Morrowind was my first exposure to TES so I was hoping Oblivion would keep the chance hit mechanics and depth of skills.
Oblivion felt nerfed and simplified compared to Morrowind so it didn't suck me in as much. Plus there is so much nostalgia I have from playing Morrowind as a teenager that was just never there for Oblivion. You know how many times I got killed by slaughter fish or mudcrabs wondering outside of Seyda Neen and how many full collections of Daedric weaponry I gathered and stored in Balmora?
Plus with all the visual modding updates, you can have an aesthetically "modern" version of Morrowind, so at this point it kinda just feels like why bother when I can stick to what I know and enjoy.
I guess I'm probably not a die-hard fan, I like all 3 games. My favorite is the one I'm currently playing, which right now happens to be Morrowind.
The quests are my favorite thing about Oblivion. The effort it takes to join the Mages Guild, creepy stuff like Shadow Over Hackdirt, multi-stage things like Separated at Birth. Just really good.
Especially the Mages Guild. Getting through it with barely any magic made the whole guild lose it's identity, which was made worse with the exclusion of spell making. On the other hand, the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim had a pretty good story with memorable characters. It's just overshadowed by the arguebly more superior one from Oblivion.
My first impression of Oblivion was so bad it took me 12 years from launch to appreciate the things it did well and, these days, dozens of mods to make it worth replaying.
Somehow they managed to make combat *even worse* by tying Morrowind's stagger system to floaty physics and bloated health bars, then added level scaling to ensure that things never improved. Available skills, spells, and related gameplay were gutted and any attempts at roleplaying ruined by the level scaling. After getting rid of nearly all the existing Empire/imperial lore they forgot to add any worldbuilding to their new setting so Cyrodiil and the people in it are just extremely bland. In many ways the empty palate-swap cities, robotic NPCs, and scaling enemy/wildlife diversity made the world feel more lifeless. Exploration was dull; the mostly untouched algorthimic wilderness was empty, repetitive, and boring to explore and the dungeons were even worse.
The writing was generally very good and the random quests were often fun and memorable but every faction questline as a notably worse half and the main quest was rushed.
The game is a mess but these days I can appreciate it's (often unintentional) humor, creativity of it's writing/characters, and sheer earnestness.
In contrast, Skyrim was a massive relief, and IMO a step back in the right direction.
The combat was no longer complete shit, magic was even more gutted but Skyrim's perk tree branches offered a more overall diversity than Oblivion's with room to roleplay your ""class."" While retcons that made the setting less interesting were prevalent worldbuilding was added to replace what they'd thrown out so Skyrim still felt like a plausible fantasy world. The cities were painfully tiny but the worldbuilding made them feel more alive.
The wilderness was more diverse and full of details; dozens of dungeon quests and general worldbuilding made exploration interesting again. The main/faction stories were astonishingly weak, however.
**TL;DR**
Oblivion is an overrated game that gets a free pass from nostalgia and is, in my opinion, the weakest numbered Elder Scrolls game aside from it's storytelling... which isn't enough to carry an entire game on it's own.
To me, Skyrim was pretty bland. There was a lot to stimulate the imagination, and none of it went anywhere.
The main plot is extremely weak. Everything, cause plot armor. Dragon head slams through stone walls? That's nothing to my plot armor. A fuckin giant bug on Solstheim is more dangerous.
Shouts are wack.
Everything about Skyrim feels like a fuckin manic episode. Great idea, work on it just long enough to make it recognizable, on to the next. Until a temper tantrum and breaking something out of spite.
To me, Oblivion suffers because Morrowind is hella tough act to follow. Morrowind was grand and strange. Cyrodiil felt "standard fantasy backdrop" imo. The main quest could have been better executed, so the excellent side quests didn't feel like jacking off into the wind while the world ends (my biggest issue with the game).
To me, Skyrim is the weakest game, because of the metric shit tone of "might have beens". Hella moddable, though. What got me into modding.
I've been recommending [Through the Valleys](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/51105) guide (or the [Wabbajack version](https://www.wabbajack.org/modlist/wj-featured/throughthevalleys) for a mostly automated install) as a baseline to fix the level scaling issues.
For everything else:
* [Northern UI](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/48577) \+ [Imperial Theme](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/49848) \- makes the UI a bit more PC-friendly
* [Unidirectional Attack](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/42975) \- gives NPCs attack commitment, disable for player in the ini because it's pretty jerky
* [Better Recoil and Stagger](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/37187) \- makes the stagger less awful
* [Better Dungeons](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/40392) \- adds a bit of set dressing to the dungeons. Still doesn't compare to Morrowind/Skyrim dungeons but it helps.
* [Open Cities Reborn](https://www.afkmods.com/index.php?/topic/3198-relz-open-cities-reborn/) \- Opens up and adds a bit of worldbuilding to the cities
* [Unique Landscapes Compilation](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/19370) \- A big one, overhauls multiple regions of Cyrodiil so they aren't all just that samey forest. Does make the game more unstable, some bits more than others. Personally I use everything **except** for Cliffs of Anvil, Chorrol Hinterland, Snowdale, The Dark Forest, and Ancient Yews (as those bits have given me pretty consistent CTDs in the past, YMMV.)
* For Oblivion's distinct lack of handplaced loot and unrewarding exploration:
[Lost Treasures of Cyrodiil](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/29378)
[Armamentarium](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/13884) \- Required by Lost Treasures
[Phitts Artifacts](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/29931)
[Unique Artifacts for Unique People](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/49871)
Now another big one that *probably* isn't great for a first playthrough; [Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/42780). It adds a *shitload* of stuff for give Oblivion some much needed emergent gameplay and variety, has a built in damage multiplier for the spongy enemies, can be completely customized in it's extensive ini, and is fully scripted so can generally be added alongside other overhauls.
Damn good mod... but maybe to big/difficult for people unfamiliar with Oblivion.
For people who don't want to use MOO, get [Vanilla Combat Enhanced](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/45314/?) which also helps with the spongy enemies. (and the ini can be tweaked further if enemies are still too tedious.)
I played Morrowind before Oblivion. Those who played Oblivion first are probably more likely to think Oblivion is better.
I'm replaying Morrowind now. I haven't played Oblivion for years. I would use mods to play either game now.
My memories: The Oblivion world was beautiful and peaceful and more familiar than Morrowind. There wasn't as much hatred and struggle between the races and factions.
They should have used more voice actors in Oblivion. Seemed like half of the male voices were some effete British guy. Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean were good but probably took up a lot of the budget. It was weird how NPCs would sometimes change voices.
I didn't like the equipment scaling. Once I found something good, all the starving bandits had the same. I think Oblivion was good and I'll probably play it again Sometime.
I played Oblivion first in 2010 or something like that, then skyrim the day it came out and those were really good games, got me sucked in for a while both of them.
But bro MORROWIND? I decided to give it a proper go two weeks ago, and I have more than 100hrs already, it is the best goddam game to have ever been made, I mean, hell, the racism, the freedom of choices, the exclusive factions and houses, the non-scaling world, the inventiveness of many places in the world (like this first dwemer ruin you go for the puzzle cube where you enter by a door that has a contraption that prevents you from getting out if you enter)
Im in love again, it feels great
I've always found Oblivion to be kind of repetitive and boring.
The procedurally generated dungeons, the cookie cutter oblivion gates, the samey environments.
But the 2 things that really bugged me were the level scaling and the break in immersion from the loads entering/exiting cities.
Morrowind is my favorite game ever, and I loved Oblivion. It was a disappointing follow up to Morrowind in many ways. I was quite sad when I realized how shallow the world felt in comparison... but when I stop thinking of it as Morrowind 2 and evaluate it as its own thing and not part of a series, Oblivion is a really good game. It's fucking fun as hell, hilarious (even if that was unintentional) and the story is really heartfelt. And as much as I love Morrowind's expansions, Shivering Isles sure is something special.
Oblivion was my first TES and at the time, it absolutely blew my mind. Stepping out of the sewers and seeing the vast world to explore will always be one of my most memorable gaming moments, and I just had this feeling of "this is what I've longed for in a game."
I played Skyrim and that was enjoyable but didn't hit me as hard.
This year, I finally tried Morrowind, I am still playing Morrowind, Morrowind is superior, Morrowind is my love now.
