Poll: Oblivion Was Better

[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.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

I played Oblivion first and it was not only my first 360 game but also my first ever proper RPG. (I'd played Fable previously!) I had an absolute blast with the game despite the fact I was no doubt playing it completely wrong. I recall it being tricky at times but I don't remember getting frustrated by its many quirks. Playing it now though is a lesson in frustration, purely because I now know it's inner workings and the level scaling kicks my arse big time.

Skyrim also blew me away when it was released. But having time to think them both over I do actually prefer Oblivion. The quests were just far more interesting and the world felt like it held so many more possibilities. When I play Skyrim now I feel I have seen all it has to offer. When I think back on Oblivion I feel sure there's still more for me to discover there.

Morrowind? I've tried 3 times but I just can't get into that game. Sorry.

 

[Shpongled]

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.

Only ever had 1 bug that actually got in the way of completing anything, and that was just a side-quest. And to be fair i see just as many complaints about Skyrim for bugs, indeed any Bethesda game gets criticized for bugs, so pointing the finger at Oblivion alone seems harsh.

Then again, i rarely encounter bugs that ruin the game for me in these sorts of games, so either people are just exaggerating, i'm abnormally tolerant of bugs, or i'm just incredibly lucky. I don't know. I played Oblivion for years, finished it many many times, without patching, and always had a great time. The paint brush bug was epic, shame that was patched out. Skyrim had it's fair share of fantastic bugs too.

 

[Laughing Man]

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

Yes, but the very key difference is that with mods Oblivion can still hold it's own where as Morrowind, no matter how many mods you apply has become a bit shite.

As for the OPs point, yeah Oblivion is in fact the better of the two games.

Skyrim is a very bland place, let's put it this way Skyrim some how managed to make Sheogorath the mad god boring and that is really quite a special achievement. The big problem with Skyrim is that NONE of the quest lines felt epic. Yeah some of the rewards for Oblivion's quests were a bit OTT but the fact they were attached to epic quest lines some how made the rewards worth the effort, everything in Skyrim felt watered down and just a bit bland, boring. You wanted to add a scantily clad female warrior with 34triple G fun canons to the Oblivion Universe, yeah it worked try the same with Skyrim and it just looks out of place and silly. Somehow this video works in the Oblivion Universe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fxVeAVl2I8

but in Skyrim, nah I just can't see it.

 

[Dragonbums]

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?

I guess this is where reading all the lore is important then. My bad.
It probably has more to do with time and limitations more than anything.
I suggest you look at the mod "Moons to Elsewyr"
Some hard working folks behind the mod that made some very convincing Khajiit culture fan canon and added a desert, jungle, and island region (to my current knowledge. I have no clue if they added more yet.)

 

[piinyouri]

I apologize as I didn't read the OP. Too much wordage for me at the moment.

In certain aspects I can't disagree. Which is in itself funny since when I was playing Oblivion I kept saying to myself "Cant wait till the next one so they can fix all this crap."

Of course now that we have Skyrim for comparison, Oblivions quests seem FAR better now. And of course it had spell making.
Thing is even with Skyrim to look at now, I can;'t say I miss much else about Oblivion. The engine/way the environments looked were awful. I felt like I was in a plastic land or something. Didn't feel organic at all. Region/biome diversity was terrible. Forests, meadows, lakes, "swamp" and snow. Skyrims areas all feel different and much more distinct to me.

I also wouldn't ever want Oblivions combat back. Skyrim wasn't exactly a major overhaul from Oblivion, but the little tweaks they made made all the difference. (Who misses fighting any opponent who has a shield, or blocking with your own for that matter?)
NPC interaction was 10x better in Skyrim. No frozen faces staring at you.(Especially with how AWFUL the people looked in Oblivion, another upgrade in Skyrim)
The perk tree idea I can take or leave. I enjoy it, but I wouldn't be upset if they tried something different, or went back to a tweaked form of the older system. Athletics and acrobatics need to say the hell out though.

 

[Bellvedere]

I hated Oblivion. It was the first of the Elder Scrolls games I picked up. A friend at Uni had it and I though it looked incredible so I gave it a shot. I was really interested in the leveling system, I liked the look of the game and I wanted to enjoy it so badly but when I sat down to play it I was just bored.

