Oblivion

[askavir]

I tried to go back to Oblivion after years of Skyrim.

Even with 130~ mods, I couldn't get it to not be crap. Lol

Indeed it didn't aged well. Looks horrendous now, especially characters that not even back then were that good. But it was incredible at the time, an enormous, rich, open world like never before. And writing and quests in general were better than Skyrim's.

I dare say that Oblivions was as great in 2006 as Skyrim was in 2011. I actually fear that Skyrim was Bethesda "hitting the ceiling", as quality seems to be degrading since then, Fallout 4 was nice (after modding) but not nearly as great as Skyrim, Fallout 76 is a pile of poo, and I now fear that Starfield and most especially Elder Scrolls 6 might follow the same downwards trend.

 

[moorison]

Dungeons in Oblivion are a lot more rectangular than one would expect from at least partly natural caves (which could be a reference to classic RPGs being generous), they put more effort to hide that in Skyrim. What they didn't do is to check if the outside building geometry matches the inside, maybe different people were responsible for each.
I consider a magical teleporter to access different levels in a tower a bit lazy, it wasn't really necessary for the tower to be that slim.
Character building was more involved than just choosing the race in Skyrim, it felt a lot more like an RPG. I liked the runestones and the ability to summon armor, makes sense for mages if you can summon weapons. The Oblivion-gates were an interesting idea as randomized content but it didn't really work for me.

 

[DefiledDragon]

I have been playing this game hard lately.

No mods. Playing on Xbox simply so I can get achievements. Sue me.

Going to start a new character tomorrow. Want to make a build who should be reasonbly be able to complete all the questlines.

Any tips?

I hear The Fighters Guild is recruiting. Not a bad way to make some money, if you've got the stones for it.

 

[Zak Gordon]

No mods?!! Blasphemer!

Good luck on your trecks through the planes. I'm a bit lost on all the achevment jazz, do you gain anything more than just the feeling of achevment getting them, like points to use in some way?

One of these days I'm going to return to Oblivion; with mods though - love games that are moddable and supported by a great modding community.

Cheers!

I can not even start to think about what Bethesda crpg i would play without mods. Mods just fix their games. But yeah if on console you are restricted in that.

My current Oblivion install (on PC) is a mod build to improve the level scaling issue (as in remove it), add content (quests, items, buildings), increase realism (sleep/food required, no Uber item spawns after each enemy killed) and i role play it to avoid the Oblivion Gates main quest line. I made a thread about all that here (kind of a guide to modding Oblivion in some ways):

https://forum.rockpapershotgun.com/t/playing-oblivion-modded-2017-edition-removing-the-hate/14543

Not that it will help those on console, you're kinda stuck with the 'fps heavy' original version (all those Oblivion Gate kill zones etc).

 

[CMDRAW]

Indeed it didn't aged well. Looks horrendous now, especially characters that not even back then were that good. But it was incredible at the time, an enormous, rich, open world like never before. And writing and quests in general were better than Skyrim's.

I dare say that Oblivions was as great in 2006 as Skyrim was in 2011. I actually fear that Skyrim was Bethesda "hitting the ceiling", as quality seems to be degrading since then, Fallout 4 was nice (after modding) but not nearly as great as Skyrim, Fallout 76 is a pile of poo, and I now fear that Starfield and most especially Elder Scrolls 6 might follow the same downwards trend.

I don't think it looks as bad as a lot of people say it has. Sure, everything is weirdly lit and faces close up look a bit strange, and the voice acting is done by the same five people, but I really prefer it to Skyrim. Skyrim's only real improvement was graphical and if you took Oblivion and dumped it into Skyrim's engine, or took Skyrim and put it in Oblivion's I think the comparison would show Oblivion as the better experience. I thought it was rose tinted glasses at first, so I played a week of Skyrim followed by a week of (unmodded) Oblivion and I much preferred what Oblivion offered. Still, completely agree on the Fallout 4 and 76 front and I can see Starfield following the same trend. As the ES6, I don't know. As long as there's no micro transactions or day 1 DLC I think they'll produce a romp on par but not exceeding Skyrim.

