I'm sad and surprised to say I'm a bit disappointed. I loved Oblivion and must have played it through about four times. As with Morrowind. But there's definately something missing from SI. It's just as lavishly detailed as Oblivion and the voices ect are just as well done, and the new land is beautiful. But I found that once the initial novelty of a new realm to explore and new monsters wore off (it was bliss for a couple of hours) I just started to get a bit bored.

The main quest line just isn't that interesting. And I just can't get enthusiastic about working for Sheogorath. Plus some of the quests are distasteful, like murdering someone to assume their title, and torturing people. There's no way my character would do that. But you have no choice because the devs didn't see fit to give you another option. Very few of the side quests had you doing anything you could get enthusiastic about either. Nothing at all like say, the Mazoga the Orc, or the Forlorn Watchman quests that made you really care about the people, so you really wanted to do the quest to help them.

By far the biggest problem though is a serious bug that makes your game unplayable if you didn't install the beta patch BEFORE you started having trouble. I didn't and now my game's ruined. Plus all my saved games with my precious face that I'd worked so hard on to get right are also apparently ruined. So I can't say my experience with Shivering Isles has been much fun.

That aside though, and once they get the bugs worked out it's still worth a play if you're a fan. But back up your saved games before you install it.

The Shivering Isles is quite possibly one of the most fluid, enthralling and captivating expansions I've ever had the joy of playing. It breathes new life into the (to those who have finished the main quest line in the original Oblivion) seemingly old and drab world of Cyrodiil. It introduces another plane, the realm of Sheogorath, Prince of Madness. Which is under threat from the forces of Order, think of it as a direct juxtaposition to all that Sheogorath's realm stands for.

What's great about this expansion is you are free to either begin the Shivering Isles quest with your existing hero, entering the world aided by your armour, weapons and magic collected throughout your quest to save Cyrodiil. Or, you can begin anew, using a fresh character. This creates a flexibility seldom seen with other games' expansion packs.

A menagerie of new and exciting new foes have been added to the game, from the troglodyte-like Grummites, armed with primitive weapons, to the tree-like Gnarls who grow larger with every strike, plus many more. Also a myriad of new weapons and armor to satisfy even the most hardy of warriors for example the new Amber and Madness armor sets.

Nothing has really changed in terms of gameplay though. But as they say, why fix something that ain't broke?

I'm also impressed with the variety of quests available. So far, I've encountered no two ‘go out there and gather this’ or ‘get out there and slay so-and-so’ quests, which is nice, and also keeps the game interesting.

Overall, from what I've seen, I'm thoroughly convinced this expansion was worth every dollar and highly recommend it even to those who have hung up their armored boots.

Great add-on to Oblivion