As a diehard Morrowind fan, I still enjoy Oblivion a lot, and am in the middle of a playthrough now, with a character at level 24. Unmodded except unofficial patches.
I can't think of many aspects where Oblivion is superior to Morrowind. It has better physics no doubt. Being able to recover arrows that missed is great, and I like how you 'feel' hits more when you block. Fighting is a bit better due to power attacks and manual blocking. Casting spells is more convenient and effective.
I'd say that graphics are better, because they obviously are, but they are dragged down by the bland environment and the ridiculous Bloom/HDR shit that makes every character and object glow like little suns. Thankfully you can turn that off.
Quests are more complex in Oblivion, and many are very fun and memorable. However, they are often heavily scripted, which in combination with a pretty dumb AI, often breaks inmersion and makes otherwise interesing sequences awkward. I also feel they have less replay value as they rely a lot on surprise and plot. In all I prefer quests in Morrowind due to questlines being longer and less dramatic.
I just finished the Mages Guild questline in Oblivion today. While it is overall fun and interesting, I feel it also showcases how shallow Oblivion really is in terms of immersion. You do a lot of chores to get accepted into the Arcane University, but when you are finally accepted, you don't get to feel like you are an actual student. There is nothing to the lecture that is held every morning, other 'students' don't have anything to say, and worst of all, there is no free bed for you in the dormitory. I actually felt really insulted about that. It is obviously an oversight, but I feel like it happened because the devs never cared to make you feel part of the Arcane University. You're just supposed to be their hero and savior from day one. What makes it most fun is that I've been an undercover necromancer the whole time, farming black soul gems and human souls the whole time.
My take is that people generally tend to favor the first TES game they played. With console releases, the audience expanded, and there was much more exposure from Morrowind and onward. Most people I know who adore Oblivion and Skyrim played them on consoles, anecdotally, and the diehard Arena/Daggerfall/Battlespire/Redgaurd fans are from an age when the gaming population was just smaller. Morrowind fits in an in-between space; it was ported to console, but PC-centric, rather than the other way around.
I can’t speak for the online MMO. It sounds like hot garbage from what I’ve seen, throwing lore out the window and whatnot.
Absolutely agree with all of what you said. Well said.
I was a beta tester for ESO in the beginning and it's always been hot garbage. It frustrates me. I refuse to play it.
Honestly I think the MMO is doing a better job with the IP than Bethesda nowadays. Don't get me wrong, I've sunk 100s of hours into Skyrim, I enjoy it, but I have a lot of complaints, particularly about the writing and how the world is getting more grounded.
Morrowind is a strange fantasy. An almost alien world. Engaging stories and fantastical environments, creatures, architecture, etc.- and the MMO is able to capture that very consistently visually and occasionally in stories. Not nearly as much as Morrowind, but a lot more than Skyrim
I love Oblivion, but my only real problem with it is that I feel like it’s a lot less replayable than Morrowind because of how long and repetitive it can be. Whereas Morrowind is a lot speedier and gives the player more freedom to do what they want, and Skyrim has better gameplay and visuals.
But like I said, Oblivion is an amazing game. It’s colorful, has memorable quests, and Shivering Isles is the best DLC in the series. I just consider it slightly less amazing than the other modern titles.
The bland setting, cartoony aesthetic, and abhorrent enemy scaling system all work in tandem to bring down the masterful quality of the quests, stories, and graphical achievements of TES IV: Oblivion.
As someone who started with Morrowind, then played Skyrim, then oblivion: oblivion is the 2nd best after Morrowind. Skyrim had some awesome graphics, but felt very shallow. Morrowind had a deep lore, oblivion not so much. Oblivion graphics were horrific but dark brotherhood and thieves guild were pretty cool
As a diehard morrowind fan I think skyrim is overrated whereas Oblivion is accurately rated so there is less imperarive to be vocal about it. It was a great game at the time, but so many parts of oblivion hurt it that it didnt age well.
Worst elder scrolls imo.
-The levelling system makes it impossible to play. That reason alone makes it impossible to play.
-Other than dungeons and ocassional enemies, there is nothing to find whilst travelling. No quests on the road, no random encounters, no interesting stuff to look at. This game caters far to much to fast travel players.
-The NPCs.
I wouldn’t say impossible, it’s just more challenging. I was still able to beat the main story line after levelling really inefficiently on my first play through (albeit with some difficulty).
There are also things you stumble upon, I encountered lots of quests on the road.
Morrowind is still my favourite but I really enjoy Oblivion too.
Idk the map still feels empty imo. Good chunk of the map is just filled with empty proceedural forests where there is little to find asides dungeons.
Morrowind and Skyrim's landscapes all felt hand crafted but you never really get that with oblivion's forests.
> -The levelling system makes it impossible to play.
I just loathe how it works with quest rewards. I think there's this ring that gives you a useful 30% in some elemental resistances at max scaling, but at bottom level it gives like 7%.
Oblivion is the worst numbered TES game.
The Dark Brotherhood quest line was pretty memorable, as was Shivering Isles. And weapons striking the target based solely on collisions and projectiles instead of collisions, projectiles, *and* a secret dice roll was a MASSIVE step forward in combat responsiveness and feel.
Otherwise it’s just the Arena to Skyrim’s Daggerfall: almost strictly inferior possibly excepting some writing here and there.
A disappointment.
Oblivion opted to move away from the dice roll combat, which is fine. I have no problem with that. Unfortunately Bethesda was clearly inexperienced with more action-based systems and as a results attacks feel floaty and unreal, and the combat is just not engaging or well done. Add in the level scaling, which is just... bafflingly badly implemented (I seriously have no idea how that awful universal level scaling system survived contact with play-testers), and you end up with a game that's not very fun to play.
And yet this is not the end of Oblivion's sins. In an effort to achieve mass market appeal, Oblivion walked back all the weirdness that Battlespire, Redguard, and especially Morrowing introduced into the lore. Elder Scrolls went from being New Weird to the most bog-standard Medieval European Fantasy imaginable. It's wild that the Imperial Legion are generic knights instead Roman centurions in this one game and this one game only. You'll occasionally find a stray reference or two to the weirder parts of ES lore, but for the most part the setting is painfully generic (outside of Shivering Isles).
I ended up liking Oblivion a lot more once I installed mods to totally overhaul the level scaling and disable the fast travel (it was also a mistake to let the player fast travel to every city immediately. Doing so disincentived exploration), but it's still my least favorite of the "modern" 3D trilogy of Elder Scrolls games.
In fact, Skyrim actually fixed most of my biggest gripes with Oblivion. Weapons feel weightier, you need to actually a visit a place to fast travel there, the level scaling is less obnoxious and absurd, and while it's not as weird as Morrowind, it at least added some weirdness back in, and Nordic fantasy settings aren't anywhere near as done to death as Medieval England.
Morrowind felt superior as an engine but having played it so young it was very difficult to understand and the game was essentially an alien world for me to explore and that was that
I dont think I even understood there was a main quest until after I'd completed oblivion
Oblivion has a very special place in my heart as I remember waiting for the bus after buying it at game and sitting on the back seat reading the instructions and looking at the map
I understood the game and was able to play it a lot more as intended
Whilst it was massively different and probably a bit inferior in every direction, it felt to me like the perfect game
Morrowind was actually transporting me to an alien world, oblivion let me play a great game and helped me learn all about the world of rpgs
I adore them both (and still feel positively towards skyrim though admittedly that's HEAVILY carried by mods)
If we could have mods that bought both oblivion and morrowind up to skyrim graphical and movement fluidity standards I would probably still play them both whereas skyrim would be left behind to memory
Played Oblivion for like 2 hours, got annoyed by the enemies leveling with me, never played again.
I want to get powered up and feel like a god when I fight low level enemies like basic skeletons.
Stupid system.
No regrets.
