The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - An interview with Pete Hines
Posted on 20 Oct 2005 by Matt Cook
One of the most hotly-anticipated titles for all fantasy role-players this Christmas season has to be Bethesda Softworks’
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. MyGamer’s been following the development of
Oblivion for quite a while now, from our
preview all the way back in February to the stunning
sneak-peak we attended at this year’s E3 in May. As a further follow-up, Bethesda’s Pete Hines, VP of PR & Marketing, took some time from his busy schedule to give us a few more details about what to expect when
Oblivion ships this December for the PC and as a launch title for the Xbox 360.
Thanks so much for taking this time to speak with us, Pete. My first question is something near and dear to all fans of the series- the consistent depth of the writing. The Elder Scrolls franchise has built its reputation on the depth of its storytelling. What will Oblivion do to raise the bar on your past successes in regards to creating an epic narrative?
Well, much of the “epic” part of epic narrative is drawn from the game itself. Given that our games are set in big huge worlds where you can go where you want and do what you want, our narratives always feel epic simply because of the way we design our games and game space. We’ve certainly done that again with how vast the world is in
Oblivion. As far as the narrative, I think folks will find that the main quest has similar themes and tones as in past Elder Scrolls games while at the same time, it is a bit of a departure. We aren’t asking you to be the chosen one. We’re asking you to find him, protect him, and help him. You get to go to a lot of cool places (both in Cyrodiil and in Oblivion) during the main quest, so by the time it’s said and done you really feel like you’ve done something pretty epic.
The demos we saw at E3 show that the physics engine you’re using for Oblivion is top-notch, and the things we’ve heard about the environment’s realism is astounding. People new to the Elder Scrolls will doubtless be amazed, but what will long-time follows of the series instantly notice is different/better in this latest installment?
It’s hard to say. We find even amongst the most hardcore fans, different people latch onto different things. It may be simple things like the journal system or the way dialogue works. Some folks may focus on the new combat system or maybe the more detail we’ve put into our dungeons with things like traps and so forth. With the folks I’ve talked to lately that played the game at X05 – and here I’m talking about people who played practically every quest in Morrowind, or played it for hundreds of hours, not just any journalist – the things they commented on were a little bit of everything. They like the interface better, the lighting in the dungeon/cave in the beginning, and the way combat works, etc. It’s not just one thing; it’s all of the improvements to different areas of the game that people notice as different/better.
Besides providing the complete Construction Kit, what other mod tools do you plan to release to the public? Elder Scrolls modders have several years of experience under their collective belts when it comes to creating content for ES games, but will Bethesda be providing any additional support in the form of, say, tutorials on new tools, web chats with the developers, etc.?
I honestly can’t speak to what else we might do once the game is out. We’ve never hidden the fact that we really put out the TES CS “as is.” We let people use what we use to make the game, but we aren’t working on it as a separate product for release. As far as what tools or tutorials we might do, I just don’t know. As with
Morrowind, we tend to tackle that after the bigger challenge of finishing the game has been met.
One of the better aspects of modding Morrowind was the fact that the game took place on an island, so as new real-estate was created in both official add-on packs and by modders it was simplicity to just build new land mass out in the ocean. How will Oblivion provide the mod community the elbow room their projects will require?
You can build off our game world in any direction. More importantly, you can have the game generate whatever terrain you want in that location for you. So it’s not just about having elbow room, but having the world generated with the click of a button so you can spend more time creating things and less time dragging the landscape around and placing trees/rocks/etc.
Will the Thief-inspired game play aspects that Emil Pagliarulo is bringing to the table be a major factor in Oblivion, or are they there simply to add character and believability to the world? In other words, can a player build their entire concept around a character that *avoids* combat and instead chooses to follow a more stealth-based path? If so, how will such a character gain experience and skills as they progress?
Emil is just one of a number of people that has focused on that area. Emil’s taking care of the Dark Brotherhood (assassin’s guild) quests and obviously had a lot of input on the thief skills and how they worked. Bruce Nesmith is handling the Thieves Guild quests and also spending time on balancing those skills. Can you spend the whole game completely avoiding combat? Not really. In many cases it is possible to sneak past an encounter rather than fight it, but bad guys still need to be killed. However, stealth cannot only help you avoid combat, but it's also a system that makes you more effective in combat. In addition, what you do with your stealth abilities also has a lot to do with the factions you join. Thieves Guild will grant you quests that require you to avoid detection and combat. Dark Brotherhood grants quests that require you to kill quietly and efficiently.
Since Oblivion will not only be a PC title but also a Xbox 360 launch title, how will the mod community be able to support the Xbox fan base? Morrowind on the PC was an order of magnitude more complex that its Xbox counterpart because of all the mods that were available- will 360 users be able to share in the fun this time? Does Bethesda plan to make regular content downloads available to Xbox Live enabled players, and will the particular “flavor” of the Xbox being used (i.e. hard drive or no hard drive) influence the player?s experience and access to new content?
We plan to make regular downloads available for both platforms. As far as what else might be possible on Xbox 360, that’s something we’ve talked to Microsoft about and will continue to work with them on what we might be able to do down the road. So for now, you can count on official downloads from the beginning.
Morrowind players were able to enjoy not only one but two official add-on packs to that title- can we expect the same level of ongoing story support for Oblivion?
We need to finish the game first and have it be great and successful before we start talking about what we might do afterwards.
Thank you very much for your time, Pete, and MyGamer.com wishes you luck with your upcoming release. We can’t wait to get our hands on the game!
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