Tamriel is under attack and gates to Oblivion are opening all over the land. Daedra and monster are pouring out and destroying everything in their wake. The Emperor is having visions and in them he sees many things. Things like the coming storm of chaos, his death, and the awaking of a hero that will save the world. This tale starts in a cell under the castle. The assassins are after the Emperor and as his guards rush him to the escape route he recognizes a face from his visions; the face of a savior. The soon to be killed Emperor entrust the information that will save the world to him. There is an heir and to save the world he must find him and place that heir on the throne. Only a one from the true bloodline can sit on the throne and light the fire that will protect all of Tamriel and shut the gates of oblivion.

When I was a kid I would get this yearning to play what ever game that was hot at the time. No matter what I was suppose to be doing I was thinking about getting back home and slaying some bad guys. Now that I'm older that feeling happens less and less and that's a shame; but every once and a while a game comes along and I feel 11 years old again. After your first hour you will abandon the main plot in favor of the side quests which make up the meat of the 100 hours plus game time. There are four guilds to join, Fighter's, Mage's, Thief's, and Assassin's. All have complete story arcs that happen independently of the main story. To join there are no requirements so you should be able to do all the missions for each guild with one character. The assassin's guild missions are particularly memorable.

The story, much to my disappointment, is shallow and chaotic. If this was a movie I would say it's filled with plot holes. Most of the subtext that fleshes out the plot has to be found and read in book in-game. What is cool is that they have tons of books with interesting things to read but after 40 hours I stopped reading every new book. It's never explained why the fire, or light as they call it, will keep the monsters trapped in Oblivion. I know it sound like I'm nit picking; but I don't think so. If I'm going to get emotional invested in a game I want to know the stakes and the goals and I want to be rewarded with a feeling of accomplishment. The ending of the game, although very grand and epic, was out of left field and a let down for me. It's sad for such an amazing game to have hours of side quest that are more compelling and rich then the games actual main story line.