How do you improve on one the best RPGs in recent years? You make it bigger. Bethesda Softworks and 2K games are doing just that. Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles is an expansion pack of the now classic Oblivion, but with a year of minor downloadable expansions, including the most recent Knights of Nine, which was fairly sizeable on its own, what makes Shivering Isles stand out? For starters, the story. Shivering Isles will take place on a separate plane from Oblivion, where as the past expansions have all taken place in Cyrodiil.

Set to take place in the Realm of Madness, this is also known as the Shivering Isles. The story begins with a small island called Nibben Bay off the coast of Bravil. However, once you have loaded Shivering Isles onto your PC or Xbox 360, you will have to rest your character for a full 24 hours before Nibben Bay even appears. Once you have done this, you will be given a notice to go and investigate. Once there, you will find a gateway in the mouth of a twisted facial stone. A guard will explain to you that the inhabitants of the Shivering Isles are mad and are also plagued by the unexplained phenomenon of the Greymarch. In addition, you will also be told that anyone that enters returns as a violent version of themselves. The Greymarch will periodically wipe out everyone in the land. Because of this, the deadric Prince Sheogorath, fans of the series might remember crossing his path before, is looking for a mortal champion who will both discover what Greymarch is and destroy it.

Once entering through the gateway, you will be in a plainly dark room, here you will meet Sheogorath's right hand, Haskill, who will ask you if you accept the challenge presented to you. Once you have done this, the darkness of the room will fade away into 4,266 butterflies, according to the game designers, in beautiful detail. The Shivering Isles is divided perfectly into two sides. The northern half is called Mania, a world that is brightly colored with towering mushrooms and bright lighted sprites flying around. Mania is also guarded by the Golden Saints of Mania. The southern half, Dementia, is shrouded in darkness and vile creatures like giant spiders and fleshless dogs. Dementia has its own guardians as well, called Dark Seducers. The two halves are as different as an apple and a potato, with only one thing in common - Sheogorath is their ruler. Before your quest to New Sheo begins, you must first defeat a giant hulking grotesque golem creature to retrieve your key to the gate it is guarding. In order to do this, you will have to search the village called Passwall and find allies that will aid you in slaying the beast. Once you have defeated the monster and torn your key from its flesh and the key is actually sewn into the golem, your real journey begins.

Your journey to New Sheo might not be that long, since that is when the game really takes off. However, if you explore a little before hand you will, of course, level up and interact with some of the characters. With this being a whole new world for you to explore, you will, of course, discover new settlements where you will be able to do one-off quests for its residents. One such place is the town of Split. Everyone in the town has encountered their doppelganger, and they are not too happy about it. In fact, several of the quests you can do for them will involve you ridding them of their clone.

The gameplay is exactly the same as Oblivion, which Bethesda undoubtedly left the same due to its overwhelming popularity. Please don't believe that just because it an expansion it's not worth racing out to get. On the contrary, with an estimated 30-40 extra hours of gameplay, nearly 32 unique ingredients, 10 new creatures, and 9,500 new lines of dialogue, Shivering Isles is anything but just an expansion. The real impressive point is the size, 25% the size of Cyrodiil itself. In addition to the new characters, settlements, and quests, players will now be able to modify and design their own weapons, armor, and boost their own stats. There will also be 10 new achievements, mostly within the main storyline, that you can obtain and use with the Microsoft New Achievement Points. You'll net an additional 250 achievement points to use for downloadable content using the Xbox Live Market. One downfall though, the 360 version of the game will be available for download only. If you don't have an internet connection and Xbox Live you, unfortunately, won't be able to get the expansion.

Even with that particular flaw, Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles will give fans reasons to rejoice. After playing 200 hours of Oblivion, there are some that want more than gray castles, and now they are going to get it. With the vast assortment of extras and the same consistent gameplay of Oblivion, Bethesda is setting the bar on what an expansion should be.

By Matthew Walker
CCC Freelance Writer

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