What makes Oblivion so bad?

[v1rus]

I find it quite interesting that its universally agreed that Oblivion is shit-tier game, but that people always have different reasons for it. My personal favorite is - its a fucking plain as hell forgettable re-skin of Morrowind.

What are your reasons?

 

[Bocian]

Repost, but I can't resist...

 

[Roscoe Scaggs]

A mile wide, and an inch deep.

 

[Wayward Son]

Shitfully easy and boring combat, level-scaling that makes exploration a non-sequitir.
However, it will always hold a special place in my heart for introducing me to WRPGs.

 

[Jarmaro]

In TL;DR Oblivion is bad beceause there is nearly nothing good about it.

- Bad UI
- Bad dialogs
- Bad plot
- Everything feels generic and boring
- game itself is boring
- There's no point in exploration beceause everything is level-scaled, poorly scaled.
- Oblivion raped TES lore to attract 13 year olds kids.
- Did I mention it's absolutely generic fantasy with knights and big bad evil?
- Combat feels as if you swinged wooden sticks, no matter what weapon you use.
- retarded AI and "living world"

Personally I cannot believe there are people who play this game more than 15h+, it's too bad to be even considered average.

 

[Eriador]

- The different races all look like humans with different skin tones and maybe red eyes/pointy ears, except for argonians and khajiit.

- Characters look absolutely awful, especially the elves.

- It is fully voiced, yet has like 4 voice actors at most and one NPC can switch through different voices over the course of one conversation (beggars, for example)

- The main quest is basically OMG DEMONS ARE INVADING RIGHT NOW, YOU HAVE TO SAVE EVERYONE BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!, which doesn't work all that well in an open world sandbox game, especially since while wandering around, people don't seem all that bothered about that demon invasion and oblivion gates all over the place. It might as well not exist. Skyrim is not that much better in this regard.

- The level scaling means that if you do the most logical thing and finish the main quest first, you get to save Cyrodiil from a horrific invasion of stunted scamps and maybe some random dremora.

- It also means that at some point (and it comes pretty early), bandits start wearing full sets of glass armor, with marauders changing to daedric and both of them will wield daedric weapons. They will sometimes stop you on the road and ask you for about 20 gold to let you pass...

- Due to the aforementioned level scaling, you won't even have to exploit alchemy to get tons of money, since you can just go to any bandit dungeon (the dungeons respawn after a few days) and return 10 minutes later with bags full of daedric stuff to sell.

- The DLC is crappy. I'm pretty sure everyone is familiar with horse armor, but those player-dwellings were pretty bad too.

- Imperial City and maybe Skingrad are the only cities that actually look halfway-decent, I have trouble telling the other ones apart, especially since pretty much all of them have the same general layout.

- Dialogue is pretty crappy.

- Cyrodiil looks pretty boring and everything seems to be either temperate grasslands/forest or snowy mountains near Bruma.

- Melee combat isn't very fun. You will get staggered a lot no matter what your Agility is and the best way to win is to either spam power attacks (including those special ones you get at high skill ranks), or simply strafe back and forth while doing quick attacks, if your speed is high enough. Not to mention, both you and the enemies seem to have more HP then neccessary, making battles longer then they should be. Enjoy fighting Goblin Warlords, who can tank lots of hits from your daedric longsword.

- While it is admirable that they tried to make NPCs have random conversation to make the world "feel alive", the result is unbelievably cringy, especially due to the lack of different voice actors.

 

[AW8]

- Bad dialogs

I've heard others say the same.
*snort*

 

[octavius]

The level scaling makes the whole game pointless. Fortunately very easy to mod into area scaling or totally random monster levels instead.

90% of the voice acting budget was used on Patrick Stewart.

Main Quest is retarded. If you role play it, and concentrate on the MQ, you'll miss most of the content.

 

[deama]

Well, here's my take:

• Level scaling
• Badly designed setting - I think there was a book in morrowind that was a type of tourist guide to cyrodiil, and I remember it describing cyrodiil to be a much more interesting place than what we got in oblivion.
• Less equipment choice - basically less slots to equip stuff, and removal of certain types of items such as spears and throwing weapons.
• NPC limit - the game at times felt like a doll house with how few people you could encounter in one place (such as a city/town), but then again, morrowind didn't do it that much better either, so idk, still disapointing though.
  
• Rushed/badly thought out features - there's some features such as 3rd person that felt unpolished and a bit gimicky, the oblivion gates that weren't that well implemented and probably rushed to completion (maybe, at least it feels like it), as well as the infamous NPC dialogue mini-game.

I think that would be about it for me.
I don't agree that it's a bad game, it's got some good stuff in it, such as having the best combat/quests in the series. But I do agree that there are obvious things that can be done to improve it and/or the series.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Zenith]

That's easy, quest compass + fast travel (with all cities marked as discovered from the very start). As a thought experiment, add those to any game you like and observe it turn to shit immediately.

 

[Sigourn]

In my latest Oblivion playthrough I tried to ignore everything I didn't like about the game.

