Don't pay for your horse
You'll stumble across the Emperor and Blades after killing more rats and goblins the atmospheric dungeon-maze. The Emperor instructs you to follow him and protect him as they try and find an escape route. There's a couple of easy fight sequences, one of which results in the death of the Emperor. Just before he is attacked and killed, he tells you that you must stand alone against the Prince of Destruction, the lords of the demonic World of Oblivion. He gives you the Amulet of the Kings (the sacred symbol of the Empire) and sets your first quest, find Jauffre at Wenyon Priory, give him the amulet and ultimately find his missing son
You’ll now need to choose your seven major skills. Each of these skills will determine, to a certain extent, which path you choose. It’s these skills which you’ll need to perfect to be able to level up. Levelling up will also allow you to take part in certain quests only available to high-levels.
Click for larger imageThe game begins from this point. As you step out into the Province of Cyrodil you’ll immediately feel a sense of grandeur. Check your map for the route to your first mission, or as I did, begin the journey of exploration around the dozens of shrines, elven ruins, camps, forts and cities embedded in the rolling hillsides in the distance. From this point the sky is the limit, the World is your oyster. Just take a look around, Oblivion is a living-breathing world inside your television and you’re the star.
In addition to bartering with the locals, joining guilds, or wandering around the numerous towns, caves and shrines of Cyrodil, you’ll be dying to get your teeth into some of the dozens of quests available.
Click for larger imageYou’ll complete Oblivion in 20-30 hours if you decide to ignore side-quests and dive straight into the missions, but there is no fun in that, the quests are entertaining, occasionally humorous, go along way in deepening your Oblivion experience, and encapsulate the wonder and magnificence of this vast world.
Get yourself a horse! I’ve already heard numerous people complaining about the long trips on foot between towns to complete the next part of a mission or quest. When you visit Jauffre in the first mission, speak to all the priests in the Chapel. One priest will let you use his horse, which you can keep for the duration of the game. Buy a horse if you wish, but it will be a while before you can afford it.
Quests can be picked up almost anywhere, although normally in the major towns. You'll often be heading off to complete a quest when you'll stumble across two more. In fact one of Oblivion's potential put-offs to casual gamers is that there's too much to do, but don't worry you've got all the time in the World to complete them.
You’ll often seem to be over-loaded with quests, wondering where to head to next. However, you can use the menu interface to look through current quests or active quests. A red marker will always show your active quest on your compass. If you fancy changing quests, just assign a new one and the red marker will change to the new location.
The ease of the menu system ensures that you’ll always have a handy guide and should never get lost on the way to your next mission or quest.
The menu is where you’ll need to assign your weapons and armoury, decide which items to keep and which to sell or throw away, drink potions and equip magic.
