It grew on me a lot ? And perhaps this is the creepiest element of the game – the fact that, like the denizens of the Shivering Isles, the player will slowly adapt to and feel at home in this strange eccentric world. Yet, after a couple of days, the atmosphere and mood of this expansion went from genuinely disturbing and unsettling to being something that I really loved. Plus, if you switch to a third-person perspective, the game briefly does a classic survival horror-style “close-up” camera angle when you enter the smithy in Crucible too ? I wasn’t exaggerating about this expansion’s horror elements – it is literally a horror game in disguise ? Not only is the landscape of the Shivering Isles strongly reminiscent of the more surreal location designs in “American McGee’s Alice” – expertly contrasting intriguingly beautiful locations with an unsettling feeling of “something isn’t right”- but there are so many brilliantly unsettling elements here. Yes, it suffers from a few mild flaws, but it is still very much worth playing if you enjoy horror games and/or the dark fantasy genre ? Seriously, if you’re a fan of “ American McGee’s Alice” (2000) or maybe something like “ Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines” (2004), then you’ll enjoy this one ? But, not only is this expansion exquisitely creepy, it is also a lot more creative and imaginative than the main game in many ways. One of the first things that I will say about this expansion is that, although it might look like a fantasy role-playing game at first glance, it is actually one of the best psychological horror games that I’ve played in a while ? All you have to do is to get past the fearsome gatekeeper…. The Fringe is a gated-off introductory area, which allows Sheogorath to select which adventurers or visitors are worthy to enter his realm. Seconds later, the room dissolves into butterflies and the player finds themselves in a strange place called “The Fringe” filled with giant plants and a small town called Passwall. Sheogorath wants a champion for an upcoming battle and, although few emerge from this realm with their sanity intact, the player believes that they have a chance. They are about to enter the Shivering Isles, a “Realm Of Madness” ruled over by the god-prince Sheogorath. A man called Haskill sits at the table and explains a few things to the player. The door leads to a small stone room with a table. The guard wins and, after the player talks to the guard a couple of times, the statue speaks and requests a champion. Someone who entered the door leaves in a disturbed state and starts a fight with the Imperial guard who has been posted to the gate. After swimming into the middle of the bay, they find a small island with a strange three-headed statue with a glowing door in the middle of it. The expansion begins when the player receives a message about a mysterious door appearing in the middle of Niben Bay.
Looks perfectly safe! I’m sure there’s nothing scary behind this giant glowing door… I should probably warn you that this review may contain some SPOILERS (and this expansion is best played unspoiled): So, let’s take a look at “The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles. I’d also strongly recommend playing the main game for a while to build up your character before playing this expansion (I think I was level 7 or so when I started “Shivering Isles”). This is probably because the beginning of the expansion is integrated into the world of “Oblivion”.
I have a lot to say about this expansion ?Īnd, yes, although it is set in a self-contained world and tells a self-contained story, “Shivering Isles” is a traditional expansion that requires a full copy of “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion” to play – I think it was also released as *groan* DLC for console versions of “Oblivion” too. It was a really awesome surprise ? So, I thought that I’d review it. Whilst playing the DRM-free “Game Of The Year Deluxe” edition of “Oblivion” that I bought during the winter sale on GOG last year, I ended up stumbling across the “The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles” (2007) expansion whilst playing the game. Although I probably won’t review the fantasy role-playing game “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion” (2006) itself – since, like “The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind” (2002), it is a very long game – I’ll be looking at one of it’s expansions today.