We got a taste of Oblivion, and we like it - a lot.

Oblivion has been in development since 2002, and it shows. It takes place in Cyrodiil, the center of the empire in the land of Tamriel, which has been left in ruins by the fatal wounding of its emperor. From what we could gather, Oblivion is like Hell, but acts as more of a pathway, rather than a final destination … and that’s all we could gather from the short demos. The previous game (Morrowind) will have little to no impact on the new game, as is the case with every successive Elder Scrolls game.

The leveling system is similar to Morrowind in that it is skill-based: if a character uses nothing but a sword, he will become a master swordsman. Likewise, his skills with an axe or magic will suffer from lack of use. The game still allows the player to switch from first person to third person at any time.

One of the sticking points in Morrowind was the battle system, which, we are proud to report, has been dramatically improved. If an enemy hits your shield, he hits your shield, not you. From what we can tell, this adds a very nice arcade feel to the battles; however, it doesn’t detract from the main RPG element of the game.

The length of the game has been expanded ten-fold: 200 dungeons, and nearly 1,000 NPCs make up the world of Tamriel. An improvement over Morrowind is that NPCs will follow a 24-hour schedule. So, instead of just hanging around outside at night, for no apparent reason, the NPCs will go to sleep, work, or sneak around at night.

According to Microsoft, Oblivion will be available during the launch window. Oblivion will also be available for the PC, which will include the TES Construction Set, which so many players loved for creating original content for Morrowind.

E3 Impressions provided by Geekstreak.