Knights of Nine
-Good-
~Lengthy quest (5 hours), fun beginning, cool ending. You get a new outfit with fairly nice benefits, nothing jaw dropping though.
~Kind of boss fight at the end in a cool environment(i don't want to spoil it)
-Bad-
~Half of the quest deals with you traveling all over the map to touch shrines(to become blessed), you have to find 8-9 of them. You get a map, but the actual locations aren't marked on your main map so sometimes it takes longer then it should to find one. Became some what tedious.
~More fetching type activites then actually meeting interesting characters, go in this cave to find this, go to this other cave to find that, etc...
~Everying thing besides the new boss where you fight the boss, and armor, you've seen before.
Shivering Isles
-Good-
~Very interesting story, great ideas and concepts.
~New environment, new weapons, new armor, new tougher enemies, great dialogue.
~Great main quest, and some entertaining side quests ( the first side quest i did; i was told by a distraught civilian that he hated his life and wanted me to kill him, but he didn't want to see it coming)
~You come across some interesting characters as mentioned above.
~Lengthy, i've put 15 hours into so far and am probably only half way done.
~Decent price, you get what you pay for, after all, $30 isn't cheap for an add-on.
-Bad-
~Review after review stats how different the two worlds are, mania(happy/energetic) and dementia(sad/angry), but honestly, they're not that different. Don't get me wrong, you can tell which is which, but it's not nearly as extreme as i was made to believe. Let's take leaves off trees and paint the vegetation in darker shades and call it dementia. So far that's my only complaint.
For $30 this is a good deal because you actually get what you pay for. An additional 30-40hours to an already extremly lengthy and well made game. One side note, i bought this game downloaded it onto my 360, brought it my friends place and downloaded on his as well(he also had Oblivion). Therefore, if you know someone else who wants it you guys should split the cost because you just download it on your hard drive and don't actually need the disc to play the game(you only need the Oblivion disc).
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Right in the middle of the Niben Bay of Cyrodiil lies the entrance to the realm of Sheogorath called the Shivering Isles. Here you'll find some bizarre things and even more bizarre people. Shivering Isles is the expansion pack to the brilliant Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.Key Features:
Two New Armor and Weapons Sets
Many new special weapons and magical items
About 20-25 hours of new gameplay
A good amount of new enemies
New conjuration spells
New greater power spells
Gameplay 7 of 10
As odd as it sounds, the gameplay is not as good as Oblivion even though they are based on the same combat system and the quests are very similar. First off, even though the map is about one-fifth the size of Cyrodiil, it seems smaller. There are only 30-40 places to go. Quests are either found by talking to Sheogorath or seeking out random quests within the realm. There are caves, ruins, homesteads and New Sheoth-the capital and only city in The Shivering Isles. New Sheoth houses both Crucible and Bliss which represent the opposite sides of the Isles mania and dementia. Side quests are sort of uninspiring. One quest entailed finding calipers and tongs to sell to some idiotic guy who was collecting them.
Creatures 7 of 10
Creatures found in the Shivering Isles reflect the essence of it. They are somewhat more magical or otherworldly. Where as you'll find bears, wolves and mountain lions quite commonly in Cyrodiil, here you'll see tree creatures, giant ant-like monsters called Elytra and Scalons which resemble lizards that walk on two feet. Almost everything here is stronger and more ferocious. My only problem with the creatures is I believe I can name off all of them without even playing the game. So in terms of variety, it can get old. You'll be fighting Grummites most of the time.
Story 9 of 10
Mania and dementia are the basis of the Shivering Isles; two sides of the same coin. When you first enter the "strange door" you meet Haskill which is Sheogorath's personal assistant. Haskill makes sure you want to enter the Shivering Isles. He has a rather interesting stoicism and indifference to his tone. After this you enter the Fringe.
