Cheating in Oblivion is hard. You start off covered in rags in a dank prison cell. Why you're there, you don't really know. Fortunately for you, the Emperor comes barging into your cell and frees you. He leaves through a secret passage, and you have the option of remaining in the cell, or following him. So begins another classic Elder Scrolls game.

But even before all this happens, you have to create your character from among several races, both human, or other. The others include a cat-like race, a fish-like race, and the orc. Each race has an advantage in certain areas and are weak in others. The classic Warcraft orc is shown on the left. You can change his facial features, sex, or even age him. But you can't be fat or skinny, and your gender and age doesn't really change the storyline. Neither does walking around half naked if you're a female character. Believe us, we did.

Getting back to the Emperor, if you follow him (or you stay in your cell and do nothing), you have to fight your way through an underground maze of giant rats and goblins. You'll eventually find the Emperor who gives you your destiny right before he dies (surprise, surprise).

And this is where the game really starts. You got a destiny, but you don't have to follow it. The game waits for you. Go have fun, rob people, or create weird potions from ingredients you collect. There's plenty of dungeons just lying around and plenty of people who have quests for you, or want to teach you stuff for a price. Although most of the quests involve fetching stuff from dungeons. You can also join guilds to learn new skills, and yes, fetch more stuff for more people.

And what does all this fetching get you? Well, better equipment like powerful swords, spells, and armor. And you'll need all that because this is where the game gets a little disappointing. You'd think that as you become more powerful, you could kick some goblin or rat butt. But no. They all get just as strong as you. So the only thing keeping you ahead of them is your equipment.

Not only that, don't forget about your quest. Because sooner or later, you'll probably want to finish this game. Your quest is a whooper. But even when you're deep into it, you can still do stuff. That's the great thing about this game. You can do stuff all the way to the end of the game. We won't tell you what happens from this point on, but let's just say Oblivion is classic Elder Scrolls gameplay. It's open, it's fun, and it can be extremely long or short. The Sauron-looking thing is part of the main quest.

The graphics are superb 360 nextgen with no dirty textures. Everything has so much detail from the grass, to the building textures, to the real-time day and night cycles. Unfortunately, the enemies are a bit cartoonish in appearance. Like the monkey you see here is a cave troll. The zombies don't look that much better, and the goblins, they all come in one size. Infact, everything in this game comes in one body type, and that's a but disappointing. Like the troll. You'll encounter slightly different colored trolls, but they all have that exact troll body. The music is annoying medieval music you'll want to turn off five minutes into the game. And the dialogue? Makes you feel like you're surrounded by old ladies playing bingo or something. Even the main quest doesn't try to do anything original. But what the game does have is open-ended gameplay. And that's why we really like it.

And unlike other RPGs, you can play this game again from the beginning and get a slightly different adventure. Sure, the main quest is the same, but you can make it harder or easier on yourself. For example, our second time through, we played a real badguy. We killed people. We stole everything that wasn't nailed down. And we even became a vampire. Took us a whole lot longer to finish the game because no one would talk to us and we just put all the stuff we stole in a huge pile until we found someone who would buy them. Yeah, you can't sell stolen items to shops. You got to find a black market shop. Good luck with that. We had more infamy than fame. And it took us a long time. Close to 100 hours of enjoyment before we gave this game up. That's a whole lot of entertainment for your heard earned cash.

Oblivion continues the great legacy of Elder Scroll games and should stand atop of your list of games to play. Those who like quick action should look elsewhere, but those who enjoy a great deep adventure will find Oblivion worthy of their time.