20 Most Powerful Gaming Moments Of All Time
4. Oblivion (2006) - Exiting The Sewers
The Moment: Think about that moment when Dorothy emerges from her humble, black-and-white Kansas dwelling to the glorious Technicolor of the Land of Oz and you have some understanding of what it was like to emerge from the sewers.
You start the game in a murky, dull, dark prison deep beneath the Imperial City and spend the opening 45 minutes fighting your way out while picking up the game's complex control scheme. Eventually light appears at the end of the tunnel and you emerge into Bethesda's stunning virtual landscape, exchanging tight hallways for rolling hills, candlelight for an array of celestial bodies, and linearity for literally a whole world of fantastical possibilities.
How Is It Powerful? Even if you started the game out in the Cyrodil countryside, the moment would likely find itself on this list, if just because back in 2006 this game was literally as sumptuously good looking as it got (and indeed still holds us perfectly well today).
However, throw in the shocking contrast between the restricted palette of the prison versus the wealth of spectacular colour of Cyrodiil's open world and you can truly understand why the term powerful isnt being hyperbolic. An enduring memory of graphical greatness.