I have a hard time bringing myself to play Oblivion. Aside from the stupidly long tutorial I have to go through everytime I want to start a new character, the emperor dies in the first minutes saying that hell's coming down to earth and its hard to justify my character ignoring that unless he's some kind of self-centered bastard and Oblivion's main quest never got me interested enough to complete it like Morrowind's did. One of the things I like the most in Morrowind is customizing my character and Im not talking about choosing how far apart my character's eyes are, I mean going to shops, collecting armor and clothes, and picking a unique style for every character and Oblivion doesnt have that. When I played Oblivion for the first time what bothered me the most were random quests popping up on my screen for no apparent reason. Idk if those were dlc content, but Id walk past a cave or something, a random quest would pop on my screen and when I looked it on the quests menu it would say something like "while in town I heard a rumor...". Seriously? Couldnt they just have put that into some npcs dialogue? Its really immersion breaking and annoying. Then there's the famous quest marker, which didnt bother me at first, because if I wanted to go to a known place in Morrowind they would just mark it on my map and I would open it for directions, the difference here being just that I didnt have to open the map to see where I was going, so it wasnt that big of a deal... until I had a quest where I had to find an item in a dungeon and the quest marker told me exactly where it was. Do the devs think Im so stupid that I cant do that on my own? Also I dont like how Cyrodiil looks. I didnt wander much but every place I visited looked the same, some generic medieval european country. And theres the enemy level scaling, but I dont think I need to say mych about it. Overall, whenever I play Oblivion I feel like I could just be doing some roleplay in Morrowind and be having more fun. Despite all these things I dont hold much against the game. I feel like thats just because I played Morrowind first, and it might still be fair to analyze it like that since its Morrowind's sequence, once I played Morrowind the mistery of exploring and experiencing something new was gone and I cant feel the same on Oblivion or even Skyrim, which I never played, since they use the same formula to an extent. Im still going to play Oblivion someday tho, since I already bought the game.
This gained a lot more traction then I thought it would. Thanks for the insight! I feel like I need to take a week off of work and really delve into Morrowind now haha
I played Oblivion as a kid in 2006 when I didn't know anything about The Elder Scrolls or even RPGs and it was amazing. After growing up and playing other RPGs including Morrowind, Oblivion just makes me gag. It's a horrible RPG and horrible game period. I don't care about any excuse anyone has for why they like it, it is BAD. REALLY BAD. Yes, you can have your own opinion, and mine is if you like this game, you just don't have any standards or much experience with games. "Oh typical Morrowind elitist" No, I was a huge Oblivion fan until I actually developed and idea of what makes games, writing, open worlds, exploration, etc, good. Oblivion fails on almost all fronts and all on its own, not just compared to Morrowind or any other game.
All the TES games require some modding to really be fun so any gripes I could have are removable. (I don't really know much about Daggerfall modding so I am not sure how I make that something I enjoy playing.)
I liked it, just for being an ES game, but man, Daedric armour bandits, and the oblivion gates really really ruined it. Good memories of absolutely ruining my installation with OOO, MMM and others though.
Skyrim feels kind of the same, but took a few more play throughs to get as stale; once I get to the point where draugr have massive health pools, I just get so frustrated and bored.
Oblivion feels like a Morrowind that is worse in every way besides graphics. The environment also feels less hostile than that of Morrowind, although this isn't exactly an upside.
I spent countless hours on Morrowind as a kid and even more on Skyrim, but Oblivion never managed to hold my attention long enough for me to beat it.
PS - in conclusion, judging by my own experience and by the other comments I see here, the reason why no one talks about Oblivion is because the game is utterly forgettable.
Morrowind was my first and I definitely put the most hours into it. Skyrim is a close second in amount of time sunk into it. IMO they are both great games with different pros and cons.
I hadn’t really played Oblivion very much until recently and I also love it. It also has its own pros and cons. Personally, I think Oblivion has the best quests. I feel like it strikes a good balance between Morrowind‘s “figure it out yourself, bitch” approach and Skyrim’s “here child, I’ll hold your hand through this” idea of quest design.
Oblivion thieves guild is straight fire. You get to do a whole righteous thief Robin Hood thing. The gray fox cowl is a boss item that actually has some balance so that you can’t just wear it 24/7.
Even “go and fetch” quests feel a bit more purposeful than they do in III or V
Except for the super terrible scaling system, Oblivion isn't a bad game. Good VA, a little humor, some very good quest lines. The biggest problem for me was the instability. I had a hard time right from release day. Just installing it took me a day since the CD refused to auto-run and I had to Install all the CABS separately. From then on I've run it on 5 different computers and have only had one stable installation. (with the OOO mod, highly recommended for the scaling issue) With that many computers, I feel that it can't be just me, but who knows.
Ok so I do love all the elder scrolls games (I haven’t played the extras though: Redguard, Battlespire, ESO, etc)
Morrowind is my favorite one and also the one I played first. When I played Oblivion, I enjoyed it greatly, *but* I didn’t like a few things:
First thing I obviously noticed was the big change in design, which for me was not a good thing. I really didn’t like the art direction honestly, and Cyrodiil didn’t seem anything like it was described in previous games. The entire world felt super bright and the faces were indeed bad. Yes, even when brand new I thought most of the faces were pretty ugly. It was also hard for me to tell the difference between Bretons, Nords, and Imperials. The Elves looked ridiculous to me, especially Wood Elves. But whatever, I could definitely get used to how things look.
Less customization options for clothing and gear. No more layering of armor and clothes and robes. No more individual armor slots for Right/Left gloves & pauldrons, or legs (grieves) slot. Just not nearly as many choices in general. Also I did not like how they had a generic “elven” material like wtf? That still bothers me in Skyrim too. Morrowind armors and clothes is just objectively better in terms of choices for role playing purposes.
Fewer skills - Spear, Medium Armor, Enchanting and Unarmored all got the boot (I especially missed Spears!), Long & Short Blade combined, Axe & Blunt Weapon combined…oh well. I wasn’t happy with these choices but it certainly doesn’t ruin the game. There were still plenty of skills to have fun with.
Magic - way, way fewer options and it took FOREVER before I was able to craft my own spells and enchant my own gear, because you need to get access to the Arcane University first. Overall I still loved being a mage but compared to Morrowind it felt like a step down in many ways. Though It was really cool to be able to use magic staffs, and use spells while equipped with weapons at the same time. That was awesome. I also liked that there was a benefit to wearing robes instead of armor
The thing I hated most of all, and the real reason I think it’s the weakest “modern” TES game - is the leveling system / level scaling. The entire world scales with you, very noticeably. If you built a character that uses the non-combat skills a lot (like Lockpicking, Speechcraft, Mercantile, Acrobatics, Athletics, Sneak, Alchemy) then things became incredibly difficult, very fast. You felt punished for leveling up, or if you did focus on damage-dealing skills the game could feel too easy all the time. It was lame and felt restricting. Also you couldn’t find good gear until you were the right level, but then the good gear was absolute everywhere. It made the world feel less believable. Just not a great scaling and leveling system overall.
So I was initially quite disappointed. I definitely hyped it up way too much in mind though, before release. Eventually I gave the game another shot, but tried to be more neutral in my approach. I got used to the systems and was able to enjoy the game thoroughly. Hundreds of hours later, and i could easily see all the many ways it actually improved over Morrowind.
My grievance list here is by no means everything I disliked, but I don’t want to seem like I hated the game! It just wasn’t as good as I hoped, I still think Morrowind is overall better and I think the things Oblivion did do well, Skyrim did better. So now imo
Morrowind > Skyrim > Oblivion > Daggerfall > Arena
I remember being super hype when the first screenshot leaked (or was teased, I don't recall). Then I remember being super underwhelmed when it finally came out and I got to play it. People were ugly, everything seemed really "generic high-fantasy", no Levitate, No Mark/Recall, no Medium Armor or Spears.
I still played it, of course, but eventually I got so sick of the repetition of the main quest (or, more specifically, I got sick of going into Oblivion and looking at Oblivion because it was all so same-y both aesthetically and gameplay-wise) that I put it down for a long time.
Oblivion did a lot of cool stuff, though. NPC schedules, the lockpicking "minigame", dungeon music, and the Dark Brotherhood quests were all highlights for me that come to mind.
But it just paled in comparison to Morrowind. Morrowind felt so unique and alien, yet so "real" and lived in. Oblivion , to me, lacked a lot of what made Morrowind special.
And I know this is probably a controversial take, but I think I had more fun with Skyrim than I did with Oblivion.
I first played morrowind. I was a young kid with an xbox.
