Poll: Oblivion Was Better

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Oblivion's archery system felt like I was shooting lead arrows out of a tiny bow, and if I didn't want to shoot my block arrow I had to shoot the ground because there was no cancelling out. Skyrim's archery system sounded, functioned, and felt better than archery in any other game.

I like Skyrim pretty much for only that.

 

[Yeager942]

I personally didn't enjoy either, but I thought Skyrim was better than Oblivion.

 

[Bullfrog1983]

I liked Oblivion more than Skyrim because of the variety in quests, the crafting system in Oblivion compared to Skyrim's and the sense of fulfillment when finishing quests in Oblivion. In your original post you mentioned several good examples of the variety of quests available in Oblivion and I'd add "A Brush with Death" when you search for the painter who had gone missing (inside of his own painting) because a thief had followed him in and stolen his magic brush. The little differences during that quest like an altered color scheme to the normal graphics and a painted skyline made it feel unique. The "Paranoia" quest with Glarthir is another one that I enjoyed far more than almost any of the ones in Skyrim, because you can choose to feed his paranoia and work towards assassinating the people he thinks are spying on him or refuse entirely, causing him to attack you. There are some more that I don't really recall very well that I liked but the background story about the oblivion gates appearing everywhere and your character being a hero who can close them felt a lot more interesting than being the "Dragonborn" who can basically use magic by yelling at people. The layout of Oblivion gate worlds were also much more interesting than going through the tombs of the dragons. It felt generic and boring every time you went through a tomb whereas in Oblivion the worlds would usually be completely unique and surrounded by a sea of lava that could potentially play a role in your character's demise. There were also times where I would judge whether or not I would be able to sprint to the top of the tower and be able to close the gate before getting overwhelmed by the monsters following me and the sometimes hilarious realization that there was a locked door in front of me I couldn't open before the 8-9 monsters tagging along for the ride begin to nom on me from behind for going too slowly. Anyway the topic of Oblivion gates leads up to the next reason of why I enjoyed Oblivion more and that is the crafting system in Oblivion compared to Skyrim's.

In Oblivion you could find some amazing enchantments that your character could potentially never do themselves inside Oblivion gates which actually gave incentive for me to want to go adventuring inside of them to get the goodies at the top of the tower. In contrast the crafting system in Skyrim allows you to make incredible enchantments and even more incredible weapons that would be unmatched by anything you find existing in the world. By the end of the game I had created a two handed sword that could defeat the final dragon in about 12-18 hits and I'm not sure if that's impressive or pathetic but the final battle was incredibly easy compared to the final battle in Oblivion and if the final quest was made that easy, think about how easy smithing can make other quests when all your weapons hit for a ridiculous amount of damage.

The final reason for liking Oblivion more than Skyrim is that there was a sense of fulfillment when you finished quests in Oblivion is easy to understand. The example of Kvatch is a good one because it happens almost by accident since when you first go there you are trying to find the Emperor's son and all of a sudden you are in the middle of a war zone where you and a group of rag-tag soldiers are fighting against demons. When you close the gate at Kvatch and any other gate in the world the area becomes safer and the weather changes back to normal. Comparing this to the killing of a single dragon in Skyrim, other than the first one - nothing really happens that makes a lasting impression on the landscape of the game. Granted, the first time I got attacked by a single dragon or two dragons at once it was a pretty fun experience but after I killed about 5-6 of them it just became a grind that I did not enjoy anymore. Anyway, I don't mean to say that one game is better than the other - I just liked Oblivion better.

 

[DRTJR]

cyrodiil should have been a lush tropical jungle, BUT NOPE it's just another generically European setting.

That's because- If I'm not mistaking
Elsewyr and Black Marsh are supposed to be the tropical/diverse climate regions.

In the Pocket Guide to The Empire, Cyrodiil was described as a vast jungle. Arena's maps of the region with a boreal green, fading into brown in the west and a richer pine green in the southeast, towards Black Marsh. Oblivion, however, found Cyrodiil to be completely lacking in any form of tropical climate. The First Elder scrolls game promised a lush jungle, that I DID NOT GET! There are never any good RPGs that have vast tropical jungles, why is this?

 

[Alcamonic]

I personally thought that the guild quests were better in Oblivion. The main quest didn't suck either (going into Oblivion gate #6 million did however).

General world of Skyrim is more pretty, but that soon goes away when another dragon decides to hinder whatever I'm doing.

 

[Signa]

I mean, let's be honest, Morrowind was the best one.

