Why is Oblivion so popular?

[Rensenhito]

I actually built my gaming rig for the sole purpose of running Oblivion. I hardly play it anymore, but I played the HELL out of it for years. I even contributed a few crappy little mods to the community.
The thing about it that sealed the deal for me was that it was SO open-ended. Especially once you apply certain mods. Now, I would have liked it if the Telekinesis spell would actually let you do something useful (pick up a sword and throw it at someone, maybe? Pick up enemies themselves? Get some Force Unleashed going on in there...) and it probably could have used a little more polish in certain other places... but it was an excellent game.
Then again, that's just my opinion. Isn't that what it all comes down to anyway?

 

[northeast rower]

I've read many posts regarding the greatness of Oblivion over the few months I've been here and it always left me wondering why. I got the game last year and I've yet to finish it. I feel like the game devs had great ideas like the making your own magic, tons of armor and swords, wearing down of equipment but the game doesn't really put everything together well.

For example, I had no idea what was going on the first hour or so of the game because nothing is explained to me. I know nothing of the character I'm using and the story is slowly explained to me at all. All I'm told is to go deliver some rig to some guy or all hell will brake loose.

Next is the combat. This more than the story was a game breaker for me. TERRIBLE fighting animations. Your character just swings his sword around mindless, and magic spells are clunky to follow. The game just feels half done.

Don't get me started on the terrible facial animations and all the generic NPCs....

Bethesda games use nose tinted glasses of "exploration". However when viewed without the glasses its just a copy pasta world with horrible writing. Make a world look big and mysterious and people will lap it up without problem. If you notice the only reason they last so long is because of modablility. No one praises oblivion for consoles for this reason. If they stopped mods being made Bethesda would be called a crappy developer.

Actually, I praise Oblivion on consoles.

The exploration is half of the game. Yes, you are right that without exploration the game would not be good, but the problem with that idea is that the game DOES have exploration, and that makes it hella fun to play.

yet how many times have you heard "get Bethesda games on PC for mods?". Probably more times than you can count. Sure it has exploration but not GOOD exploration. Its the same copy pasted forest everywhere. Compare this with morrowind which had many locales opposed to oblivion.

Oblivion has plenty to do and see. Maybe you just weren't paying close enough attention. Morrowind has locations, but the actual exploration was subpar. No fast travel, all of the locations were the exact same thing: either stone cities, murky swamps, or miles of ashland. Oblivion had snowy mountains, forests, swamps, grottos, cities that were noticeably different, and loads of different little towns and settlements all around.

By the way, no one has ever told me to get Bethesda games for mods. I'm happy enough just playing the regular product on my console.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

Because Opinions. That's really the only answer. Sure, there are flaws, but there are flaws in everything.

And then of course there's the mods...

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Exploration, mods, it's made by Bethesda, it's the fourth game in a critically acclaimed series.

If you have the PC version, there are some mods you can get which can fix your complaints.

 

[GodofCider]

Because it's fun; and fun is determined by your opinion.

 

[Fawcks]

I loved Oblivion. I never really "Played" the game right, didn't much care for the story, tended to do whatever quest suited my current character's personality or fancy myself (Would a noble monk do assassinations? No), but I kept making a new character every eight hours because, honestly, I got bored of the last couple. I had a load of fun with Oblivion, and it didn't run ut of new content very quickly, so I had new areas and ideas to explore whenever I got bored.

I loved it.

 

[PhiMed]

snip

Oh, good. A fanboy has come to flame. "Behold the wall of text! I shall bludgeon you with my mighty quotes!"

OT: I don't really get it, either. I bought Morrowind based on the pre-release hype surrounding that when it came out for the original XBox. I played it for about a day, then took it back to see if I could get my money back before the 24-hour exchange period had expired.

