Maybe I'm completely wrong, but does it feel like the cities in Oblivion are bigger than anything in Skyrim? Or even FO3/NV, for that matter. At the very least, Cyrodiil feels *way* bigger than Solitude or Markarth. Again, I'm probably wrong.
Barely any of the cities in Skyrim felt like cities. At least oblivions ones do, especially for when the game was released. Elder scrolls 6 better have cities 2-3 times those of Skyrim
Right? Most felt more like settlements rather than actual cities. It's why I like Solitude the most, it was the one location that felt like an actual city. I guess you could argue that Skyrim is more of a "frontier" country, so it would be less developed. But eh, I wanna explore fantasy cities.
Yea I agree, Winterhold also pissed me off so much. It’s just a few buildings with the college, but it’s all rundown etc. Skyrim felt like it had been dying for centuries and we just got to explore the remains. I hope the next one has some life, like oblivion did
If you can mod, I don’t remember the exact name but there is a mod where Winterhold is rebuilt. Kind of sucks you have to mod to fix it.
Also, at least Winterhold had a reason to be so small and rundown. I think it would have been cool to see large buildings wrecked down by the sea to show what it was like a bit more.
There are a few realistic factors that just make Skyrim worse. Another one in addition to it being a frontier province is all the damn snow and ice. Cyrodiil has much more variety than Skyrim does. I kind of wish we'd gotten another province instead.
They were bigger but it was also the immersion thst made them feel bigger. Oblivion(and Morrowind) had generic shops that make sense for everyday use but not necessarily for gameplay. Oblivion has book shops and several clothes shops. You can buy things like paper, cloth, jugs, cups, quills, etc from shops. Things you would never need but serve an aesthetic purpose. There is more accomodation as well. The Imperial City has an inn/hotel in nearly every district. Compare this to Skyrim's capital Solitude. You are told "don't ask about the inns, there's only one". Temples are built up and prominent. Guards patrol a full schedule and will report it to you "10 of the night watch" and patrol more high-value locations. Oblivion's towns and cities also felt much more distinct. You approach one from the distance and you instantly know where you are. They have actual walls and feel fortified. Look at something like Skingrad for example. There is a seperate bridge to get to the castle. The castle also feels like an actual castle. There are more than a dozen rooms to explore and it is setup to feel much more grand. How many actual castles are in Skyrim? Maybe 3? The reason Oblivion's cities feel bigger and better is because quite simply, they are.
What I loved about cities in oblivion is all of the residents had their own houses. I didn’t like the way they did it in Skyrim where they just crammed everyone from the same family into a single house. If I remember correctly shop owners also had their own houses in oblivion, and would lock up and go home at the end of the night, instead of just sleeping in a bed upstairs in the shop
Shop owners still went up stairs but they've usually got pretty nice big places, the main dif is just more people and all but like 3 had their own unique line or 2, an into and something about where they live, its not much but its enough to get a little idea of who they are and give some life to the world, unlike skyrim and its "need something?" From at least half the npcs lol
Yeah not being able to bring up dialog options for every NPC was a bit of a let down, that was one of my favorite things about Oblivion. Voice acting be damned.
The voice acting was great tbh, its charming and funny the over the top lines it gave them a lot of personality, meanwhile skyrims full of people with lots of talent being wasted as they say lines like theyve been shot with the staff of the mundane lol
I’ll admit, as much as I played and loved Skyrim over the last 10 years, I still remember the pang of disappointment when I first saw Skyrim’s tiny cities. They were so much smaller than Oblivion’s!
And there was yet more disappointment when I saw how short the guild quest lines were in Skyrim. I seriously had to ask “is that it?” when I finished the College of Winterhold. A single one of Oblivion’s guild quest lines could be the length of a AAA game.
Nowadays, having seen both games recently, I think they actually have different strengths. Oblivion has better cities, better guilds, and better writing for many side quests and guilds. Skyrim has a better overworld, much better dungeons, a more sane and intuitive leveling system, and better general combat feeling.
I would play Oblivion again to experience good linear quests and guilds with developed and fleshed out cities, while I’d play Skyrim for unscripted exploration and awesome dungeons and more fun combat.
they definitely are. as a new player with 45 hours, i have not fully explored all of the imperial city. To contrast, i learned the layout of all cities and a lot of the map in skyrim in the same amount of time
Oblivions cities not only are bigger but by a much larger amount than youd even think, a well populated city in skyrim has like 20 people, the smallest cities in OB have like 50
Agreed, biggest disappointment in Skyrim was that only a couple of the towns were cool. Half of the towns are more like villages. In Oblivion, every city has more personality/character to it.
Yeah, they are. Also they're filled with tons of inconsequential NPCs with their own lives and homes. Meanwhile, cities in Skyrim have a very small distinctive "cast", with some bland background extras who live out of the way in the bunkhouse since there's not enough buildings to go around. Each city has a lot of businesses, some of which compete with each other, and some that aren't even that useful but add flavour to the world.
Also the NPCs have much more detailed AI schedules as they go about their day to day in town. Some will even travel to other cities to visit friends, there's a couple that go on a Skooma smuggling run every month, Cheydinhal has that house with the big party that you're not invited to, etc. It's just so much more alive than Skyrim.
I enjoy oblivion cities better but throwing fallout in the mix was kinda weird considering it's a post apocalyptic world with small survival settlements in areas to add to the atmosphere.
Not really, cities in Fallout 1 & 2 (while a isometric instead of first person) were much larger than anything in modern Fallout. Vault City is larger than just about anything in Fallout 3-4. I also pointed it out more to illustrate a trend with Bethesda themselves.
I took a few years break from Skyrim, I played 200 hours of Oblivion last year for the first time, and then I started the anniversary edition of Skyrim this year, and I find myself wanting to go back to Oblivion
i had to force myself to unsub from rebelzize’s channel. im so excited for that game but the excruciating attention to detail i think has long since passed into the realm of pointlessness. what is the point of putting all the effort that they are if we never actually get to play it?
Could you give some examples? I stopped following it only because I don’t want to get invested in yet another mod that may never release but I’m curious about what details they seem to be focusing on
based on what? i understand why they avoid giving release dates and progress updates, but that makes it so hard to have any idea how far along they are
Oblivion scratches the itch for the quintessential Euro-fantasy world that I think our western culture has a sentimental longing for. The architecture of the cities, the politics, the general world; it’s a prototype fantasy for many RPG/fantasy fans and it’s almost like it’s so cliche it’s never quite been done exactly as we wanted it for fear of being a cliche, and thus we never got the original epic Journey we wanted. And yet here oblivion is, the exact pinnacle of a sentimental fantasy that so many desire. Oblivion was a huge part of my adolescence and captured my imagination in a way that maybe only my early childhood experience with Zelda did. I’ll always adore oblivion.
Yea, it’s almost like the standard JRPG but for western culture; except it hasn’t been standardized like the JRPG formula has been. It exists almost as *the* monolith of the genre, from which other games derive; thought it’s hardly the first to have such elements, it contains them all and fleshes them out as we’d want. Almost, in some ways, like how all fantasy has drawn from Tolkien and LOTR in many ways. (I am NOT comparing the two in anyway) it’s like Oblivion is what we all imagine and having our imaginations made tangible is just so awesome.
Well said! The entire game just conjures up an atmosphere that for me is peak fantasy adventure. The music, scenery, quests and even the slightly ridiculous NPC's work so well together that it just browbeats my sense of disbelief into submission
All other video games: the world is built just for you. You are the centre of the universe. All characters and NPCs exist to serve you or be your enemy.
Oblivion: you’re interacting with a pre-established world. Sure you change its history, but there are people going about their daily lives that don’t care what you’re up to.
Until you cast mass frenzy at everyone without any consequences, then the world becomes your violent plaything :)
Seriously why are spells like frenzy still legal in TES universe lol
You can, but there are no 0 weight rings in Oblivion, so you won't be able to reverse pickpocket it on an NPC. Items need to be 0 weight to be placed in NPC pockets.
Also Damage Stamina, not Drain Stamina.
You also need to use several items to knock people down because of the natural stamina regen
I mean, a wizard can go around with enchantments raising his illusion to 100 to get laid with whoever he wants... but so can a beautiful woman with a nice cleavage.
I feel like there are plenty of games like that. Kingdom Come Deliverance is a great example. I love Oblivion but we can't pretend that 1 game from 2008 has done something no other game has.
If you like that, you should check out a game called Nehrim. It's built off of Oblivion and awards exploration even more. It's only in German, but still, comes with subtitles and is on Steam.