Sorry! I'd mention Morrowind if I'd have played it, but I'm planning on picking it up during the Steam Summer Sale if that helps.

I was going to say the same thing as AC10 too. What you just described is how I felt about Morrowind after playing Oblivion. After playing Oblivion for about 100 hours or so, I went back to Morrowind for a short romp because I was feeling nostalgic, and was blown away at how much of the game's features I had forgotten about. I felt like I was playing an ugly sequel to Oblivion with how much had be "added" from jumping between the two.

Just a quick list of items I noticed immediately as absent from Oblivion
[*]separate right and left gloves/gauntlets

[*]Pauldrons of both left and right varieties for each armor set you could collect

[*]Cross bows, spears, throwing stars, and throwing knives

[*]Mark/Recall spells, fast travel NPCs

[*]Levitate and Slowfall spells

And none of that is mentioning the more unique world, monsters, and locales. Also, as a hard-core RPG fan, the dice roll system was far more likeable than always having an "I win!" button. Swinging and connecting blows always feels better in Oblivion, but it eventually becomes a boring chore to fight anything. I'm quite certain that there's some Skinner Box psychology going on behind that. No one would have fun with slot machines if they always paid out[footnote]A slot machine being one of the best examples of a working Skinner Box. Of course a machine that always paid out would get people to use it constantly, but if it didn't exceed minimum wage for the time spent, I bet you people would get bored of it quite fast and actually go do a real job[/footnote].

 

[Sleepy Sol]

It might be my tinted glasses, but I think I got a bit more fun out of Oblivion than I did out of Skyrim, even without mods.

Of course Skyrim is technically better and more refined, but I found the quest lines in Oblivion to be much more memorable and enjoyable (particularly the Dark Brotherhood).

And then Morrowind, which I also had tons of fun with. The world is so varied and awesome that I don't really want to pick a "better" game out of all 3. They're all tons of fun and precious to me as experiences, but for different reasons.

 

[Daveman]

Skyrim was a good game with good mechanics but I think Oblivion was a great game with poor mechanics. I mean the quests in Oblivion were just more interesting overall I thought. There was more varied architecture and environments. Everything was more colourful in general. Way less fucking Draugr. The dark brotherhood was better. The thieves guild was better. All the side quests were more interesting, I can think of dozens of them from Oblivion like the one with the lady robbers, the one with the town full of crazies, the one with the island where you're hunted, the one with the goblins attacking that village. I remember the one in Markarth with the getting locked in prison, which was admittedly very fun, but that's about it.

I can talk about a lot things, but I know the main thing is just the colours and the stories. Same reason I prefer New Vegas to Fallout 3

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

I mean, let's be honest, Morrowind was the best one.

Sorry! I'd mention Morrowind if I'd have played it, but I'm planning on picking it up during the Steam Summer Sale if that helps.

lol you don't have to apologize! But for a lot of players, the transition from Oblivion to Skyrim that you experience was kind of how Morrowind to Oblivion felt.

IMO the more that Bethesda tries to balance the games, the more boring they become. The more they try to polish the rough edges, the less... I dunno, quirky/personal the game feels. In Morrowind you can make the most unbelievably broken characters, and it's a lot of fun to do so.

The only problem with Morrowind is it's old now. It doesn't look very good, and most importantly, there are no quest markers which many modern gamers (or old gamers now accustomed to modern times) struggle with, myself included. Also, the journal system is horrible to the point it becomes almost worthless. Still, it's my favorite game in the series.

If you pick it up... good luck!

Heh, that's the funny thing. I would love to play Morrowind, as I can easily do without the markers, but dear god is the Journal useless. The idea is that you are meant to follow the directions, but they are often just "Go to the west and past a swamp!". The amount of times I would search for an hour and then just look up the answer on the wiki, to see just how far away I was.

I do remember playing lots of Morrowind when I was younger, but it was never the main quest. It was just exploring and fighting. I could never figure out where to actually find the goddamn quests XD. Ah well, I might go back some day, with some mods and a wiki at the ready.

 

[Tallim]

I thought Oblivion was not just an awful Elder Scrolls game but a really bad game in general :/ Loved Morrowind and Daggerfall but Oblivion just felt hollow and dull. I only put about 8 hours into it before I just couldn't play any more. Skyrim at least managed to recapture *some* of the magic of the older ones but lacked any real depth.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

Skyrim wins by virtue of having a leveling system and enemy scaling that *doesn't* completely break the game. My Oblivion run ended when I was hacking away at a friggin' goblin and my weapon was dying faster than he was because he had scaled past the damage/level caps on my melee skill (which was maxed out).