It's a sorry state of affairs when you have to start worrying in Bethesda will include micro transactions in an Elder Scrolls game.

 

[Goose4291]

For everyone suggesting only graphics were an issue when compared with Skyrim, I think you're forgetting about the god awful speechcraft minigame Oblivion had.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

For everyone suggesting only graphics were an issue when compared with Skyrim, I think you're forgetting about the god awful speechcraft minigame Oblivion had.

For some reason I liked that.

 

[hunvagy]

For everyone suggesting only graphics were an issue when compared with Skyrim, I think you're forgetting about the god awful speechcraft minigame Oblivion had.

That and the other changes the consolification brought along. Like the item menu being only a few items and the screen estate wasted completely. So at least a better UI mod is a must.

 

[Zak Gordon]

Yeah the DarnUI mod is a must imho.

 

[askavir]

For everyone suggesting only graphics were an issue when compared with Skyrim, I think you're forgetting about the god awful speechcraft minigame Oblivion had.

... and the fact interiors reused the same few assets over and over.

On the other hand, Oblivion had more interesting storyines and quests than Skyrim. And the Imperial City. And the Arena. And towns and castles felt bigger (although this might be a lore thing). Also preferred Oblivions archery vs the guided missiles from Skyrim.

On the other hand, Skyrim is a sandbox role player paradise in a magnificent world... And dozens of thousands of mods on the Nexus that make every new playthrough (and by the nine, I did so many) feel fresh.

I'm glad to have enjoyed both, each in it's own time... Recent years make me fear Skyrim might have been Bethesda's Magnum Opus and things seem to be going downhill since then... I so hope I'm wrong, as I spent more hours playing Bethesda's RPGs (both Elder scrolls and Fallout) than the hours I spent on every other game I have ever played combined.

 

[Jukelo]

Despite all of Oblivion's faults, which even today make me not really want to play it again (I still regularly fire up Morrowind), it habsolutely had the most gorgeous wooded nature. And despite having played plenty of gorgeous games doing fairly convincing forests like Farcry and Crysis, I'll argue it wasn't until Witcher 3 that a game really took my breath away like this again with the nature vistas it offered.

Also, the Shivering Isles was the best piece of additional content Bethesda has ever made!

 

[Zak Gordon]

Despite all of Oblivion's faults, which even today make me not really want to play it again (I still regularly fire up Morrowind), it habsolutely had the most gorgeous wooded nature. And despite having played plenty of gorgeous games doing fairly convincing forests like Farcry and Crysis, I'll argue it wasn't until Witcher 3 that a game really took my breath away like this again with the nature vistas it offered.

Also, the Shivering Isles was the best piece of additional content Bethesda has ever made!

It's funny in that the Oblivion Gates (shudder) killed me inside so much so that the ONLY bit of Oblivion DLC i make a point of not touching is the Shivering Isles. I know it is rated etc, but the same reason i avoid the Oblvion Gates (beyond that first one) keeps me away from Oblvion's 'best' DLC. The rest of the game has enough (if modded well) to still keep me going back 6 or 7 years after i first started playing it. And as you say all that wonderful wilderness; plenty of adventures and role play ahead for my char for another decade or so

 

[moorison]

It's funny in that the Oblivion Gates (shudder) killed me inside so much so that the ONLY bit of Oblivion DLC i make a point of not touching is the Shivering Isles. I know it is rated etc, but the same reason i avoid the Oblvion Gates (beyond that first one) keeps me away from Oblvion's 'best' DLC. The rest of the game has enough (if modded well) to still keep me going back 6 or 7 years after i first started playing it. And as you say all that wonderful wilderness; plenty of adventures and role play ahead for my char for another decade or so

The main Oblivion levels were a bit monotonous after some time, even with a random selection of levels. I think there was a quest for a different Daedric Prince that still looked like the usual levels and the reasoning was a bit lackluster (in reality nobody probably wanted to create new assets that are only used in one quest). At least the Shivering Isles had a completely different design and there are even interesting differences to Sheogoraths quest in Tamriel depending on when you start it related to the Shivering Isles content.