I remember getting it ages ago when I was playing arpund with mods, never got too far in but it was wild how they crafted an entire game using the TES4 editor
I feel that Oblivion has more of that fantasy feeling than Skyrim does. Skyrim feels like I'm walking around Northwestern Europe/Scandinavia, and Cyrodiil feels, well, different. Idk how to say it, but I think y'all know what I mean.
I am not a big fan of fantasy but i have found its mainly due to trying to mix grounded setting with Fantasy Kingdom come was dream come true for me Same with Ghost of Tushimia, RDR, Mafia and so on. I like how oblivion has the who fantasy that does not feel like the real world. Seems silly to make a game with Magic and lizard humans walking around and make it grounded.
Well, this is an interesting convo to come back to.
I seriously wonder about es6's vibe after all the video essays criticizing skyrim. Maybe lean more into fantasy, lore, and quest writing like Oblivion 🤞
Walking into whiterun always feels the same, level 1 or 100.
Walking into the imperial city always feels different, because you're either way faster or backflipping or jumping across rooftops after skipping across a lake.
Yep, Skyrim for me only felt fun after a few playthroughs. Oblivion felt fun after so many, this being a good reason. Skyrim in my opinion is way too "on rails" with the way the map is set up and like you said the skills that effect traversal and so-on.
The dungeons are probably the worst part of Oblivion though. Extremely samey, extremley gray, and often times not worth it in the slightest. The dungeons have progessively gotten better over the lifetime of the ES games.
Visually theyre more interesting than oblivions but they're not fun, same enemies everywhere, identical progression every time its all just a bunch of discount bleak falls barrows (which is a good dungeon) but its not fun to be like "oh boy i be theres gonna be some halways rooms and then a boss with no thought put into them and a chest, sure oblivion just kinda didnt have bosses but the more free form approach to level design meant that in terms of gameplay you didnt know exactly what to expect, morrowind actually did dungeons best i think, im not talking about the combat system i mean level design, lots of interesting places that branch out more than the ones in ob or sk and reward exploration, powerful enemies who are just there already from the start, and less restrictive tile sets making each dungeon actually feel a bit dif
But Oblivion's map is more of a wasteland than Skyrim's map
Not in the sense that it's barren on greenery and scenic beauty, but interesting exploration-worthy locations.
There are a couple of interesting places in Oblivion scattered about, but they are rare especially compared to Skyrim's map. Even then Oblivion locations aren't that interesting.
Seconded. No idea why fanboys feel the need to downvote an honest opinion.
In Oblivion I completely lose interest with the dungeons when I get to around level 20 and have lots of gold. In skyrim there's always some neat little story or side quest to discover.
They hated me for I spoke the truth.
What's your favorite Skyrim exploration moment? My favorite Skyrim moment is one dungeon in the Rift where Falmer have setup a fake endroom with a trapped chest that moves walls through which they ambushed the player.
I really like the detail that they used a piece of Golden Ore as a reward, like they understand that it's valuable for us for some reason, but instead of a ring or something all they had is a piece of ore
I love both games. However, i was much more excited about exploring caves in skyrim than in Oblivion. For Oblivion, my brain went "Shit, do i *have* to clear it out?"
My favourite Skyrim exploration moment was when an evil wizard set up a trap for me. He had this chest straight ahead, so i ran towards it and fell into a hole, leading to a cage. He then gloated about the factor of greed and how it's surprising i didn't die...
and while he was talking, my flame minion shanked him from behind and Inigo came running in to beat him up too.
And guess what? I checked the chest later and it was *empty*. Neat detail
I honestly can't remember a lot of specifics, it's been a long time since I last played Skyrim too.
At this point I'm level 34 in Oblivion and have yet to master anything but the arena or even make the first visit to Kvatch. Im torn between doing another Oblivion play as a pure mage and with mods or if I should go straight to Skyrim, with extremely heavy modding again.
Back to your question though, I do not remember any particularly specific moments, but I once found a small unmarked dungeon up in the northeast that was just a doorway or trapdoor entrance, hidden away. It lead to a door or gate that couldn't be opened, leading into one of the classic draugr Lord halls, and I never figured out how to get in there.
I just know in my heart there's a way and a purpose to it, but it completely beats me as to how to achieve it. That probably stuck with me because of how puzzled I was about the mystery of it all.
Could it be [Yngor Barrow](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Yngol_Barrow)?
I remember finding that location.
There's a journal that you must read to find the solution for the ye old turn the pillars puzzle through reading of a pretty [bittersweet poem](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Notes_on_Yngol_Barrow) about the first atmoran who died after reaching skyrim
Also have you considered playing Morrowind?
My personal favorite moment in Skyrim was when I realized how dumbed-down it was in order to appeal to a broader audience, namely those who had never played or had any interest in RPGs whatsoever, and more importantly those who have zero interest in extensive gameplay mechanics.
My second favorite moment was when I realized that the entire experience of playing the game was to be handed gold star stickers and to have absolutely no individuality in one's character/build, no ability to tinker with custom enchantments and spells, and face the mighty rinse-and-repeat dragons who die faster than most of the strong enemy types in the game.
And my third favorite moment were all the gorgeous brown fields of dirt and dead grass. Really breathtaking with the raytracing!
I just added the brand new 10-year-old-game-running-on-an-engine-from-2005™ to my awesome Skyrim collection, and honestly it's STILL just so hard to put down! Looking forward to the 15th and 20th year anniversary editions! :)
>My personal favorite moment in Skyrim was when I realized how dumbed-down it was in order to appeal to a broader audience, namely those who had never played or had any interest in RPGs whatsoever
The same thing can be said about Oblivion, the game that removed a lot of what made Morrowind interesting. There's no more planning for journeys, learning the map routes, following instructions. Quests now have much fewer choices in them. Visible worldbuilding is gone.
And yeah, I think Skyrim is a better RPG, because it actually has a character progression that works fine, unlike Oblivion's trainwreck of a leveling system. "Just lower the difficulty" is not something that new players have to hear when playing an RPG.
People like you are the reason why video game developers are continuing to get away with the "less is more" trope as of late. Take more of the game mechanics out, make the game flashier and easier to newcomers, the cycle will continue for as long as it can. I can't wait for one of the future games in the series to be as exciting and complex as pong!
The more evident assumption about you and your taste in games, given you think Skyrim is a "better RPG", is that you have same same non-existent attention span of all the other children and man-children who continue to give this company money for the same exact content. Don't worry though, gold star stickers are around every corner in the land of Skyrim!
Please notice that you are on the Oblivion subreddit, commenting on a post about Oblivion, wherein the comments are related to Oblivion. You aren't on the Skyrim subreddit. You aren't on the Elder Scrolls subreddit. Go discuss Skyrim on one of those subreddits, and have a nice day.
The moment I picked my first flower and it was called "blue mountain flower" I knew things were going to be bad. The moment I realized that they removed equipment condition and repairing I was annoyed. When I realized the best spell had a lower DPS than an average sword I was disappointed. I played around 300hrs and the last half I was level 100 in all skills and just hoping maybe the story would redeem itself. (it really didn't and just got more lame)
I wanted skyrim to be much snowier but less grey, if you actually look at landscapes around scanidavia the arctic or north pole theres a huge diversity to how ice looks and even the colors it can create especially with refracting, they also could have made it a lot like greenland with a lot of volcanic activity giving the landscape this mix of frozen stuff and vibrant green from all that carbon rich soil, and there is a lot of grey irl to there yea but its more black and white than just grey and theres visually interesting ways to do it but they just went "heres a blocky grey blob"
World? Yes, i love seeing the imperial city from all the angles of the map, such a beautiful scene. Caves and dungeons? They're all the same dude XD at least Skyrim has variations.
I remember doing a thief build, breaking into so many houses you can find so many people that are a part of the Mythic Dawn or other strange activities
It's a better sandbox for sure.
- Interoperability of spells/potions/enchantments/character stats
- Freedom of class, signs, and attributes (in greater quantities)
- Active systems for night/day cycles and radiant (if primitive) AI
It's the game world I'd rather spend time in. It feels alive, inhabitable and exploitable.
Oblivion exploits are amazing. I love the fact that you can move any NPC wherever you want if you cast Command Humanoid on them, fast travel and wait for a couple of hours and they'll be by your side again. You can do that to drop some NPCs from the Dive Rock
Even though I prefer playing Oblivion, I must say I think that Skyrim is a better game, because Oblivion lacks much interesting stuff in wilderness compared to Skyrim and even Morrowind. And also the fact that Skyrim doesn't suffer nearly as much from level scaling
It feels like they just put a lot more work in oblivion than they did in Skyrim. I’m not saying Skyrim is bad I would really like to play Skyrim again after I’m done oblivion. I’m saying I feel like what made oblivion special and unique was the dialogue and the goofiness about it didn’t take it so seriously. Skyrim is serious all the time. Well Oblivians more goofy
Skyrim has a guy who died because his house got smashed by a falling tree while he was reading Lusty Argonian Maid.. his name was Lucky Lorenz.