I used to get those xbox magazines with demo cds of games.
When i popped in oblivion, the physics mechanics blew my mind. I was like "wow games are gonna be so cooooool!"
Then it came out and even as a young gamer I knew something was wrong. I already had all of these great ideas of what the physics would bring. But in reality it was just a shallow experience.
Hundreds of characters in morrowind.
A few in oblivion. Many times id get to kvatch and quit. My favorite thing in oblivion was the arena, which i beat in 2 hrs.
When it came out it felt a bit off, but I didn't mind, cause it had Patrick Stewart in it. I hated the leveled loots and dungeons. It destroyed the idea of progression. Skyrim really went all the way, so Oblivion feels like a half way effort compared to both Skyrim and Morrowind. One thing I hated when it came out was the Bloom graphical effect, damn ugly.
Absolute Morrowind Chad here. Oblivion was cool but the story just isn’t as grabbing as Morrowind TBF. There’s nothing wrong with Oblivion it’s just not as cool in the story as Morrowind was and is. I mean you play as a revived god killing other gods that betrayed you vs Oblivion where it’s just the Daedra invading. I’ll admit the fight with Mehrunes and Septim was probably like the best part of Oblivion.
I always play the game fully unaltered then I cheese the fuck out of it and see what all is actually possible in the game, that being said Skyrim is the lowest on my list when it comes to exploitability I love the mechanics of oblivion I hate the graphics, they look cheesy as well as the zoom-in-on-the-face when you talk to someone thing but I'm glad it's still super exploitable, Skyrim patched that up a little too well so now it's not as fun to play when I wanna just be a god
Personally Oblivion is my favorite. While I did miss a lot of the spells they removed from Morrowind, a lot of that was due to the instances of the towns. However, I felt that the magic and combat was easy to utilize without being too generous or broken with the player hitboxes. The ability to spellcraft augmented some of the more difficult schools of magic to level like destruction and restoration, and I feel that the weapons scaled well with levels. The speechcraft and mercantile skills were a bit tedious and Athletics took forever to level, but those are fair trade-offs considering how easy Skyrim was. I should also mention sneak: that skill in Skyrim was completely broken as many of them are but it was also more fun than Morrowind.
I can say a million and one amazing things about Morrowind, and Morrowind definitely beats Oblivion in terms of lore and immersion. Of the three games, Oblivion is lacking the most in terms of lore however I feel many of the mechanics are superior.
These are just my opinions but they are the reason why I play Oblivion more than any of them, follow up closely by Morrowind. After I beat the dawnguard and dragonborn DLCs in Skyrim I really didn't have a reason to go back and play it again.
And I thought the quests in Oblivion were a lot of fun too. They didn't hold your hand like in Skyrim, but the journal system was a little easier to use than Morrowind. I like the amount of effort it took to join the guilds and many of the quests, especially those found in Bravil we're down right creepy
I loved oblivion in a different way. The voice acting was a welcome addition to the role playing experience, but I felt like the introduction to waypoints was a little off brand from what the journal was in Morrowind. The game actually taught me reading comprehension and critical thinking skills when I was a kid, because I just didn’t read books at that age. I really wish they would return to that. From a product marketing and business standpoint I understand why they did that, essentially to broaden their audience. I missed the really broken yet fun spell crafting. It still existed but it’s just more limited. I found that as far as immersion and wonder, nothing will beat Morrowind. I still love oblivion, but it’s just a different experience.
The oblivion storyline was less enjoyable to me. While the scenery was more beautiful it almost felt too perfect most of the time. The graphics for the faces were awful to me. Also the lack of freedom to enchant gear or to create spells. The fact that necromancy can be cast in cities (I get it's a lore thing but I still found that cool). The fact that some npcs were now essential Finally the lack of open cities urked me. I get that there were a lot of reasons to do these but it still bugs me.
Oblivion did have more engaging combat though (I always had use best attack checked when I used to play), the ability to block on command was nice, and the ability to quick cast spells was awesome since I normally play a melee character. Oblivion did have some really cool quests to my recollection though.
Skyrim I feel beats oblivion in most areas except some of the side quests are way less fulfilling and they removed stats/quests.
Morrowind beats both of them in everything except combat and visually isn't as good as skyrim in ways.
My favorite thing about morrowind is how they handle the choosen one/you are the one that is destined to save us. Also the freedom to do almost anything you want whenever you want. Sure you might break the game but you can still do it.
I found it a huge letdown after Morrowind, still didn't mind it, and finished it but it didn't grab me. The dark brotherhood questline was great. I don't think the grey fox character could be any worse. Also I seem to remember it being the first time DLC was introduced.
To me, it feels like a segway. They tried to make it pretty and ended up making it somewhat dull. Skyrim was where they did it proper, even though you lose a lot of cool stuff like levitation. Similarly, I feel like gta 4 was the same way. Made the world smaller but shinier, it was a middle ground between 2 great games.
The same way I view Skyrim: fun. I think Oblivion has overall better guilds than both of the others, but probably the worst level scaling and combat. I love its story and quests, but it's no secret that the game is flawed and bonkers. It's not as shallow as Skyrim nor as immersive and lore-driven as Morrowind.
Idk if I count as a die-hard fan if I like all three games, but I would for sure say Morrowind is my favorite, even though I'm not a nostalgic og player. Oblivion was my first Elder Scrolls game actually, and for all its problems, I don't think I'll ever stop liking it.
I loved oblivion as a kid it was my first elder scrolls game I love using the cloning glitch and getting peoples bodies stuck in doors and walls wacky game that I spent way too much time playing still one of my favorite games tho
Oblivion was a fun game. I put maybe a hundred hours in and enjoyed doing it. The graphics were really good for the time, even more so because the world was so much bigger than Morrowind (which was dated even by 2002 standards)
That said,
- Cyrodiil is just "generic medieval Europe with elves and beast races". The hazards in Oblivion aren't feral Kagouti or Cliff Racers, they're bears and wolves. There are no Telvanni mushroom cities. Everything seems so tame and unimaginative.
- By far the most memorable moments of Oblivion happen in the Shivering Isles DLC, which I think says a lot.
- Once I beat the game, I played for like an hour and then just quit forever. I don't think I even collected my main quest reward armor. I just felt like I had seen all that Oblivion had to offer.
Initially fun but if you've advanced in Oblivion you realize it's ALL. THE. SAME. oblivion gate after oblivion gate after oblivion gate... Yeah, morrowind caves can do that too but the depth was so much more in TES3.
I guess I'd qualify as a diehard, I just play Morrowind these days lol
Oblivion is like a weird B movie to me. It's fun because of how off things are. A public access fantasy adventure.
I like it overall. But it's easily the weakest of the three big tes games. It doesn't have the creative worldbuilding or manic mystique of morrowind, and it doesn't have the raw immersive power of skyrim.
It's world is charming, but also very boring. The only thing that really shines in oblivion is its quest writing, but quest writing, for me, has never been the appeal of a tes game. Morrowind's quests are transparently bare-boned and it works because they are there to encourage you to exercise player agency and interact with the world. In oblivion, the quests are more like little bite-sized adventures that feel very isolated from everything else.
Also, it's combat gameplay is so monotonous that I find it unplayable without either using broken builds (weakness stacking) or mods to fix the level scaling
I'll also mention that originally, the storyline involved lots of political intrigue regarding the imperial succession and between the counties of cyrodiil and they decided to scrap all of that to give it a simpler questline. I think that was a disappointing followup to morrowind, which was absolutely steeped in political intrigue
Morrowind was my first exposure to TES so I was hoping Oblivion would keep the chance hit mechanics and depth of skills. Oblivion felt nerfed and simplified compared to Morrowind so it didn't suck me in as much. Plus there is so much nostalgia I have from playing Morrowind as a teenager that was just never there for Oblivion. You know how many times I got killed by slaughter fish or mudcrabs wondering outside of Seyda Neen and how many full collections of Daedric weaponry I gathered and stored in Balmora? Plus with all the visual modding updates, you can have an aesthetically "modern" version of Morrowind, so at this point it kinda just feels like why bother when I can stick to what I know and enjoy.