When Oblivion came out, I avoided it like the plague. My friends assured me that all the issues I had with Morrowind had been addressed with Oblivion. I have to admit that it was much better looking, and while the characters didn't get stuck in walls and floors as often as in Morrowind, they still had such an odd manner about them that I always felt like I was at an animatronic ride, rather than interacting with someone I should care about or take seriously. And I suppose the combat wasn't quite as clunky and awkward as its predecessor's, but that's not saying a lot.

Overall, though, it seemed that Bethesda wanted to impress us with the game's bigness, rather than making something functional and entertaining. So if you're the type of person who enjoys going on trips throughout the countryside to see "The World's biggest"... whatever it is, then this is the game for you. If you like enormous buffets, filled with numerous options of perfectly adequate (but not outstanding) foods, as opposed to a gourmet meal of modest portions, this is for you. I'm not making judgments about people who enjoy those things. I'm just not one of them.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

SNIP

Oblivion has its flaws, no doubt.

But try this....

Wander off in any random direction. Forget about the main quest for a while. Live in the world and take it slowly. Sooner or later you'll start finding a wealth of hidden places and a vast amount of areas to explore.

If exploring isn't your thing, well then Oblivion isn't going to be for you.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

If you notice the only reason they last so long is because of modablility. No one praises oblivion for consoles for this reason. If they stopped mods being made Bethesda would be called a crappy developer.

Not really. Fallout 3 is my favorite game of all time, I've spent over 400 hours on it and I only played the 360 version.

 

[T8B95]

Beatiful visuals, massive world, and ridiculous amount of NPCs, as well as an open-ended storyline that lets you choose your own path in life and play the hell out of it.

It's also one of the most immersive console RPGs I've ever played.

 

[chickenlord]

idk cause is fucking awesome, openworld,super fun glitches,easily mod-able, tons of great side quests, an okay story quest, an action game, a stealth game, has a ton of items and has a world that seems living.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

You cite reviewers who are notoriously one sided.

gamespot = money whore.

IGN = fanboys.

Never cite reviews, only cite opinions from people. Opinions from people can't be bought.

GASP! But I did!. And finding a dissenting voice from the industry would be difficult when the game's metacritic rating was 94. The one professional reviewer I am aware of who has stated a dislike of the game in a public capacity is Joystiq's Ludwig Kietzmann and even he never said it in a review.

Of course, I have indulged you enough in this regard. You open with trolling remarks and counter with <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem>fallacy. I will respect that you do not like the game but your attempts to demonstrate that people in general hate it or that without mods the game is wretched and universally panned is all but doomed.

 

[maninahat]

Because it's open-ended and is easy to play. I for one think it's utter shit, especially compared to Morrowind.
The landscape is just trees, grass, trees, .....
The level scaling is just plain horrible.
The quick-travel and the compass is what kills the charm of exploration.
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.
.
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I agree that the quick travel does damage the exploration, but it is one of the best anti-tedium devices I have seen built into a game. I hate backtracking in any game, and in Oblivion, it would be a nightmare. Plus, if I jsut want to walk anywhere, I will, and I'll just not use the fast travel system. I tried playing the modded version of Oblivion called "Nehrim", and found it's severely restricted teleport system to be horrible.

I'm currently playing Nehrim and I find it way better than Oblivion in every possible way. It's very well made for a mod. As for the backtracking, it was a little annoying in the begining, but now I don't have any problems with it

It is way better than Oblivion in a number of ways, but the long treks got really tedious for me, especially as the bows were so over powered I could one hit kill everything; taking away any challenge. Also, I had to run the game on absurdly low settings to stop it crashing at certain parts. All of this ruined the exploring aspects, which is a shame, because I understand that on a higher end machine it all looks great.

Nehrim is am imcredible effort and I'd recommend it to anyone who has Oblivion - but I never finished it. One of the quests didn't work, impeding any possibility of me completing the main quest. Further more, another major quest I spent ages doing wasn't even finished (so I received no pay off for wasting hours of my life). Frustated, I gave up.