It seems like TES IV: Oblivion gets more abuse than it should. Why does Era seem so indecisive about it?

[Taker34]

So, you have to realize that for the most part Era has an unhealthy obsession with hating on Bethesda games. That doesn't represent the reality and full spectrum of players. Same can be said about the praise of smaller titles like Persona which are omnipresent here, while selling to a relatively small audience - compared to big AAA titles that is.

It's hard to guess if Oblivion had any major influence on the industry as it never sold nearly as well as Skyrim did. It borrowed a lot of systems from Morrowind and some QoL changes probably evolved alongside the game and didn't directly derive from Oblivion.
Maybe it inspired developers but I think aside from Kingdom Come not many games used Oblivion as a blueprint. Other games just followed suit because new console technology allowed it.

Oblivion was also constantly being considered as an inferior game compared to Morrowind by the hardcore fan audience. It was only shortly before Skyrim released that people popped up who praised Oblivion as their first entry into the RPG genre.

This game will always be a mixed bag since you have different generations of players who clash with each other: the disappointed Morrowind fans, the folks who grew up with it and people who played it much later when Skyrim became a mainstream hit.

I will always have a soft spot for this game in my heart. I think it's beautiful and fun and still play it regularly just like Mass Effect or Metal Gear Solid. It's not for everyone and it doesn't have to be. I'm certain Oblivion won't have a relevant place in gaming history aside from semi-funny memes.

 

[kris.]

I love the game despite its flaws. It's what originally convinced me to buy a 360.

 

[ShadowAUS]

My favourite YouTube channel of all time made one of my favourite videos (all of his videos are my favourite videos tbf) of all time that kind of covers this along with why Morrowind was so good along with recommendations for TESVI.

 

[ASaiyan]

It's mostly the brown-and-vaseline filter that turns me off, lol.

 

[Enforcer]

It was a good game. Janky as hell but had great quests and exploration.

Nehrim mod improves it even further.

 

[Van Bur3n]

This is something I don't get though. Oblivion has better world design, more interesting skills and better quests than Skyrim does, yet Skyrim for some reason seems to be looked at better? Why? Because it doesn't have as much bloom and the faces are slightly less fugly?

Click to shrink...

Because the world design is actually better and more varied than Oblivion's copy paste environment, has better art direction that doesn't try to rip off Peter Jackson's movies, got rid of the terrible attribute system in favor of a more streamlined perk system that made for far better variety and a main quest line that didn't involve god awful Oblivion gates.

As I said, there are things to like about Oblivion, but it's not surprising that Skyrim has more appeal.

 

[SirNinja]

Unexpectedly fell in love with it back in 2006 after Morrowind did little for me. Played it for hundreds if not thousands of hours across multiple varying characters.

Now, however, it's really hard to play without modding the hell out of it. Vanilla Skyrim continues to hold up well (there's a reason it keeps getting ported...), but vanilla Oblivion is rough by today's standards.

 

[vestan]

Incredible game, was my first TES and I went back to play Morrowind after finishing Oblivion. It might not hold up now, but at the time, Oblivion and BGS were simply unrivalled with their huge sprawling world filled to the brim with things to see and do. It's because of this that their games will always have a special place in my heart. The level of interactivity present in TES games like being able to sneak into shops at night and loot the joint clean is what puts them ahead of many other open worlds that seem to love their sterile, non-interactive, theme-park design (cough, Horizon: Zero Dawn, cough). I can't fucking wait for TESVI.

I haven't even touched on the expansions like Shivering Isles which really set the bar for all kinds of downloadable content. Plus, it had some really fuckin' grand skyboxes.

 

[Voidance]

I still remember booting that game up on my Xbox 360 and being blown away. No matter how poorly it has aged, it will always have a special place in my heart.

 

[Deleted member 3925]

Have a lot of nostalgia for Oblivion. Still think it has better quests than Skyrim.

 

[inner-G]

 

[YourFriendLevi]

I remember being 12 and playing it on my Xbox 360 and being completely blown away. I put 100s of hours into it. Shivering Isles was a masterpiece DLC and The Dark Brotherhood was the questline to beat before the Witches 3's Bloody Baron came around, imo.

 

[Bhonar]

obviously I'm only speaking for myself --

But I thought Oblivion was crap compared to Morrowind and Skyrim. And yes, that's comparing them at the time of each game's launch.

Even when it released, I really did not like Oblivion as I was playing through it. Two specific things for me:

1.) The totally repeated copy-and-paste dungeons. Like wtf, no effort put into that.

