Combat, unlike in Morrowind, is visceral and frenetic. Blows connect, tendons scream when your blow glances off a shield, and if that wasn’t enough, your enemy will taunt you if he feels confident he’s going to best you. Magic combat is rich and varied, there’s nothing more gratifying than seeing an enemy go down in a flurry of flames, or keel over after being frozen to death from a frost spell. A particular foe giving you a hard time? Bring out a shield spell, suck out his fatigue, even push him over the edge of a cliff if you have to. The options you have in any given fight are near limitless, only limited by your own imagination. Intelligence plays a factor with fights in Oblivion.

From a gameplay standpoint, the biggest change is the introduction of the fast travel system - which (I'm happy to say) works marvelously. What this does is allow you to "portal" to various (discovered) locations on the map so as to save time while completing the main story. One of the biggest complaints about the third game was that the main story was just too spread out. Many less patient players would simply give up on it after some time. The travel and waypoint systems for each quest allow you to move through the main plotline effortlessly, while enjoying the grander and more spectacular fight scenes (often involving friendly NPCs) in Oblivion. The game therefore becomes a lot more focused and streamlined for the less patient of players. However, to truly enjoy Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, make sure to get up on your mount, ride across the countryside, and explore the countless (and often very interesting) side-quests that are spread all across the land. So essentially, the game as it is, has it all. It lets you choose the style of playing you're more comfortable with, and that's about the biggest gameplay improvement that Bethesda could introduce into the series.

The quest system is much improved from Morrowind as well. You'll get quests and invitations to guilds at different times and places depending on your actions, and it's easy to keep track of what quest you're working on and how many are open to you. The map clearly shows your next step and you can lay down markers wherever you'd like. Still, I found it helpful to keep a notebook detailing where I went and what I found there. I would often find treasure I couldn't reach yet because of my low level and my notes helped me to remember where to backtrack when this happened.