Oblivion is impossible!

[Kurokami]

So I bought Oblivion friday (late to the party, I know) because I was looking forward to Skyrim without ever playing a Elder Scroll game. I figured I'd check it out before I paid for Skyrim.
In short, I hate it. The combat is wierd. Why don't enimies has health bars? And whats up the with leveling system? I don't get expirience from killing things? You're telling me I can level up by increasing my acrobatics skill 10 times?
And why is it SO hard? I'm at the FIRST Oblivion gate! It's impossible. I got there at level 2 (because it's the second fukin mission) and now I'm level 4 and still can't come close to beating it. I have a iron bow and steel arrows, and a "fine steel longsword" I'm Aprentice in Archery and Blade. Why do people like this game? I think it will be the first game I give up on due to difficulty in years. Atleast I only spent $20 bucks on it.
Edit: Hey guys, thanks for all the replies. I was going to give another shot anyway, but for sure I'm going to lower the difficulty. Apparently archery sucks and or requires too much stratgie. I'll still to my blades and forget about archery all together. Does anyone know if there is a follower that could help me out this early?

The problem is that your thinking seems to be "leveling = good", in oblivion it isn't really, I mean it's nice every once in a while when you're having an easy time, but really you want to level up at a normal pace. It's stupid, but oh well.

Enemies do have health bars, it's that half circle on top of your cursor that mysteriously goes down (however little by) whenever you hurt an enemy. The game, I find anyhow, is significantly easier if you choose to be a mage. Regardless it's often better to choose your class to work against what you're hoping to use as it will decrease the frequency of your leveling and allow you to proceed at an easier pace (though leveling up the skills you want will be slightly more of a *****)

Oh, and I suggest forgetting about the main story and just going ahead and joiniing up the Mage's Guild or Dark Brotherhood ASAP. (The Dark Brotherhood was probably the best part of the game for me, the mages guild was awesome the first time I experienced it as well, I quite liked the lectures, but I recommend it mostly because it allows for custom spells and enchantments.)

 

[Snowy Rainbow]

...Is this...is it real?

1. The enemies have health bars, it's that curved line above your crosshairs.

2. You level up from your class' main skills. Select something with the skills you intend to actually use as primary skills. It's not experience for killing things, since when does bashing a dude to death teach you how to raise the dead? It's how often you use the skill that levels it up.

3. Bows and arrows are recognised to be the trickiest weapons. If you want a cakewalk load up a mage.

Well, that's that thread done.

What will you do next, Master of Pointing Out Things That Should be Obvious but Apparently Aren't to Everyone Man?

 

[the_honey_badger]

You don't actually have to go to Kvatch yet. Do some side quests and develop your character a bit.

 

[TriggerHappyAngel]

Lol, I'm one of the few people who loves vanilla Oblivion I guess.

I hate the mods.

I am with you man, some people make it sound as if Oblivion without mods is a crappy game.

OT: listen to the people here and then try again, Oblivion is freakin' awesome.

 

[zauxz]

You don't actually have to go to Kvatch yet. Do some side quests and develop your character a bit.

...Which will do absolutelly no good, since Oblivion has the stupid level scaling system. The higher level you are, the tougher are your enemies.

In other words, leveling up, developing your character is pointless. You can pretty much beat the game as a level 2 fighter with that kick ass suit of rusty iron armor.

Anywho, OT. As pretty much everyone said, all you need to do, is reduce the difficulty. I find it hard to even comprihend how it wasn't self explanatory.

 

[michael_ab]

So I bought Oblivion friday (late to the party, I know) because I was looking forward to Skyrim without ever playing a Elder Scroll game. I figured I'd check it out before I paid for Skyrim.
In short, I hate it. The combat is wierd. Why don't enimies has health bars? And whats up the with leveling system? I don't get expirience from killing things? You're telling me I can level up by increasing my acrobatics skill 10 times?
And why is it SO hard? I'm at the FIRST Oblivion gate! It's impossible. I got there at level 2 (because it's the second fukin mission) and now I'm level 4 and still can't come close to beating it. I have a iron bow and steel arrows, and a "fine steel longsword" I'm Aprentice in Archery and Blade. Why do people like this game? I think it will be the first game I give up on due to difficulty in years. Atleast I only spent $20 bucks on it.
Edit: Hey guys, thanks for all the replies. I was going to give another shot anyway, but for sure I'm going to lower the difficulty. Apparently archery sucks and or requires too much stratgie. I'll still to my blades and forget about archery all together. Does anyone know if there is a follower that could help me out this early?

first things first, turn down the difficulty a tad, 1/4 should be fine. and make a new charactor, this time think about how your going to play, are you going to be a sneaky theif? melee warrior? or arcane mage? or some mix in between? i usually do an arcane theif, use my theify skills to maintain mobility, use my magic to kill and to enchant (if you do it right you can get 271 speed all the time). the game is MUCH eaisier if you plan ahead a bit, choose what your going to be, then stick with those skills. and no one mentioned this DONT DO THE MAIN QUEST. you can seriously just avoid it and dick around for the whole game. i was level 40 before i went to kvatch. i played this game for 400 hours on one charactor, and i had like 5 more with similar times, if you need any help just ask, i love talking about this game.

