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The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles
| Genre | RPG |
| Developer | Bethesda |
| Publisher | 2K Games |
| Modes | Singleplayer |
| Rating | BBFC 15 |
| Released | 26.03.2007 |
Now if you haven’t heard of the Shivering Isles by now, you must have been without the internet for the past month or so. It is the official expansion pack to one of the highest rated games on the Xbox 360 - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The Shivering isles is the realm of the daedric prince Sheogorath (pronounced Sha-o-gorath).
The story is that the daedric prince Sheogorath needs a mortal champion to defend against a realm destroying event called the Greymarch. The Greymarch happens at the end of every era with its sole purpose the destruction of the Shivering Isles, to the annoyance of Sheogorath who has to rebuild them every time. Your way into the realm (a sinister faction called the knights of order use obelisks to enter) is a giant stone head with a portal in its mouth, on a hill in the middle of the Niben bay, just east of Bravil. When you arrive a madman attacks you and the lone guard claiming “I’m not going back!”. Any adventurer who fails is cursed with madness.
The Shivering Isles adds a lot of new stuff. If you thought Knights of the Nine was an expansion then this is literally a new game with the isles being quater the size of Cyrodiil, 32 new ingredients, 10 new creatures, 9,500 new lines of dialogue, and loads of new weapons and armour. It is estimated to take 30-40 hours and I spent 11-13 doing just the main quest. In any case it feels like a new game because there is nothing from Cyrodiil that could remind you you’re playing Oblivion.
The new creatures are wicked. Firstly, there are the Elytra, a giant bug with a glowing ass, the Gnarl, like ents but a bit smaller yet so much cooler and Scalon, an amphibious lizard man that can turn invisible and jump at you from a long distance away. Also there is the Flesh Astronach, Grummite, Boliwog, Skinned Hounds, Shambles and the Hungers. But the coolest of all is the Gatekeeper who guards the gates of madness into the main areas of Mania and Dementia. You kill him at the start but get to make your own customizable version later.
The Shivering Isles is split into two; Mania and Dementia and represent Sheogorath’s split mind. Mania is colourful and bizarre, the domain of mad artists and creative thinkers. But that doesn’t mean it’s any less dangerous than Dementia which is dark and creepy, the domain of zealot cults and people who only want to peel each others skin off to let the bones sing to them. Each side has its own culture and own guards. The Golden Saints (Mania) and Dark Seducers (Dementia) are rivals and even have a skirmish of around 10v10 in one quest, but they still co-exist peacefully. Most of the time. They guard their respective halves of the Capital city New Sheoth, Bliss (Mania) and Crucible (Dementia).
The NPCs are much cooler too. Everyone is mad but in a different way, one beggar is obsessed with sticks while one talks gibberish, his goodbye line is “Gal bursten it”. Because there are less NPCs more effort has been put in to each one. The town of Split, for example, has a doppelganger of everyone living there, so there is a Mania and Dementia version of every NPC who lives there and you can choose which one you want to die and which to remain. It is a very funny place let me tell you. But Sheogorath is by far the funniest; "I'm so happy I want to rip out your intestines and strangle you with them!"
Some of the cool new stuff includes the ability to change the weather in the isles, a set of “Madness” armour + weapons, a set of “Amber” armour and weapons and a staff which can freeze everything in 75ft for 15 seconds. Also you can get an awesome sword called Dawnfang/Duskfang that counts kills and gets more powerful per every 12 but resets at dawn and dusk, and a bow called Ruins Edge that has a random spell effect on each hit.
The only gripe you could have is the £20 price tag and even though I feel I’ve definitely got my money’s worth, not everyone is ready to pay that price which is completely understandable. Even if you don’t play RPG’s still take a look, its definitely a very fun world.