ES4: Shivering Isles - Interview @ Onthebox.com

A new Shivering Isles interview is up at Xbox site Onthebox.com, talking with Bethsoft's Bruce Nesmith:

OTX: Oblivion was praised for its “do whatever you want” style of gameplay. Has this stayed the same or how have you improved on this type of gameplay, if at all in Shivering Isles?

BN: The Shivering Isles continues in the grand tradition of Oblivion to give you the ability to do whatever you want. We didn’t want to change the fundamental rules of the game for those players that already have characters and want to keep playing with them…so we didn’t.

There are some things that work differently in the Shivering Isles, though. For example, crime and punishment are different. Any bounty that you have in Cyrodiil is ignored in the Shivering Isles, and vice versa. So if you have a large price on your head, you might want to consider vacationing with Sheogorath. If you are caught committing a crime in his lands, you aren’t sent to jail. Instead you are dropped into the bottom of a dungeon, without any of your stuff. You can still choose to sleep it off and get everything back, or you can try and make it out of the dungeon. If you do escape, all is forgiven and your stuff is in a chest by the exit door. You are considered to have served your time.

Players can go to the Shivering Isles at any time, and at any level. You can go there as soon as you escape from the Imperial Sewers, right after character generation. Or you can take your existing character that is level 30 and has shut down the Oblivion gates and solved all of the guild quests. Or anywhere in between. We’ve made sure that the Shivering Isles will accommodate everyone. And, you can go back to Cyrodiil and at any point to go back and resume doing whatever you were doing in Oblivion before you entered Shivering Isles.