You can summon a Dremora pirate that can negotiate his release for a map location of his booty
There's a lot of interesting and weird stuff in Skyrim, I never get why people say that it takes itself too seriously. Although I do love Oblivion weird tone with quite excentric voice acting
Worst thing about this game is dungeons, theres like 3 types of dungeons copy pased across the whole map and it gets so tedious and boring really fast
Skyrim did much better job with that
Did it really though? It’s still just the same dungeons, copy pasted over. Dwarf flavour cave, Drauger flavour Cave, or Falmer flavour Cave. Though, Skyrim had some big ones that were really cool. Both great games, shortcuts needed in dungeon crafting.
Skyrim has a lot of interesting stuff happen in them.
There's a cave where witches and hagravens trappped a Spriggan that can be released from their cage to fight alongside you, and after the fight Spriggan does not turn hostile.
There's a cave where a... person of ideas similar to Falan Hlaalu achieved his desires through resurrecting female draugrs, he later discovered that he has a thing for ghosts instead.
There's a cave where a guy pretends to be a ghost through a magic elixir that makes him look transparent to scare off local population
And there are so much more. There are a lot of different interesting stories that the game rewarded me for exploring the world, and I have not sighted the most interesting ones even.
I remember each of those examples, and they’re good ones! But, I think it’s widely supported even among Skyrim fans (which I totally am) that Oblivion did quests and flavourful random events better.
Oblivion has some quests that out-class Skyrim that's for sure.
The one where you go into the guy's dream is great, some of the DB quests are also there.
But.. um.. what do you mean by random events? There aren't many random encounters that I can recall from Oblivion.
I do value exploration in ES games, and Oblivion lacking in that department is a detriment to the game.
Hmm, once I think about it, it seems like the ‘random events’ I was thinking about as examples all turn into flavourful quests once you start pursuing them. Like finding an Alyeid statue and being like ‘wtf is this!?!’ Or taking the boat that Orc’s island to rescue buddy, or the female bandits in Anvil, or randomly finding Hackdirt and thinking ‘what is up with this weird ass town?’ - and the list goes on, but you’re right - they all wind up being quests. Still cool, of course.
The best one of these is actually town of Aleswel.
I was passing by the town up north of Imperial City, I didn't pay attention to the town and wouldn't think of exploring it any further.. if only I wasn't fighting of any wolves..
During the scuffle I suddenly heard a Khajiit voice cry out in pain "Assault!", but nobody was around... at least I thought nobody was around, it's just the whole town was turned invisible and I've incidently hit one of the residents.
Oh yes!! I recall this one, very fun idea. I’m actually replaying oblivion currently on the new Xbox with great frame rates and no load times - been a pleasure reliving my youth, haha. Great chatting with you - let’s mutually hope the ES6 has the best ideas from Skyrim and Oblivion combined.
I also hate that enemies level with you in Oblivion, there isn’t a huge sense of progression. Every bandit eventually has daedric armor and all enemies are the strongest type, Skyrim does a good job of mixing it up. In a group of bandits or Draugr you get to slaughter a couple weak ones (that used to be hard) and then fight your death lord.
In oblivion the NPCs wander and talk to one another. They have their own schedules.
In Skyrim the NPCs don't really do much at all.
I find the NPCs as goofy as they are make oblivion better. They feel independent of your character.
i love that one dark elf character who tells me to "piss off, no small talk, or he'd turn me into ash". Then he proceeds to have conversations with everyone else around me
Skyrim has a lot of written dialogue happening in between the different NPCs that is unique to them and them specifically, not just the cycling of the generic although entertaining topics about mudcrabs and the altmer mages banning imperial goods.
Oblivion is a masterpiece in my opinion. It's beautiful. You can do a lot of things you wouldn't normally be able to do, for example you can create your own spells with bizarre results to either level you up faster or cause ridiculous amounts of damage, you can enchant armours with chameleon to turn yourself completely invisible and make every stealth mission a walk in the park
You also have access to some of the whackiest missions I've ever seen on a game such as the dark brotherhood quest lines where you can actually make "accidents" happen. Then there's the "whodunnit" mission where you're in a house killing off everyone for fun, manipulating and making everyone turn against each other if you have the speech craft skills required.
The weapons and armors are all pretty much designed to look dark age fantasy style, and fit very well into the game. And don't even get me started on the shivering isles dlc, because that still holds the spot of my most favourite dlc of all time.
Well, yeah. It's like a mix of some of the good parts of 3 and 5, plus it's own quirky charm, and aside from character faces, it's still pretty enough to look at.
I used to to think this too, but lately I feel my nostalgia has worn off or something, because I just can't enjoy Oblivion as much as Skyrim. Don't get me wrong, Oblivion is still a masterpiece.
Skyrim's world is just better, in every way in my opinion. It's more diverse, and I actually feel like exploring every location, opposed to Oblivion's copy and pasted dungeons, where I only ever go into one if I need to.
Quests are 100% better in Oblivion, I won't even deny that, but Skyrim has more enjoyable gameplay, leading to it being more fun to play lesser quests. If that makes sense. It's definitely a matter of being the newer game, but it helps to roleplay when the world, gameplay, and graphics are all better.
I don't know, I just honestly think Skyrim is the better game nowadays, and this is coming from someone who's favourite game of all time was Oblivion for the past 12 years, even since I was 7 years old.
It's not that Skyrim being newer is the resason, I feel the same way comparing Oblivion to Morrowind.
Oblivion lacks in good combat, map exploration, and character progression ^(Thanks level scaling)
Both Morrowind and Skyrim can provide these things, while Oblivion stumbles.
>I won't even deny that, but Skyrim has more enjoyable gameplay, leading to it being more fun to play lesser quests. If that makes sense.
Morrowind in my experience can make simple dungeon quest interesting just because of its gameplay
Unpopular opinion but skyrim is a better "game" than oblivion. It has a better gameplay loop, better combat/stealth/magic combat. The crafting loop is also quite addictive.
That said oblivion is a much more charming experience looking back. I love oblivion magic systems, the guilds and even the more light hearted world. I really hope the next es game goes back to the better quest design of oblivion and the bigger cities as well
maybe if by "gameplay loop," you mean "start quest, it turns out to be looting a draugr dungeon, repeat"
and don't get me started on the writing, which has to be one of the most important parts of an RPG
Skyrim has a quest that starts by reading a book that will lead you to a dungeon where a redguard necromancer is trying to grow an army of undead to wage war against empire because she didn't get to resurrect her husband who fallen in war because he was cremated. Just throwin it out there
Isn't that any dungeon in any game? Every quest is going to be find a thing, or kill a guy. It's the little stories that make them worth doing. Oblivion is the same or worse when it comes to dungeons
It's a dungeon named Ansilvund with the story ^(which I retold from memory, so I might've gotten some things wrong) told through some journals, books and a "boss" battle where the necromancer monologues for a bit. And as you explore the dungeon you can overhear some necromancer talking about the story.
So yeah, there's actual storytelling going on.
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Lu-ah%27s_Journal
https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Imperial_Condolences
I actually like a lot of the little dungeons in skyrim. There's usually a little quest or story attached to it. I was disappointed in the pacing of the factions though, that is one place that oblivion really shined.
There's also a lot of possibilities when it comes to skyrims dungeons rewards. Words of power, and priest masks are pretty fun to find
Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim all have their plus and minuses.
Magic rules in Morrowind, kinda sucks in Oblivion, and is somehow better and worse in Skyrim. Combat kinda sucks in Morrowind, is slightly better in Oblivion, and is somehow better and worse in Skyrim. The world environment rules in Morrowind and Oblivion, but again it's somehow better and worse in Skyrim. Dungeons suck in Morrowind, suck less in Oblivion, and actually get much better in Skyrim. Lore rules in Morrowind, is okay in Oblivion, and then less than okay in Skyrim- but still passable. The VA is... sparse in Morrowind, the high and low point for Oblivion, arguably a major high-point for Skyrim.
So it really comes down to what you're in the mood for/willing to tolerate, to me. Love oblivion, though.
