So its been a few years since Oblivion and everyone seems to be excited for Skyrim. However personally, I am not so sure. Oblivion seems to be one of the most overrated games I have ever played. Sure it was a open world, had hundreds of hours of quests and had a lot of additional content However quantity does not make up for quality in this case. The world was huge yes, but it was also empty with almost no level of handcraft. The whole thing felt like some personal project of a amateur developer, it was plain boring. Nothing felt flued, the combat was clunky, the world was pretty much copy and paste. The realm of Oblivion was terribly dull and the quests felt like they where struggling to even manage basic scripted sequences, and at every turn the game failed to feel epic. I spent ages organizing each city to fight back against the Daedra, what do I get? 15 or so men and a slow stream of Daedra to fight. It was also far from being bug free. Though it was interesting to watch the Count of Skingrad do his thing (Such as disappearing from the world map and reappearing to help me kill a skeleton through the floor.) Yet it was almost universally given a 9+, awarded several GoTY's, on almost any site there are threads praising the game and its garnered somewhat of a cult following. Did I miss something? Does the freedom to run around and explore make up for what is a weak core game? If so, why did Gothic 3 score so much lower (Severe bugs where in both TES:Oblivion and Gothic 3) when it had a much stronger core game and a handcrafted world to explore? I am only referring to the Vanilla version (As was reviewed). Mods have pretty much allowed the game to be anything you want. Managed to clock up a few hundred hours in Nehrim Skyrim does look promising, combat looks better, immersion looks to be more of a focus, environments look great. However its easy to show just the best parts of a game, and the limited amount of info Bethesda has been releasing does not make me placing a order any easier.
That about sums it up. This is very, very old news, though - there've been a lot of Oblivion threads, or entries for it in "Most Overrated Game?" or "Most Disappointing Game?" threads. Its flaws go much deeper than your points, too - the AI, animation and voice acting are the three biggest immediate problems (all are awful) and with enough gameplay time, huge, gaping flaws in the fundamental levelling structure emerge that make the game totally unenjoyable if you weren't numbercrunching and planning your character from the very start. Anyway, Oblivion's flaws have been picked to death (I could write a book on the subject myself, having spent horrendous amounts of time troubleshooting, modding and testing the game and very little time actually playing it for enjoyment) so here's hoping Bethesda paid attention and manage to avoid their usual pitfalls for Skyrim. After (as you say) Oblivion's tragically hasty critical praise and big sales, their budget must be of Michael Bay proportions, so they've got no excuse for lousy voice-acting or animation this time. I still love Oblivion, though. In the same way that one loves the broken-down, dilapidated, leaky house that one buys and spends five years repairing to the detriment of one's relationships and personal hygiene. It's a fixer-upper.
As old as the news is, after seeing another 'how awesome' is Oblivion comment I just had to make this point (Which I had been meaning to do for some time). I seriously hope Skyrim has sorted things out as it looks very promising. Id love to actually enjoy Skyrim (as opposed to hang on, hoping for it to get better)
The amount of mods i had installed for oblivion was crazy, but they really did 'make' the game tbh. Out of the box though yes its a little MEH.
One of the biggest problems with Oblivion was the build-up. I recall the countdown videos and previews suggesting dynamic, unscripted AI; including a video of an obviously scripted set of AI events. Everyone felt really cheated once it was released, Bethesda stating they had to reduce the AI to balance the game... My concern for Skyrim is the claim to the 'unscripted dragon AI', the videos shown make it look awesome, but equally the different demos all show the same events in different footage. Of course, they need the previews to be good and to show off all the features they've listed; a preview without one of the dragons would be naff. BUT I'm really hoping it's not going to end up being the same huge disappointment as Oblivion, simply because of the build-up. I wouldn't mind if it turns out to be less than the previews as the combat was one of the biggest issues and it seems now to be much improved. I just hope Bethesda haven't previewed something they can't or won't live up to.
Oblivion is a game designed for modding. Vanilla Oblivion is, as the OP says, quite buggy and dull. But once 300+ mods are installed (fun in its own right to a Linux addict ) the game becomes a wonder. Decapitations, backstabs, proper economy, cool weather, looking through a window outside, etc. Unofficial Oblivion Patch fixed thousands of bugs, then the supplemental fixes even more. And that is why I think that Oblivion is useless for a console, as will Skyrim be. At it's release, Oblivion was an amazing game for both PC and consoles. But modding kept Oblivion going strong on the PC, and on the consoles it just became *meh*. Skyrim is enough to justify a change of underwear when looked at, but in 5 years time, which is more valuable - dragon armour (Horse Armour) or a completely new storyline, world and major overhaul (Nehrim)?