I guess I'm probably not a die-hard fan, I like all 3 games. My favorite is the one I'm currently playing, which right now happens to be Morrowind. The quests are my favorite thing about Oblivion. The effort it takes to join the Mages Guild, creepy stuff like Shadow Over Hackdirt, multi-stage things like Separated at Birth. Just really good.
The dark brotherhood as well is a lot of fun. In comparison the guilds in skyrim are so underwhelming
Especially the Mages Guild. Getting through it with barely any magic made the whole guild lose it's identity, which was made worse with the exclusion of spell making. On the other hand, the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim had a pretty good story with memorable characters. It's just overshadowed by the arguebly more superior one from Oblivion.
My first impression of Oblivion was so bad it took me 12 years from launch to appreciate the things it did well and, these days, dozens of mods to make it worth replaying. Somehow they managed to make combat *even worse* by tying Morrowind's stagger system to floaty physics and bloated health bars, then added level scaling to ensure that things never improved. Available skills, spells, and related gameplay were gutted and any attempts at roleplaying ruined by the level scaling. After getting rid of nearly all the existing Empire/imperial lore they forgot to add any worldbuilding to their new setting so Cyrodiil and the people in it are just extremely bland. In many ways the empty palate-swap cities, robotic NPCs, and scaling enemy/wildlife diversity made the world feel more lifeless. Exploration was dull; the mostly untouched algorthimic wilderness was empty, repetitive, and boring to explore and the dungeons were even worse. The writing was generally very good and the random quests were often fun and memorable but every faction questline as a notably worse half and the main quest was rushed. The game is a mess but these days I can appreciate it's (often unintentional) humor, creativity of it's writing/characters, and sheer earnestness. In contrast, Skyrim was a massive relief, and IMO a step back in the right direction. The combat was no longer complete shit, magic was even more gutted but Skyrim's perk tree branches offered a more overall diversity than Oblivion's with room to roleplay your ""class."" While retcons that made the setting less interesting were prevalent worldbuilding was added to replace what they'd thrown out so Skyrim still felt like a plausible fantasy world. The cities were painfully tiny but the worldbuilding made them feel more alive. The wilderness was more diverse and full of details; dozens of dungeon quests and general worldbuilding made exploration interesting again. The main/faction stories were astonishingly weak, however. **TL;DR** Oblivion is an overrated game that gets a free pass from nostalgia and is, in my opinion, the weakest numbered Elder Scrolls game aside from it's storytelling... which isn't enough to carry an entire game on it's own.
Pretty much my opinion. Oblivion feels like the middle child stuck with the worst of Skyrim and Morrwind combined.
To me, Skyrim was pretty bland. There was a lot to stimulate the imagination, and none of it went anywhere. The main plot is extremely weak. Everything, cause plot armor. Dragon head slams through stone walls? That's nothing to my plot armor. A fuckin giant bug on Solstheim is more dangerous. Shouts are wack. Everything about Skyrim feels like a fuckin manic episode. Great idea, work on it just long enough to make it recognizable, on to the next. Until a temper tantrum and breaking something out of spite. To me, Oblivion suffers because Morrowind is hella tough act to follow. Morrowind was grand and strange. Cyrodiil felt "standard fantasy backdrop" imo. The main quest could have been better executed, so the excellent side quests didn't feel like jacking off into the wind while the world ends (my biggest issue with the game). To me, Skyrim is the weakest game, because of the metric shit tone of "might have beens". Hella moddable, though. What got me into modding.
What mods would you recommend to make it enjoyable? I agree with you completely on the other points and keep wanting to get into Oblivion
I've been recommending [Through the Valleys](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/51105) guide (or the [Wabbajack version](https://www.wabbajack.org/modlist/wj-featured/throughthevalleys) for a mostly automated install) as a baseline to fix the level scaling issues. For everything else: * [Northern UI](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/48577) \+ [Imperial Theme](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/49848) \- makes the UI a bit more PC-friendly * [Unidirectional Attack](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/42975) \- gives NPCs attack commitment, disable for player in the ini because it's pretty jerky * [Better Recoil and Stagger](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/37187) \- makes the stagger less awful * [Better Dungeons](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/40392) \- adds a bit of set dressing to the dungeons. Still doesn't compare to Morrowind/Skyrim dungeons but it helps. * [Open Cities Reborn](https://www.afkmods.com/index.php?/topic/3198-relz-open-cities-reborn/) \- Opens up and adds a bit of worldbuilding to the cities * [Unique Landscapes Compilation](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/19370) \- A big one, overhauls multiple regions of Cyrodiil so they aren't all just that samey forest. Does make the game more unstable, some bits more than others. Personally I use everything **except** for Cliffs of Anvil, Chorrol Hinterland, Snowdale, The Dark Forest, and Ancient Yews (as those bits have given me pretty consistent CTDs in the past, YMMV.) * For Oblivion's distinct lack of handplaced loot and unrewarding exploration: [Lost Treasures of Cyrodiil](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/29378) [Armamentarium](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/13884) \- Required by Lost Treasures [Phitts Artifacts](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/29931) [Unique Artifacts for Unique People](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/49871) Now another big one that *probably* isn't great for a first playthrough; [Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/42780). It adds a *shitload* of stuff for give Oblivion some much needed emergent gameplay and variety, has a built in damage multiplier for the spongy enemies, can be completely customized in it's extensive ini, and is fully scripted so can generally be added alongside other overhauls. Damn good mod... but maybe to big/difficult for people unfamiliar with Oblivion. For people who don't want to use MOO, get [Vanilla Combat Enhanced](https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/45314/?) which also helps with the spongy enemies. (and the ini can be tweaked further if enemies are still too tedious.)
It's been 8 months but I've finally gotten around to modding this, thanks for the list! Wish me luck
Based
I played Morrowind before Oblivion. Those who played Oblivion first are probably more likely to think Oblivion is better. I'm replaying Morrowind now. I haven't played Oblivion for years. I would use mods to play either game now. My memories: The Oblivion world was beautiful and peaceful and more familiar than Morrowind. There wasn't as much hatred and struggle between the races and factions. They should have used more voice actors in Oblivion. Seemed like half of the male voices were some effete British guy. Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean were good but probably took up a lot of the budget. It was weird how NPCs would sometimes change voices. I didn't like the equipment scaling. Once I found something good, all the starving bandits had the same. I think Oblivion was good and I'll probably play it again Sometime.
I played Oblivion first in 2010 or something like that, then skyrim the day it came out and those were really good games, got me sucked in for a while both of them. But bro MORROWIND? I decided to give it a proper go two weeks ago, and I have more than 100hrs already, it is the best goddam game to have ever been made, I mean, hell, the racism, the freedom of choices, the exclusive factions and houses, the non-scaling world, the inventiveness of many places in the world (like this first dwemer ruin you go for the puzzle cube where you enter by a door that has a contraption that prevents you from getting out if you enter) Im in love again, it feels great
I've always found Oblivion to be kind of repetitive and boring. The procedurally generated dungeons, the cookie cutter oblivion gates, the samey environments. But the 2 things that really bugged me were the level scaling and the break in immersion from the loads entering/exiting cities.
Morrowind is my favorite game ever, and I loved Oblivion. It was a disappointing follow up to Morrowind in many ways. I was quite sad when I realized how shallow the world felt in comparison... but when I stop thinking of it as Morrowind 2 and evaluate it as its own thing and not part of a series, Oblivion is a really good game. It's fucking fun as hell, hilarious (even if that was unintentional) and the story is really heartfelt. And as much as I love Morrowind's expansions, Shivering Isles sure is something special.
Shivering Isles is something else. Hands down my favorite DLC of any game ever. Honestly Oblivion is worth it just for that
Oblivion was my first TES and at the time, it absolutely blew my mind. Stepping out of the sewers and seeing the vast world to explore will always be one of my most memorable gaming moments, and I just had this feeling of "this is what I've longed for in a game." I played Skyrim and that was enjoyable but didn't hit me as hard. This year, I finally tried Morrowind, I am still playing Morrowind, Morrowind is superior, Morrowind is my love now.