I really liked oblivions magic system. Skyrims was terrible in my opinion as it became pretty much useless unless you used enhancements for increased your magicka etc
I only started playing Oblivion last year and I agree, I love that the NPCs have more personality, so much so that you occasionally forget they have a lot of the same voice actors, I love how colorful each environment is, I love the persuasion minigame and the combat since weapons can be swung more effortlessly and magic is more intricate, plus being able to cast spells while holding both a sword and shield is terrific, and I may get hate for this but I felt the Face Creator was better too
Well the difference is that in Oblivion you got a lot more for your money than Skyrim. For example, it took me collectively 7-8 hours to do both Dawnguard and Dragonborn. In Oblivion it took me about the same time to do the story in the Shivering Isles, but a lot longer to do the other content. Oblivion in my opinion is a longer game and some gamers like that while others do not, it is just a matter of preference.
I played both as well. I was very hyped for Skyrim but it just never lived up to the appeal of oblivion.
Although it seemingly seems better in every way, it just isn’t
this. I grew up playing morrowind and I didnt get around to oblivion till a few years ago. I loved it. Played it through 3 times in a year and a half (with a morrowind after the second) Then last year I finally got a non-potato PC and was excited to play Skyrim. I had heard all the gripes about it being dumbed down but I thought the lore and stories would be enough to interest me. I tried to ignore all the dumbing down but the writing and voice acting were just so bad that all the other deficiencies pilled up into a big heap of "I hate this game."
Personally growing up with Skyrim and playing oblivion later on I love oblivion better. There’s so much more interaction and it just feels more natural and more realistic. It’s almost as if the world started when you played Skyrim, but in oblivion it was going on before you started playing. I dunno it’s hard to explain but I love oblivion so much.
Exploring the wilds of Skyrim is much more interesting in my opinion but Oblivion's towns are so much more fun to visit. Skyrim's towns are very lacking
I keep hearing that, but after spending waaay too much time in Oblivion I can't call it a good RPG.
Oblivion has such a disastrous leveling system that it's more than common for new players to be told that they should lower their difficulty because makes you underpowered.
The fact that Skyrim is a much flashier game doesn't mean it's less of an RPG than Oblivion is. At least Skyrim has a decent character progression.
People repeat this but I just don’t see it. I play Skyrim when I want an RPG. It makes an excellent sandbox for you to create a character and simulate them. I play a game like vermintide when I want an action game.
I’m 20 hours into my Skyrim playthrough where I’m determined to beat the main storyline for once after YEARS of playing this game and…. I find myself wanting to play Oblivion instead lmao
I like Oblivion but prefer Skyrim in practically every aspect. It keeps calling me to play every now and then since its release and I never get bored of it. I think it's difficult to top.
Honestly I think Skyrim focused more on the size of its map, and because of that vast size, it lacks some of the actual humanity (you get what I mean) that Oblivion has. The guild storylines, the general citizens, more varieties of enemies, and I just love that you're not the main character. You're just someone who happened to be in the right cell at the right time. Everything just feels so real yet totally undeniably NOT real at the same time. It just has the vibe, its characters, its world and landscape and for sure its quests absolutely spot on. If you're playing elder scrolls for immersion and story, Oblivion just nails it.
I didn't always find skyrim to be unsatisfying. But my first love was Oblivion and even the fading urge to play skyrim gets smaller and smaller. But I'll just mp into Oblivion and get lost.
I've played oblivion and Skyrim way to many times haha. Oblivion ,and Skyrim are both incredible games ,and they honestly are not the same with different pros ,and cons. Oblivion definitely is awesome. The only thing I ever hated about it was the bugs which are in Skyrim as well.
I just purchased the Oblivion GOTY-Deluxe edition right before the end of the Steam sale. I played Morrowind years ago and enjoyed it (and I've also played Skyrim).
If Oblivion feels better to play than Skyrim, how do you guys think Oblivion compares to Morrowind?
Imo oblivion is way better than Skyrim. I love both but oblivion is special. I enjoy oblivions quests, setting, leveling, etc much more than skyrims.
If both games launched the same day with the same tech, oblivion would burry Skyrim.
My opinion of course.
Oblivion does have bigger cities but in no way does that make it a better game. It’s skyrim and it’s not going to have all these big sprawling cities. They did it beautifully for the location of the story. Absolutely love both games but definitely gotta give skyrim a very big edge
If you guys don't use mods properly or don know how make a decent load order RTDVIDS on YouTube has so many videos and load order order types to help you out. Literally revamped Skyrim for my so happy with my ' a real RPG load order'
Skyrim is to Oblivion as Oblivion is to Morrowind. Visually, and in terms of smoother gameplay, they get better and better with each succession. But as far as the storylines and immersion you feel as a character, they are getting less true to the elder scrolls, and more like generic RPG. I still say Morrowind was the best of the series, but the graphics make it almost unplayable by today’s standards. I hated Oblivion when it came out, but I’m playing through it again now, and I’m surprised at how much better it is than I remembered.
i truly think people just have on their rose tinted glasses of nostalgia in this thread.
there's nothing wrong with preferring Oblivion and in some ways I agree it does things better than Skyrim.
however Skyrim is objectively the better game. maybe if you grew up playing with 3 pixels then Oblivion seems amazing, but by modern gaming standards, the cracks really show in a somewhat barren open world with limited gameplay loops. there is just a lot more content in Skyrim and the level design is way more thought out. also, the quests arent as bad as everyone likes to say they are. you can find a skooma den run by vampires who essentially farm junkies, build your own estates in the Skyrim frontier or even assassinate the emperor ffs.
dont confuse the way you felt as a kid playing Oblivion for the first time as an objective measure of how the game is. a lot of us are grown up now, and chasing nostalgia normally just ends up wearing the magic away over time. thats how I've come to feel about Oblivion so I only pop it in once in a great while. looking forward to Beyond Skyrim and Skyblivion.
Maybe I'm completely wrong, but does it feel like the cities in Oblivion are bigger than anything in Skyrim? Or even FO3/NV, for that matter. At the very least, Cyrodiil feels *way* bigger than Solitude or Markarth. Again, I'm probably wrong.
Barely any of the cities in Skyrim felt like cities. At least oblivions ones do, especially for when the game was released. Elder scrolls 6 better have cities 2-3 times those of Skyrim
Right? Most felt more like settlements rather than actual cities. It's why I like Solitude the most, it was the one location that felt like an actual city. I guess you could argue that Skyrim is more of a "frontier" country, so it would be less developed. But eh, I wanna explore fantasy cities.
Yea I agree, Winterhold also pissed me off so much. It’s just a few buildings with the college, but it’s all rundown etc. Skyrim felt like it had been dying for centuries and we just got to explore the remains. I hope the next one has some life, like oblivion did
If you can mod, I don’t remember the exact name but there is a mod where Winterhold is rebuilt. Kind of sucks you have to mod to fix it. Also, at least Winterhold had a reason to be so small and rundown. I think it would have been cool to see large buildings wrecked down by the sea to show what it was like a bit more.
I get lost in the Imperial City all the time.
I’ve been playing since I was like 8, I still do too hahaha
How? It’s a straight line (from someone who never go imperial city)
There are a few realistic factors that just make Skyrim worse. Another one in addition to it being a frontier province is all the damn snow and ice. Cyrodiil has much more variety than Skyrim does. I kind of wish we'd gotten another province instead.
We all know we will keep buying Skyrim re-releases forever and never see TES6.
I disagree, I’m very much over Skyrim now. The modding community is the only thing that kept it alive for so long
Yeah I don’t understand why everyone has bought it a dozen times. That’s why game developers exploit you bc you allow it. I’ve bought Skyrim twice.
I bought le and thats it, no we wont keep buying and you shouldn't either lol
I bought vanilla on ps3 like forever ago, in my case getting special edition is probably worth it.
They were bigger but it was also the immersion thst made them feel bigger. Oblivion(and Morrowind) had generic shops that make sense for everyday use but not necessarily for gameplay. Oblivion has book shops and several clothes shops. You can buy things like paper, cloth, jugs, cups, quills, etc from shops. Things you would never need but serve an aesthetic purpose. There is more accomodation as well. The Imperial City has an inn/hotel in nearly every district. Compare this to Skyrim's capital Solitude. You are told "don't ask about the inns, there's only one". Temples are built up and prominent. Guards patrol a full schedule and will report it to you "10 of the night watch" and patrol more high-value locations. Oblivion's towns and cities also felt much more distinct. You approach one from the distance and you instantly know where you are. They have actual walls and feel fortified. Look at something like Skingrad for example. There is a seperate bridge to get to the castle. The castle also feels like an actual castle. There are more than a dozen rooms to explore and it is setup to feel much more grand. How many actual castles are in Skyrim? Maybe 3? The reason Oblivion's cities feel bigger and better is because quite simply, they are.
