Combat is the next most important thing in this game. As you level up and become stronger you’ll be able to yield heavier and more powerful weapons and repair them of course. The more stuff you carry the more you become encumbered (slowing you down) as a result you get more fatigued after every action. Every part of your game is affected so take that into consideration when equipping your items. The good thing is that items stay where you drop them. If you just outside a difficult dungeon then drop a few things you don’t need and pick them up when you’re done.

To add more depth to the combat aspect you can block and parry (with shield equipped) and then counter attack a stunned enemy, timing is the key here. Of course magic comes into play as well, everything from standard elemental attacks, invisibility, attribute boosts, creature summons and so on are all at your disposal for the mage inside you. You definitely want to enroll at the Arcane University if you want to accelerate your magic abilities. Now because there are so many different items, spells, enchantments, etc you must use the hotkey assignments to you help you manage them all. You use the d pad to access your favorite actions up to 8 at a time. The d pad on the SIXAXIS is much more precise than 360’s so you won’t select the wrong spell in the heat of a battle.

Now you’ll encounter all sorts of different enemies throughout your time in the game. In the initial dungeon where you are introduced the game and its controls you start off fighting lowly rats and slow zombies. As you progress in the game you’ll encounter much larger and intimidating enemies. Take note though that the enemies level up with you. So you’ll start fighting wolves in the forest, soon you’ll be chased by grizzly bears. 

The enemy AI is pretty impressive, enemies will gang up on you when they know they have you cornered, warriors will attack you head on and mages will stand back and pelt you with magic spells and support their comrades. If you’re clever enough you can get some enemies to fight each other and you can quickly sneak by. When your sneaking skill gets high enough getting stealth skills become almost too easy and you’ll be doing it on a regular basis. Some of the more difficult enemies in particular the different Daedra you encounter in the hellish world of Oblivion itself do provide quite a bit of strategy to take down. On higher difficulty levels they’ll take you out quickly if you attack them head on. Certain enemies are more susceptible to different elemental attacks and weapons. Experiment and see what works the best. Sometimes it’s best to keep a distance and attack with arrows or enchant your mace and swing like a mad man it’s all up to you.