It was also nice to not have to schedule my skill upgrades to make sure that I leveled four skills with one stat, four skills with another stat, and two skills with a third stat in order to actually be able to meaningfully raise my stats.

 

[SuperfastJellyfish]

I played Oblivion first and really enjoyed it, but I get most out of Skyrim. Also, my friends and I have all agreed that the Elder Scrolls games aren't objectively better than eachother, they just do different things and some of those are bad, and some are good and they all end up being just as good.

 

[CaptainThom]

I found the storylines (main and guilds) to be more interesting and longer in Oblivion especially the Dark Brotherhood and thieves guild,however Skyrims gameplay is leaps and bounds better than Oblivions. The combat system is much improved in skyrim and feels far less hack and slash than oblivion did at times. I personally prefer the ease of modding skyrim with the steam workshop too

Oblivion Gates > Dragons
Skyrim > Oblivion

 

[Sectan]

Skyrim is cool and It's a lot of fun, but for an RPG it really railroads your character if you're trying to roleplay a bit. Making you walk into stupid situations. Having plot twists being so obvious that they're chewing on your nose...Plus there's not a whole lot of character to the NPCs. I haven't played oblivion so I can't give an opinion on it.

There are no quest markers which many modern gamers (or old gamers now accustomed to modern times) struggle with, myself included. Also, the journal system is horrible to the point it becomes almost worthless. Still, it's my favorite game in the series.

If you pick it up... good luck!

That was my biggest annoyance with Skyrim. "Take my sword to X to get polished." "Bring this shield to Y."

I'll gladly do it. Can you tell me where they are? What, you wont tell me? Why not? It shouldn't be that hard to just tell me the building they're in. Oh...I have to follow the quest marker that I turned off. Dammit.

Getting really off topic, but more games need to have dialogue that TELLS you where objectives are instead of leading you by the nose with a quest marker. Thief was really good at making you observe and listen. I remember having to actually read the signs in buildings to find out where I needed to go, then opening my map and writing the note and location so I wouldn't forget it.

 

[Frokane]

I wasnt crazy about skyrim's snow covered setting but the gameplay was just far better. Everything I prefer about oblivion seems to be rooted in nostalgia if im honest.

 

[ratix2]

A friend and and I discussed this a while back and we came to where conclusion that skyrim isn't worse than oblivion, it just isn't anywhere near as memorable. We could both recall, at least 4 years since either of us had played the game, almost all of the dark brotherhood and thieves guild missions as well as many of the random side quests and we're hard pressed to come up with anything in skyrim that we thought we would still be talking about 4 years later.

 

[Black Heron Ink]

One of my biggest concerns with any game is how well it plays. Oblivion, while fun, was kind of a mess. Morrowind was an even bigger mess. Both of these were fun and (more or less) whimsical messes, but it was all still a mess to play with.

In Skyrim, everything is bigger and more naturally (I'm sure that's what she said). As many others have said, it's also a lot more refined. Sure, when I'm in the mood to get my virtual Archery jollies off, Skyrim still bugs out a bit (where I can kill enemies in front of other enemies, hide for a few seconds, and everyone just goes back to their business. Funny stuff), but it still plays loads better than the previous two games.

I'm all for creative fun and whimsy, but not at the price of smooth/fun gameplay.

 

[funksobeefy]

oblivion captured me then and still does today, about once or twice a year I go though and play it again. Skyrim I just cant get into, the fighting is more fun but the rest of the game just seems sub par to me

 

[ResonanceSD]

Whatever you think was great about oblivion, it doesn't excuse that the game was barely playable because the leveling mechanics+ the level scaling mechanics were so atrocious.

+1 to this, especially the fact that there were multitude of game ending bugs that meant you had to patch the shit out of it from tesp wiki before you could finish the fucking game.

Although I will say that the quest to get this

is the best quest in the series.

 

[Fdzzaigl]

Skyrim imo.

More and better voice actors, better sidequests, more diverse locations and fun world quests and also (this is indirect) mostly better mods focused on immersion. And of course: gameplay and mechanics being smoother and the whole thing being much less buggy.

Oblivion was probably better in terms of puzzles (Skyrim puzzles are rather brainless imo) and might have a slight advantage in main storyline. You've also got Nehrim which was epic.