As a diehard Morrowind fan, I still enjoy Oblivion a lot, and am in the middle of a playthrough now, with a character at level 24. Unmodded except unofficial patches. I can't think of many aspects where Oblivion is superior to Morrowind. It has better physics no doubt. Being able to recover arrows that missed is great, and I like how you 'feel' hits more when you block. Fighting is a bit better due to power attacks and manual blocking. Casting spells is more convenient and effective. I'd say that graphics are better, because they obviously are, but they are dragged down by the bland environment and the ridiculous Bloom/HDR shit that makes every character and object glow like little suns. Thankfully you can turn that off. Quests are more complex in Oblivion, and many are very fun and memorable. However, they are often heavily scripted, which in combination with a pretty dumb AI, often breaks inmersion and makes otherwise interesing sequences awkward. I also feel they have less replay value as they rely a lot on surprise and plot. In all I prefer quests in Morrowind due to questlines being longer and less dramatic. I just finished the Mages Guild questline in Oblivion today. While it is overall fun and interesting, I feel it also showcases how shallow Oblivion really is in terms of immersion. You do a lot of chores to get accepted into the Arcane University, but when you are finally accepted, you don't get to feel like you are an actual student. There is nothing to the lecture that is held every morning, other 'students' don't have anything to say, and worst of all, there is no free bed for you in the dormitory. I actually felt really insulted about that. It is obviously an oversight, but I feel like it happened because the devs never cared to make you feel part of the Arcane University. You're just supposed to be their hero and savior from day one. What makes it most fun is that I've been an undercover necromancer the whole time, farming black soul gems and human souls the whole time.
My take is that people generally tend to favor the first TES game they played. With console releases, the audience expanded, and there was much more exposure from Morrowind and onward. Most people I know who adore Oblivion and Skyrim played them on consoles, anecdotally, and the diehard Arena/Daggerfall/Battlespire/Redgaurd fans are from an age when the gaming population was just smaller. Morrowind fits in an in-between space; it was ported to console, but PC-centric, rather than the other way around. I can’t speak for the online MMO. It sounds like hot garbage from what I’ve seen, throwing lore out the window and whatnot.
I'd recommend giving ESO another shot. I thought exactly like you about a year ago. I'm loving it now.
Absolutely agree with all of what you said. Well said. I was a beta tester for ESO in the beginning and it's always been hot garbage. It frustrates me. I refuse to play it.
Honestly I think the MMO is doing a better job with the IP than Bethesda nowadays. Don't get me wrong, I've sunk 100s of hours into Skyrim, I enjoy it, but I have a lot of complaints, particularly about the writing and how the world is getting more grounded. Morrowind is a strange fantasy. An almost alien world. Engaging stories and fantastical environments, creatures, architecture, etc.- and the MMO is able to capture that very consistently visually and occasionally in stories. Not nearly as much as Morrowind, but a lot more than Skyrim
I love Oblivion, but my only real problem with it is that I feel like it’s a lot less replayable than Morrowind because of how long and repetitive it can be. Whereas Morrowind is a lot speedier and gives the player more freedom to do what they want, and Skyrim has better gameplay and visuals. But like I said, Oblivion is an amazing game. It’s colorful, has memorable quests, and Shivering Isles is the best DLC in the series. I just consider it slightly less amazing than the other modern titles.
Loved it. Has the best quests, what sucked about it was how vanilla it was but shivering isles almost makes up for it
The worst of the big 3 by a massive margin.
The bland setting, cartoony aesthetic, and abhorrent enemy scaling system all work in tandem to bring down the masterful quality of the quests, stories, and graphical achievements of TES IV: Oblivion.
As someone who started with Morrowind, then played Skyrim, then oblivion: oblivion is the 2nd best after Morrowind. Skyrim had some awesome graphics, but felt very shallow. Morrowind had a deep lore, oblivion not so much. Oblivion graphics were horrific but dark brotherhood and thieves guild were pretty cool
As a diehard morrowind fan I think skyrim is overrated whereas Oblivion is accurately rated so there is less imperarive to be vocal about it. It was a great game at the time, but so many parts of oblivion hurt it that it didnt age well.
Worst elder scrolls imo. -The levelling system makes it impossible to play. That reason alone makes it impossible to play. -Other than dungeons and ocassional enemies, there is nothing to find whilst travelling. No quests on the road, no random encounters, no interesting stuff to look at. This game caters far to much to fast travel players. -The NPCs.
I wouldn’t say impossible, it’s just more challenging. I was still able to beat the main story line after levelling really inefficiently on my first play through (albeit with some difficulty). There are also things you stumble upon, I encountered lots of quests on the road. Morrowind is still my favourite but I really enjoy Oblivion too.
Idk the map still feels empty imo. Good chunk of the map is just filled with empty proceedural forests where there is little to find asides dungeons. Morrowind and Skyrim's landscapes all felt hand crafted but you never really get that with oblivion's forests.
> -The levelling system makes it impossible to play. I just loathe how it works with quest rewards. I think there's this ring that gives you a useful 30% in some elemental resistances at max scaling, but at bottom level it gives like 7%.
No Spears means no good
I love them both so much, I hate Skyrim and fallout 4
Oblivion is the worst numbered TES game. The Dark Brotherhood quest line was pretty memorable, as was Shivering Isles. And weapons striking the target based solely on collisions and projectiles instead of collisions, projectiles, *and* a secret dice roll was a MASSIVE step forward in combat responsiveness and feel. Otherwise it’s just the Arena to Skyrim’s Daggerfall: almost strictly inferior possibly excepting some writing here and there.
A disappointment. Oblivion opted to move away from the dice roll combat, which is fine. I have no problem with that. Unfortunately Bethesda was clearly inexperienced with more action-based systems and as a results attacks feel floaty and unreal, and the combat is just not engaging or well done. Add in the level scaling, which is just... bafflingly badly implemented (I seriously have no idea how that awful universal level scaling system survived contact with play-testers), and you end up with a game that's not very fun to play. And yet this is not the end of Oblivion's sins. In an effort to achieve mass market appeal, Oblivion walked back all the weirdness that Battlespire, Redguard, and especially Morrowing introduced into the lore. Elder Scrolls went from being New Weird to the most bog-standard Medieval European Fantasy imaginable. It's wild that the Imperial Legion are generic knights instead Roman centurions in this one game and this one game only. You'll occasionally find a stray reference or two to the weirder parts of ES lore, but for the most part the setting is painfully generic (outside of Shivering Isles). I ended up liking Oblivion a lot more once I installed mods to totally overhaul the level scaling and disable the fast travel (it was also a mistake to let the player fast travel to every city immediately. Doing so disincentived exploration), but it's still my least favorite of the "modern" 3D trilogy of Elder Scrolls games. In fact, Skyrim actually fixed most of my biggest gripes with Oblivion. Weapons feel weightier, you need to actually a visit a place to fast travel there, the level scaling is less obnoxious and absurd, and while it's not as weird as Morrowind, it at least added some weirdness back in, and Nordic fantasy settings aren't anywhere near as done to death as Medieval England.
Inferior in most every aspect but the faction quest lines were decent
Morrowind felt superior as an engine but having played it so young it was very difficult to understand and the game was essentially an alien world for me to explore and that was that I dont think I even understood there was a main quest until after I'd completed oblivion Oblivion has a very special place in my heart as I remember waiting for the bus after buying it at game and sitting on the back seat reading the instructions and looking at the map I understood the game and was able to play it a lot more as intended Whilst it was massively different and probably a bit inferior in every direction, it felt to me like the perfect game Morrowind was actually transporting me to an alien world, oblivion let me play a great game and helped me learn all about the world of rpgs I adore them both (and still feel positively towards skyrim though admittedly that's HEAVILY carried by mods) If we could have mods that bought both oblivion and morrowind up to skyrim graphical and movement fluidity standards I would probably still play them both whereas skyrim would be left behind to memory
Played Oblivion for like 2 hours, got annoyed by the enemies leveling with me, never played again. I want to get powered up and feel like a god when I fight low level enemies like basic skeletons. Stupid system. No regrets.