Unfortunately I didn't get very far into the game before I decided that doing anything else would be more interesting and gave it up.

I loved Skyrim though. It's hard to say what Skyrim had that Oblivion didn't that led me to have such opposing views of both titles. I didn't play enough of Oblivion to have experienced what people have been griping about with Skyrim (dumbing down) and it was so long ago now that I can't recall the mechanics very well.

 

[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?

I guess this is where reading all the lore is important then. My bad.
It probably has more to do with time and limitations more than anything.
I suggest you look at the mod "Moons to Elsewyr"
Some hard working folks behind the mod that made some very convincing Khajiit culture fan canon and added a desert, jungle, and island region (to my current knowledge. I have no clue if they added more yet.)

unfortunetly my PC is incapible of supporting Skyrim so I went with the console version, I will however one day play Skyrim with the tropical patch to satiate my thirst for a tropical RPG.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Like the OP said, it's mostly a question of preference. I don't think Skyrim is actually "better" than Oblivion - it just seems to me like it offers a more refined take on Oblivion's core mechanics. Some people might prefer the more granular and diverse approach Oblivion takes (Spellmaking, for instance), while others might prefer a more streamlined and potentially more efficient system - like Skyrim's.

In terms of general tone and gameplay feel, I'm leaning towards Skyrim, myself. On the other hand, while Oblivion's interface was cluttered, it made sense for the PC crowd. The idea that all of my Skyrim installs have included SkyUI defacto is indication enough of the fact that parts of the more recent game's user interface just weren't thought up for the PC crowd.

We're in 2013. As far as I'm concerned, Spotlight-esque search engines should be part of every RPG's menu system. Especially if it's an RPG that encourages hoarding, like Skyrim does.

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.

I can understand that. Personally, though, I miss having to lead my shots like in Oblivion. I liked having to compensate for the parabolic arc they were going to take after leaving my bow. Skyrim's particularly shooter-friendly in that its archery mechanics are of the WYSIWYG category. I don't hate them - there's just a teeny bit of challenge that's missing.

Well, less a challenge than an ingrained habit I'd developed that I was pretty proud of. Calculating arrow trajectories on the fly while trying to outpace a bunch of pissed-off Dremora was crazy, stupid fun. XD

 

[mad825]

Oblivion made me feel dumb, Skyrim forces me into a comatose.

Every time I play Skyrim it feels like I'm playing a glorified MMORPG and the quests fall into the habit of routine.

 

[RJ 17]

It's weird, really...I put a ridiculous amount of time into Oblivion over the course of 7 characters, each with easily 100+ hours. I also absolutely loved Skyrim, putting well over 250 hours on my first character. It had everything I loved about Oblivion and more. Buuuuuut for some reason I just....never really started another character. I "finished" the game (that is to say, I completed all the "guild" quests, the main quests, hunted down all the dragon-mask guys, and completed the Daedric Shrine quests) and I just really didn't feel like starting up a new character, where as with Oblivion I wouldn't be able to get halfway through the main quest before having the urge to start a new character and faff about with different skillsets.

And maybe that's actually the crux of the matter for me. With Oblivion you only had like, 7 primary skills that defined your class. Those were the easiest ones to level up and they were the only ones that actually allowed you TO level up. With Skyrim you could be going with a straight-up warrior build and at any given moment decide "You know what? I feel like learning some Illusion magic now." The fact that there were so few restrictions on the player actually made it kinda restricting. Why bother starting up a new character that's a cross between a warrior and a thief when my current character can become a warrior-thief any time he/she wants?

So yeah, I got Skyrim, played it for about a month, then dropped it like a hot potato. The last time I played it was when the Super Vampire expansion was released. Beat that for the Vampire faction, and I haven't played it since.

 

[infinity_turtles]

I'd rank the Elder Scroll's games like this.

1)Morrowind/Daggerfall
2)Shivering Isles
3)Arena
4)Skyrim
5)Oblivion

 

[Wolfhowl the shadow lurker]

I liked them both not sure which more, however morrowind is "where the fuck am i? where the fuck am i going? who the fuck are you? whats going on?" The game! I really wish someone would show me how to play that game. Oblivion and skyrim will keep me happy for now.