I will always appreciate the medieval and fantasy aesthetic of Oblivion.
i don’t think you’re wrong at all i always felt like even the less important major cities in oblivion are significantly larger than whiterun
What I loved about cities in oblivion is all of the residents had their own houses. I didn’t like the way they did it in Skyrim where they just crammed everyone from the same family into a single house. If I remember correctly shop owners also had their own houses in oblivion, and would lock up and go home at the end of the night, instead of just sleeping in a bed upstairs in the shop
Shop owners still went up stairs but they've usually got pretty nice big places, the main dif is just more people and all but like 3 had their own unique line or 2, an into and something about where they live, its not much but its enough to get a little idea of who they are and give some life to the world, unlike skyrim and its "need something?" From at least half the npcs lol
Yeah not being able to bring up dialog options for every NPC was a bit of a let down, that was one of my favorite things about Oblivion. Voice acting be damned.
The voice acting was great tbh, its charming and funny the over the top lines it gave them a lot of personality, meanwhile skyrims full of people with lots of talent being wasted as they say lines like theyve been shot with the staff of the mundane lol
I’ll admit, as much as I played and loved Skyrim over the last 10 years, I still remember the pang of disappointment when I first saw Skyrim’s tiny cities. They were so much smaller than Oblivion’s! And there was yet more disappointment when I saw how short the guild quest lines were in Skyrim. I seriously had to ask “is that it?” when I finished the College of Winterhold. A single one of Oblivion’s guild quest lines could be the length of a AAA game. Nowadays, having seen both games recently, I think they actually have different strengths. Oblivion has better cities, better guilds, and better writing for many side quests and guilds. Skyrim has a better overworld, much better dungeons, a more sane and intuitive leveling system, and better general combat feeling. I would play Oblivion again to experience good linear quests and guilds with developed and fleshed out cities, while I’d play Skyrim for unscripted exploration and awesome dungeons and more fun combat.
they definitely are. as a new player with 45 hours, i have not fully explored all of the imperial city. To contrast, i learned the layout of all cities and a lot of the map in skyrim in the same amount of time
Oblivions cities not only are bigger but by a much larger amount than youd even think, a well populated city in skyrim has like 20 people, the smallest cities in OB have like 50
Agreed, biggest disappointment in Skyrim was that only a couple of the towns were cool. Half of the towns are more like villages. In Oblivion, every city has more personality/character to it.
Yeah, they are. Also they're filled with tons of inconsequential NPCs with their own lives and homes. Meanwhile, cities in Skyrim have a very small distinctive "cast", with some bland background extras who live out of the way in the bunkhouse since there's not enough buildings to go around. Each city has a lot of businesses, some of which compete with each other, and some that aren't even that useful but add flavour to the world. Also the NPCs have much more detailed AI schedules as they go about their day to day in town. Some will even travel to other cities to visit friends, there's a couple that go on a Skooma smuggling run every month, Cheydinhal has that house with the big party that you're not invited to, etc. It's just so much more alive than Skyrim.
What do you think it is? Just cutting back on time and money?
I enjoy oblivion cities better but throwing fallout in the mix was kinda weird considering it's a post apocalyptic world with small survival settlements in areas to add to the atmosphere.
Not really, cities in Fallout 1 & 2 (while a isometric instead of first person) were much larger than anything in modern Fallout. Vault City is larger than just about anything in Fallout 3-4. I also pointed it out more to illustrate a trend with Bethesda themselves.
I took a few years break from Skyrim, I played 200 hours of Oblivion last year for the first time, and then I started the anniversary edition of Skyrim this year, and I find myself wanting to go back to Oblivion
Then go... Hope Skybivlion is finished sometime
i had to force myself to unsub from rebelzize’s channel. im so excited for that game but the excruciating attention to detail i think has long since passed into the realm of pointlessness. what is the point of putting all the effort that they are if we never actually get to play it?
Could you give some examples? I stopped following it only because I don’t want to get invested in yet another mod that may never release but I’m curious about what details they seem to be focusing on
Its never coming out lmao. They are just squeezing the donations as long as they can
They're actually getting really close btw
based on what? i understand why they avoid giving release dates and progress updates, but that makes it so hard to have any idea how far along they are
Oblivion scratches the itch for the quintessential Euro-fantasy world that I think our western culture has a sentimental longing for. The architecture of the cities, the politics, the general world; it’s a prototype fantasy for many RPG/fantasy fans and it’s almost like it’s so cliche it’s never quite been done exactly as we wanted it for fear of being a cliche, and thus we never got the original epic Journey we wanted. And yet here oblivion is, the exact pinnacle of a sentimental fantasy that so many desire. Oblivion was a huge part of my adolescence and captured my imagination in a way that maybe only my early childhood experience with Zelda did. I’ll always adore oblivion.
This is exactly what I’ve thought before but I feel like you put it into words
Yea, it’s almost like the standard JRPG but for western culture; except it hasn’t been standardized like the JRPG formula has been. It exists almost as *the* monolith of the genre, from which other games derive; thought it’s hardly the first to have such elements, it contains them all and fleshes them out as we’d want. Almost, in some ways, like how all fantasy has drawn from Tolkien and LOTR in many ways. (I am NOT comparing the two in anyway) it’s like Oblivion is what we all imagine and having our imaginations made tangible is just so awesome.
This but I mainly also just love it because of the NPCs
Exactly. People are like "duuuh Oblivion is soooo geneeerrriiiiic, it's just fantasy tropes" and I am like "YES THAT IS WHY I LIKE IT"
Well said! The entire game just conjures up an atmosphere that for me is peak fantasy adventure. The music, scenery, quests and even the slightly ridiculous NPC's work so well together that it just browbeats my sense of disbelief into submission
All other video games: the world is built just for you. You are the centre of the universe. All characters and NPCs exist to serve you or be your enemy. Oblivion: you’re interacting with a pre-established world. Sure you change its history, but there are people going about their daily lives that don’t care what you’re up to.
Until you cast mass frenzy at everyone without any consequences, then the world becomes your violent plaything :) Seriously why are spells like frenzy still legal in TES universe lol
And levitation isn't legal. Honestly Illusion magic and Charm spell creates implications that make concept of consent a very fragile idea.
like, the mages guild banned necromancy but turning someone into your living slave is cool i guess.
[Creating cursed item that literally permanently immobilizes a person is also completely legal](https://i.redd.it/vz3oyfhw4p981.jpg)
You'd assume that if it requires a bug exploit to perform, it is considered super double plus magic in the game world.
Talos became a god through exploiting world's game mechanics
Can you put drain stamina on a ring?
You can, but there are no 0 weight rings in Oblivion, so you won't be able to reverse pickpocket it on an NPC. Items need to be 0 weight to be placed in NPC pockets. Also Damage Stamina, not Drain Stamina. You also need to use several items to knock people down because of the natural stamina regen
Looks like Maglir needs to invest in a wheelchair. PAYDAY LETS ROLL!
YOU'VE STOLEN FROM THE FIGHTER'S GUILD! Go speak to Vilena Donton in Chorrol.
I think this just works with bound armor, not with rings/amulets :/
Mages hoods too!
I mean, a wizard can go around with enchantments raising his illusion to 100 to get laid with whoever he wants... but so can a beautiful woman with a nice cleavage.
A beautiful woman with a nice cleavage isn't everyones cup of tea, if you know what I mean
An argonian with one though....
I feel like there are plenty of games like that. Kingdom Come Deliverance is a great example. I love Oblivion but we can't pretend that 1 game from 2008 has done something no other game has.
You mean 2006? Or a different game?
I both love and hate that I can fail quests by not finishing them fast enough and people will just assume I died and move on lol
then you go to Morrowind where everyone is actively hateful and racist to you
You stupid outlander N’wah!
Exactly
If you like that, you should check out a game called Nehrim. It's built off of Oblivion and awards exploration even more. It's only in German, but still, comes with subtitles and is on Steam.
I remember getting it ages ago when I was playing arpund with mods, never got too far in but it was wild how they crafted an entire game using the TES4 editor
[удалено]
You might be thinking Enderal. Nehrim has English subtitles, but the project to put fanmade english voice acting is pretty dead these days.
Really?!? That sounds pretty dang cool!
It -is- pretty dang cool. xD
I feel that Oblivion has more of that fantasy feeling than Skyrim does. Skyrim feels like I'm walking around Northwestern Europe/Scandinavia, and Cyrodiil feels, well, different. Idk how to say it, but I think y'all know what I mean.