I had Oblivion on the 360 and it's still my 3rd favourite game of all time. Behind Minecraft and TF2 on the PC. It was buggy, but that's why it was fun :3
Memorable sidequests and gravity defying horses. That's what i got from oblivion and IMO it was worth putting up with the flawed leveling system and Gamebryo for it.
For me, Oblivion was more of a sandbox demo. The real reason to get it was for the modding community. Morrowind got me hooked on mods and Oblivion hasn't let me down. Unique Landscapes, FCOM (Francescos,War Cry,OOO,& MMM), Natural Environments, CM Partners, Elsweyr the Deserts of Anequina, Midas Magic, Origin of the Mages Guild, The Lost Spires, Alternative Start Arrive by Ship, Blood and Mud, Better Cities, Qarl's Texture Pack... The list just keeps growing. There is also Nehrim and the community mods for it are added almost daily. If there is something you don't like in the game... start modding. It will give you a completly differant view of big studio and indy developers. It's strange, when Skyrim was announced the first thing that came to my mind was... What will my first mod be?
That reminds me, SureAI are working on a Skyrim mod. Tbh I think you raise a good point. I did not regret my Oblivion purchase. At first I was disappointed, but after finding the Nexus and Planet Elder scrolls I had something that barely resembled the Vanila version (Though the failings of the engine where still clear). Id imagine Skyrim will be the same but hopefully less flawed. Perhaps il hold out on Skyrim until a GoTY edition is released (Which I am sure will happen) and modders have some time to do there magic.
For a lot of people Oblivion is their entry in to RPG's. So it's a big deal to them because it's basically the first time they played a game that wasn't a shooter. No offence to them, but you can't expect any discernibility from people like that, and that's basically the problem with all big mainstream games. Ask a hardcore RPG player what they thought of Oblivion and 99% of them will tell you it sucked. But the same goes for everything. Ask a hardcore FPS player what they think of Call of Duty and they'll say the same thing, same goes for RTS's and whatever else. Mainstream games are just nice big popular games for the average gamer to consume. If you are in any way picky about gaming, then it's usually always a let down. It is for me anyway. The light at the end of the tunnel is that gaming is so big now, there is room for other developers to make better games and they can still survive. They wont be well known like the huge games, so they tend to be really hard to find, but there are ones out there that satisfy most niches. But I'm with you on all your points, and so are a lot of people. It's just that we are not the majority.
I loved Oblivion as a stepping stone into a great game. It's too bad the vanilla sucked so bad. Mods, mods, mods...
same here! Personally, the only major problem I would have with skyrim is if it has the same unrestricted development "bug" that Oblivion had. Eg: Day 1: In Prison. Day 23: Leader of the Fighter's Guild, Mage's Guild, Thieves Guild, closed all oblivion gates, saved the world, saved a holy order, slayed an ancient evil, and became ruler of an alternate dimension.
I completely, completely agree! I'd rather have a guild system whereby it either takes ages to move up even one rank or not be able to at all. It might seem dull but I wouldn't mind being a fledgling in the mages guild for most of the game and do menial tasks randomly assigned that contributes to the function of the guild e.g. "Oh we've run out of dragon's tongue, go find some would you?" It might not be interesting but it definitely would add to the RPG element and feeling part of the world. I hated that I could be become the Arch Mage and yet could be easily killed by one of the acolytes. Made everything feel so short and shallow. It's an RPG after all, so let me feel part of the world by being part of that world, contributing to small aspects rather than being given the title of God or High Lord or Champion without A.)people recognising me as such and B.)having nowhere near the power that should go with such a title.
"Oh you must be the Mage guild's newest arrival" "NO! I'M YOUR LEADER, FEEL FIREBALL.... <urgh he killed me>."
exactly! Either restrict a player with a flat "you in the fighter's guild - no you can't join any others", or as Morrowind did - have a stats system build into the your progression (must have 65 points in illusion, etc to achive next rank). I mean what kind of mage's guild allow people with no magical talent to join in the first place - let alone become the leader of said guild.
I bought Oblivion on Steam in a sale. Installed it, ran it, uninstalled it 5 minutes later. Clunky interface, the inventory system drove me insane with rage and I wasn't going to sit there installing a list of mods that would take longer than the game to setup.