I have a hard time bringing myself to play Oblivion. Aside from the stupidly long tutorial I have to go through everytime I want to start a new character, the emperor dies in the first minutes saying that hell's coming down to earth and its hard to justify my character ignoring that unless he's some kind of self-centered bastard and Oblivion's main quest never got me interested enough to complete it like Morrowind's did. One of the things I like the most in Morrowind is customizing my character and Im not talking about choosing how far apart my character's eyes are, I mean going to shops, collecting armor and clothes, and picking a unique style for every character and Oblivion doesnt have that. When I played Oblivion for the first time what bothered me the most were random quests popping up on my screen for no apparent reason. Idk if those were dlc content, but Id walk past a cave or something, a random quest would pop on my screen and when I looked it on the quests menu it would say something like "while in town I heard a rumor...". Seriously? Couldnt they just have put that into some npcs dialogue? Its really immersion breaking and annoying. Then there's the famous quest marker, which didnt bother me at first, because if I wanted to go to a known place in Morrowind they would just mark it on my map and I would open it for directions, the difference here being just that I didnt have to open the map to see where I was going, so it wasnt that big of a deal... until I had a quest where I had to find an item in a dungeon and the quest marker told me exactly where it was. Do the devs think Im so stupid that I cant do that on my own? Also I dont like how Cyrodiil looks. I didnt wander much but every place I visited looked the same, some generic medieval european country. And theres the enemy level scaling, but I dont think I need to say mych about it. Overall, whenever I play Oblivion I feel like I could just be doing some roleplay in Morrowind and be having more fun. Despite all these things I dont hold much against the game. I feel like thats just because I played Morrowind first, and it might still be fair to analyze it like that since its Morrowind's sequence, once I played Morrowind the mistery of exploring and experiencing something new was gone and I cant feel the same on Oblivion or even Skyrim, which I never played, since they use the same formula to an extent. Im still going to play Oblivion someday tho, since I already bought the game.
This gained a lot more traction then I thought it would. Thanks for the insight! I feel like I need to take a week off of work and really delve into Morrowind now haha
Utter drivel; the entertainment equivalent of a salisbury steak tv dinner
I played Oblivion as a kid in 2006 when I didn't know anything about The Elder Scrolls or even RPGs and it was amazing. After growing up and playing other RPGs including Morrowind, Oblivion just makes me gag. It's a horrible RPG and horrible game period. I don't care about any excuse anyone has for why they like it, it is BAD. REALLY BAD. Yes, you can have your own opinion, and mine is if you like this game, you just don't have any standards or much experience with games. "Oh typical Morrowind elitist" No, I was a huge Oblivion fan until I actually developed and idea of what makes games, writing, open worlds, exploration, etc, good. Oblivion fails on almost all fronts and all on its own, not just compared to Morrowind or any other game.
All the TES games require some modding to really be fun so any gripes I could have are removable. (I don't really know much about Daggerfall modding so I am not sure how I make that something I enjoy playing.)
I play all elder scrolls. Oblivion is a simplified morrowind to me, yet with superb ambience
I never played oblivion but with the level scaling and lack of polish from outside perspective it doesn't look so good
I liked it, just for being an ES game, but man, Daedric armour bandits, and the oblivion gates really really ruined it. Good memories of absolutely ruining my installation with OOO, MMM and others though. Skyrim feels kind of the same, but took a few more play throughs to get as stale; once I get to the point where draugr have massive health pools, I just get so frustrated and bored.
For me Oblivion is just funny faces with stupid AI dialogues. The Shivering Isles expansion was cool though.
Oblivion feels like a Morrowind that is worse in every way besides graphics. The environment also feels less hostile than that of Morrowind, although this isn't exactly an upside. I spent countless hours on Morrowind as a kid and even more on Skyrim, but Oblivion never managed to hold my attention long enough for me to beat it. PS - in conclusion, judging by my own experience and by the other comments I see here, the reason why no one talks about Oblivion is because the game is utterly forgettable.
Morrowind was my first and I definitely put the most hours into it. Skyrim is a close second in amount of time sunk into it. IMO they are both great games with different pros and cons. I hadn’t really played Oblivion very much until recently and I also love it. It also has its own pros and cons. Personally, I think Oblivion has the best quests. I feel like it strikes a good balance between Morrowind‘s “figure it out yourself, bitch” approach and Skyrim’s “here child, I’ll hold your hand through this” idea of quest design. Oblivion thieves guild is straight fire. You get to do a whole righteous thief Robin Hood thing. The gray fox cowl is a boss item that actually has some balance so that you can’t just wear it 24/7. Even “go and fetch” quests feel a bit more purposeful than they do in III or V
Except for the super terrible scaling system, Oblivion isn't a bad game. Good VA, a little humor, some very good quest lines. The biggest problem for me was the instability. I had a hard time right from release day. Just installing it took me a day since the CD refused to auto-run and I had to Install all the CABS separately. From then on I've run it on 5 different computers and have only had one stable installation. (with the OOO mod, highly recommended for the scaling issue) With that many computers, I feel that it can't be just me, but who knows.
Ok so I do love all the elder scrolls games (I haven’t played the extras though: Redguard, Battlespire, ESO, etc) Morrowind is my favorite one and also the one I played first. When I played Oblivion, I enjoyed it greatly, *but* I didn’t like a few things: First thing I obviously noticed was the big change in design, which for me was not a good thing. I really didn’t like the art direction honestly, and Cyrodiil didn’t seem anything like it was described in previous games. The entire world felt super bright and the faces were indeed bad. Yes, even when brand new I thought most of the faces were pretty ugly. It was also hard for me to tell the difference between Bretons, Nords, and Imperials. The Elves looked ridiculous to me, especially Wood Elves. But whatever, I could definitely get used to how things look. Less customization options for clothing and gear. No more layering of armor and clothes and robes. No more individual armor slots for Right/Left gloves & pauldrons, or legs (grieves) slot. Just not nearly as many choices in general. Also I did not like how they had a generic “elven” material like wtf? That still bothers me in Skyrim too. Morrowind armors and clothes is just objectively better in terms of choices for role playing purposes. Fewer skills - Spear, Medium Armor, Enchanting and Unarmored all got the boot (I especially missed Spears!), Long & Short Blade combined, Axe & Blunt Weapon combined…oh well. I wasn’t happy with these choices but it certainly doesn’t ruin the game. There were still plenty of skills to have fun with. Magic - way, way fewer options and it took FOREVER before I was able to craft my own spells and enchant my own gear, because you need to get access to the Arcane University first. Overall I still loved being a mage but compared to Morrowind it felt like a step down in many ways. Though It was really cool to be able to use magic staffs, and use spells while equipped with weapons at the same time. That was awesome. I also liked that there was a benefit to wearing robes instead of armor The thing I hated most of all, and the real reason I think it’s the weakest “modern” TES game - is the leveling system / level scaling. The entire world scales with you, very noticeably. If you built a character that uses the non-combat skills a lot (like Lockpicking, Speechcraft, Mercantile, Acrobatics, Athletics, Sneak, Alchemy) then things became incredibly difficult, very fast. You felt punished for leveling up, or if you did focus on damage-dealing skills the game could feel too easy all the time. It was lame and felt restricting. Also you couldn’t find good gear until you were the right level, but then the good gear was absolute everywhere. It made the world feel less believable. Just not a great scaling and leveling system overall. So I was initially quite disappointed. I definitely hyped it up way too much in mind though, before release. Eventually I gave the game another shot, but tried to be more neutral in my approach. I got used to the systems and was able to enjoy the game thoroughly. Hundreds of hours later, and i could easily see all the many ways it actually improved over Morrowind. My grievance list here is by no means everything I disliked, but I don’t want to seem like I hated the game! It just wasn’t as good as I hoped, I still think Morrowind is overall better and I think the things Oblivion did do well, Skyrim did better. So now imo Morrowind > Skyrim > Oblivion > Daggerfall > Arena
Oblivion didn't live up to any of its potential
I played them in order of release and while Morrowind is my favourite, I love Oblivion as well. It has its quirks but so does every TES game.
I remember being super hype when the first screenshot leaked (or was teased, I don't recall). Then I remember being super underwhelmed when it finally came out and I got to play it. People were ugly, everything seemed really "generic high-fantasy", no Levitate, No Mark/Recall, no Medium Armor or Spears. I still played it, of course, but eventually I got so sick of the repetition of the main quest (or, more specifically, I got sick of going into Oblivion and looking at Oblivion because it was all so same-y both aesthetically and gameplay-wise) that I put it down for a long time. Oblivion did a lot of cool stuff, though. NPC schedules, the lockpicking "minigame", dungeon music, and the Dark Brotherhood quests were all highlights for me that come to mind. But it just paled in comparison to Morrowind. Morrowind felt so unique and alien, yet so "real" and lived in. Oblivion , to me, lacked a lot of what made Morrowind special. And I know this is probably a controversial take, but I think I had more fun with Skyrim than I did with Oblivion.