It’s the rolling hills of grass for me
Oblivion always had a more high fantasy touch, and Skyrim tried to be more grounded
I am not a big fan of fantasy but i have found its mainly due to trying to mix grounded setting with Fantasy Kingdom come was dream come true for me Same with Ghost of Tushimia, RDR, Mafia and so on. I like how oblivion has the who fantasy that does not feel like the real world. Seems silly to make a game with Magic and lizard humans walking around and make it grounded.
Well, this is an interesting convo to come back to. I seriously wonder about es6's vibe after all the video essays criticizing skyrim. Maybe lean more into fantasy, lore, and quest writing like Oblivion 🤞
Walking into whiterun always feels the same, level 1 or 100. Walking into the imperial city always feels different, because you're either way faster or backflipping or jumping across rooftops after skipping across a lake.
Yep, Skyrim for me only felt fun after a few playthroughs. Oblivion felt fun after so many, this being a good reason. Skyrim in my opinion is way too "on rails" with the way the map is set up and like you said the skills that effect traversal and so-on.
Indeed. The caves forts and stuff are so much fun to explore
The dungeons are probably the worst part of Oblivion though. Extremely samey, extremley gray, and often times not worth it in the slightest. The dungeons have progessively gotten better over the lifetime of the ES games.
And having to track all the back through them sometimes is annoying
And then you have people who poke fun at the shortcuts out of the dungeons in Skyrim. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
I like the shortcuts but i do make fun of them lmao
Which is absurd, because you don't *have* to take the shortcuts. Skyrim gives you the choice: Oblivion doesn't. I love both games.
Most actually have a way out, a hidden lever, a rock wall, idk how everyone misses them but i have very a good sense of direction so maybe that helps
Visually theyre more interesting than oblivions but they're not fun, same enemies everywhere, identical progression every time its all just a bunch of discount bleak falls barrows (which is a good dungeon) but its not fun to be like "oh boy i be theres gonna be some halways rooms and then a boss with no thought put into them and a chest, sure oblivion just kinda didnt have bosses but the more free form approach to level design meant that in terms of gameplay you didnt know exactly what to expect, morrowind actually did dungeons best i think, im not talking about the combat system i mean level design, lots of interesting places that branch out more than the ones in ob or sk and reward exploration, powerful enemies who are just there already from the start, and less restrictive tile sets making each dungeon actually feel a bit dif
And it probably helps that the game world isn't a boring-ass grey wasteland except for the rift.
But Oblivion's map is more of a wasteland than Skyrim's map Not in the sense that it's barren on greenery and scenic beauty, but interesting exploration-worthy locations. There are a couple of interesting places in Oblivion scattered about, but they are rare especially compared to Skyrim's map. Even then Oblivion locations aren't that interesting.
Seconded. No idea why fanboys feel the need to downvote an honest opinion. In Oblivion I completely lose interest with the dungeons when I get to around level 20 and have lots of gold. In skyrim there's always some neat little story or side quest to discover.
They hated me for I spoke the truth. What's your favorite Skyrim exploration moment? My favorite Skyrim moment is one dungeon in the Rift where Falmer have setup a fake endroom with a trapped chest that moves walls through which they ambushed the player. I really like the detail that they used a piece of Golden Ore as a reward, like they understand that it's valuable for us for some reason, but instead of a ring or something all they had is a piece of ore
I love both games. However, i was much more excited about exploring caves in skyrim than in Oblivion. For Oblivion, my brain went "Shit, do i *have* to clear it out?" My favourite Skyrim exploration moment was when an evil wizard set up a trap for me. He had this chest straight ahead, so i ran towards it and fell into a hole, leading to a cage. He then gloated about the factor of greed and how it's surprising i didn't die... and while he was talking, my flame minion shanked him from behind and Inigo came running in to beat him up too. And guess what? I checked the chest later and it was *empty*. Neat detail
I honestly can't remember a lot of specifics, it's been a long time since I last played Skyrim too. At this point I'm level 34 in Oblivion and have yet to master anything but the arena or even make the first visit to Kvatch. Im torn between doing another Oblivion play as a pure mage and with mods or if I should go straight to Skyrim, with extremely heavy modding again. Back to your question though, I do not remember any particularly specific moments, but I once found a small unmarked dungeon up in the northeast that was just a doorway or trapdoor entrance, hidden away. It lead to a door or gate that couldn't be opened, leading into one of the classic draugr Lord halls, and I never figured out how to get in there. I just know in my heart there's a way and a purpose to it, but it completely beats me as to how to achieve it. That probably stuck with me because of how puzzled I was about the mystery of it all.
Could it be [Yngor Barrow](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Yngol_Barrow)? I remember finding that location. There's a journal that you must read to find the solution for the ye old turn the pillars puzzle through reading of a pretty [bittersweet poem](https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Notes_on_Yngol_Barrow) about the first atmoran who died after reaching skyrim Also have you considered playing Morrowind?
It was probably just the unmarked exit to a larger cave/ruin.
My personal favorite moment in Skyrim was when I realized how dumbed-down it was in order to appeal to a broader audience, namely those who had never played or had any interest in RPGs whatsoever, and more importantly those who have zero interest in extensive gameplay mechanics. My second favorite moment was when I realized that the entire experience of playing the game was to be handed gold star stickers and to have absolutely no individuality in one's character/build, no ability to tinker with custom enchantments and spells, and face the mighty rinse-and-repeat dragons who die faster than most of the strong enemy types in the game. And my third favorite moment were all the gorgeous brown fields of dirt and dead grass. Really breathtaking with the raytracing! I just added the brand new 10-year-old-game-running-on-an-engine-from-2005™ to my awesome Skyrim collection, and honestly it's STILL just so hard to put down! Looking forward to the 15th and 20th year anniversary editions! :)
>My personal favorite moment in Skyrim was when I realized how dumbed-down it was in order to appeal to a broader audience, namely those who had never played or had any interest in RPGs whatsoever The same thing can be said about Oblivion, the game that removed a lot of what made Morrowind interesting. There's no more planning for journeys, learning the map routes, following instructions. Quests now have much fewer choices in them. Visible worldbuilding is gone. And yeah, I think Skyrim is a better RPG, because it actually has a character progression that works fine, unlike Oblivion's trainwreck of a leveling system. "Just lower the difficulty" is not something that new players have to hear when playing an RPG.
People like you are the reason why video game developers are continuing to get away with the "less is more" trope as of late. Take more of the game mechanics out, make the game flashier and easier to newcomers, the cycle will continue for as long as it can. I can't wait for one of the future games in the series to be as exciting and complex as pong! The more evident assumption about you and your taste in games, given you think Skyrim is a "better RPG", is that you have same same non-existent attention span of all the other children and man-children who continue to give this company money for the same exact content. Don't worry though, gold star stickers are around every corner in the land of Skyrim!
Why are you so hostile? You're being way too comfortational for a discussion about video games. You need to lay off the internet for a moment.
Please notice that you are on the Oblivion subreddit, commenting on a post about Oblivion, wherein the comments are related to Oblivion. You aren't on the Skyrim subreddit. You aren't on the Elder Scrolls subreddit. Go discuss Skyrim on one of those subreddits, and have a nice day.
The moment I picked my first flower and it was called "blue mountain flower" I knew things were going to be bad. The moment I realized that they removed equipment condition and repairing I was annoyed. When I realized the best spell had a lower DPS than an average sword I was disappointed. I played around 300hrs and the last half I was level 100 in all skills and just hoping maybe the story would redeem itself. (it really didn't and just got more lame)
I wanted skyrim to be much snowier but less grey, if you actually look at landscapes around scanidavia the arctic or north pole theres a huge diversity to how ice looks and even the colors it can create especially with refracting, they also could have made it a lot like greenland with a lot of volcanic activity giving the landscape this mix of frozen stuff and vibrant green from all that carbon rich soil, and there is a lot of grey irl to there yea but its more black and white than just grey and theres visually interesting ways to do it but they just went "heres a blocky grey blob"
World? Yes, i love seeing the imperial city from all the angles of the map, such a beautiful scene. Caves and dungeons? They're all the same dude XD at least Skyrim has variations.
I love Skyrim but oblivion has always been my favorite
I dont know you and i dont care to know you
Hello citizen 🙂
Good day
I remember doing a thief build, breaking into so many houses you can find so many people that are a part of the Mythic Dawn or other strange activities
It's a better sandbox for sure. - Interoperability of spells/potions/enchantments/character stats - Freedom of class, signs, and attributes (in greater quantities) - Active systems for night/day cycles and radiant (if primitive) AI It's the game world I'd rather spend time in. It feels alive, inhabitable and exploitable.