2.) The absolutely terrible ugly facial character models. No, using outside mods does not count when evaluating a game.

And clearly Bethesda heard criticism about those two things, because Skyrim greatly improved both aspects.

 

[Steel]

Oblivion was the start in a decline in player freedom in Elder Scrolls from Morrowind. It had more build freedom than Skyrim, better guild quests, and was at least better from a combat perspective than Morrowind(truly low bar). Shivering Isles was great. But, yeah, it was the point where it was beginning to feel like they were dumbing things down after Morrowind.

Oh, and the OST was the best in the series.

 

[Redfox088]

It started horse armor

 

[Baked Pigeon]

Oblivion gets hammered because it's not what Morrowind lovers wanted in the next TES game.

 

[Acorn]

People don't like modern Bethesda especially(rightfully) at the moment. Was this way in the old place too.

 

[Kill3r7]

Fantastic game coming off Morrowind. Helped establish Bethesda as a force on consoles and helped grow TES franchise. For anyone who played it on the 360 when it first came out it felt like a true next gen open world game.

 

[Bengraven]

Oblivion has the best quests and music in any TES game. Everything else is eh.

Skingrad is still one of my favorite cities in a TES and they haven't been able to match the Imperial City in scope and exploration.

 

[Aesnath]

My perspective, as someone who has enjoyed it, is that fans of the series prior to TESIV, really saw it as a step backward from the previous game. However, it also really catapulted the profile and playerbase for the series, which can be a bit disheartening. Part of it, I think, is also due to the larger console focus for what was previously a PC-centric series. People viewed it as "dumbing down", or at least my friends did.

 

[Deleted member 25117]

Everything it did barring a few sidequests, Morrowind did better. It feels more dated today honestly. It has way more loading screens, a much less functional menu UI, the main quest is awful and the level scaling ruins the game's progression.

 

[srtrestre]

I played it on 360 and ran into two game breaking bugs (lost 3 or 4 hours of progress the first time), so I quit playing it.

I could have forgiven it given that those two issues occurred early on, but if I'm being honest the gameplay just wasn't grabbing me to begin with.

 

[Hasseigaku]

I hated then, still hate it now (and I've tried to go back to it several times). Basically destroyed everything that I loved about Morrowind.

-Extremely bland setting. There were some interesting places and structures but coming off the weirdness of Morrowind it was an enormous step down.
-Level scaling was present in Morrowind as well, but it was way way worse in Oblivion, made it felt like it kind of didn't matter where you went
-Related to that, you were way less likely to find interesting things randomly in a cave because the gear was so extremely scaled as well.
-The dungeons being so trap heavy was more annoying than fun
-Neutering the interesting multi-system travel system in order to make everything fast travel really hurt exploration. As much as Morrowind's quests were bad at description and were frustrating at times, Oblivion's felt like MMO fetch quests where you ran to the marker.
-Removing the ability to mess up the game by killing important NPCs. I mean, look, I get it, but I loved how there were actual consequences for random murder.
-Lack of interesting interaction between factions, totally siloing them off. Not just the fact that in Morrowind it was hard (and therefore interesting) to do the Fighter's/Mages/Thieves Guilds at the same time due to NPC overlap, but almost nothing like the House system in Morrowind.
-Neutering of Alchemy/Enchanting and magic in general. I would never want any game to have as broken an Alchemy system as Morrowind had, but they swung way too far in the other direction.
-The main story is extremely boring, couldn't get through it. Way too much repetition of closing Oblivion Gates to be fun.

I'm sure I could think of more if I thought about it more. Only thing I liked more is the combat, and that's not saying much.

 

[shinobi602]

I loved it and would put it in line with the rest.

Morrowind's still the GOAT.

 

[Sylmaron]

It was one of the first games I played on my PS3 and I loved it. Shivering Isles was fun too and included in the game which was supposed to be a complete edition. Except there was no horse armor.

 

[OrangeNova]

I really can't wait for Skyblivion, with the updated visual engine it'll be incredible

 

[Teepo671]

It was great. Skyrim is still my favorite of the 3 TES games I've played but oblivion comes right after. I don't see it getting crapped on though. Definitely not to the extent I see for Skyrim anyway.

 

[Moose]

It has the best quests in the modern TES games.

It started horse armor

Click to shrink...

It also had Shivering Isles which is one of the best DLCs ever.

 

[GranddadFreeman]

My favourite YouTube channel of all time made one of my favourite videos (all of his videos are my favourite videos tbf) of all time that kind of covers this along with why Morrowind was so good along with recommendations for TESVI.