Thing is, I found nothing that I liked about the game. The things I "liked" were done, and better, by Skyrim, and I already do not play Skyrim because it is boring as hell. Morrowind is simply the best 3D TES game, the New Vegas to The Elder Scrolls.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

• Broken Character Progression System (Skills and Stats)
• Bad itemization
• Undeveloped gameplay mechanics
• Shit Action Gameplay (Combat, Shealth, Enemy design) - don't forget it's an ARPG
• Terrible AI (really good for a laugh though)
• Boring computer generated world, that looks the same for the most part.
• All cities are very empty, and only a few have worthwhile content
• Dungeons are all exactly the same
• Linear and weak level design
• Some quest have excellent ideas and concepts (that could have made them really enjoyable to play) BUT their implementation sucks dick, and therefore end up being a letdown and just no fun
• Quest Compass
• The compass telling you about undiscovered locations
• You can fast travel to anywhere
• Exploration (the biggest strenght of Morrowind) is non-existent
• Dialogues...
• The outstanding TES lore being raped in the most vile way possible
• Level Scalling in Enemies and Loot kills the experience and any reason to play the game because: you explore to have fun and find new items; but the loot is leveled; so to get the shit you are after you can just level up ( however the scalling is so fucked up to the point you can't get that shit WITHOUT leveling up); The problem of leveling up, is that the purpose is to get stronger, but since everyone also scales along side you (even bandits) you'll never get stronger (and the guards will always be 15 levels above you); it also creates inconsistences with the worldbuilding (since for example Draeda shit are super dupper rare in the mortal realm and some pisspoor level 20 bandit has it)

This are the worst problems. But you could make a super detailed book about all the things Oblivion fucks up.

Still Oblivion has more of a soul than Skyrim that's for sure

 

[hellbent]

Main Quest is retarded. If you role play it, and concentrate on the MQ, you'll miss most of the content.

Plus, what you will get are tons and tons of copypasted planes of Oblivion to traverse over and over again. That, and AIDS.

 

[buru5]

Everything after Daggerfall is garbage. That includes the hipster trash Morrowind.

 

[udm]

Repost, but I can't resist...

Lol that beta in the car even looks like fucking Todd Howard himself

 

[undecaf]

What makes Oblivion so bad?

This anomaly:

 

[Shadenuat]

It's bland setting that never got respect it deserved and is not how it's in the lore that truly ruined Oblivion.

 

[Eriador]

Apparently, I need to provide citation, so here's a typical Oblivion bandit when you are past level 20 or so.

 

[Somberlain]

Dats raycist.

 

[Wayward Son]

The main quest is basically OMG DEMONS ARE INVADING RIGHT NOW, YOU HAVE TO SAVE EVERYONE BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!, which doesn't work all that well in an open world sandbox game, especially since while wandering around, people don't seem all that bothered about that demon invasion and oblivion gates all over the place. It might as well not exist. Skyrim is not that much better in this regard.

This could have worked if they had been smart and had most of the other quest lines tie into the Oblivion Crisis (Fighters Guild could be clearing out Oblivion Gates (and actually make the Gates interesting besides), Mages Guild could be researching ways to effectively fight off the Daedra, Thieves Guild exposes corruption among some of the Empire's officials (like perhaps consorting with the Dagonites), Dark Brotherhood could be assassinating higher ranked Dagonites (among their other regular jobs for both Thieves and DB) etc)

 

[Eriador]

The main quest is basically OMG DEMONS ARE INVADING RIGHT NOW, YOU HAVE TO SAVE EVERYONE BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!, which doesn't work all that well in an open world sandbox game, especially since while wandering around, people don't seem all that bothered about that demon invasion and oblivion gates all over the place. It might as well not exist. Skyrim is not that much better in this regard.

This could have worked if they had been smart and had most of the other quest lines tie into the Oblivion Crisis (Fighters Guild could be clearing out Oblivion Gates (and actually make the Gates interesting besides), Mages Guild could be researching ways to effectively fight off the Daedra, Thieves Guild exposes corruption among some of the Empire's officials (like perhaps consorting with the Dagonites), Dark Brotherhood could be assassinating higher ranked Dagonites (among their other regular jobs for both Thieves and DB) etc)

They COULD do that, but they didn't and the Skyrim sidequests barely have anything to do with those dragons. Oblivion is like two different games, the main quest and everything else and it feels like each part of the game is set in an alternate universe.

Also, they should get rid of level scaling, since daedra invasion consisting mostly of stunted scamps is pretty silly.

 

[TripJack]

level scaling, quest compass, fast travel, minigames, and also it looks like shit

 

[Wayward Son]

Also, they should get rid of level scaling, since daedra invasion consisting mostly of stunted scamps is pretty silly.

Dude, I called that shit out when I was 8 years old as being ridiculous.

 

[octavius]

The main quest is basically OMG DEMONS ARE INVADING RIGHT NOW, YOU HAVE TO SAVE EVERYONE BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!, which doesn't work all that well in an open world sandbox game, especially since while wandering around, people don't seem all that bothered about that demon invasion and oblivion gates all over the place. It might as well not exist. Skyrim is not that much better in this regard.

This could have worked if they had been smart and had most of the other quest lines tie into the Oblivion Crisis (Fighters Guild could be clearing out Oblivion Gates (and actually make the Gates interesting besides), Mages Guild could be researching ways to effectively fight off the Daedra, Thieves Guild exposes corruption among some of the Empire's officials (like perhaps consorting with the Dagonites), Dark Brotherhood could be assassinating higher ranked Dagonites (among their other regular jobs for both Thieves and DB) etc)

It's like there's two different games in the same game world, and there's no overlap.