 

[michael_ab]

i didnt say my console was "better", i said play the fucking game instead of making your own.
i have only ever encountered 2 bugs in my gotye.
1) SOMETIMES after playing for a LONG time it crashes. This is Rare.
2) when i get the mask of clavicius vile it crashes. This is avoidable

with mods you can change the music, combat, weapons,and so many other things its just not the same game. but it wasnt meant to be played that way.

Play the game bethesda gave you. if you dont like it dont play it

this game is insanely buggy, its true. mods can improve gameplay because they let the players fix the game after the developer has lost interest, and in fact on the pc bethesda actually kept updating the game long after they left the console version alone.

when YOU get the clavicius vile helm it crashes, this is not supposed to happen, i think it may be a problem with your disk or console, i had the same problem but i got it fixed

captcha: far cressame

 

[the_honey_badger]

You don't actually have to go to Kvatch yet. Do some side quests and develop your character a bit.

...Which will do absolutelly no good, since Oblivion has the stupid level scaling system. The higher level you are, the tougher are your enemies.

In other words, leveling up, developing your character is pointless. You can pretty much beat the game as a level 2 fighter with that kick ass suit of rusty iron armor.

Anywho, OT. As pretty much everyone said, all you need to do, is reduce the difficulty. I find it hard to even comprihend how it wasn't self explanatory.

I know that the enemies level with you, but I'm pretty sure that you'll find it easier to get better weapons/spells etc. which give you the edge over others.

I know that I was always killed by an imp at level 1, when you came out of the sewers. But I don't find myself being killed by an imp at level 10.

 

[baddude1337]

And why is it SO hard? I'm at the FIRST Oblivion gate! It's impossible. I got there at level 2 (because it's the second fukin mission) and now I'm level 4 and still can't come close to beating it.

Yeah the Oblivion gates are a right ***** at early levels. I tried for hours on the first one then gave up and went out to level up. Came back and it was pretty easy, especially now I better understood the mechanics of the game.

Now I've sunk about 350 hours into my one Oblivion Character and nothing can touch me. Especially in my Knights of the Nine gear and weapons with my summon Daedroth spell.

 

[Mungular]

you keep getting your ass kicked because the enemies lvl up with you. this killed the game for me, but i figure ill give it another go before skyrim come out

 

[Sebenko]

Stop playing that god awful Oblivion.

Play FO3 if you want combat (with some combat mods, of course). Play Morrowind if you want it to be worth bothering going over the next hill.

 

[C117]

If you're going for a mage, here is a nice tip for you:

1: Level up Destruction to level 25 or more.
2: Learn a "Drain Health"-spell
3: Make it to the Arcane University in the Mages Guild questline.
4: Create a spell with the effect "Drain Health", duration 1 second, magnitude 100.

It's a cheap spell to make and cast, and it oneshots most enemies in the game. Granted, as long as the enemy has more than 100 health it's useless, but what the hoo-hah. You can make basically the same thing with some other spells in the game (high magnitude but low duration), including "Charm" and "Detect Life".

 

[Lt. Vinciti]

-facepalm-

How do plan on playing Skyrim if you cant play Oblivion?

Also...your spelling! AHhhhhh

Seriously....turn out the lil slider bar for Difficulty (not 0)
to far and baddies enjoy the large battleaxe sticking from their side
to high and the baddies can cut arrows in half and parry/block everything

I would look around for the wikia or...lemme find it...

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Oblivion

That should be helpful....

Also:

HOW DO PLAY ON PLAYING SKYRIM IF YOU CANT PLAY OBLIVION AHHHHH
(Tho mild suggestion dont try playing it after F3 or FNV because it feels wonky)

 

[Terminal Blue]

No it's not. I had lots of fun with unmodded Oblivion. It has its problems, but easily compensates for that.

There's no excuse for a game which penalizes you on a long term basis for actually playing it, and rewards you for standing around micromanaging exactly how many skill points you should gain in each area and then continuing to cast the same spell or repeat the same action (which 2/3rds of the time will be non-class action) over and over again until you've gained enough to max out your attribute gains.