 

[Zak Gordon]

I think a lot of the damage the Oblivion Gates did was in taking me out of the most 'interesting' geography there has been in a TES game . It could be argued that Daggerfall had the best 'feel' in that, but the engine tech was of it's era, so i find Oblivion my personal favourite for it's range and depiction of environments (and Morrowind (heavily modded) is my overall favourite TES).

Forcing the FPS game that was the Oblivion Gates on me and taking me out of the awesome Oblivion environments (and crpg) just means i still see that island out on the water, and want no part of it. I like Oblivion for it's forests, meadows, mountains, snow, swamps, lakes and sea's. I have zero interest in Oblivion (realm) in comparison. The nice thing about my modding of Oblivion was that i learnt i pretty much can ignore all that stuff and have an endlessly re-playable decent looking crpg.

All this talk has got me in the mood to spend some quality xmas time in Bruma

 

[Leper Messiah]

Bah, Morrowind craps on both Oblivion and Skyrim in every area except graphics, although at the time it was amazing (first game I had that used pixel shaders for water and it was jaw dropping)....now I'd LOVE to see Morrowind in the Skyrim engine. (I love all 3 in their own way).

 

[askavir]

I like Oblivion for it's forests, meadows, mountains, snow, swamps, lakes and sea's.

I agree, graphics aside, Oblivion's world was the most interesting and beautiful one. All those forests, rivers, large water masses, even the cities and castles... While I do love Skyrim's tundra, mountains and overall frozen wonderland, Oblivion's nature paradise is still the best "world" in all of TES, Skyrim coming after as a close second.

As for morrowind, I confess I never like it much, never was much of a fan of elves and their world of giant mushrooms etc. Prefer the more "natural" landscapes of Oblivion and Skyrim. In fact, one of my greatest fears for TES 6 is that it's located in a non-human location and I have to see lizards, cat-people or elves as the main population, it would be a huge downer for me. Hopefully it will be set in High Rock + Hammerfell (or back to Cyrodiil).

 

[moorison]

I agree, graphics aside, Oblivion's world was the most interesting and beautiful one. All those forests, rivers, large water masses, even the cities and castles... While I do love Skyrim's tundra, mountains and overall frozen wonderland, Oblivion's nature paradise is still the best "world" in all of TES, Skyrim coming after as a close second.

As for morrowind, I confess I never like it much, never was much of a fan of elves and their world of giant mushrooms etc. Prefer the more "natural" landscapes of Oblivion and Skyrim. In fact, one of my greatest fears for TES 6 is that it's located in a non-human location and I have to see lizards, cat-people or elves as the main population, it would be a huge downer for me. Hopefully it will be set in High Rock + Hammerfell (or back to Cyrodiil).

Morrowind certainly is exotic for a CRPG location, I think these locations work best as a contrast to more familiar ones. Oblivion was interesting in that the neighboring provinces were represented by the cities and the surrounding environment closest to the border. The odd one out was Kvatch in a kind of unnatural isolated location because it is not really a city but a step in the main quest.

The most clever way to go forward would be to introduce a land not yet seen before but mentioned in the lore. They don't have to limit themselves with the increasingly convoluted history or don't have to invoke a "world reset" like that time between Daggerfall and Morrowind, which is a bit lazy.

 

[Goose4291]

Morrowind certainly is exotic for a CRPG location, I think these locations work best as a contrast to more familiar ones. Oblivion was interesting in that the neighboring provinces were represented by the cities and the surrounding environment closest to the border. The odd one out was Kvatch in a kind of unnatural isolated location because it is not really a city but a step in the main quest.

The most clever way to go forward would be to introduce a land not yet seen before but mentioned in the lore. They don't have to limit themselves with the increasingly convoluted history or don't have to invoke a "world reset" like that time between Daggerfall and Morrowind, which is a bit lazy.

I suspect that whats we're getting with the next one, as it seems to be set on the pseudo-samurai continent we've only heard about in lore.

Would be nice not.to have another 'the empire is on its last legs' period story.