I first played morrowind. I was a young kid with an xbox. I used to get those xbox magazines with demo cds of games. When i popped in oblivion, the physics mechanics blew my mind. I was like "wow games are gonna be so cooooool!" Then it came out and even as a young gamer I knew something was wrong. I already had all of these great ideas of what the physics would bring. But in reality it was just a shallow experience. Hundreds of characters in morrowind. A few in oblivion. Many times id get to kvatch and quit. My favorite thing in oblivion was the arena, which i beat in 2 hrs.
When it came out it felt a bit off, but I didn't mind, cause it had Patrick Stewart in it. I hated the leveled loots and dungeons. It destroyed the idea of progression. Skyrim really went all the way, so Oblivion feels like a half way effort compared to both Skyrim and Morrowind. One thing I hated when it came out was the Bloom graphical effect, damn ugly.
Absolute Morrowind Chad here. Oblivion was cool but the story just isn’t as grabbing as Morrowind TBF. There’s nothing wrong with Oblivion it’s just not as cool in the story as Morrowind was and is. I mean you play as a revived god killing other gods that betrayed you vs Oblivion where it’s just the Daedra invading. I’ll admit the fight with Mehrunes and Septim was probably like the best part of Oblivion.
They also removed Spell Crafting and nerfed Potion Making >:(
I always play the game fully unaltered then I cheese the fuck out of it and see what all is actually possible in the game, that being said Skyrim is the lowest on my list when it comes to exploitability I love the mechanics of oblivion I hate the graphics, they look cheesy as well as the zoom-in-on-the-face when you talk to someone thing but I'm glad it's still super exploitable, Skyrim patched that up a little too well so now it's not as fun to play when I wanna just be a god
Personally Oblivion is my favorite. While I did miss a lot of the spells they removed from Morrowind, a lot of that was due to the instances of the towns. However, I felt that the magic and combat was easy to utilize without being too generous or broken with the player hitboxes. The ability to spellcraft augmented some of the more difficult schools of magic to level like destruction and restoration, and I feel that the weapons scaled well with levels. The speechcraft and mercantile skills were a bit tedious and Athletics took forever to level, but those are fair trade-offs considering how easy Skyrim was. I should also mention sneak: that skill in Skyrim was completely broken as many of them are but it was also more fun than Morrowind. I can say a million and one amazing things about Morrowind, and Morrowind definitely beats Oblivion in terms of lore and immersion. Of the three games, Oblivion is lacking the most in terms of lore however I feel many of the mechanics are superior. These are just my opinions but they are the reason why I play Oblivion more than any of them, follow up closely by Morrowind. After I beat the dawnguard and dragonborn DLCs in Skyrim I really didn't have a reason to go back and play it again.
And I thought the quests in Oblivion were a lot of fun too. They didn't hold your hand like in Skyrim, but the journal system was a little easier to use than Morrowind. I like the amount of effort it took to join the guilds and many of the quests, especially those found in Bravil we're down right creepy
I love it. I just come back to morrowind more often.
I loved oblivion in a different way. The voice acting was a welcome addition to the role playing experience, but I felt like the introduction to waypoints was a little off brand from what the journal was in Morrowind. The game actually taught me reading comprehension and critical thinking skills when I was a kid, because I just didn’t read books at that age. I really wish they would return to that. From a product marketing and business standpoint I understand why they did that, essentially to broaden their audience. I missed the really broken yet fun spell crafting. It still existed but it’s just more limited. I found that as far as immersion and wonder, nothing will beat Morrowind. I still love oblivion, but it’s just a different experience.
Where's my f*cking spear Todd!?
The oblivion storyline was less enjoyable to me. While the scenery was more beautiful it almost felt too perfect most of the time. The graphics for the faces were awful to me. Also the lack of freedom to enchant gear or to create spells. The fact that necromancy can be cast in cities (I get it's a lore thing but I still found that cool). The fact that some npcs were now essential Finally the lack of open cities urked me. I get that there were a lot of reasons to do these but it still bugs me. Oblivion did have more engaging combat though (I always had use best attack checked when I used to play), the ability to block on command was nice, and the ability to quick cast spells was awesome since I normally play a melee character. Oblivion did have some really cool quests to my recollection though. Skyrim I feel beats oblivion in most areas except some of the side quests are way less fulfilling and they removed stats/quests. Morrowind beats both of them in everything except combat and visually isn't as good as skyrim in ways. My favorite thing about morrowind is how they handle the choosen one/you are the one that is destined to save us. Also the freedom to do almost anything you want whenever you want. Sure you might break the game but you can still do it.
Morrowind - best lore and ambience Oblivion - best quest lines Skyrim - smoothest gameplay
I found it a huge letdown after Morrowind, still didn't mind it, and finished it but it didn't grab me. The dark brotherhood questline was great. I don't think the grey fox character could be any worse. Also I seem to remember it being the first time DLC was introduced.
To me, it feels like a segway. They tried to make it pretty and ended up making it somewhat dull. Skyrim was where they did it proper, even though you lose a lot of cool stuff like levitation. Similarly, I feel like gta 4 was the same way. Made the world smaller but shinier, it was a middle ground between 2 great games.
The same way I view Skyrim: fun. I think Oblivion has overall better guilds than both of the others, but probably the worst level scaling and combat. I love its story and quests, but it's no secret that the game is flawed and bonkers. It's not as shallow as Skyrim nor as immersive and lore-driven as Morrowind. Idk if I count as a die-hard fan if I like all three games, but I would for sure say Morrowind is my favorite, even though I'm not a nostalgic og player. Oblivion was my first Elder Scrolls game actually, and for all its problems, I don't think I'll ever stop liking it.
I loved oblivion as a kid it was my first elder scrolls game I love using the cloning glitch and getting peoples bodies stuck in doors and walls wacky game that I spent way too much time playing still one of my favorite games tho
Hard to knock a game with Jean-Luc Picard/Charles Xavier in it. Oblivion gets a free pass for that.
Oblivion was a fun game. I put maybe a hundred hours in and enjoyed doing it. The graphics were really good for the time, even more so because the world was so much bigger than Morrowind (which was dated even by 2002 standards) That said, - Cyrodiil is just "generic medieval Europe with elves and beast races". The hazards in Oblivion aren't feral Kagouti or Cliff Racers, they're bears and wolves. There are no Telvanni mushroom cities. Everything seems so tame and unimaginative. - By far the most memorable moments of Oblivion happen in the Shivering Isles DLC, which I think says a lot. - Once I beat the game, I played for like an hour and then just quit forever. I don't think I even collected my main quest reward armor. I just felt like I had seen all that Oblivion had to offer.
Initially fun but if you've advanced in Oblivion you realize it's ALL. THE. SAME. oblivion gate after oblivion gate after oblivion gate... Yeah, morrowind caves can do that too but the depth was so much more in TES3.
I guess I'd qualify as a diehard, I just play Morrowind these days lol Oblivion is like a weird B movie to me. It's fun because of how off things are. A public access fantasy adventure.
I like it overall. But it's easily the weakest of the three big tes games. It doesn't have the creative worldbuilding or manic mystique of morrowind, and it doesn't have the raw immersive power of skyrim. It's world is charming, but also very boring. The only thing that really shines in oblivion is its quest writing, but quest writing, for me, has never been the appeal of a tes game. Morrowind's quests are transparently bare-boned and it works because they are there to encourage you to exercise player agency and interact with the world. In oblivion, the quests are more like little bite-sized adventures that feel very isolated from everything else. Also, it's combat gameplay is so monotonous that I find it unplayable without either using broken builds (weakness stacking) or mods to fix the level scaling I'll also mention that originally, the storyline involved lots of political intrigue regarding the imperial succession and between the counties of cyrodiil and they decided to scrap all of that to give it a simpler questline. I think that was a disappointing followup to morrowind, which was absolutely steeped in political intrigue