To get past the Fringe you must defeat the Gatekeepera 12 foot tall creature with a weapon attached to its right arm. Once you've done this you can choose whether to enter mania-a land which vaguely resembles the inside of Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory or dementia-a downtrodden less colorful version of The Shivering Isles. Note that either side both have the same locations.
After this you are sent to see the madman himself Sheogorath. He asks you to do various quests and what not. It is sort of like being in a guild, but after each quest you end up with a much better reward than you normally would. The story is has a lot more of a plotline to it than the original game.
Armors / Weapons 8 of 10
There are two new armor sets: Amber and Madness for mania and dementia respectively. In the realm of Sheogorath, you must find the constituents of the armor to create it as opposed to just buying pre-armor. Amber requires pieces of amber to create both the armor and weapons, just as the madness armor does. The amber is a light armor, while madness is heavy armor. If you happen to find a matrix, this can be used to create a whole piece of the armor. There are also very impressive pieces of armor later on in the main quest line, which are much more powerful than anything found in Cyrodiil. Weapons here are all marginally stronger to begin with than regular weapons. One in particular dubbed Duskfang is very strong and has multiple enchantments.
Graphics 6 of 10
At first look the visuals are every bit as appealing and detailed as Oblivion. When you get a little closer, you see it isn't the case. Unfortunately only a few of the weapons and the Amber armor are really remarkable. Amber armor looks like a yellowish-orange glass armor set. New enemy combatants in general appear lackluster-especially the Elytras. It is almost like they left off the last level of 3-d rendering. The landscape of mania is very lit up, vibrant and rainbow colored. It is the only redeeming quality to the graphics. All said, the landscape has very little detail and parts of the trees are not even solid-you can walk right through them. Basically, instead of improving upon the graphics in the Isles, the developers actually took them a step or two down. Parts of it really remind me of Elder Scrolls III
What I would have added:
First off, you should have been able to purchase a house; though you can inherit one on one of the side quests. Secondly, there should have been a place to enchant weapons and create spells. It got really annoying having to fast travel from the Shivering Isles to the gate, out of the gate and then to the Arcane university. More monsters should have been added and more time should have been spent on the texturing and details of the landscape and creatures.
Overall the expansion is a solid 7 out of 10, but has little replay value for me. I was a little disappointed in the general gameplay and also the amount of playing time. I paid about $28 for probably 20 hours of game time, when I got an average of 120 hours for each one of my Oblivion characters. So the value factor is kind of low. Visually, the game has very few things that will wow you. So I wouldn't recommend this to just anyone. You'd have to be a pretty big fan of these types of RPGs or Elder Scrolls in the first place.
Best Deals for The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles - Xbox 360
As much as I liked oblivion I have to admit the environment became a little monotonous compared to the diverse areas of Morrowind. The Shivering Isles expansion is a great addition to Oblivion and somewhat completes some of the gaps that I felt were present in the environment.The Shivering Isles is a new landscape that can only be reached through a portal in the Nibbenay Basin. The new area is quite large, approximately 25% the area of Cyrodil, adding many new places to explore. It is divided between the brightly forested area of Mania and dismal swamps of Dementia.
I haven't yet played the Knights of Nine quest yet but the Shivering Isles is enough for me to recommend buying this expansion. If you liked Oblivion then this is for you.
Honest reviews on The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles - Xbox 360
After you download the disk onto your 360 you use your old Elder scrolls disk to play. It takes a minute everytime you start to play. New characters, plants and missions keep you interested. I have yet to find anything worth much as far as weapons. They seem to be the same old ones. The missions are a bit more time consuming though.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles - Xbox 360
As anyone who has played Oblivion would well know, it is a game that, even when the main quest is finished, there is still tons to do.Well this expansion "The Shivering Isles" should not be missed by any fans or anyone who wants something new to do.
There are plenty of new creatures to fight and plenty of new items and weapons.
It is simply a must have, if you really must know.
There is also a new original back story for this side quest that is pretty interesting.
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