Being bored out of your skull for a few hours should never result in greater gameplay rewards than actually doing something for that time. It's just awful design, and I'm absolutely gobsmacked it ever got past a playtester.

The game is just not that good, and I don't see the qualities which redeem it.. Even World of Warcraft nowadays has better writing, more immersive storylines, less vomit-inducing uncannyness, better voice acting, less annoying music, much, much better game balance and an actual difficulty curve despite being even older. It generally functions better as a single-player RPG than vanilla Oblivion, despite not even being one.

The formula has potential. New Vegas prooved that, and I have reasonably high hopes for Skyrim, but really.. is it just nostalgia for Morrowind or something because heck, even Morrowind wasn't that great. It was just the first mainstream sandbox RPG anyone could remember.

The idea of an exploration RPG where you roam the open world seeing what you can find is a great one, and Bethesda are generally ahead of the curve when it comes to developing that formula, but Oblivion isn't that game. Exploration is not worth it, because all you're going to find is more samey countryside, more token wolves and bandits who will never challenge you because they're tailored to your level and maybe the occasional insipid, poorly written quest which may as well take place in a pocket bubble dimension because none of them have any bearing on anything else in the game world. Forgive me, but I don't find that fun.

 

[Riddle78]

Health bar: Located above your crosshair. Only appears when you're attacking them.

XP: Gained by using a skill in a valid context (Destruction levels up when you hurl a fireball at something and it hurts them). You gain a character level for every 10 skill-level ups of your Major Skills. Sleep in a bed to put the level up into effect.

Difficulty: If one tactic fails,try another. Even if your Block skill is piss,blocking a blow is still a better option than taking it to the chin. You have a bow;use it. Pepper them with arrows from afar and backpedal,and if they get close,slap em with your sword. Skeletons and Atronachs have the nice effect of being impossible to stick with arrows;they bounce off after doing their damage.

Followers: Besides the Adoring Fan,there aren't any followers to my knowledge in the game.

Pointers: Stealth,in my opinion,makes the game much easier,and much more fun. Alchemy,as well. Get a Mortar and Pestle,and start brewing Magicka potions,Health potions,and poisons. Finally,ALWAYS have Destruction as a primary;you may end up fighting a ghost before you get your paws on a silver or enchanted weapon,and works wonders if you're going up against something immune to poisons (Like Vampires,the Undead,Argonians,and Atronachs).

The game is different from what most RPG's are like,and in my opinion,it works. Keep at it,and learn from any mistakes you may make. Also? If you have the PC version,mod it. Go to tesnexus.com,make an account,and search what you want in a mod. Install,have fun.

 

[Blondi3]

and play the game that bethesda gave you.

This has to be one of the dumbest things I've ever read. They release the tools for the modding community. Modding communities are what MAKE almost all of their games. Their intention is for you to mod it and fix what they refuse to.

 

[danintexas]

Lol, I'm one of the few people who loves vanilla Oblivion I guess.

I hate the mods.

I am with you man, some people make it sound as if Oblivion without mods is a crappy game.

OT: listen to the people here and then try again, Oblivion is freakin' awesome.

In on this group. I have the PC version and the 360 version. Love both. For the most part I run PC modless cept for a UI upgrade. I have tried a ton of mods and they all rock. But the vanilla game by itself has hundreds of hours of fun to be had.

 

[steph01a]

The complaints I read here are typical of people who are familiar with 'first person shooters' and have never tried a real rpg. My suggestion is that if you want to level up when you kill something, use a 'first person shooter' game. If you want an in depth game where you can develop your character in many different ways, try Oblivion. Get some mods from the Nexus and have a good time.

There's much more to Oblivion than just killing. If you just want to kill everything you see in Oblivion, well .. you can't. The game will not allow essential npcs to be killed.

I think it's sad that PC games have to allow you to kill anything you want anytime you feel like it so the 'first person shooter' folks will be satisfied.

 

[Cridhe]

The complaints I read here are typical of people who are familiar with 'first person shooters' and have never tried a real rpg. My suggestion is that if you want to level up when you kill something, use a 'first person shooter' game. If you want an in depth game where you can develop your character in many different ways, try Oblivion. Get some mods from the Nexus and have a good time.

There's much more to Oblivion than just killing. If you just want to kill everything you see in Oblivion, well .. you can't. The game will not allow essential npcs to be killed.

I think it's sad that PC games have to allow you to kill anything you want anytime you feel like it so the 'first person shooter' folks will be satisfied.

Or some of us work 40 hour a week jobs and can't dedicate a majority of our time to these games, yet we still want to enjoy the experience of it. Typically yes this includes a majority our time killing and not min/maxing skills, or using our valuable time in a menu screen making potions to min/max our skills.