[Antony6555]

I just got it and it feels soooooooo dumbed down from Morrowind (the leveling system, never missing with weapons, never failing to cast spells etc.) On top of this there's very little immersion because the fast travel system is not implemented into the game world at all and because of the closed cities.

And the locations are all pretty bland. The cities all look too normal (and often to similar) and the landscape is pretty much just continuous forest. Seriously, what happened to the giant mushrooms, giant mushroom houses and giant transportation bugs? What happened to the feeling of entering an foreign world? This game seems soulless to me.

Also the dungeons are all much smaller and the number of factions you can join has been halved AND there are no requirements for any faction (probably because of this), meaning, for example, a pure warrior can become the head of the mage's guild, which gives all the characters you create a generic feel and kills replay value.

Anyway, I was very disappointed with this game after playing Morrowind, which I consider to be one of the top games of all time. What do you guys think?

 

[apatN]

You do realize Oblivion's been out since 2006, right?

I never felt anything for Oblivion. Felt it was way too big and the whole setting doesn't appeal to me. I am going to try Fallout 3 though which uses the same engine.

 

[fraseyboy]

Yeah, you're about three years too late to be complaining about it

I really liked Fallout 3, much more than Oblivion.

 

[MaZa]

Oblivion without mods is quite crappy. Beth did a lot of things wrong, especially with the thing that enemies and their equipment level up together with out. There is no challenge anywhere, leveling up seems almost pointless except for getting higher sneak and lockpick skills and such. Also after playing it for a while to higher levels, you start to see bandits wearing Daedric equipment and such similar to yours and so on. What the heck? On stock its only redeeming point is Dark Brotherhood guild which is grrreat!

Thieves Guild was sort of nice too, though some mods are also required to improve loots and such, make thieving more interesting that is.

These mods are pretty much must have:

Oscuro Oblivion Overhaul. Removes enemy leveling system, so now you can face enemies that are simply impossible for you until you level up and get stronger. Adds TONS of new treasures, weapons/armor and some enemies, new quests plus other things.

Martigens Monster Mod. Adds lot of new enemies, all Elderscrolls-lore friendly.

Quest Award Leveller. On stock a lot items you get from quests are also leveled. You do a quest on low levels and you receive an item that is soon very crappy. This mod removes this Beth screw-up (What WERE THEY THINKING!?) by leveling those items with you.


These three mods and Oblivion feels like a game that it should have been in the first place.



About giant mushrooms and so on, those are native to Morrowind's enviroment, Morrowind being an island shaped ny its volcanic enviroment, blight and whatnot. Oblivion is based on Cyrodiil, Imperial homeland southwest from Morrowind and it just has "normal" enviroment you would expect from Imperials homeland which obviously are medieval human inspired. Though it also has a ton of background story with Ayleids and all.

If you want funky enviroments with giants mushrooms and such back, check Shivering Isles official expansion where you travel to the realm of mad-god Sheogorath. That is a totally alien place very much like island of Morrowind. Very good expansion pack.




*edit* Oh yeah, you complained about the map being almost completely forest with no variation. Check out this mod:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=19370

Unique Landscapes. Makes the landscape faaar more varied, adding farming zones, dark forest, swamp and such. You need Oblivion Mod Manager to install it as it is OMOD pack, though you should have that anyway when adding mods because you might need to alter their load orders and so on which is impossible with Oblivion Launcher.



With all above, I really like Oblivion. I played it A LOT, until Fallout 3 was released which topped Oblivion in pretty much every regard. Morrowind is still superior game to both, but I just cant play that anymore because I hate its combat system. I hated it back then (First Person Combat with dice-based hit detection? Eh?) and I still hate it, Oblivions more straight forward combat is much more "role playable", meaning you can move and act as your character and not just hit the button and wish you hit something.

 

[MomijiTMO]

There are some really good texture packs that you must try before dismissing Oblivion's visuals. While I thought Fallout 3 was amazing, the HD texture pack blew me away.

I do like Fallout 3 better but hey, I love end of the world things.

 

[El_Doug]

My biggest qualm with oblivion had to do with the expressionless, monotone characters.

interaction with NPC's is what, for me, is most important in getting drawn into an RPG. in Oblivion, it felt like the game WANTED me to not get immersed

 

[MaZa]

Yeah. But considering how many characters there are, its almost impossible to make them all relevant and unique, with voice acting and all. Fallout 3 fixed this by adding a lot of non-relevant characters (IE Megaton Settlers with no dialogue etc...) and concentrating on few key characters only which then again are really good. This is the way like every major RPG does. Oblivion tried to be too big in this regard, but failed somewhat. Few good characters, and a thousand monotone ones.