Click to shrink...

Ayyee I haven't watched this video in some time. Going back to it. It's a great video.

 

[Tuorom]

I think the Oblivion OST is the best Elder Scrolls OST so far. The music is so nice, it feels like a warm hug and an invitation to adventure in a fantasy world. Morrowind was good but lacked diversity, and Skyrim is good but doesn't have as many bangers. Far Horizons is sweet though.

 

[Eumi]

It exists in a strange midway point between Morrowind and Skyrim. It lacks the depth of Morrowind (supposedly, I haven't played Morrowind myself) but it isn't as streamlined and well made as Skyrim.

It has a lot of great stuff in it though. Like the poll shows, generally opinion is actually pretty positive, it's just easier to be negative about it than it is the other two.

 

[Mahonay]

I was enthralled with it when it came out. And that's coming from someone who dumped hundreds of hours into Morrowind.

I will say the rest of the world leveling with you did take the wind out the sails eventually. But I still enjoyed going back and starting new characters over and over again.

 

[Hesemonni]

Hated the level scaling with the fury of a thousand suns.

 

[AndrewDean84]

Don't let the vocal minority get to you. Enjoy what you enjoy. Don't care if others like it too.

 

[HyperCroutons]

Oblivion had a ton of issues like Level-scaling, samey dungeons/environments, and ugly character models but I still love the hell out of it and put an immense amount of hours into it. One thing Oblivion did well was the quests and Bethesda's been struggling to make interesting quests since Oblivion in my opinion and its been only getting worst it seems with the release Fallout 76. The Elder Scrolls (3 , 4 and 5) games are pretty unique in that they all have their strength and weaknesses but I rank them almost on par with each other.

 

[Bradbatross]

I loved it.

 

[AndrewDean84]

I'd love a port on the switch.

 

[LegalEagleMike]

I loved my first playthrough and the expansions but on console I felt that the enemy scaling ruined replayability.

 

[GarrettInk]

How can people hate it, it has the best upport character in video game history!

 

[Dinskugga]

its was really good when it came i thought. and i played it to death.

but its have aged REALLY bad. Playing Skyrim and then go back to Oblivion is not fun. and you can see all the flaws and so on.

 

[Cavsfan767]

The game was a marvel early last gen. I also understand it hot alot of people into the series

 

[mute]

It was the first one I took notice of and had read a lot about it and its predecessors, but 5 minutes in I knew it was not for me.

 

[Ryuhza]

Still my favorite. I just really love the world and quests. I remember the characters better than the other games too, potato faces and all. Played it somewhat recently, and aside from deadzone issues on PS3, I still enjoyed it.

Oblivion > Morrowind >> Skyrim is my preference. Alas, we get naught but Skyrim rereleases.

 

[Steel]

obviously I'm only speaking for myself --

But I thought Oblivion was crap compared to Morrowind and Skyrim. And yes, that's comparing them at the time of each game's launch.

Even when it released, I really did not like Oblivion as I was playing through it. Two specific things for me:

1.) The totally repeated copy-and-paste dungeons. Like wtf, no effort put into that.

2.) The absolutely terrible ugly facial character models. No, using outside mods does not count when evaluating a game.

And clearly Bethesda heard criticism about those two things, because Skyrim greatly improved both aspects.

Click to shrink...

I'll agree Skyrim improved 2, but I gotta say Skyrim is no better in copy-and-paste dungeon design. Actually, I'd rather visit Oblivion portal 43 than another barrow.

 

[Richietto]

Ive put like 300+ hours into that game. It has issues but I love it. Msot of those hours are with mods, though.

 

[cowbanana]

I haven't played Oblivion since it came out, but I remember disliking it quite a bit compared to the marvelous and highly superior Morrowind. Oblivion felt massively regressive in terms of scope, writing and overall atmosphere. It just didn't measure up to Morrowind in any way and felt bland and uninspired outside of maybe two very good guild quests.

 

[CountAntonio]

Morrowind>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Oblivion>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Skyrim.

A sequel to one of the greatest games of all time that removed a lot about what made it so great(Amazing world variety, open nature of crafting and questing, No level scaling). On it's own it was a fun game with some great moments(Brotherhood) but overall felt like a huge step back for the franchise.

 

[Arx]

For its time, it was fucking amazing. The end.

 

[tryagainlater]

I've wanted to give Redguard and Battlespire a go for a while so the gog sale is tempting. I hear those versions aren't great though so I'm not sure they're even worth the €1.79 each.

 

[Cavsfan767]

Music is fantastic as is the sense of exploitation.