Why do people hate Oblivion so much?

[Harthwain]

That's not design, but

A bad design is still design.

 

[Steedless]

I had fun when I first played it, but it doesn't lend itself well to replays. Every quest plays out in the same way every time, and character building sucks because of the broken leveling system.
Every time I've tried to replay Oblivion I've given up due to boredom and a "I've done way too much of this shit already" feeling. It's also the fact that clearing the very first dungeon in the game feels exactly the same as clearing any other dungeon.
Same thing obviously applies to Skyrim as well, and Morrowind to a certain extent.

 

[Ancient76]

In Oblivion you can be the archmage of the Mage's Guild, the Hero of Kvatch, the most renowned person in the galaxy, and still have to pass an entry test for the Thieves' Guild (who let you in despite the fact you're widely known as a friend of the state and a Knight of the Dragon or w/e).

The incredibly forgiving crime system is also true of all TES games except Daggerfall (in which you can still kind of get away with murder, it's just a lot more complicated and consequential since you have to represent yourself in court and then leave the county for a few months until your reputation resets, then start rebuilding trust with whichever demographic or social class you've alienated. Originally they were going to have the death penalty for serious crimes but sadly they took it out during development).

Expecting the world and the actions of people to make much logical sense in MW/Oblivion/Skyrim is a lost cause, they're all games set inside insane asylums full of people with goldfish memories who don't know what's going on beyond their immediate surroundings. I don't think there's any mods to address that for any of those games, which is sort of fine since they're meant to be played as dungeon crawlers rather than social sims.

I'm aware of that. But nothing compares to Skyrim in terms of crappy content. It's like retarded people designed that game.
The thing is that with their Skyrim creation kit you can pretty easily create something good, well if you know a bit of scripting. I used it, and it took me 10 days to make a quest better than anything Bethesda did in that game. I even created branching, choices/consequences, two different ends.

 

[Just Locus]

Developing content through the Creation Kit is so streamlined and convenient, making anything with it mostly amounts to filling out a form basically.

 

[Ancient76]

As it should be.
SureAI did a good job with it, better than Bethesda.

 

[Broseph]

1999:

2006:

Always a good laugh when I hear people say "OBLIVION HAD GOOD FACES FOR THE TIME!"

 

[Just Locus]

Standards were low but never that low for the time.

 

[Caim]

The creepy Oblivion puppet people were made fun of even at launch.

 

[Konjad]

 

[Kabas]

IMHO, the one thing that even vanilla Oblivion has over Skyrim is that it doesn't have a medieval grey filter smeared all over the screen at all times

 

[Lord of Riva]

IMHO, the one thing that even vanilla Oblivion has over Skyrim is that it doesn't have a medieval grey filter smeared all over the screen

compared to starfield that has a scifi gay filter smeared all over the screen


sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Thanks, Konjad, I had forgotten how ugly Oblivion is even when heavily modded.

 

[Vic]

 

[Butter]

There's no saving this. Every time you see trees clipping through solid ground, you can tell Bethesda's level designers have never been outside.

 

[Late Bloomer]

In regards to the original unmodded version, I always found the branches and leaves of the trees in Oblivion to be particulary pleasant. Skyrim's trees were an actual downgrade.

 

[ds]

Bro you need glasses if you think this looks good.

 

[turkishronin]

1999:

2006:

Always a good laugh when I hear people say "OBLIVION HAD GOOD FACES FOR THE TIME!"

Shenmune was the most expensive game made at the time. The budget for the game was 70 million dollars. For comparison, Oblivion was made with 10 million.

 

[Hace El Oso]

I’d forgotten the name of that city, it was the only interesting one of the bunch. If they’d just made Morrowind 2 and put it on the mainland with more of that, occidental Vvardenfell.

Shenmune was the most expensive game made at the time. The budget for the game was 70 million dollars. For comparison, Oblivion was made with 10 million.

How many millions of dollars in 2023 for good lighting? Coherent art direction, cohesive gameplay ‘systems’ (a diseased way of thinking about it)? Billions? Trillions? Twenty years and the GDP of California?

 

[Cheesedragon117]

Good God, you could hire multiple celebrity voice actors in 2004 for a mere 10 million? Inflation is getting worse than I thought.

 

[Caim]

Good God, you could hire multiple celebrity voice actors in 2004 for a mere 10 million? Inflation is getting worse than I thought.

Oblivion budget breakdown:

Sean Bean: $5m
Patrick Stewart: $4m
The actual game: $1m

 

[octavius]

IMHO, the one thing that even vanilla Oblivion has over Skyrim is that it doesn't have a medieval grey filter smeared all over the screen at all times

It can't be worse than that disgusting radioactive glow of Oblivion.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

IMHO, the one thing that even vanilla Oblivion has over Skyrim is that it doesn't have a medieval grey filter smeared all over the screen at all times

It can't be worse than that disgusting radioactive glow of Oblivion.

Boy when they went seeking the light they found it.

 

[Arbiter]

Boy when they went seeking the light they found it.

"The dawn is breaking!"

 

[Sigourn]

1999:

2006:

Always a good laugh when I hear people say "OBLIVION HAD GOOD FACES FOR THE TIME!"

Actual 1999 Shenmue screenshot.

 

[Just Locus]

I always found the branches and leaves of the trees in Oblivion to be particulary pleasant.

I felt the same way when exploring the world, sometimes it's really calming to stop, observe the foliage, and listen to Jeremy Soule's fantastic compositions. It's a shame that the excessive bloom and poorly done textures (gonna give Oblivion some leeway in this department) ruins the sometimes charming visuals.