MadCap's Game Reviews - "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - The Shivering Isles"

The second expansion to Oblivion, The Shivering Isles adds in an all new realm of Oblivion not touched upon in the vanilla game headed by the Partyman, Lord of the Mad, and Daedric Prince of Madness (and other things too, but he can’t talk about them) himself, Sheogorath.

And let me again just be blunt, THIS ROCKS!

I mean it, virtually everything I didn’t so much enjoy in Oblivion is either corrected or isn’t a major factor in this expansion, which takes us far across the celestial veil and into the realms of Sheogorath.  Some interaction could, of course, be had with him in the vanilla game when you royally mess with a village by poisoning their livestock and making it rain burning dogs, among other steps.  If that doesn’t sound like the most vaguely frightening thing you’ve ever heard, then Shivering Isles might be just for you!

The add-on will bring in a small island off the coast of the town of Bravil, where you’ll find a Bravil city guard whose managed to swim out there along with two people who have already gone through and come back…stranger.  When the player character enters, they are greeted by the right hand man of Sheogorath himself, Haskill.  Unlike his master, Haskill is a rather subdued, some might say even dower gentleman who invites you to enter the Isles, but warns you that you will never be the same once you enter into them.

And indeed, you will not, as a very strange and wondrous world lies before you.  And, like Alice before you, you are brought through the looking glass and into the Shivering Isles.  Your first difficulty comes in the town of Passwall, where live those that have not yet been blessed by Sheogorath to pass the Gatekeeper.  And the eldritch abomination cannot be passed without severe consequences (namely death) so, what is a player character to do? Why, kill it right back, of course!  There are actually a number of ways to achieve this besides just trying to brute force your way past him (not recommended for low-level characters) and it pays to move around in the area around Passwall to find out how to utilize them.

Sheogorath '16: Cheese for Everyone!

But once you’ve defeated the Gatekeeper, you can pass into the Shivering Isles.  You can very easily just go off exploring afterwards and not worry at all about the main questline until you have the urge to do so.  It’s not at all intrusive and Sheogorath will pretty much wait forever while you muck around in his realm (then again, given his portfolio, he might just enjoy you mucking around in his realm).  But when you’re ready to play it, it’s there for you.

There are literally dozens of additional side quests that are added on by this, and quite varied.  Everything from helping to stock a museum of the bizarre, to finding a home with a roof for a man whose afraid he’ll fall into the sky whilst he sleeps, to finding matrixes that will allow you to have magical weapons and armor made for you, to helping the beloved minor Morrowind character Big-Head recover his Fork of Horripilation and more!  And, of course, there’s plenty of ground to cover simply wandering around getting gnawed on by the local wildlife (oh, and there’s a quest for that) and enjoying the exotic scenery.

One thing I’d criticized vanilla Oblivion for doing was sticking to the generic western fantasy setting.  Shivering Isles, on the other hand, is a colorful romp through some of the most bizarre and rather unique scenery.  Very reminiscent of Morrowind on an extreme drug trip.  Be it either the colorful lands of Mania or the dark and twisted roots of Dementia, both halves of the Isles have a unique look and feel to them.  Even the dungeons are rather unique – if only because they clearly have more thought put into them than the dungeons back in Cyrodiil.

As for the jewel in the crown, the storyline involves you aiding Sheogorath in stopping the Greymarch, and event that happens at the end of every Era where another Daedric Prince, Jyggalag, ransacks the Shivering Isles.  Then, Sheogorath rebuilds them, and the whole process is doomed to go on forever…until now, when the Madgod sees an opportunity to break the cycle.  How, you might ask? Well, by making you take his place, of course!

…yeah, I didn’t see that coming, either.

Of course, it’s quite a jump from mortal to god, but Sheogorath gives you the assistance of Haskill as he has you go about the Isles and getting a feel for them, becoming the Duke or Duchess of either Mania or Dementia as well as questing against the forces of Order to prevent the Greymarch…if you can.

Sheogorath wields the Pimp Cane of Madness

I will say, the questlines ending does play very much like that of the others that aren’t the main quest – namely the Fighters’ Guild and the Dark Brotherhood – in that you can receive a hefty tribute every so often by journeying to a location outside of New Sheoth, the capital of the Shivering Isles, and just watching your guards protect your people from the various banditry and wildlife that can attack them.  Of course, you make a bit more if you go yourself, but it’s still a pretty much endless flow of money that you can milk whenever you like.

There are also a few perks to being a Daedric Prince, though they are only useable within the Shivering Isles.  The prime example being able to make it rain…in reality its Weather Manipulation set to random once per day. You also gain the ability to instantly teleport yourself to your Throne Room from anywhere in the Isles.  There’s also the Staff of Sheogorath, which allows you to use the power of Sheogorath’s voice to freeze all characters, be they friend or foe, within a certain area.  This makes them nigh invincible so long as they are frozen, but is very handy for quick escapes or for quickly analyzing combat to know where best to hit in the event of group encounters.

That being said, the few perks that you get are kind of lame for all the work.  But even Jyggalag says at the end that the player hasn’t quite molded themselves into a god.  They seem to be more than just a mortal, but less than a simple god…it seems…uncertain…

…at least ‘til two centuries later when the Dragonborn runs into you and you’ve pretty much fit the bill, but never mind that.

Butterflies that Ron wouldn't want to follow.

Outside of becoming the King of the Madmen, as I said, there are dozens of side quests – both marked and unmarked – that give you literally hours of gameplay.  Again, not to overly praise the environments (after all, graphics don’t sell a game entirely for me), but I was taken in by just wandering the completely alien environment for hours before I was trampled by the Lovecraftian monstrosities that call the Shivering Isles home.

All things considered, for how much you get for this, it’s really great.  And I love it.  But we’re not quite done with my thoughts on the add-ons for Oblivion.  No, indeed, there is one more that I want to voice my thoughts on before I close the book on this retrospective.

Free Mini-Review!: It's still stupid.

…no, it is not Horse Armor!

"The Shivering Isles" is available for PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3.