English
简体中文
Bethesda Game Studios, 2006
Windows, PS3 和 Xbox 360
Bethesda Game Studios, 2006
Windows, PS3 and Xbox 360
上古卷轴 4：湮灭（The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion）的问世，标志着《上古卷轴》整个系列面向的核心受众发生了质的变化。作为一个诞生于 PC 平台的系列，《上古卷轴 3：晨风（Morrowind）》以先驱者的姿态为主机玩家打开了一扇通向新类型 RPG 的大门。不同于基本主导了主机端 RPG 表现的，通常是线性流程且主要以叙事为导向的 JRPG，《上古卷轴》系列一般是打造一个开放世界，允许玩家打造自己的角色，展开冒险。
为此，《湮灭》将提高游戏的各项技术指标作为其首要目标。游戏的物理系统极为先进，玩家可以任意移动或丢弃物品，除此之外，3D 图像的保真度也很高，还配备了全语音演出，一套新的实时动作战斗系统以及其他很多先进的技术特性。
尽管上述这些内容里，没几个算得上在业界前列，但是在《湮灭》这种规模的游戏上仍然能保证这么高的质量，从开发者的角度看是非常了不起的。
但是这也导致了本作的开发成本飞速飙升，同时，巨额投资更进一步地自上而下加速了本作商业化的趋势。
Oblivion represents a fundamental change in core audience for the venerable The Elder Scrolls franchise. While this was a franchise born on the PC platform, Morrowind was a trailblazer that opened up the console audience to a new type of RPG. Instead of the generally linear and narrative-driven Japanese RPGs that defined this type of game on consoles, The Elder Scrolls were games about an open world which involved crafting your own character and story.
To this end, Oblivion placed pumping up production value as its first and foremost priority. The game had a cutting-edge physics system where objects could be moved around and thrown, very high 3D graphical fidelity, full voice acting, a realistic action combat system and many other features.
While none of the production value here was a peak industry-wise, the fact that they managed so high a quality across a game of such size was nothing short of remarkable from a development perspective.
But this was also the time of soaring development costs. Such investment enforces commercialism from the top down without skipping a beat.
《湮灭》是最早通过 Xbox 360 主机商城贩售 DLC 的游戏之一，也因为把一套仅具有装饰性的马铠卖到 2.5 美元的价格遭到严重批评，这件事随后变成了讽刺游戏中溢价过高的 DLC 的专用词。
Oblivion was among the first games to use the Xbox 360's marketplace to sell DLCs. It was harshly criticised for charging $2.50 dollars for a set of cosmetic horse armour, which became a term associated with overpriced DLCs in games.
一扇湮灭之门，通向地狱般的迪德拉次元，这些地牢在游戏前期让人感觉有趣，很快就变得重复起来。
An oblivion gate, which leads to one of the hellish Daedric planes. While interesting at first, these dungeons quickly grow repetitive.
《晨风》独特的东方风格——异形的蘑菇地貌和复杂的政治纷争，已经一去不复返了，而玩家现在再次身处托尔金式传统欧洲奇幻的“温暖怀抱”里，塞满了司空见惯的恶狼、哥布林以及活该一杀的邪恶恶魔，如果这是唯一的缺点也就罢了。
全语音演出意味着游戏的文本量也极大地缩减了，大部分配音也就是在剧情关键点上，且与玩家目前正在进行的任务有关，像前作那样随便拦下路人，跟他大谈特谈当地新闻、领地地理和政治事件时光再也回不来了。尽管游戏宣发称帕特里克·斯图尔德[1] 为皇帝提供了配音，但事实上这只是个营销用的幌子，因为皇帝早就在游戏序幕的教程中死了，而游戏的剩余部分其实是用具有相同声线的不知名配音演员代替，这导致玩家在游戏过程中与皇帝进行对话时，不时会有“恐怖谷”体验[2] 。
游戏的世界设计和故事内容也没能逃过“简化”，故事的起因只是皇帝被暗杀，具有他魔法血脉的继承人也杳无音信，从而使得湮灭之门在这片大地上不受控制地打开了。虽然这么说，但是这片土地基本上没怎么受这件事影响，支线内容甚至侧重在较为普通的威胁上，诸如盗匪或是世界上其他不那么有关系的威胁。说出来你会信吗，游戏中的民众对按宗教经典里所说，迫在眉睫的世界末日几乎是漠不关心的。
尽管有着上述种种的缺陷，不能不提到的是本作的任务设计确实极大地进步了；这实际上可以说是本作的长处之一了。由于任务的文本量并不如《晨风》丰富（而且《晨风》的任务文本和背景设定及政治纷争联系更为紧密），《湮灭》反其道而行之，为玩家提供了冒险的绝佳机会，诸如给一座廉价出售的闹鬼大宅驱魔，或是穿行于某人的意识之中来叫醒他们。在游戏提供的各种各样的任务线里，黑暗兄弟会的暗杀任务线可以说是特别优秀了。
Gone is the unique oriental influence of Morrowind that saw it being populated with alien mushroom landscapes and complex political intrigue. Instead we are back in the safe embrace of token Tolkien European fantasy, complete with wolves, goblins and evil demons to slay. If only this was the only misstep.
Voice acting meant that the text was pruned extensively, much of it being to the point and related to whatever current quest the player is on. The days of stopping a passer-by to talk about the local news, geography of the land and political upheaval are gone. And though Patrick Steward was advertised as providing the voice of the Emperor, this proved to be a marketing ruse since he dies in the tutorial and the rest of the game has a small cast which leads to uncanny valley moments where people are having conversations while having the same voice.
This stripping away of complexities applies to the world and story as well: hellish portals appear across the land due to the Emperor and his entire magical bloodline being assassinated. But said land is mostly unaffected by this event. The side-content focuses on mundane dangers like bandits or other unrelated world threats. It's downright bizarre to hear the population express just minor concern over what is supposed to be the end of the world according to religious canon.
For all these faults though, it must be said that the quest design significantly improved; in fact, it's one of the areas where the title excels. While lacking the context of Morrowind's quests, which were more about the setting and political intrigue, Oblivion provides excellent opportunities for adventures, such as exorcising a haunted manor bought cheap or travelling through someone's mind to wake them up. The Dark Brotherhood assassination quests in particular are some of the best in the series.
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1 译者注：帕特里克·斯图尔德,英国著名影视演员，在三部《X 战警》中出演 X 教授。
2 译者注：恐怖谷效应，恐怖谷体验，是一个关于人类对机器人和非人类物体的感觉的假设，它在 1970 年由日本机器人专家森昌弘提出，由于机器人与人类在外表﹑动作上都相当相似，所以人类亦会对机器人产生正面的情感，直至到了一个特定程度，他们的反应便会突然变得极之反感，哪怕机器人与人类有一点点的差别，都会显得非常显眼刺目，让整个机器人显得非常僵硬恐怖，让人有面对行尸走肉的感觉。
《电脑 RPG 游戏史（The CRPG Book Project）》原书信息
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