 

[nickosha]

I agree with your complaints on Oblivion; it's just dull, boring, and generic, especially compared to morrowind. I had it for the Xbox 360 when it first came out, and I'm considering purchasing the GOTY edition for the PC to check out the mods. I think I'll wait until I see it going for next to nothing though. The Fallout 3 GOTY is going to be taking up all my time anyways

 

[logwed]

I liked Fallout 3 much more than Oblivion (never played Morrowind, but I've heard good things). I need to get the last 2 expansions for F3, though...

 

[shigzeo]

Morrowind was a classic, Oblivion was the next RPG for people who have never played one of the best: a game for the Xbox. Fallout is great, and while there is so much to complain about in Oblivion, Ultimate 7 from 1992 remains my favourite to this day.

 

[Antony6555]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaZa /img/forum/go_quote.gif Oblivion without mods is quite crappy.

Yeah sadly I have the ps3 version. Morrowind was a lot better on pc, so I wanted to get oblivion on pc, due to the availability of mods and superior controls. But my (fairly old) computer just can't run it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaZa /img/forum/go_quote.gif About giant mushrooms and so on, those are native to Morrowind's enviroment, Morrowind being an island shaped ny its volcanic enviroment, blight and whatnot. Oblivion is based on Cyrodiil, Imperial homeland southwest from Morrowind and it just has "normal" enviroment you would expect from Imperials homeland which obviously are medieval human inspired. Though it also has a ton of background story with Ayleids and all.

I can see why the architecture might be boring (imperial style.) Though I wish they would have included more non-human style settlements. However, according to lore, the environment of Cyrodill is actually rainforest.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaZa /img/forum/go_quote.gif you want funky enviroments with giants mushrooms and such back, check Shivering Isles official expansion where you travel to the realm of mad-god Sheogorath. That is a totally alien place very much like island of Morrowind. Very good expansion pack.

Yeah I think I will probably check this out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaZa /img/forum/go_quote.gif With all above, I really like Oblivion. I played it A LOT, until Fallout 3 was released which topped Oblivion in pretty much every regard. Morrowind is still superior game to both, but I just cant play that anymore because I hate its combat system. I hated it back then (First Person Combat with dice-based hit detection? Eh?) and I still hate it, Oblivions more straight forward combat is much more "role playable", meaning you can move and act as your character and not just hit the button and wish you hit something.

Yeah I Morrowind's combat system can be frustrating at lower level where it seems 9/10 times you miss with weapons. On the other hand, the fact that you always hit in oblivion makes it too easy, along with the fact that spells never fail. Oblivion combat is sort of like very easy fps. It also makes fatigue an irrelevant stat in oblivion (it seems like it SHOULD do something, but it seems so minor that it basically never does anything.) I wish they could make a combat system that was both more visceral (like oblivion), yet still challenging, with better integrated rpg elements (like morrowind.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickosha /img/forum/go_quote.gif I agree with your complaints on Oblivion; it's just dull, boring, and generic, especially compared to morrowind. I had it for the Xbox 360 when it first came out, and I'm considering purchasing the GOTY edition for the PC to check out the mods. I think I'll wait until I see it going for next to nothing though. The Fallout 3 GOTY is going to be taking up all my time anyways

Yeah it feels like they really just sucked the life out of all the characters, along with many of their eccentricities (and often) amoral attitudes. Everyone, besides thieves and assassins, seems to be an upstanding character in oblivion.

 

[Squirsier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shigzeo /img/forum/go_quote.gif Morrowind was a classic, Oblivion was the next RPG for people who have never played one of the best: a game for the Xbox. Fallout is great, and while there is so much to complain about in Oblivion, Ultimate 7 from 1992 remains my favourite to this day.

That would probably be Ultima 7, The Black Gate? The first RPG I played on the computer and loved it, and still love it to this day!

My favorite Elder Scrolls game is still... Arena hehe

 

[Maeglas]

I enjoyed Morrowind more than Oblivion also, thought it's not that bad, especially with bunch of mods. If you are looking for unique and interesting characters and hand made enviroments you should try Gothic I,II(those are quite old, but still very very good) and Risen.

 

[Covenant]

I also didn't much like Oblivion. But then I wasn't all that thrilled about Morrowind either. I keep hoping that I'll find a new, 3D version of the old Baldur's Gate series of games, and keep getting dissapointed when comparing more modern RPGs to that benchmark.

 

[Squirsier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Covenant /img/forum/go_quote.gif I also didn't much like Oblivion. But then I wasn't all that thrilled about Morrowind either. I keep hoping that I'll find a new, 3D version of the old Baldur's Gate series of games, and keep getting dissapointed when comparing more modern RPGs to that benchmark.

Well, Dragon Age is coming soon, which has been compared to BG 1 and 2, that might be of some interest to you