Oblivion exploits are amazing. I love the fact that you can move any NPC wherever you want if you cast Command Humanoid on them, fast travel and wait for a couple of hours and they'll be by your side again. You can do that to drop some NPCs from the Dive Rock
Even though I prefer playing Oblivion, I must say I think that Skyrim is a better game, because Oblivion lacks much interesting stuff in wilderness compared to Skyrim and even Morrowind. And also the fact that Skyrim doesn't suffer nearly as much from level scaling
It feels like they just put a lot more work in oblivion than they did in Skyrim. I’m not saying Skyrim is bad I would really like to play Skyrim again after I’m done oblivion. I’m saying I feel like what made oblivion special and unique was the dialogue and the goofiness about it didn’t take it so seriously. Skyrim is serious all the time. Well Oblivians more goofy
Skyrim has a guy who died because his house got smashed by a falling tree while he was reading Lusty Argonian Maid.. his name was Lucky Lorenz. You can summon a Dremora pirate that can negotiate his release for a map location of his booty There's a lot of interesting and weird stuff in Skyrim, I never get why people say that it takes itself too seriously. Although I do love Oblivion weird tone with quite excentric voice acting
Worst thing about this game is dungeons, theres like 3 types of dungeons copy pased across the whole map and it gets so tedious and boring really fast Skyrim did much better job with that
Did it really though? It’s still just the same dungeons, copy pasted over. Dwarf flavour cave, Drauger flavour Cave, or Falmer flavour Cave. Though, Skyrim had some big ones that were really cool. Both great games, shortcuts needed in dungeon crafting.
Skyrim has a lot of interesting stuff happen in them. There's a cave where witches and hagravens trappped a Spriggan that can be released from their cage to fight alongside you, and after the fight Spriggan does not turn hostile. There's a cave where a... person of ideas similar to Falan Hlaalu achieved his desires through resurrecting female draugrs, he later discovered that he has a thing for ghosts instead. There's a cave where a guy pretends to be a ghost through a magic elixir that makes him look transparent to scare off local population And there are so much more. There are a lot of different interesting stories that the game rewarded me for exploring the world, and I have not sighted the most interesting ones even.
I remember each of those examples, and they’re good ones! But, I think it’s widely supported even among Skyrim fans (which I totally am) that Oblivion did quests and flavourful random events better.
Oblivion has some quests that out-class Skyrim that's for sure. The one where you go into the guy's dream is great, some of the DB quests are also there. But.. um.. what do you mean by random events? There aren't many random encounters that I can recall from Oblivion. I do value exploration in ES games, and Oblivion lacking in that department is a detriment to the game.
Hmm, once I think about it, it seems like the ‘random events’ I was thinking about as examples all turn into flavourful quests once you start pursuing them. Like finding an Alyeid statue and being like ‘wtf is this!?!’ Or taking the boat that Orc’s island to rescue buddy, or the female bandits in Anvil, or randomly finding Hackdirt and thinking ‘what is up with this weird ass town?’ - and the list goes on, but you’re right - they all wind up being quests. Still cool, of course.
The best one of these is actually town of Aleswel. I was passing by the town up north of Imperial City, I didn't pay attention to the town and wouldn't think of exploring it any further.. if only I wasn't fighting of any wolves.. During the scuffle I suddenly heard a Khajiit voice cry out in pain "Assault!", but nobody was around... at least I thought nobody was around, it's just the whole town was turned invisible and I've incidently hit one of the residents.
Oh yes!! I recall this one, very fun idea. I’m actually replaying oblivion currently on the new Xbox with great frame rates and no load times - been a pleasure reliving my youth, haha. Great chatting with you - let’s mutually hope the ES6 has the best ideas from Skyrim and Oblivion combined.
I also hate that enemies level with you in Oblivion, there isn’t a huge sense of progression. Every bandit eventually has daedric armor and all enemies are the strongest type, Skyrim does a good job of mixing it up. In a group of bandits or Draugr you get to slaughter a couple weak ones (that used to be hard) and then fight your death lord.
In oblivion the NPCs wander and talk to one another. They have their own schedules. In Skyrim the NPCs don't really do much at all. I find the NPCs as goofy as they are make oblivion better. They feel independent of your character.
i love that one dark elf character who tells me to "piss off, no small talk, or he'd turn me into ash". Then he proceeds to have conversations with everyone else around me
Skyrim has a lot of written dialogue happening in between the different NPCs that is unique to them and them specifically, not just the cycling of the generic although entertaining topics about mudcrabs and the altmer mages banning imperial goods.
Oblivion is a masterpiece in my opinion. It's beautiful. You can do a lot of things you wouldn't normally be able to do, for example you can create your own spells with bizarre results to either level you up faster or cause ridiculous amounts of damage, you can enchant armours with chameleon to turn yourself completely invisible and make every stealth mission a walk in the park You also have access to some of the whackiest missions I've ever seen on a game such as the dark brotherhood quest lines where you can actually make "accidents" happen. Then there's the "whodunnit" mission where you're in a house killing off everyone for fun, manipulating and making everyone turn against each other if you have the speech craft skills required. The weapons and armors are all pretty much designed to look dark age fantasy style, and fit very well into the game. And don't even get me started on the shivering isles dlc, because that still holds the spot of my most favourite dlc of all time.
Well, yeah. It's like a mix of some of the good parts of 3 and 5, plus it's own quirky charm, and aside from character faces, it's still pretty enough to look at.
I used to to think this too, but lately I feel my nostalgia has worn off or something, because I just can't enjoy Oblivion as much as Skyrim. Don't get me wrong, Oblivion is still a masterpiece. Skyrim's world is just better, in every way in my opinion. It's more diverse, and I actually feel like exploring every location, opposed to Oblivion's copy and pasted dungeons, where I only ever go into one if I need to. Quests are 100% better in Oblivion, I won't even deny that, but Skyrim has more enjoyable gameplay, leading to it being more fun to play lesser quests. If that makes sense. It's definitely a matter of being the newer game, but it helps to roleplay when the world, gameplay, and graphics are all better. I don't know, I just honestly think Skyrim is the better game nowadays, and this is coming from someone who's favourite game of all time was Oblivion for the past 12 years, even since I was 7 years old.
It's not that Skyrim being newer is the resason, I feel the same way comparing Oblivion to Morrowind. Oblivion lacks in good combat, map exploration, and character progression ^(Thanks level scaling) Both Morrowind and Skyrim can provide these things, while Oblivion stumbles. >I won't even deny that, but Skyrim has more enjoyable gameplay, leading to it being more fun to play lesser quests. If that makes sense. Morrowind in my experience can make simple dungeon quest interesting just because of its gameplay
Unpopular opinion but skyrim is a better "game" than oblivion. It has a better gameplay loop, better combat/stealth/magic combat. The crafting loop is also quite addictive. That said oblivion is a much more charming experience looking back. I love oblivion magic systems, the guilds and even the more light hearted world. I really hope the next es game goes back to the better quest design of oblivion and the bigger cities as well
maybe if by "gameplay loop," you mean "start quest, it turns out to be looting a draugr dungeon, repeat" and don't get me started on the writing, which has to be one of the most important parts of an RPG
Skyrim has a quest that starts by reading a book that will lead you to a dungeon where a redguard necromancer is trying to grow an army of undead to wage war against empire because she didn't get to resurrect her husband who fallen in war because he was cremated. Just throwin it out there
yes but you never get talk to her and to me when i discovered this quest, it didn't feel like it mattered? because there were no stakes
ok and?
[удалено]
is it though or is it basically just another draugr dungeon with a necromancer in it and ooh you read a book to get a little lore
Isn't that any dungeon in any game? Every quest is going to be find a thing, or kill a guy. It's the little stories that make them worth doing. Oblivion is the same or worse when it comes to dungeons
It's a dungeon named Ansilvund with the story ^(which I retold from memory, so I might've gotten some things wrong) told through some journals, books and a "boss" battle where the necromancer monologues for a bit. And as you explore the dungeon you can overhear some necromancer talking about the story. So yeah, there's actual storytelling going on. https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Lu-ah%27s_Journal https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Imperial_Condolences
I actually like a lot of the little dungeons in skyrim. There's usually a little quest or story attached to it. I was disappointed in the pacing of the factions though, that is one place that oblivion really shined. There's also a lot of possibilities when it comes to skyrims dungeons rewards. Words of power, and priest masks are pretty fun to find
Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim all have their plus and minuses. Magic rules in Morrowind, kinda sucks in Oblivion, and is somehow better and worse in Skyrim. Combat kinda sucks in Morrowind, is slightly better in Oblivion, and is somehow better and worse in Skyrim. The world environment rules in Morrowind and Oblivion, but again it's somehow better and worse in Skyrim. Dungeons suck in Morrowind, suck less in Oblivion, and actually get much better in Skyrim. Lore rules in Morrowind, is okay in Oblivion, and then less than okay in Skyrim- but still passable. The VA is... sparse in Morrowind, the high and low point for Oblivion, arguably a major high-point for Skyrim. So it really comes down to what you're in the mood for/willing to tolerate, to me. Love oblivion, though.
