Play it on: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PCs (Steam Deck “Verified”)
Current goal: Find good aloe vera spots for harvesting
Last week, I talked about building a new, non-violent Oblivion character to try my best to buck the game’s boring desire to have me just run out to the forests of Cyrodiil to kill things. I didn’t really expect this to work, and I surely didn’t expect it to work on the hardest difficulty of the game. I still expected to have some fun, even if it wasn’t fully realized.
But here I am, sitting at about a dozen hours or so, with only three dead creatures to my name; all rats in the opening sequence that, it turns out, I could have just run past, so maybe I’ll do another run in the future with zero kills. My time has otherwise been spent collecting plants for potions, BS-ing with almost every person in the Imperial City via the persuasion mini-game, enjoying the game’s gorgeous world, and trading stuff I find in my little adventures.
And by little adventures, I mean the short excursions I go on when I leave the safety of the Imperial City, as I can’t survive out there for long. It’s dangerous out there given that I’m playing on the hardest difficulty and that my custom-rolled “Alchemical Dropout” class essentially has no bonuses or strengths in combat-related skills. Suffice it to say, I go down fast.
This is where Oblivion’s world surprised me. Early on in my playthrough with this character, I heard an Imperial Guard advise an NPC to stick to the main roads because of how dangerous it is out there. Turns out this isn’t just ambient dialogue, but rather essential advice for tough difficulties and strange playthroughs, like my mostly passive one!
You will still get attacked even on the main roads, of course. But they often have patrolling guards who will come to your aid if you’re waylaid by monsters or ne’er-do-wells. My routine typically consists of venturing out into the wilderness, grabbing up some wildflowers, and hauling ass back to the road the first time I encounter trouble. In all but one case, the guards typically take out the threat, then I loot the dead body, take the goods back to town and sell them, getting cash and leveling up via mercantile skills and the persuasion mini-game. It’s definitely not the heroism I think many aspire to when they play Oblivion, but I am certainly immersed. And to be honest, I kind of find watching NPCs battle to be more entertaining than actually participating in combat and experiencing the physics and mechanics of battle in Oblivion myself. Plus, I really am getting to see and soak in the beauty of this world a lot more slowly since I’m not just fast-traveling around to find my next slaughter spot.
This weekend I’m doing more of the same, but I’m keeping an eye out for a great source of aloe vera for my potions. The surprising flexibility of how I can play Oblivion has me wondering what other alternative playstyles are possible. — Claire Jackson