the gates stay open.
Cyrodiil Is the Real Character
Oblivion takes place in Cyrodiil, the province that serves as the heartland and Imperial capital of the continent of Tamriel. The game is set during the Third Era, six years after The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, though it is not a direct sequel to Morrowind or to any other game in the series.
The history underneath the map is doing more work than the main story. Cyrodiil has been the capital of three human empires. The first, the Alessian Empire, began when a human slave named St. Alessia led an uprising against the Ayleids, an elven faction that had held dominion over Tamriel and worshiped the Daedra — the sadistic, selfish beings from Oblivion who exist as the antithesis of the Nine Divines.
Blessed by the Divines, Alessia drove the Ayleids back and forged a covenant that kept the Daedra out through a mystical barrier. The terms were simple and brutal: so long as a being of royal blood sat on the throne, the covenant held and the Empire prospered. Two later incarnations of the Empire kept the arrangement, with rulers handpicked by the Divines. Tiber Septim, a human warrior, eventually united the races and provinces of Tamriel under one banner.
That is why the dead emperor matters. The lack of an heir broke St. Alessia’s covenant.
So long as a being of royal blood sat on the throne, the covenant would remain and the Empire would prosper.
Fast Travel, Seven Skills, and a Game That Never Ends
The structure is open-ended by design. Players can follow side-quests, interact with non-player characters, kill monsters, develop their character, and travel anywhere in Cyrodiil at any time, provided an area is not locked off by a quest. The main storyline can be ignored or postponed indefinitely. The game never ends, and play continues after the main quest is finished.
Fast travel is the practical backbone. An icon appears on the world map every time the player visits a new location, and selecting it moves the player there instantly. The main cities are already unlocked from the start.
Character development runs on numbers:
- Ten humanoid or anthropomorphic races, each with different natural abilities, plus appearance customization
- Seven major skills chosen early, with the rest termed minor
- Level-ups each time major skills improve by a total of ten points
- New abilities unlocked at 25, 50, 75, and 100 points in a single skill
- Twenty-one skills in total, split evenly across categories
- Attributes such as speed and endurance, which disease and poison can reduce
Development began in 2002, right after Morrowind shipped, with Bethesda choosing tighter pacing and a heavier plot focus than in past titles. The studio built the graphics on an improved Havok physics engine, high-dynamic-range lighting, procedural generation tools for fast, detailed terrain, and the Radiant AI system, which let non-player characters make their own decisions.
What Radiant AI Actually Changed
Radiant AI is the detail that dates best. Giving NPCs their own schedules and choices turned Cyrodiil from a backdrop into a place with routines, and it is the reason a player can spend an evening ignoring the Mythic Dawn entirely and still feel like something is happening.
The main quest, by contrast, is the weakest part of the game. Uriel’s death is a strong opening, and the search for an illegitimate heir is a serviceable engine, but the urgency never matches the freedom. A game that lets you postpone the apocalypse forever has already told you the apocalypse can wait.
The Gates Are the Point
Oblivion’s reputation rests on the space between its systems and its story. The covenant, the Amulet of Kings, the bloodline requirement — that is a genuinely good piece of fantasy lawmaking, because it makes a political crisis into a metaphysical one. When the gates open and demons march, the game has earned the imagery.
What it has not earned is the sense that any of it is pressing. The side-quests, the skills, the fast-travel icons, the cities unlocked from the beginning: all of it pulls attention away from the throne. That is not a flaw in the open-world tradition. It is the tradition.
An 8.4, and Why It Holds
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion scores 8.4 out of 10. The world is the achievement — Cyrodiil, the Alessian history, the Daedra, the Nine Divines, the covenant that ties a throne to a barrier. The main quest is the price of admission, not the reason to stay.
Sequel or not, Oblivion does not need Morrowind to stand. It needs the player to walk away from the emperor’s amulet for a few hours and find something better to do. That it lets you — and that the game keeps going after the main quest ends — is the whole argument.
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