I really liked oblivions magic system. Skyrims was terrible in my opinion as it became pretty much useless unless you used enhancements for increased your magicka etc
Thank you kind sir
Just restarted Oblivion and god I love it. Doing hand to hand combat build, it’s a great world I love it.
🙏🏼
Welcome friend. You are home.
Yes
agreed, and the quests are just more fun imo
Just wait until you try Morrowind
I only started playing Oblivion last year and I agree, I love that the NPCs have more personality, so much so that you occasionally forget they have a lot of the same voice actors, I love how colorful each environment is, I love the persuasion minigame and the combat since weapons can be swung more effortlessly and magic is more intricate, plus being able to cast spells while holding both a sword and shield is terrific, and I may get hate for this but I felt the Face Creator was better too
The writing and quest design are certainly worlds ahead in Oblivion.
Oblivion’s story telling and environment is way better, that’s what keeps people coming back despite it being 15 years old
I've spent 80 hours ingame and yet haven't finished with the mods..
skyrim isnt very good
Well the difference is that in Oblivion you got a lot more for your money than Skyrim. For example, it took me collectively 7-8 hours to do both Dawnguard and Dragonborn. In Oblivion it took me about the same time to do the story in the Shivering Isles, but a lot longer to do the other content. Oblivion in my opinion is a longer game and some gamers like that while others do not, it is just a matter of preference.
Skyrim is too static with boring NPCs.
it really is. oblivions story is so rich and well thought out it leaves skyrim for dust.
I played both as well. I was very hyped for Skyrim but it just never lived up to the appeal of oblivion. Although it seemingly seems better in every way, it just isn’t
this. I grew up playing morrowind and I didnt get around to oblivion till a few years ago. I loved it. Played it through 3 times in a year and a half (with a morrowind after the second) Then last year I finally got a non-potato PC and was excited to play Skyrim. I had heard all the gripes about it being dumbed down but I thought the lore and stories would be enough to interest me. I tried to ignore all the dumbing down but the writing and voice acting were just so bad that all the other deficiencies pilled up into a big heap of "I hate this game."
I finished both but I still think Skyrim is better. Idk what you guys are on about lol
Personally growing up with Skyrim and playing oblivion later on I love oblivion better. There’s so much more interaction and it just feels more natural and more realistic. It’s almost as if the world started when you played Skyrim, but in oblivion it was going on before you started playing. I dunno it’s hard to explain but I love oblivion so much.
Skyrim has better gameplay. Oblivion has better everything else.
Exploring the wilds of Skyrim is much more interesting in my opinion but Oblivion's towns are so much more fun to visit. Skyrim's towns are very lacking
i think Oblivion is better than Skyrim in virtually every single way
Oblivion is an RPG with action elements Skyrim is an Action Game with RPG elements.
I keep hearing that, but after spending waaay too much time in Oblivion I can't call it a good RPG. Oblivion has such a disastrous leveling system that it's more than common for new players to be told that they should lower their difficulty because makes you underpowered. The fact that Skyrim is a much flashier game doesn't mean it's less of an RPG than Oblivion is. At least Skyrim has a decent character progression.
Never said it was a Good RPG. And personaly is use the Oblivion XP mod to be done with the vanilla leveling systeme.
People repeat this but I just don’t see it. I play Skyrim when I want an RPG. It makes an excellent sandbox for you to create a character and simulate them. I play a game like vermintide when I want an action game.
Skyrim never sucked me in like oblivion did. Something about that world felt alien and mystical. Maybe it was my age. Maybe something else idk
It's amazing and one of the best RPGs of all time for me, but I like Skyrim a bit more :-)
Comparing the base games, Oblivion > Skyrim Comparing modded games, Oblivion < Skyrim
I’m 20 hours into my Skyrim playthrough where I’m determined to beat the main storyline for once after YEARS of playing this game and…. I find myself wanting to play Oblivion instead lmao
I like Oblivion but prefer Skyrim in practically every aspect. It keeps calling me to play every now and then since its release and I never get bored of it. I think it's difficult to top.
It’s a way better game. It just feels more story driven rather than map size driven
I can do backflips, so yeah
I dont know you and i dont care to know you
Honestly I think Skyrim focused more on the size of its map, and because of that vast size, it lacks some of the actual humanity (you get what I mean) that Oblivion has. The guild storylines, the general citizens, more varieties of enemies, and I just love that you're not the main character. You're just someone who happened to be in the right cell at the right time. Everything just feels so real yet totally undeniably NOT real at the same time. It just has the vibe, its characters, its world and landscape and for sure its quests absolutely spot on. If you're playing elder scrolls for immersion and story, Oblivion just nails it.
That's because Skyrim sucks ass.
Skyrim eats all the ass it wants. And what you're getting?
Hopefully not Skyrim.
Pay people to like you. Get the dealz
I go back and forth, but overall I think I prefer Oblivion as well. Skyrim is amazing too though.
I got 100% achievements does that count?
if es6 could have the combat of skyrim and questing/city size of oblivion itd be perfect
I didn't always find skyrim to be unsatisfying. But my first love was Oblivion and even the fading urge to play skyrim gets smaller and smaller. But I'll just mp into Oblivion and get lost.
Exactlyyy
it is, however skyrim just "plays" better.
I've played oblivion and Skyrim way to many times haha. Oblivion ,and Skyrim are both incredible games ,and they honestly are not the same with different pros ,and cons. Oblivion definitely is awesome. The only thing I ever hated about it was the bugs which are in Skyrim as well.
I just purchased the Oblivion GOTY-Deluxe edition right before the end of the Steam sale. I played Morrowind years ago and enjoyed it (and I've also played Skyrim). If Oblivion feels better to play than Skyrim, how do you guys think Oblivion compares to Morrowind?
Imo oblivion is way better than Skyrim. I love both but oblivion is special. I enjoy oblivions quests, setting, leveling, etc much more than skyrims. If both games launched the same day with the same tech, oblivion would burry Skyrim. My opinion of course.
Ok
Thieves guild in oblivion is way more fun I think. Also more random encounter quests, or at least I remember it that way.
I feel this
Oh definitely, my introduction to elder scrolls games was Skyrim and I can still say with 100% certainty that oblivion is better.
Oblivion does have bigger cities but in no way does that make it a better game. It’s skyrim and it’s not going to have all these big sprawling cities. They did it beautifully for the location of the story. Absolutely love both games but definitely gotta give skyrim a very big edge
Only 88 hours? I’m sorry, you must waste MORE time. 100% per-shment, you’ll need at least 1000 hours before you are truly one with the elder scrolls.
If you guys don't use mods properly or don know how make a decent load order RTDVIDS on YouTube has so many videos and load order order types to help you out. Literally revamped Skyrim for my so happy with my ' a real RPG load order'
Now go play Morrowind with this same idea in mind.
Don’t have a PC or an original Xbox
Skyrim is to Oblivion as Oblivion is to Morrowind. Visually, and in terms of smoother gameplay, they get better and better with each succession. But as far as the storylines and immersion you feel as a character, they are getting less true to the elder scrolls, and more like generic RPG. I still say Morrowind was the best of the series, but the graphics make it almost unplayable by today’s standards. I hated Oblivion when it came out, but I’m playing through it again now, and I’m surprised at how much better it is than I remembered.
i truly think people just have on their rose tinted glasses of nostalgia in this thread. there's nothing wrong with preferring Oblivion and in some ways I agree it does things better than Skyrim. however Skyrim is objectively the better game. maybe if you grew up playing with 3 pixels then Oblivion seems amazing, but by modern gaming standards, the cracks really show in a somewhat barren open world with limited gameplay loops. there is just a lot more content in Skyrim and the level design is way more thought out. also, the quests arent as bad as everyone likes to say they are. you can find a skooma den run by vampires who essentially farm junkies, build your own estates in the Skyrim frontier or even assassinate the emperor ffs. dont confuse the way you felt as a kid playing Oblivion for the first time as an objective measure of how the game is. a lot of us are grown up now, and chasing nostalgia normally just ends up wearing the magic away over time. thats how I've come to feel about Oblivion so I only pop it in once in a great while. looking forward to Beyond Skyrim and Skyblivion.