Reviews and Bethesda

[EUIX]

Oblivion isn't even that bad, the only grips I really have loss of throwing weapons and the simplification of the armor system i really liked the way you could mix and max pauldrons, bracers, etc. The only major step backwards in my opinion was fast travel. Nothing destroys the sense of a massive, epic world then being able to teleport from one place to another. Silt striders is fine but fast travel is not. Also wasn't Cyrodil originally a jungle? The redesigned empire from the Roman look in Morrowind to generic fantasy was also lame. But in general the game was fun. Oh yea towns should also have been seamless from the outside world like in Gothic.

Edited May 30, 2009 by EUIX

[Slowtrain]

I'm playing through oblivion for the first time and I'm sooooo glad I waited until a ton of mods came out to fix things like lockpicking, speechcraft, level scaling, etc

 

 

The ES mod community did a fab job with both Morrowind and Oblivion. They took what shipped as a woeful broken game (both really though MW less so)and made it playable. Bethesda should be paying THEM, really.

 

I haven't really done much with FO3 mods since the game is much better and doesn't really need them (at least for me) plus the fact the current 1.5 FO3 patch apparently makes many mods unusable, but I can only assume that the FO3 mod community has also done good work there as well.

[Maria Caliban]

I enjoyed Oblivion more than I did Neverwinter Nights 1 and Icewind Dale 2. I thought the game was better than any JRPGs that I played in the past. Its not a A+ game but it is in the B- to B range with me.

 

Bad taste... NWN1 and IWD2 are light-years beyond Oblivion in terms of gameplay and quality (excluding graphics of course, which is normal since those games weren't released at the same time as Oblivion).

 

Oblivion and NWN1 both have horrible main plots. Unfortunately, in NWN, all there is is the plot.

 

It's been a long time since I played M, but off the top of my head, I'd cite O's stealth mechanic and its journal as things that were huge improvements over their M counterparts.

 

Oblivion's journal is easier to navigate and the ability to tag quests is a nice one. The problem is the way the journal was tied into compass. If you liked Morrowind forcing you to find something yourself then Oblivion's method wasn't as fun. If you liked Oblivion helping you then Morrowind method was less fun.

 

The stealth mechanics were the same in both games. What are you referring to?

Edited May 31, 2009 by Maria Caliban

[Slowtrain]

Oblivion and NWN1 both have horrible main plots. Unfortunately, in NWN, all there is is the plot.

 

 

While its true that Oblivion had the guild quests and fee form exploring as well, none f those were particularly compelling either.

 

Explorng was the worst because there was nothing interesting to find.

 

To give Bethie its due, they obviously realized the huge flaws in Oblivion and worked to address those flaws:

 

Lockpicking was giving at least a skill check. Exploring was ramped up by adding a huge number of unique findable items from pipboys to schematics to unique weapons and armor.

 

I have hope that Oblvion was really bethie's low point in game design. Onwards and upwards with ES5. (which I really hope takes place in the Argonian swamps, but I am betting will take place in the Sumerset Isles).

[Maria Caliban]

I think Oblivion was a low point in Bethesda's history BUT I still think it was an okay game. On the other hand, IWD 2 is party-based hack and slash, for me, while with NWN, on the expansion packs are good.

[Gorgon]

NWN got pretty good with the various adons, NWN2 couldn't have much in the way of exploration because the engine couldn't handle it.

[HoonDing]

While its true that Oblivion had the guild quests and fee form exploring as well, none f those were particularly compelling either.

Morrowind had more guilds to join than Oblivion, but few guilds had good quests save some Imperial cult & Great house Telvanni quests (and maybe Morag Tong too). Oblivion's entire Dark Brotherhood & Thieves guild quest line beats pretty much every quest line in Morrowind, imho.

 

The thing that irks me the most about Oblivion is that there are hardly any books around, unlike Morrowind. Collecting books was one of my favourite parts of the game. Also, they could've kept at least Morrowind's mage teleportation and divine intervention into the game instead of introducing fast-travel system.

 

People thinking that Oblivion's voice acting was beyond worse should play Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard. Now that game has some truly horrendous voice acting, perhaps even the worst voice acting ever.

Edited May 31, 2009 by virumor

[Shryke]

Oblivion was okay for a first playthrough, but i needed mods to tolerate it a second time

[Oerwinde]

I'm playing through oblivion for the first time and I'm sooooo glad I waited until a ton of mods came out to fix things like lockpicking, speechcraft, level scaling, etc

 

 

The ES mod community did a fab job with both Morrowind and Oblivion. They took what shipped as a woeful broken game (both really though MW less so)and made it playable. Bethesda should be paying THEM, really.

 

I haven't really done much with FO3 mods since the game is much better and doesn't really need them (at least for me) plus the fact the current 1.5 FO3 patch apparently makes many mods unusable, but I can only assume that the FO3 mod community has also done good work there as well.

 

The only FO3 mods that are worth a damn appear to be:

 

Enclave Commander, which allows you to bring a squad of grunts with you, similar to in Operation Anchorage.

 

Foundation: Which adds a ton of stuff to Canterbury commons, none of which I can access dut to the recent patch

 

The Settler: Allows you to build your own village and control it somewhat like a RTS, with resource gathering, building upgrades, etc. Currently pre-beta and not much publicly released, but the stuff I've been testing has been fantastic.

 

All the other mods are pretty much either reskins or equipment mods.

[Maria Caliban]

Can someone point me to a mod that gives me 3 x5 to distribute at level up?

 

You'd think this would be the easiest mod in the world to make, but damned if I can find it.

Edited May 31, 2009 by Maria Caliban

[Azure79]

I agree that there is that sense of awe at the immense open world before you when first stepping out of the prison. And I really did have fun with the game for the first few hours. But then after the same elven ruin/cave/oblivion gate populated by mostly the same enemies it grew pretty stale. For me its the lack of purpose that makes Oblivion not fun. I'd rather have a few well fleshed out areas that have their own setting and history with interesting characters than an large open world full of the same stuff over and over again. I never finished Oblivion or Morrowind because there never seemed to be any point to it.

 

That's mostly why I prefer the IE games. I like how each area is different and has its own story and mini-quest arc. If Oblivion had areas like Dorn's Deep and the Severed Hand I would be much more enthusiastic. I personally think those areas far surpassed any area in Oblivion in terms of atmosphere, story, gameplay and challenge. Are there areas like this in Oblivion? I never finished so maybe there are. I tend to doubt it though.

[Walsingham]

I agree. It was like getting a variety box of cream crackers.

[Wrath of Dagon]

It has some pretty fun quests, if you just keep randomly exploring dungeons it does get pretty repetitive and tiresome. Especially Knights of the Nine I thought had a good focus and a good variety of locations.