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TESIV Oblivion is an awful game and I'm tired of pretending it's not.
Here is a non-comprehensive list of everything I hate about it:

1. What the hell is this leveling? ¡Tontería! Who came up with this and why weren't they fired? You guys know what I'm talking about. That ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ where you set your major skills as the things you AREN'T going to do, because leveling up is bad for you. Why, you ask?

2. The level scaling. ¡Tontería! Look, you get so badly outpaced by monsters' stat growth that by level 10, the game's combat is literally you run in, swing your sword wildly for six seconds and run for your life, only to spend the next four minutes repeatedly casting cure and waiting for your Magicka to refill.

3. The combat. ¡Tontería! Speaking of running in, swinging your sword wildly and running away... it's not fun [citation needed].

4. Encumberence system. ¡Tontería! It would be a passable idea if it weren't so stupid. If you could hold enough stuff to actually loot a whole dungeon at once, for instance. Or even half a dungeon. Enough for you to eventually have to be like yeah, maybe I should prioritize this over that. And the way it works just encourages you to do dumb nonsense like dropping stuff, walking forward, turning around, picking it up, turning back around and dropping it again.

5. Uggo city. ¡Tontería! No, it's not just dated. People have been ragging on how damn ugly every single possible custom character and every single NPC is since day one. It's simply not possible to make a character that isn't an atrocity. Screw this, we'd be better off letting the daedra take over. At least those effers wear helmets.

"But Devsman! None of that is true!"

Oh really? Why do you think that?

1. "Because I spent four weeks reading a damn textbook posted on GameFAQs dot com about how to build a character before I even started playing my first time! It's very much doable to make a decent character if you just dedicate your life to learning it!!!"

2. "Because actual competent people later took the crappy game and made it better by replacing its inate crappiness with betterness!"

Ok, alright, so what are some things I did like about it?

1. The worldbuilding is great. It kinda has to be, since it's literally just Lord of the Rings.

2. The way the NPCs walk around with intent is actually pretty impressive. It's a small thing, but I'll take it.

3. The audio is cool, and iconic.

4. It actually does feel kinda nice to just buy a house and have a life in said town. I feel like that's more something in my own imagination than in the game itself though.
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The only thing that grinds my gears with oblivion was the whole "whacking enemies with pillows until it decides to die 20 hours later" kind of deal.

Oh, and the world was kinda empty... but, well, limitations of the time and all that jazz.

Rest was fine.
Last edited by Thermal Lance; 5 hours ago
combat has never been the elder scrolls strongpoint, its not particularly good in any of the games. the lore, world building and storytelling are why you play, and while the main quest in oblivion is a little lacklustre, the sidequests in oblivion are sublime. the atmosphere is incredible like in all elder scrolls games, the music is gorgeous, and the bright colourful aesthetics still look great.

yes the NPCs are ugly, but tbh thats part of the games weird charm to me.
Last edited by salamander; 5 hours ago
Originally posted by salamander:
combat has never been the elder scrolls strongpoint, its not particularly good in any of the games. the lore and storytelling are why you play, and while the main quest in oblivion is a little lacklustre, but the sidequests in oblivion are sublime.

yes the NPCs are ugly, but tbh thats part of the games weird charm to me.
heh....


When it comes to absolutely horrid combat... Oblivion is kind of a case study within the franchise on how not to balance things. I'd argue that quirk alone gives it the worst "combat" by a longshot.

I'd take the mouse swings of daggerfall, the dices of morrowind and the run-out-the-mill action combat of skyrim 10x over before I boot up oblivion vanilla.
Kids these days...
Oblivion and Skyrim's character creation and stats management are both severely dumbed down.

Try Daggerfall Unity some time. It's free.
Or Baldur's Gate 1 and 2.
Originally posted by Thermal Lance:
heh....

When it comes to absolutely horrid combat... Oblivion is kind of a case study within the franchise on how not to balance things. I'd argue that quirk alone gives it the worst "combat" by a longshot.

I'd take the mouse swings of daggerfall, the dices of morrowind and the run-out-the-mill action combat of skyrim 10x over before I boot up oblivion vanilla.

the combat is definitely not good, but thankfully like all bethesda games it is infinitely moddable to fix its worst flaws.
Last edited by salamander; 5 hours ago
Originally posted by Electric Cupcake:
Kids these days...
Oblivion and Skyrim's character creation and stats management are both severely dumbed down.

Try Daggerfall Unity some time. It's free.
Or Baldur's Gate 1 and 2.

Ah, yes, Daggerfall. The masterpiece that needs to be modded beyond recognition to be enjoyed unless you have severe nostalgia for it. Loved that game.
Originally posted by salamander:
Originally posted by Thermal Lance:
heh....

When it comes to absolutely horrid combat... Oblivion is kind of a case study within the franchise on how not to balance things. I'd argue that quirk alone gives it the worst "combat" by a longshot.

I'd take the mouse swings of daggerfall, the dices of morrowind and the run-out-the-mill action combat of skyrim 10x over before I boot up oblivion vanilla.

the combat is definitely not good, but thankfully like all bethesda games it is infinitely moddable to fix its worst flaws.
Thankfully yes. Otherwise I would have never bought it in the first place XD
Devsman dropping some truth bombs
At least Skyrim became OK after getting that mod that increased how many mods you could run at the same time for it! ;P

Oblivion, that game, I was so stupid…because I actually bought the Horse DLC. It was my first DLC ever bought.

I am sorry, I might have been the root cause of the downfall of gaming… :I
world moves on fast nowadays. money is losing values each moment. if they dont modernize the system then they would not have existed by now
Last edited by aaa; 4 hours ago
Originally posted by Walach:
At least Skyrim became OK after getting that mod that increased how many mods you could run at the same time for it! ;P

Oblivion, that game, I was so stupid…because I actually bought the Horse DLC. It was my first DLC ever bought.

I am sorry, I might have been the root cause of the downfall of gaming… :I
Nah... DLC was not the downfall of gaming...

Now people pre-ordering absolute garbage in the modern day is another story entirely.
It’s funny to think about it now, but back in 2006, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was considered one of the most graphically impressive games ever made.

https://youtu.be/43KYyCWNegc?si=7QkCYThDzPZS3DKL
https://youtu.be/CQvYa8Pp2jY?si=qcj4p1yg4byLuXvB
Originally posted by Cinnamoon_dragon:
It’s funny to think about it now, but back in 2006, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was considered one of the most graphically impressive games ever made.

https://youtu.be/43KYyCWNegc?si=7QkCYThDzPZS3DKL
https://youtu.be/CQvYa8Pp2jY?si=qcj4p1yg4byLuXvB
Especially considering there was quite a few games of that era that looked a hell of a lot better than that empty world oblivion was peddling.
Morrowind was better than both Oblivion and Skyrim
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppSPsvO19dU
Originally posted by パエトーン (Belle):
Morrowind was better than both Oblivion and Skyrim

yeah, its my favourite as well. its easily has the thickest atmosphere of the series, and overall is having the most dark fantasy elements (which i prefer over high fantasy).
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